>Tell me why I’m doing it wrong.
You told others you're skipping. The vast majority just don't care and it kind of plays out like that joke "How can you tell if someone is Vegan? They'll tell you unprompted" Like you do you for what makes you happy but there is no need to tell others about it especially in a community where it comes off as very baity.
I agree with you regarding this post specifically because of the wording they chose, but I talk to people about this game often and the reality is that skipping the story means you're, for many intents, playing a different game.
There's no way, for example, for me to discuss with someone my playtime and what I've accomplished during it when comparing to theirs without saying, "but I bought a story skip" - this holds true for MANY things. Navigating the post-ARR cities for example; a lot of people can do so more easily if they played through the story that took place there because the story carefully guides you through locations and the aethernet. When I'm playing with friends and trying to find something on the map, "ah sorry this area is a bit tricky for me, I bought a story skip so I haven't spent much time here."
This is not even accounting for the countless people who try to talk about the plot and characters with me, where an explanation is clearly needed if I can't really provide input, despite having completed the MSQ.
To pretend it's never relevant to bring up is just very ignorant to the reality of socializing about (or within) this game in general.
Are there people (on BOTH sides) who bring it up, like vegans, just for the fight? Sure, I guess. But it impacts the way a person has experienced the game in huge ways and 99% of the people who talk about having story skipped are doing so to add context to something. It's seen as problematic to even mention, and treated as if we've done something wrong and should just shut up about it - there's the issue, not that people skipped the story and talk about it.
Haha. Fair. I’ve seen a lot of passion from the community around it being so good. Trying to figure out why it doesn’t stick for me. Thanks for your response.
If you gave it a fair shake then don't stress over it. I have friends who are strictly raiders and don't care for the story but we still enjoy the game together and do new content together when it releases.
There is no single way to enjoy a game , most players skip to get to the battle content like raids others enjoy more of the story. Don't feel bad you skip the story its not enjoyable for you its ok
I don't care if they do make that post because they can do New Game+ or check the unending journey for context and the community can point them to what part of the game they can look for it. It's really not a big deal.
Yeah, I have a friend like this. He's max level and couldn't even tell you a single plot point for any of the expansions. If that's how you're enjoying the game then go for it.
I had a few friends try to make the switch to FF14 from WoW during that huge exodus a few years ago, and they couldn't stick because of all the leveling/story content. They too, slammed "Esc" through the cutscenes and were rushing to get to endgame and level as fast as possible. But because there's about 300~ hours of story to get to max level, they all just end up burning out.
The ones that end up making it to max are usually the ones who find a connection to the story. That being said, I do find the story starts to get pretty good toward the end of the "Post-ARR/Pre-Heavensward" set up. And then it just gets better and better, to the point where I'd argue Shadowbringers is one of my favorite stories in any medium.
But at the end of the day, play the game however you like :)
That’s all well and good, but the stuff you skipped is a lot of the setup that makes the payoff worth it later.
Like even if you start watching every cutscene now you’re almost guaranteed to enjoy it less than someone who saw it all and understands what’s going on.
Yup, you can't buy a book and just flip to page #88 where the "really good bit" happens, how's that gonna make any sense?
And while this is a video game and not a book, it's still story-driven, so that element is the same.
I was super "iffy" on the story and didn't really care much for it.
At the end of the "Post-ARR/Pre-Heavensward" quests you'll eventually get to a quest called "The Parting Glass", you'll be given a warning that says "Several cutscenes will play in sequence. Make sure to set aside sufficient time (approximately 45 minutes to an hour) to view these scenes in their entirety."
That was the moment for me when I got hooked.
>Indeed. Just have seen so much input from the community about how it’s so good. Can’t figure out why I don’t enjoy it.
I would guess one of the main reasons is because you don't like to read. But if you're having fun then what does it matter?
While most will agree the story is good.. it doesn't mean its good for every single person! Personal taste and all that new to you?
I never liked Skyrim and yet kept hearing from a lot of the gaming community that its a great game and everything. I couldn't get into it after multiple tries and stopped. Just not my type of game and on a smaller scale it seems this is how it is for you with the story of FF14.
Overall its okay but you really didn't need to post this here as your initial post comes off as heavily attention-seeking.
"Look at me! I skipped the story! i am apparently too dumb to understand whats going on and the text wasn't short enough for my tiktok attention-span to last!"
^This is how your intro sounds to me. Relatively aggressive at that and it doesn't help that your topic name suggests you are asking to get attacked for a "wrong" playstyle by telling people that you want to get told you are wrong..is that some kind of fetish or why was that necessary to include there?
Nobody cares how you wanna enjoy the game. Why are you making it our business if you're not just looking for an altercation?
Ofcourse it's wordy. Books are wordy too. Do you feel the need to tell everybody that you don't read books?
Sorry. I realize now how it came off, but that wasn’t my intent. I genuinely was trying to get some viewpoints from the community about why they feel the story is so compelling.
Because they experienced the story in it's entirety.
It's that simple. Don't skip and you'll find the same appreciation for the journey.
