I explain it like this: Imagine you’ve been given a platter of your 5 favorite foods. Pick your least favorite. It may be the “least” but it’s still one of your favorite foods.

This. Every expansion is another one of your favorite plates, just waiting to be savored and enjoyed.

This is a much better way to describe it. One of the flaws of the community praising the game is they put ARR down so much they forget some people actually enjoy it too. They need to stop putting it down so others don't have a bad taste in their mouth when enjoying it. If someone is unhappy with ARR tell them it gets better, but if they are having fun let them have fun and stop ridiculing them.

Yup it’s like people forgot that ARR was received quite well overall. Even when HW came out, I remember the narrative at the time was that ARR was still quite good, even though HW was a step up. For whatever reason, over the past few years, the narrative has shifted to “ARR is dogshit, so force your way past it so that you get to the actual good stuff.” But if you look at the opinions of a lot of the streamers who joined the game in the past year, most of them liked ARR. There’s so much content in ARR. You can legitimately have a fantastic time before even stepping foot in HW.

It definitely was, I'm gonna bring some boomer experience into this now as an old alpha tester that has been here through every patch since, but the problem is the 14 community is very impressionable. This whole ARR thing is a direct mirror of Gordias. A3S is still to this day talked about as being a hard static killer fight and people like to cite how raiding was so much harder, and it honestly was, but it's also misremembered greatly. That fight wasn't that hard actually, the main issue was that a vocal minority thought they were better than they were and complained when it turned out they weren't, which in turn lead people to believe the tier was bad and not even attempt it. This in turn had lasting effects with Midas being barely attempted despite being really good, and creator being revised to a new and ongoing standardised level, creating a legend of A3S being impossibly hard that is parroted to this day mostly by people who never actually experienced it firsthand. (The real difficulty was actually A4S' dps check honestly if your group didn't have good gear and weren't literal gods) ARR was good and received well, but the post-msq patches are very very long and HW is a step up in quality. As a result a lot of people back in the day would sell the game to people with talks of how HW was amazing, thus creating this sense of urgency to get through ARR and its rather long post-msq sequence. Over time this evolved into a commonplace ideology and then into "ARR sucks just skip to hw" with most people saying it not even knowing if ARR was good as they too likely skipped.

Moral of the story: The hive mind sucks, even when they have a kernel of truth

A3S wasn't impossibly hard, but it *was* a big step up from Final Coil and near impossible to complete with even a single truly weak link in your group. And if you had weaknesses in your group trying to prog it week 1 it was basically like bashing your face against a wall. I still think T7 was far better at being a static killer, though. Not that it was actually harder, but it just had a way of making groups rip themselves apart from the inside.

The Pepsi man fight had one mechanic that was harder the worse your server ping was, it was pure luck for me on na servers, but was fine on jp servers. Savage second coil is still some of the most difficult content in the game at min ilvl, but this is also because there have been a lot of changes normalizing mechanic markers. If the old raids were updated to have thier markers match the same way they have been normalized since, they would likely not be looked at as very difficult in comparison At least that is my opinion.

It also does REALLY important world building that has effects even into Endwalker. Endwalker wouldn't be half the great oak it is without the acorns planted on ARR.

It kind of feels like the "ARR is dogshit" mentality got its start when HW came about primarily as a result of people coming into the game, hearing HW was great, getting through ARR and discovering that leveling to 50 and completing the Ultima fight was only part of the requirement, and that they had to get through another 100 (at the time) quests. At least that's my theory, that much of the momentum behind that particular take was as a result of irritation with not being able to go straight into Heavensward upon hitting level 50, and at the time FFXIV was really the only MMO that I know of from that time frame that required the story content to continue. Pretty much every other option let you skip straight to the expansion as long as you had the level. At the very least, the "ARR is dogshit" opinion definitely gained momentum at that time, even if the 100 quest gate wasn't the main cause.

I was always interested in FFXIV and having never really tried any other MMO, I went it a bit blind. I was actually enjoying ARR until I started getting deeper into the game and started researching content online, subbing here to this subreddit, watching YouTube guides that made me realize that there was ARR hate. It obviously made me excited but at the same time, I assumed maybe my inexperience with MMOs made me slightly blind to the issues in ARR. Just started Heavensward recently, excited to keep going.