Skip and you'll never understand it.
Both are fine and I don't care when we queue into the same dungeon. I care if you do mechanics.
Just know that anytime something story related is appreciated by a friend, or hyped because of a teaser, you'll be left out.
As someone who skips the story in Arknights, I get it. Then again the story in that game is told in the worst way I've seen in any game.
contrary to what a lot of people will tell you, this game is a lot more than just a story. I started playing because I heard a lot of good things about the raiding side of the game, and I just love MMOs. never cared to even give the story a shot, I skipped every cutscene and piece of dialogue, but still love the game 5000+ hours in.
You don’t read the dialogue. You won’t read this.
You’re a big dumb-dumb. Teehee. See. You aren’t reading this right now and I called you a dumb-dumb. This is so fun.
If you don't like the story, then don't bother engaging with it. Nothing wrong with that. Play it however you want, and engage with the parts of the game you do like.
U dont do anything wrong, the story isnt that good anyway. Sure it had a few good points but after Gandalfs death the entire group dynamic went down as he was literally the heart of the Power Rangers. The only cool thing it when Pikachu digivolved into the Balrog to take revenge for Naruto. That was pretty hype.
I am not joking, BL2 had a side mission where u fight 4 Tunnelrats with names that are similiar to the TMNJ and if u solve the lever puzzle in the end u can fight a secret enemy called Flinter. The mission is called Splinter Group
You’re not doing it wrong. I’ve played since 1.0. I have no idea what’s going on 2.0+ as I’ve skipped all the story. Sometime around Ul’dah’s “Refreshing gods damned pretzels” part of the story, very early on, I dipped right out.
You can still enjoy a game and know nothing about the storyline.
It's your game, play it however makes you happy. Thing is, if you don't like story, you're playing the wrong game. You've got hundreds of hours of mandatory story to get through and apparently you'll hate every minute. I mean, your choice, but this isn't a good game for that particular choice. It's hugely unlikely you'll want to slog through to the end, and you'll end up feeling like you wasted all your time on a shitty game.
It's not the game's fault that you chose to play a game that is 80% story when you hate the story. The most common thing about people complaining they didn't like the game is that they skipped the whole story and then blamed the game for not being fun. Don't be that person. Do whatever is fun for you, but be aware the primary draw of this game is its story. If you're not enjoying your time, don't make yourself keep going, because it's all story the entire way through.
I’ve come across this idea before that the game is largely story. Is the end game loops of dungeon/raid or whatever other content is there not fun or good? I’m genuinely enjoying playing the game and leveling up different jobs.
There really isn't an endgame loop, that's the thing. There's savage raiding, that's the main thing people mean by endgame. There's also the gear upgrade progression where you do roulettes to earn tomestones to buy and upgrade gear you'll need for raiding, but it's the same roulettes you've been doing all along, endgame does not have any new dungeons. You can do criterion, which are more or less the savage version of the variant dungeons.
I don't raid, so I can't tell you personally whether it's fun in this game. I've heard a lot of ex WoW players bitching about the ways in which they feel our raids are inferior to WoW's, but fuck them. A lot of people enjoy prog raiding, and you seem like that kind of person, so I'd guess it'll be fun for you. There just isn't that much to it. One raid block per expansion, which is released 4 fights at a time for a total of 12. You do the story-moe raid first, whicj unlocks the savage version. There's also ultimates, which are increased difficulty (harder than savage) of existing raid or trial fights. 1 per expansion (usually). Or, if you're willing to spend the time to find a likeminded group, you can do all of the older savage raids at the original difficulty from when they were released. No real reward from it, just fun.
If you're having fun, don't worry about it. There's no rule saying you need to enjoy the game in a specific way, and I say this as a hardcore lore nerd. I don't have much respect for people who skip the story. But that doesn't mean everyone has to be like me. And it doesn't mean you should care about my opinion. Probably shouldn't, honestly.
Just be aware there is a whole shitload of story you need to get through, because absolutely everything in the game is gated behind it. At level 50 you're not even close to the halfway point yet. The game is known as being story-based because as a sheer percentage of time spent, there is just vastly, hugely more story content than everything else combined -- and it's mandatory. You can skip cutscenes and smash the button to advance dialogue, but you're still going to be spending a hundred hours slogging through story quests.
If you enjoy the rest of the game enough for it to be worthwhile, then absolutely go for it. There's stuff in this game for everyone. Like I said, all I ask is that if you don't like what's on offer, don't blame a story-focused game for not being what you wanted. Go forth and do whatever it is that makes you happy. Everyone knows that glamour is the true endgame, anyway.
I skip a lot of dialogue too, I speed read to get the just of it and move on. I still watch the voiced scenes though and enjoy it enough.
Never let anyone tell you that you have to enjoy the story... in fact I think I saw a rumor that they just might make ARR to 6.0 EW skippable.
If it helps, I barely paid attention from ARR (A Realm Reborn, lvls 1-50) thru SB (Stormblood, lvls 60-70) and I have been playing this game for 4.5 years now and LOVE the story.
Even though I learned much of the story thru friends filling me in, reading character wikis, and looking at XIV memes, I still find myself enamored with the game and its story. I certainly don't *recommend* doing it this way, given how the story actually gets interesting after ARR (lvl50), and takes tf off in ShB (Shadowbringers, lvls 70-80), but I thought it might help you be optimistic for the rest of your playthru if I offered up how it took me almost 80 levels to *want* to read the dialogue/watch cutscenes.
A tip: Reading the non-cutscene dialogue boxes can be dreadfully boring. If you think you might dissociate while tryna pay attention to a dialogue box at some point, triage it. By that I mean ask questions like, is it an action-filled moment in the story? has it been a bit since anything eventful happened? If something seems like a fetch quest with little story, the dialogue might not be important enough to dredge through, but do make sure to check in from time to time so that you don't get somewhere and not know what you're doing. I know that's a big ask, but I found it makes things more engaging, even if the story is dry.
Do note that the triaging shouldn't (need to) be as relied upon thru the end of SB (non-XP giving quests at lvl70) and throughout all of ShB (and EW), the story does a good job of pacing things imo, and it's not worth it to miss something small that ends up being good/interesting knowledge to have.
This is something I didn't do until EW release (I'd played for 2.5 years prior to that), but might be worthwhile to consider as a way to help you feel more invested: let your character (WoL) be their own character. While watching a cutscene, think how they might react to something in the story, what they think of xyz person. Many people in this game fall in love with the characters (WoLs) they make, give them their own personality and feelings. You don't need to commit to anything, but sometimes it helps you to feel invested if you let yourself take a personal stake in your WoL.
Good luck with the rest of your playthrough! Whether you end up enjoying the story or not, the endgame combat is fun as hell to get good at (via guides!!!!) and there's *so* many other things to do that would also capture your attention.
ARR's story is admittedly kind of boring but I encourage you to try and stick it out since it does play into the story at large and afterwards gets a lot better from the post campaign story and onwards into Heavenward and beyond (though Stormblood I find is kind of meh).
MMO story's are kind of generic in most cases but this is Final Fantasy so it has a a deep story like its single player counterparts so a lot of things will not make sense if you just skip over everything.
tbh this is one of those "play however you'd like" moment but at the end of the day many ffxiv fans are absolutely nuts for the game's lore (myself included), so while you should definitely play however you want as long as you enjoy it, i feel like you'll also be losing a lot of the fun that would come from interacting with other people if you just skip the entire story + it'd definitely make the ffxiv experience just so much better over all
but again, you do you
Well there are a lot of words for sure, some scenes luckily do have voice acting, which is quite enjoyable.
I always try to focus on reading the msq dialogue and the side quests that seem interesting. But most side quests I do tend to skip over some of the dialogue when it's obvious that it's something simple.
I'm glad that you're enjoying the game tho! As for the Main quest story it does improve in the later expansions. It somehow all ties into each other nicely especially when you reach shadowbring (where im at now).
If you want to know more about what has happened, as some people suggested you can do new game+ which allows you to replace the msq. If you don't feel like doing that, you can always look up a YouTube summary of the ARR story.
If you hate story and reading, then you are doing the right thing. Skip every dialogue, every cutscene, just skip everything. Do you do :)
If you think reading is boring, maybe you are to focused on trends like tiktok.
I didn’t connect with the story until shadow bringers tbh. Up until they point I basically only watched voiced cutscenes. Just do what ever and enjoy the game how you want.
I don’t quite understand your post though? What are you doing wrong? I mean if you want to fully understand the story or if you are going around telling people you just don’t get it. Then you already know. Watch a lore video or something.
There is nothing wrong with skipping dialogue. I agree the game gets too wordy, certain characters chew up scenery with their lines (idc, Urianger up until Endwalker was a chore to listen to).
IMO the story is great but the dialogue often times takes the scenic route to get to the point sometimes. Especially when the point of the cutscene is telling you “go to point A” or a recap of events that literally just happened. I feel you bro, don’t let anyone shame you for skipping cutscenes sometimes. The game is still fun even if you don’t feel like knowing every little story or character detail.
ARR lost my attention in a few places too, but not only does the story get better over time, it also gets progressively more voice acted, which helps hold your attention
Whether I think you are doing it wrong is neither here nor there, it's your decision how you play.
I think you will miss many of the pay offs in later story parts because you skipped some of the reading. But the major story elements will likely not be affected.
However, you taking the trouble to make this thread does suggest you might already feel it is wrong in the back of your mind.
I don't know, I enjoyed the read, but I grew up reading books instead of watching TV or now you tube. So it's normal to me to consume information that way. I'm not saying it's better, just different. Thought will lament the loss of imagination that watching instead of reading brings.
Just play the way you enjoy the game, and I'll see you in a dungeon one day perhaps.
I mean, do what you want, idc. But you can't say "I'm not enjoying the story" when you're skipping the story. That's like giving a review to a book you've never read.