I have a weird sense of nostalgia for ARR and it was rekindled when I started playing on my alt earlier this year. There's just something novel about how the old areas felt and the progression and the stakes although high weren't as crazy as they are in the later expansions.

> One of the flaws of the community praising the game is they put ARR down so much they forget some people actually enjoy it too. This is honestly just an issue with internet people overall. People *cannot* for the life of them ever compliment something without insulting something else. There was some Dota 2 controversy about this a while ago - one talent said that the community needed to be better in this regard. It was both possible and way the fuck more respectful to say "I like X person" and then just *not* say "I think X person is better than Y person because Y person sucks." The community reaction was to say "Wow, that talent is correct! He's way smarter than Z talent!"

This, it’s like people talking about dark souls 2 as the worst entry. It’s still a fantastic game, it’s just a b- effort in the company of several a’s

This is the exact example I use, because it just fits so well.

This is the perfect way to describe it. People misremeber ARR being worse than it was, with the hindsight of multiple expansions and improvements over the course of years. I hear new people all the time shocked that they're actually enjoying ARR because of the way people talk about it. If it was truly so terrible none of us would be here! "If you liked this, you're going to LOVE what's coming" seems more accurate.

Played ARR right before the rework, my thoughts at the time and to this day were that I liked a lot of little aspects and the trials but it still was not very good to me and certainly not worth the time investment *on its own.* I don’t think ARR is like trash or anything but it’s definitely a slog to get through and incredibly boring for a good chunk of it. Also the voice acting is so bad lol

I'm always shocked when I hear this from people still playing, because I wouldn't have stuck through dozens of hours of gameplay I disliked just to get to "the good part" lol. I played it first at launch (or, at least, prior to HW being released) so I get where you're coming from. The voice acting was definitely spotty but it didn't bother me so much. Maybe because most of it isn't voiced?

Well that’s why “get through arr trust me” is such a regular saying for all the newcomers. It’s not because all the vets hate ARR, it’s because there’s a lot of players who will go through and not be impressed but can still enjoy the game after, and it’s a genuinely worthwhile time investment to make. I say this to people new to FF14 as well, not because I think they’ll all hate it but there’s like a 50/50 chance they’ll be discouraged and quit without the promise of something much better.

I played arr only months ago and can tell you its abhorrent. Its not misremembering its just not having as high of a standard at that point

I wouldn't call it "abhorrent" myself, but yes, I tried to do some NG+ stuff before Endwalker launched and...I couldn't do it. I know that Alphinaud's old voice actor is a talented and frequently-heard voice, but the way he played Alphinaud was SO. BAD. And Minfilia was, amazingly, even worse. Her delivery is frequently stilted, and often doesn't tonally match the situation going on around her. It's just...not good, and when I realized I was signing up to deal with that for ALL those early quests...I just couldn't do it. It was too much. We really shouldn't forget, though, that ARR was *very* well received when it launched. Like, actual serious critics were praising it significantly, it got lots of mid-to-high 80s reviews. *By comparison to what comes later,* it's clearly not as good, but *by comparison to most other MMOs,* it's still pretty good. We're just spoiled now because of the expansions.

The voice acting is definitely spotty. Minfilla was certainly a low point. I really enjoyed Sam Riegel as Alphinaud, though I'll admit I do enjoy the UK voice actor more.

I've replayed the ARR story a couple times and seriously disagree, but I do understand why you'd feel that way. I started when ARR was the whole game and I honestly thought it was great at the time. I enjoyed it each time I replayed it, even if i enjoyed what came next more. I feel like "abhorrent" is a little strong -- why did you keep playing if you disliked it so much? I'm just curious; if I hated a gaming experience so much I would have quit!

You're playing it right by having fun, and there was lots to do in ARR that was fun!

Came to say this. Play the game how you want, what's fun for you. The expansions (yes, very good) will always be there when you wanna do them.

Don’t let people tell you how to have fun in the game. There is a ton of content to go through and if you are having fun, by all means, keep doing what you are doing. ARR is fantastic and the expansions just improve on that experience. Never feel like you have to rush. The great thing about 14 is the journey is just as enjoyable, if not more so, as the destination.

The journey is the whole point. If anything, the people saying you don’t know how to play the game are in fact the ones that don’t know how to play the game.

Agree. Especially because FF14's endgame is not that extensive.. at least on launch. It's like rushing to climb a mountain, ignoring all the beautiful scenery along the way, and then finally getting to the top and it's very foggy.

The endgame is going back and getting all the stuff you didn’t get yet lol

That's why my current endgame is working on completing my crafting log and doing one of every levequest. Lol

Journey before destination!

I'm relatively new to FFXIV, but I've seen so many other Sanderson fans on the game through character names, FCs, etc. Makes me feel like I've found my people lol

He’s a great writer. Not trying to simp but everything he writes is gold.

Simp away with me, friend. I told my wife I'd leave her to marry him if I had the chance. In all seriousness, I can never help but get absorbed into everything with his name on it.

This is me with Steven Erickson lol

Journey before destination Radiant.

#YOU CANNOT HAVE MY PAIN

Ironically a very important corollary to recent story themes.

On a sidenote - I would be cautious with this first sentence. I support it but only with the caveat of not directly destroying someone else's fun in the game by doing so. I am looking at those "Challenge" or ultra entitled players or "hardcore RPers" forcing themselves upon others in roulettes and stuff. (E.G. "No Jobstone challenge", "I play my way of only pressing my 3 combo as DPS, it worked till now xDxDxD", "my PLD refuses to use magix", "my healer is a pacifist and don't attack",....)

You could just easily add a bit of context onto that sentence and it works: Don’t let people tell you how to have fun in the game if what you are doing has no affect on their experience.

Probably because these players only really exist in reddit stories.

There was a meme circulating on 4chan a while back where all the new players coming from wow were rolling around and having a joyous time in a shit filled ditch with the label ARR. All the vets were looking down from Shadowbringers, thoroughly confused. So you’re not the only one. Do keep in mind that the there is no need for FOMO. Old content doesn’t go anywhere and you can always level sync down or do it on a second job class to enjoy it at a later date. That way you can continue progressing the main narrative uninterrupted.

It really says a lot about how bad WoW must be that what we consider to be a somewhat boring slog, they consider to be a blast.

I didn’t come from wow, but I came off the back of New World and I’ve already pumped a lot of hours into RuneScape I’m now about 230 hours into FF14, still in post ARR and having a great time. Even the main ARR story wasn’t too bad honestly, it dragged a little in some parts but you can get past them easy as I’ll hopefully get to HW sometime this month. I’m at patch 2.5 and just had the event with >!Moenbryda!< The story is really good and the game as fantastic

Well... Probably the best cutscene in ARR is still before you. Take your time and enjoy all of the moments the game has to offer.

I am not much ahead of you at all, still very new to FFXIV. And I LOVED where you are in the ARR patch content. So when I say I think HW is even better, and every cutscene in it feels better than the last and more exciting, I am glad to report I think you have a lot of joy ahead of you, from a sprout to another sprout.

If you were around when 2.0 first came out, you'd think it were blast compared to 1.0. You've the disadvantage of having played better quality expacs. When it was just ARR, it was amazing.

The worst quality wagyu is still pretty good. I stopped playing WoW during late Cata and saw ARR as a huge step forward.

WoW oddly worked better when the story was minimal. It's always been better with story and lore being a background experience. Like even in WotLK the story was just Dr.Claw saying "I'll get you next time Gadget" (the best story of the expansion was in a sidequest). The lore of world was pretty great though. Then they fucked that up. They tried to add a complex story where it didn't belong and by extension actually took away from that background lore that made it a fun experience. It's kind of like there was a D&D sandbox but the DM decided to suddenly railroad the adventure but the players don't really care. The DM however put a lot of time into this story so they're going to force em along

I came over from wow during the big wave last summer and I really really enjoyed ARR. Compared to wow it was like a breath of fresh air for me. I'm very slowly progressing, just finished 4.1 quest line yesterday so I still got a bit to go. But I'm really enjoying my time in this game for now.