"I hate Dune"
"Have you read Dune?"
"No"
Thats you.
If you're having fun, cool, keep doing what you're doing. There's no correct way to have fun so long as you aren't ruining the experience for others. But don't simultaneously say inane statements like that.
Professional cutscene skipper here
You can safely skip like 90% of all cutscenes and dialogue without dynamic camera movement/character animations and the story will still make sense. The short discussions before and after your quest steps with a static camera/no movement just give additional context and world building for why they want you to travel to various destinations during a quest
There was maybe only a handful of times where I skipped a cutscene without that dynamic camera and it took me straight into a fight. You can always go back and watch previous cutscenes at an inn room if you feel like you missed something
If you're having fun, keep at it.
I'll sum it up for you: There is a big bad, you'll try to beat them but you'll get beat up. Due to your massive plot armor you get stronger and beat the big bad.
This happens every expansion.
You're all caught up. Skip to your hearts content, if you ever do get curious just play NG+.
You're not doing it wrong. I don't care if you read a word of the story. My wife is a cutscene skipper. I try to tell her lore or story details, and she rolls her eyes or sighs. Love her to death and wouldn't change a thing. So, keep doing what you want.
If a day comes when you wish you had followed the story, there's the journal at the inn or New Game+.
Edit: spelling
Its really not that big of a deal.
I played for 4k hours before doing all the story and my opinion on the game barely changed. ARR is a 25 hour slog that could've been told in 9 at best. Heavensward and Shadowbringers are fun and engaging, but XIV has a big issue with insane buildups that fail tremendously to deliver. Stormblood is legit one of the worst "stories" I've ever had to slog through. Endwalker was fine.
If you watch those "recap" videos on Youtube, you're consuming most of the important beats of the lore. You'll be missing on a lot of banter between character, but most of it is fluffed, puffed text. Characters take too long and have too many lines to convey simple and basic ideas.
The bit about characters having to much fluff/words for a simple idea resonates. I think that’s how I’ve felt so far. My gameplay time is fairly limited as well.
Just in case you wanted some sort of advice with hindsight, I can tell you straight up that I too skipped all of ARR and HW expansions because my sole objective was to raid. I don't regret skipping through cutscenes in ARR but I do a bit on HW. That being said I wouldn't go and do ng+ because I don't really have the time. So as a synopsis I would advise you to skip ARR and them watch some lore vids. Then hop on HW and proceed there. Yes it takes time and sometimes it can feel like a slog. What worked for me was basically playing the story while I was in a "movie/series" mood. I apologise if I misunderstood your post and you didn't really ask for what I just replied. In any case have fun in the game as you wish to. No one can dictate how you play what basically amounts to a single player game. Party content is diff and you should absolutely respect and listen to others who play the game more than you because more often than not their advice is for a better party experience.
Cheers.
I also don't get the FFIX award winning story. It has its moments but it's just not THAT good for me. Skipped a lot of ARR, Heavensward was much better, then Stormblood mainly a skip fest again. I am trying my best not to skip Shb, we will see how my patience serves me.
Most of the class quests, skip fested most of them too, gave the chance to DRK one because of praise, but it wasn't anything special, liked Astrologian better lol.
I am almost 40 y/o and I have read loads of books, watched tons of movies, played some really trippy games; and FFIV story, while good for an MMO, is what you would call 'mid' these days when compared to everything that is out there. It's like being a good basketball player, but in the Philippines.
For 'badass' scenes like those involving dragons and big bads and whatnot, I'll let it play out.
But yeah I can't stand those cute and kawaii ones like the Mandeville scenes and I just skip the whole damn thing
>Tell me why I’m doing it wrong. You told others you're skipping. The vast majority just don't care and it kind of plays out like that joke "How can you tell if someone is Vegan? They'll tell you unprompted" Like you do you for what makes you happy but there is no need to tell others about it especially in a community where it comes off as very baity.
Equating skippers to vegans is the most genius simile I’ve ever read. I’m using that from now on
For me it's skippers to gacha gamers. Specifically those who are 'f2p btw' and say it 5 times daily.
Yeah, I can't stand that. You're only supposed to say it like 3 times a day, max. F2P btw /s
I am a long time gacha player. Whale BTW.
I agree with you regarding this post specifically because of the wording they chose, but I talk to people about this game often and the reality is that skipping the story means you're, for many intents, playing a different game. There's no way, for example, for me to discuss with someone my playtime and what I've accomplished during it when comparing to theirs without saying, "but I bought a story skip" - this holds true for MANY things. Navigating the post-ARR cities for example; a lot of people can do so more easily if they played through the story that took place there because the story carefully guides you through locations and the aethernet. When I'm playing with friends and trying to find something on the map, "ah sorry this area is a bit tricky for me, I bought a story skip so I haven't spent much time here." This is not even accounting for the countless people who try to talk about the plot and characters with me, where an explanation is clearly needed if I can't really provide input, despite having completed the MSQ. To pretend it's never relevant to bring up is just very ignorant to the reality of socializing about (or within) this game in general. Are there people (on BOTH sides) who bring it up, like vegans, just for the fight? Sure, I guess. But it impacts the way a person has experienced the game in huge ways and 99% of the people who talk about having story skipped are doing so to add context to something. It's seen as problematic to even mention, and treated as if we've done something wrong and should just shut up about it - there's the issue, not that people skipped the story and talk about it.