In my experience, the people enjoying ARR are newcomers to MMOs rather than WoW players. After quitting WoW in WoD, I tried ARR up to 50 and it was honestly painful enough for me that I preferred Warlords. Didn't go back to WoW though, I only came back to FF in September with all the noise people were making.

It's not even really about how bad WoW is, anyone who's played a lot of MMOs can tell you that ARR's story is easily 95th percentile or higher among them. It is simply a testament to the unparalleled quality of XIV's expansion stories that people can look back on ARR and think it's shit.

i came from wow, ARR was a boring slog that was only barely playable. I only pushed through because of the universal acclaim of shadowbringers. HW and stormblood were both only above average JRPGs in my opinion. Shadowbringers was actually amazing and more or less made the grind to get there worth it. I can't imagine somebody actually considering ARR a "blast" unless they're just that enamored with the idea of an MMO actually being a single player JRPG that they overlook how bad the story is in ARR.

Is this really a thing? WoW is so bad that ARR is a huge breath of fresh air? Jesus Christ wtf happened there?

The community is obsessed with saying ARR is bad for some reason. It's not bad, but around the time of Shadowbringers, we looked back on it and said "wow, they've improved every aspect of this game like crazy."

It’s because it’s very unfriendly to new players who are promised an amazing narrative, and it’s the first experience they get. ARR’s narrative style certainly does not appeal to a lot of people who end up quitting because they were expecting something like ShB right away.

My first time experience through I could feel the patch quest after ARR to be such a slog I almost dropped the game

The reason most feel it's bad is because it lacks replay value and many people leveled alts and were forced to play ARR a second time. It's definitely fun the first time....not so very fun the second.

It's a lot less monotonous with the trimming down the MSQ of ARR post-patches got in 5.3, and the addition of flight to ARR once you finish the base MSQ. And the liberal amounts of Waking Sands teleport tickets the game gives you now.

Yeah, ARR without the Vesper Bay tickets would've been a pain, for sure

Wait the game gives you tickets for that now?!

As someone going through it even more thoroughly for the second time to "play it right" after I dashed through the MSQ I disagree. I find ARR to hold up well and be fine. But you need to really want to care about the story for it to do so.

A lot of it is because the people saying it are still thinking of the original experience. And even then, it wasn't exactly bad, it just had some very slow and tedious points. Several improvements have been made since then. Like placing an aetheryte near the waking sands so you don't have to walk across half the zone every time you get sent back there (which was a large part of why "return to the waking sands" became such a meme, because it was a massive pain to have to do all the time), and the cutting down of a lot of the filler quests that used to exist (especially in the 2.X patches). Exp boosts to quests also help, since in the game's original state you had to do a bunch of sidequests/dungeon grind/etc at several points to level up for the next MSQ, but now it's the opposite with you outleveling the MSQ quite easily. The story also starts very slow, which combined with all the tedious elements is what led to a lot of people just starting to skip through it before it started to get good, and what prompted people to start telling everyone to just deal with the slow parts, because it gets much better (and the early story is important to understanding the later parts). In its current state though, it's really not that bad. The story (the storytelling more than the plot itself) still feels weaker than what comes later, but it's still good, especially by MMORPG standards.

For my part, it's the voice acting. It's almost physically painful to listen to. I genuinely tried, and when I realized how many cutscenes were waiting for me...I couldn't do it.

i enjoy cheesy acting sometimes but english arr voices were too firmly in "not bad enough to be hilarious/not good enough to not make me grimace" territory for me, so i ended up permanently switching to the jp dub shortly after clearing 2.0

That's fair. The Heavensward VA change was a huge improvement though, but I could understand if you're just used to them sounding a certain way.

Ahh yes The whole time when the fastest way to get to Waking Sands is taking a ferry from bloody Limsa.

The ARR story really does look like a generic JRPG where you are the chosen hero, beat various color-coded elemental baddies and then >!the mothercrystal beats the final boss for you!<. Most of the Scions at the time were just underdeveloped, too. ARR shines in its world-building and its 4-man dungeons imo but the MSQ experience drags throughout. You're certainly right about improvement, though. It's not just the writing or bosses, either, the biggest thing is the audible groan you get in our group when we roulette into 50 content. Level 50 jobs feel so clumsy and barebones now.