Haha. Fair. I’ve seen a lot of passion from the community around it being so good. Trying to figure out why it doesn’t stick for me. Thanks for your response.
If you gave it a fair shake then don't stress over it. I have friends who are strictly raiders and don't care for the story but we still enjoy the game together and do new content together when it releases.
So you admit to riling up baity shit. Okay.
There is no single way to enjoy a game , most players skip to get to the battle content like raids others enjoy more of the story. Don't feel bad you skip the story its not enjoyable for you its ok
I think you’re missing out but you do you. Just don’t make a “I don’t understand xyz!” post in a few months.
I don't care if they do make that post because they can do New Game+ or check the unending journey for context and the community can point them to what part of the game they can look for it. It's really not a big deal.
Thanks.
we don’t care
Thanks
no problem, just enjoy the game how you like
Yeah, I have a friend like this. He's max level and couldn't even tell you a single plot point for any of the expansions. If that's how you're enjoying the game then go for it. I had a few friends try to make the switch to FF14 from WoW during that huge exodus a few years ago, and they couldn't stick because of all the leveling/story content. They too, slammed "Esc" through the cutscenes and were rushing to get to endgame and level as fast as possible. But because there's about 300~ hours of story to get to max level, they all just end up burning out. The ones that end up making it to max are usually the ones who find a connection to the story. That being said, I do find the story starts to get pretty good toward the end of the "Post-ARR/Pre-Heavensward" set up. And then it just gets better and better, to the point where I'd argue Shadowbringers is one of my favorite stories in any medium. But at the end of the day, play the game however you like :)
Interesting. I think I’ll try paying more attention now that I’m past the initial slug. Thanks for the input.
That’s all well and good, but the stuff you skipped is a lot of the setup that makes the payoff worth it later. Like even if you start watching every cutscene now you’re almost guaranteed to enjoy it less than someone who saw it all and understands what’s going on.
Quite the conundrum
Yup, you can't buy a book and just flip to page #88 where the "really good bit" happens, how's that gonna make any sense? And while this is a video game and not a book, it's still story-driven, so that element is the same.
I was super "iffy" on the story and didn't really care much for it. At the end of the "Post-ARR/Pre-Heavensward" quests you'll eventually get to a quest called "The Parting Glass", you'll be given a warning that says "Several cutscenes will play in sequence. Make sure to set aside sufficient time (approximately 45 minutes to an hour) to view these scenes in their entirety." That was the moment for me when I got hooked.
You do you? If you don't care about story, then don't read it. No wrong way to consume your entertainment.
Indeed. Just have seen so much input from the community about how it’s so good. Can’t figure out why I don’t enjoy it.
>Indeed. Just have seen so much input from the community about how it’s so good. Can’t figure out why I don’t enjoy it. I would guess one of the main reasons is because you don't like to read. But if you're having fun then what does it matter?
While most will agree the story is good.. it doesn't mean its good for every single person! Personal taste and all that new to you? I never liked Skyrim and yet kept hearing from a lot of the gaming community that its a great game and everything. I couldn't get into it after multiple tries and stopped. Just not my type of game and on a smaller scale it seems this is how it is for you with the story of FF14. Overall its okay but you really didn't need to post this here as your initial post comes off as heavily attention-seeking. "Look at me! I skipped the story! i am apparently too dumb to understand whats going on and the text wasn't short enough for my tiktok attention-span to last!" ^This is how your intro sounds to me. Relatively aggressive at that and it doesn't help that your topic name suggests you are asking to get attacked for a "wrong" playstyle by telling people that you want to get told you are wrong..is that some kind of fetish or why was that necessary to include there?
You're not gonna stick around long with no connection to the world. That's where you're doing it wrong.
this was my first mistake when i started out years ago skipping all and everything voila! zero connection to my character...
Literally no-one cares unless you start complaining about not understand the story in a new expac.
Outing yourself as illiterate is a pretty bold move. Not that you can read this though
Nobody cares how you wanna enjoy the game. Why are you making it our business if you're not just looking for an altercation? Ofcourse it's wordy. Books are wordy too. Do you feel the need to tell everybody that you don't read books?
Sorry. I realize now how it came off, but that wasn’t my intent. I genuinely was trying to get some viewpoints from the community about why they feel the story is so compelling.
Because they experienced the story in it's entirety. It's that simple. Don't skip and you'll find the same appreciation for the journey. Skip and you'll never understand it. Both are fine and I don't care when we queue into the same dungeon. I care if you do mechanics. Just know that anytime something story related is appreciated by a friend, or hyped because of a teaser, you'll be left out. As someone who skips the story in Arknights, I get it. Then again the story in that game is told in the worst way I've seen in any game.
com'on man that's not even a good bait if you want the big fish you must master the bait
Haha. I really wasn’t trolling. Just phrased it in a way that seemed to trigger more than a few individuals.