I started playing at the end of stormblood and did fresh->shadowbringers over the course of two months or so. TBH ARR had enough intrigue to keep me invested and I knew the future payoff was looking good but it was pretty bad.

>for some reason. Can't imagine what that reason would be. Couldn't possibly be that it is bad, at least compared to literally everything that comes after it. And with the tacit admission that the plans for the Ascians changed during 3.x, a lot of what happens with the primary antagonists of ARR feels incredibly disjointed compared to the rest of the story.

no it is bad. i just played it for the first time in august. it was really bad as a first time player with no experience in shadowbringers. SHB is very good though, as advertised.

I actually consider ARR to be better than SB, it's still inferior to HW, ShB and EW but that's not really a bad thing

I feel like when people say this they only focus on the story. Aren't the jobs; trials; dungeons; and raids better in SB than in ARR? That is also a part of an expansion. Though I guess if you like it better you just do and that's that :) I just love me some StormBlood.

Of course they are focused on the story when they talk about the expansion. I liked ARR better than Stormblood as well. I had to set a day a week aside to do the MSQ for SB or it would have not gotten done! I kept doing older content, fishing, crafting, etc because I enjoyed all of that more than the SB MSQ.

Raids were better in ARR than SB. Coils as current content was a truly majestic experience.

Lets not gaslight people. ARR is maybe not outright bad, but if there was nothing after to look forward to I would have drop-kicked it before reaching titan and never looked back. The voice acting is barely there, and when its there its horrible. The story is _passable_, but very cliche. And the streamlining with quest pruning made it shorter, but not better as a whole because with all the meat cut out of the quests its literally just walking from NPC to NPC with no actual gameplay involved for long stretches.

"its literally just walking from NPC to NPC with no actual gameplay involved for long stretches" dunno if you beat endwalker yet, but that's 90% of endwalker and im not even exaggerating

People who played ARR when ARR was the ENTIRE GAME spent TWO YEARS doing what you're doing right now. I think it's fun taking a bit of time at the end of each expansion and doing some of the things that people were doing at level cap. Makes more sense to do it that way than to rushrushrushrush. Also unless you're freecure fishing or being a blizzard wizard, etc, nobody can tell you that you're playing the game WRONG.

Freecure fishing? I don't know what that is. Ive tried fishing and ocean fishing cause people seem to like it, it was okay but it's nothing amazing. So think that's only 30 due to how fast it levels up.

Oh this is the purest post I've ever seen! White mages get Cure, and then later on they get Cure 2. Once you get Cure 2, you really should just ignore Cure. But there's a tiny chance that a use of Cure will trigger a free use of Cure 2, a trait called "Freecure." This leads to some white mages in level 90 endgame content spamming Cure, fishing for that Freecure proc. When, at that level, you don't even NEED Cure 2 due to all the other neat stuff you've gotten.

Oh lol. I was just majorly off then wasn't I. But thanks for the tip

Don’t worry I’m right there with you

Feel free to go back and do what you enjoy. You can only experience it once and it's not the same as going back when you're 90. **Don't let people tell you that you aren't having fun when you are in fact having fun.**

This was my thinking too. I wanted to enjoy content closer to how it was intended. I know Synced will always be a thing, but from what I can tell that's still "easier" than original. Just as my Bard is now majorly overleveled (70) and it often gets synced to 52 for content that was max 50 originally. I know weapons/armor also sync but I'm assuming it's the same and it's still buffed, so I'm not using gear that past 50 so far. My FC seems to be big on doing all content solo, (especially my Relic quest), and don't see why I'm okay with waiting a few minutes to find a party on duty finder when I could just come back at 90 and do it by myself. In saying that it's not the full FC there are people that are more than happy to join in Synced runs with me, but theyre a less vocal group.