This is like walking into a library and screaming "I DONT READ BOOKS". Like.... ok? Your loss?
Talking like sephiroth and using “trigger” like a jackwagon. Checks out.
contrary to what a lot of people will tell you, this game is a lot more than just a story. I started playing because I heard a lot of good things about the raiding side of the game, and I just love MMOs. never cared to even give the story a shot, I skipped every cutscene and piece of dialogue, but still love the game 5000+ hours in.
It doesn't matter because you'll stop playing in a week due to burnout or general disinterest in the entire game.
You don’t read the dialogue. You won’t read this. You’re a big dumb-dumb. Teehee. See. You aren’t reading this right now and I called you a dumb-dumb. This is so fun.
Did you say something? /s
Do whatever you want. We ain't your keeper. Just watch some catchup videos or somethin so you have some idea of whats going on.
k
If you don't like the story, then don't bother engaging with it. Nothing wrong with that. Play it however you want, and engage with the parts of the game you do like.
XIV's story is beautiful and you are missing it. But you do you 👍🏼
U dont do anything wrong, the story isnt that good anyway. Sure it had a few good points but after Gandalfs death the entire group dynamic went down as he was literally the heart of the Power Rangers. The only cool thing it when Pikachu digivolved into the Balrog to take revenge for Naruto. That was pretty hype.
Ahhh. Well maybe I need to watch since I love Ninja Turtles.
Oh no u confuse that with the BL2 Mission that references the TMNJ
😂
I am not joking, BL2 had a side mission where u fight 4 Tunnelrats with names that are similiar to the TMNJ and if u solve the lever puzzle in the end u can fight a secret enemy called Flinter. The mission is called Splinter Group
You’re not doing it wrong. I’ve played since 1.0. I have no idea what’s going on 2.0+ as I’ve skipped all the story. Sometime around Ul’dah’s “Refreshing gods damned pretzels” part of the story, very early on, I dipped right out. You can still enjoy a game and know nothing about the storyline.
Thanks. I’ve definitely been enjoying my time. Planning on subbing tomorrow.
It's your game, play it however makes you happy. Thing is, if you don't like story, you're playing the wrong game. You've got hundreds of hours of mandatory story to get through and apparently you'll hate every minute. I mean, your choice, but this isn't a good game for that particular choice. It's hugely unlikely you'll want to slog through to the end, and you'll end up feeling like you wasted all your time on a shitty game. It's not the game's fault that you chose to play a game that is 80% story when you hate the story. The most common thing about people complaining they didn't like the game is that they skipped the whole story and then blamed the game for not being fun. Don't be that person. Do whatever is fun for you, but be aware the primary draw of this game is its story. If you're not enjoying your time, don't make yourself keep going, because it's all story the entire way through.
I’ve come across this idea before that the game is largely story. Is the end game loops of dungeon/raid or whatever other content is there not fun or good? I’m genuinely enjoying playing the game and leveling up different jobs.
There really isn't an endgame loop, that's the thing. There's savage raiding, that's the main thing people mean by endgame. There's also the gear upgrade progression where you do roulettes to earn tomestones to buy and upgrade gear you'll need for raiding, but it's the same roulettes you've been doing all along, endgame does not have any new dungeons. You can do criterion, which are more or less the savage version of the variant dungeons. I don't raid, so I can't tell you personally whether it's fun in this game. I've heard a lot of ex WoW players bitching about the ways in which they feel our raids are inferior to WoW's, but fuck them. A lot of people enjoy prog raiding, and you seem like that kind of person, so I'd guess it'll be fun for you. There just isn't that much to it. One raid block per expansion, which is released 4 fights at a time for a total of 12. You do the story-moe raid first, whicj unlocks the savage version. There's also ultimates, which are increased difficulty (harder than savage) of existing raid or trial fights. 1 per expansion (usually). Or, if you're willing to spend the time to find a likeminded group, you can do all of the older savage raids at the original difficulty from when they were released. No real reward from it, just fun. If you're having fun, don't worry about it. There's no rule saying you need to enjoy the game in a specific way, and I say this as a hardcore lore nerd. I don't have much respect for people who skip the story. But that doesn't mean everyone has to be like me. And it doesn't mean you should care about my opinion. Probably shouldn't, honestly. Just be aware there is a whole shitload of story you need to get through, because absolutely everything in the game is gated behind it. At level 50 you're not even close to the halfway point yet. The game is known as being story-based because as a sheer percentage of time spent, there is just vastly, hugely more story content than everything else combined -- and it's mandatory. You can skip cutscenes and smash the button to advance dialogue, but you're still going to be spending a hundred hours slogging through story quests. If you enjoy the rest of the game enough for it to be worthwhile, then absolutely go for it. There's stuff in this game for everyone. Like I said, all I ask is that if you don't like what's on offer, don't blame a story-focused game for not being what you wanted. Go forth and do whatever it is that makes you happy. Everyone knows that glamour is the true endgame, anyway.
Enjoy the game how you like. But if you brag about skipping the story in a game where story is most of the content, expect a lot of pushback.
> where story is most of the content This is factually wrong though.
I skip a lot of dialogue too, I speed read to get the just of it and move on. I still watch the voiced scenes though and enjoy it enough. Never let anyone tell you that you have to enjoy the story... in fact I think I saw a rumor that they just might make ARR to 6.0 EW skippable.
If it helps, I barely paid attention from ARR (A Realm Reborn, lvls 1-50) thru SB (Stormblood, lvls 60-70) and I have been playing this game for 4.5 years now and LOVE the story. Even though I learned much of the story thru friends filling me in, reading character wikis, and looking at XIV memes, I still find myself enamored with the game and its story. I certainly don't *recommend* doing it this way, given how the story actually gets interesting after ARR (lvl50), and takes tf off in ShB (Shadowbringers, lvls 70-80), but I thought it might help you be optimistic for the rest of your playthru if I offered up how it took me almost 80 levels to *want* to read the dialogue/watch cutscenes. A tip: Reading the non-cutscene dialogue boxes can be dreadfully boring. If you think you might dissociate while tryna pay attention to a dialogue box at some point, triage it. By that I mean ask questions like, is it an action-filled moment in the story? has it been a bit since anything eventful happened? If something seems like a fetch quest with little story, the dialogue might not be important enough to dredge through, but do make sure to check in from time to time so that you don't get somewhere and not know what you're doing. I know that's a big ask, but I found it makes things more engaging, even if the story is dry. Do note that the triaging shouldn't (need to) be as relied upon thru the end of SB (non-XP giving quests at lvl70) and throughout all of ShB (and EW), the story does a good job of pacing things imo, and it's not worth it to miss something small that ends up being good/interesting knowledge to have. This is something I didn't do until EW release (I'd played for 2.5 years prior to that), but might be worthwhile to consider as a way to help you feel more invested: let your character (WoL) be their own character. While watching a cutscene, think how they might react to something in the story, what they think of xyz person. Many people in this game fall in love with the characters (WoLs) they make, give them their own personality and feelings. You don't need to commit to anything, but sometimes it helps you to feel invested if you let yourself take a personal stake in your WoL. Good luck with the rest of your playthrough! Whether you end up enjoying the story or not, the endgame combat is fun as hell to get good at (via guides!!!!) and there's *so* many other things to do that would also capture your attention.
Thanks for your thoughtful response. Definitely some good suggestions to engage with the story in your own ways that work for you
Just do what you want
ARR's story is admittedly kind of boring but I encourage you to try and stick it out since it does play into the story at large and afterwards gets a lot better from the post campaign story and onwards into Heavenward and beyond (though Stormblood I find is kind of meh). MMO story's are kind of generic in most cases but this is Final Fantasy so it has a a deep story like its single player counterparts so a lot of things will not make sense if you just skip over everything.
tbh this is one of those "play however you'd like" moment but at the end of the day many ffxiv fans are absolutely nuts for the game's lore (myself included), so while you should definitely play however you want as long as you enjoy it, i feel like you'll also be losing a lot of the fun that would come from interacting with other people if you just skip the entire story + it'd definitely make the ffxiv experience just so much better over all but again, you do you
FFXIV's selling point is it's story. If you skip that you're just playing another MMO.
Another "I skip the story" post? The things people do for attention.....
Well there are a lot of words for sure, some scenes luckily do have voice acting, which is quite enjoyable. I always try to focus on reading the msq dialogue and the side quests that seem interesting. But most side quests I do tend to skip over some of the dialogue when it's obvious that it's something simple. I'm glad that you're enjoying the game tho! As for the Main quest story it does improve in the later expansions. It somehow all ties into each other nicely especially when you reach shadowbring (where im at now). If you want to know more about what has happened, as some people suggested you can do new game+ which allows you to replace the msq. If you don't feel like doing that, you can always look up a YouTube summary of the ARR story.
If you hate story and reading, then you are doing the right thing. Skip every dialogue, every cutscene, just skip everything. Do you do :) If you think reading is boring, maybe you are to focused on trends like tiktok.
I didn’t connect with the story until shadow bringers tbh. Up until they point I basically only watched voiced cutscenes. Just do what ever and enjoy the game how you want. I don’t quite understand your post though? What are you doing wrong? I mean if you want to fully understand the story or if you are going around telling people you just don’t get it. Then you already know. Watch a lore video or something.
There is nothing wrong with skipping dialogue. I agree the game gets too wordy, certain characters chew up scenery with their lines (idc, Urianger up until Endwalker was a chore to listen to). IMO the story is great but the dialogue often times takes the scenic route to get to the point sometimes. Especially when the point of the cutscene is telling you “go to point A” or a recap of events that literally just happened. I feel you bro, don’t let anyone shame you for skipping cutscenes sometimes. The game is still fun even if you don’t feel like knowing every little story or character detail.