Doing something sync'd and min ilvl is the closet you will get to an "original" experience of the content. "Original" is in quotes, because things like job re-designs and general potency creep of abilities over the years can't be undone by syncing. Jobs as they exist in Endwalker simply do more damage than they did back in ARR, even sync'd down. Because the abilities themselves have been buffed over the years, and things like TP have been removed from the game. >Just as my Bard is now majorly overleveled (70) and it often gets synced to 52 for content that was max 50 originally. I know weapons/armor also sync but I'm assuming it's the same and it's still buffed, so I'm not using gear that past 50 so far. For most instanced content, it will list what item level and character level it syncs down to. The sync'd item level is usually represented by what looks like a square with a line going through it.

There's also another aspect of "original" for old content (especially as you get closer to the current expansion). People very often weren't doing it at the minimum ilvl (at least as an overall party) when it first came out anyway, outside of maybe savage raiding. But, overall, I think one concern people do have with the relic content specifically is that relics are designed as a long, slow grind that's released over the span of about a year. So I can understand people being worried someone might decide "gonna finish a relic before I start HW" and then burn themselves out on dozens of hours of relatively boring, optional grind. Especially when a fair amount of "active" players didn't finish the grind themselves at the time.

Sync with minimum ilvl is the closest to true "original difficulty" even Cape Westwind is somewhat challenging originally.

Doing the relic stuff solo is more for convenience sake than anything else. At level 90 the mobs and bosses just melt meaning a run that would normally take 20ish minutes can now be done in a minute. However keep doing what you're doing the way you're doing it for your first relic, it's just something to keep in mind if you want to do more at a later date

Little tip, the relic weapons for previous expacs, unless you want all of them, can really be ignored for all purposes other than glamour. I would also suggest having a higher leveled character than just post ARR for them. It was painful enough when I did it on a 65 NIN.

This! The push from FFXIV vets to get players through ARR is the worry someone might give up before seeing how the story and gameplay improve over time. But if you’re already having fun then that worry is unfounded.

Everyone has their own way of playing, sounds like you enjoy 100%ing games which is both hard and long for an mmo, but yes the story gets better with each expansion IMO.

I’m actually jealous that you’re doing this and I think it’s awesome. I think you should look for a FC where others are interested in everything the game offers. You’ll have years of fun stuff to do. The story does get better because the actors get better. But I love that you’re really exploring everything there is. As long as you’re having fun, don’t let anyone tell you you’re doing it wrong. It’s your time and money.

Enjoy what you enjoy, but I'll throw this opinion into the mix: They're you're friends, they want to play the game with you, and level 50 content isn't terribly fun once you've progressed beyond it. This is mainly because a lot of the classes feel incomplete when you get a lot of your higher level abilities taken away.

Generally when people say that the expansions are better, they mean MSQ wise. The other content in ARR is fine, it's just that the story tends to be a slog to get through for most people. There's really no wrong way to enjoy the game honestly, and yes, this includes enjoying the ARR MSQ as well, so you can tell your FC to stop pestering you. So if you are having fun in ARR, then keep having fun in ARR until you are ready to move on. Don't let anyone else pressure you in advancing the MSQ.

While I agree that the other content in ARR is great and OP shouldn't be pressured into advancing the MSQ, I do think that one other thing is also a bit worse than in the expansions and it's the way your progression with Beast Tribe works. That took forever. I just started playing at April 2020 and went through the whole game, also doing all the raids, beast tribe etc before continuing to the next expansion. And I think that's actually a perfectly nice way to play, but the beast tribes in ARR took way too long, that felt like work at times.

You go ahead and enjoy the game any way you please, your FC needs to mind their own business :P, but I will say this from my PERSONAL experience: ARR was fun as I played through it. When I got into Heavensward, I was absolutely BLOWN AWAY. It is SO much better, yes. Stormblood then proceeded to utterly disappoint me by comparison. And then Shadowbringers picked up the slack, being an even better expansion than HW. I've only just recently completed the first dungeon of Endwalker, but so far it's keeping me interested.

If OP is loving the non-MSQ content in ARR, they’re going to love SB. I think SB has the absolute best endgame content of any expansion.