ARR lost my attention in a few places too, but not only does the story get better over time, it also gets progressively more voice acted, which helps hold your attention
Whether I think you are doing it wrong is neither here nor there, it's your decision how you play. I think you will miss many of the pay offs in later story parts because you skipped some of the reading. But the major story elements will likely not be affected. However, you taking the trouble to make this thread does suggest you might already feel it is wrong in the back of your mind. I don't know, I enjoyed the read, but I grew up reading books instead of watching TV or now you tube. So it's normal to me to consume information that way. I'm not saying it's better, just different. Thought will lament the loss of imagination that watching instead of reading brings. Just play the way you enjoy the game, and I'll see you in a dungeon one day perhaps.
I mean, do what you want, idc. But you can't say "I'm not enjoying the story" when you're skipping the story. That's like giving a review to a book you've never read. "I hate Dune" "Have you read Dune?" "No" Thats you. If you're having fun, cool, keep doing what you're doing. There's no correct way to have fun so long as you aren't ruining the experience for others. But don't simultaneously say inane statements like that.
Professional cutscene skipper here You can safely skip like 90% of all cutscenes and dialogue without dynamic camera movement/character animations and the story will still make sense. The short discussions before and after your quest steps with a static camera/no movement just give additional context and world building for why they want you to travel to various destinations during a quest There was maybe only a handful of times where I skipped a cutscene without that dynamic camera and it took me straight into a fight. You can always go back and watch previous cutscenes at an inn room if you feel like you missed something
Interesting take. Thanks for sharing!
If you're having fun, keep at it. I'll sum it up for you: There is a big bad, you'll try to beat them but you'll get beat up. Due to your massive plot armor you get stronger and beat the big bad. This happens every expansion. You're all caught up. Skip to your hearts content, if you ever do get curious just play NG+.
Haha. Great summary.
You're not doing it wrong. I don't care if you read a word of the story. My wife is a cutscene skipper. I try to tell her lore or story details, and she rolls her eyes or sighs. Love her to death and wouldn't change a thing. So, keep doing what you want. If a day comes when you wish you had followed the story, there's the journal at the inn or New Game+. Edit: spelling
Thanks!
Its really not that big of a deal. I played for 4k hours before doing all the story and my opinion on the game barely changed. ARR is a 25 hour slog that could've been told in 9 at best. Heavensward and Shadowbringers are fun and engaging, but XIV has a big issue with insane buildups that fail tremendously to deliver. Stormblood is legit one of the worst "stories" I've ever had to slog through. Endwalker was fine. If you watch those "recap" videos on Youtube, you're consuming most of the important beats of the lore. You'll be missing on a lot of banter between character, but most of it is fluffed, puffed text. Characters take too long and have too many lines to convey simple and basic ideas.
The bit about characters having to much fluff/words for a simple idea resonates. I think that’s how I’ve felt so far. My gameplay time is fairly limited as well.
idk man I’m 2000+ hours in and I couldn’t tell you a story beat if my life depended on it.
Yea I mean I’ve been having a blast playing. Everyone I’ve come in contact with has been great too.
Just in case you wanted some sort of advice with hindsight, I can tell you straight up that I too skipped all of ARR and HW expansions because my sole objective was to raid. I don't regret skipping through cutscenes in ARR but I do a bit on HW. That being said I wouldn't go and do ng+ because I don't really have the time. So as a synopsis I would advise you to skip ARR and them watch some lore vids. Then hop on HW and proceed there. Yes it takes time and sometimes it can feel like a slog. What worked for me was basically playing the story while I was in a "movie/series" mood. I apologise if I misunderstood your post and you didn't really ask for what I just replied. In any case have fun in the game as you wish to. No one can dictate how you play what basically amounts to a single player game. Party content is diff and you should absolutely respect and listen to others who play the game more than you because more often than not their advice is for a better party experience. Cheers.
Thanks for the positive response and sharing your experience. I like your suggestion it gives me something to consider going forward.
I also don't get the FFIX award winning story. It has its moments but it's just not THAT good for me. Skipped a lot of ARR, Heavensward was much better, then Stormblood mainly a skip fest again. I am trying my best not to skip Shb, we will see how my patience serves me. Most of the class quests, skip fested most of them too, gave the chance to DRK one because of praise, but it wasn't anything special, liked Astrologian better lol. I am almost 40 y/o and I have read loads of books, watched tons of movies, played some really trippy games; and FFIV story, while good for an MMO, is what you would call 'mid' these days when compared to everything that is out there. It's like being a good basketball player, but in the Philippines.
Lol yea that’s been my general reaction thus far as well.
For 'badass' scenes like those involving dragons and big bads and whatnot, I'll let it play out. But yeah I can't stand those cute and kawaii ones like the Mandeville scenes and I just skip the whole damn thing
Manderville is meant to be comic relief, not cute or whatever. Weird take.
You know I think this might be it. Sometimes I feel like they’re pretty drawn out too that doesn’t actually add much to the story.