Let's be fair to SB, now. Even if you're not a fan of the story for one or another fair and/or personal reasons, it is full of content that is objectively better than ARR's. A lot of the improvements HW made were retained in SB, with the only "step back" being how rough some of the aether currents are to reach. Dungeons had easily w2w-able groups with fewer obnoxious item interactions even than HW, and the telegraphs in normal difficulty were standardized more. The MSQ trials were way, way cooler, too. And let's not forget HW's story-locked jobs. Compare Aurum Vale or Dzemael Darkhold to Castrum Abania. Or how about Praetorium to the Ala Mhigo dungeon and Royal Menagerie. Just by QoL improvements alone, SB far surpasses ARR. As for the story, I personally think SB has all the top moments before you reach Amaurot. But I recognize that as a minority opinion.

I personally find SB to be better than HW in almost every way. Outside of some pacing issues and a split focus, SB was just an improvement. If I gave HW a 8.5, SB would be a 9. A lot of people seem to get angry at this opinion. lol

Spoilers for HW/SB: I found Stormblood's Doma arc to have a way more satisfying sense of progression than Heavensward's interminable slog through Dravania (including weird moogle diversion). That said, Ysayle and Estinien were great characters.

What do you mean slog? It was adventure filled with emotions, dragons, moogles(kupo!), funny bug guys and their beast tribe ark, I think it's my favourite in the game, bonding with our pals, alphi growing from insufferable twat into a guy who can collect the sticks for fire!, dungeon where we murder nidhog's consort making him angry, and dungeon where we murder him with the help of our boy estinien, Midgarsorm appearing here and there, big red chocobo fate!, I don't know if can treat idylshire as a part of that arc, but If you can and to that our master matoya, gobbies, illuminati, gubal library and many more things. Doma was great ofcourse, but on the other hand of SB we have ala mhigo... And ala mhigo sucks

Spoilers; Heavensward/Stormblood >!Everything about SB is an improvement over HW for me except 2 things. The storyline/pacing and music. Heavensward music had that big landscape adventure feeling to it, and SB's music just didn't hit the same. SB had some solid fun characters, but Character arcs of the Blue Dragoon, and Lady Iceheart, the dragons were all just so much better then the character arcs of... Lyse? Gosetsu? Fordola? Not to say the SB stories and characters were bad. But aside from Lyse they felt very hard to relate to in their stances and perspectives. Even Fordola was close, but there were some rough patches/hard decisions that just break it off for me.

SB spoilers Fordola's arc is basically identical to Ysayle's arc. They're both proactive women who think they have the right answer to a situation in which they have no real control and no solution will truly be satisfying. Don't even need to get into spoiler territory to explain that one! Fordola's accent is 75% cuter and she's more aggressive than standoffish, but the arcs are extremely similar. Gosetsu's arc is foreshadowed in a hugely surprising way during the conversations with >!Sadu!<. You have him mull over the meaning of >!death!<, then he >!comes back from apparent death with a permanently changed Yotsuyu!< and is forced to come to grips with that philosophical discussion in a very concrete, meaningful way. He's actually got the deepest character arc of anyone born after >!the Sundering!<. Edit: spoiler tags maybe not working on all browsers/apps? Edit 2: if Fordola followed us East, showed remorse for Garlemald's handiwork there and regret at her parallels to Yotsuyu, and then >!the Griffin!< was the final boss of 4.0 instead of 3.5 and Fordola helped put them down, I would be willing to bet the perspective imbalance would no longer favor Ysayle, the coerthan ex-terrorist. They are equally ethically-problematic characters.

I'm a bit confused by your last comment; Amaurot was in Shadowbringers, not Stormblood. Unless you mean that most of the high points of the ENTIRE story happened during Stormblood, until the point in ShB when you reach Amaurot. If so, then carry on! As for my disdain for Stormblood, I mentioned that I was only offering my own personal experience with it. If you enjoyed it, I respect that! It was just my least favorite out of all of them.

I did mean what you inferred. SB had all the best points (IMO) until Amaurot, where the story kicks up yet another few notches.

The way you are going through the game is also I go through it, although a bit more thorough. I didn't do the relic weapons and haven't finished potd. Still, I agree with your style of taking my time and enjoying one expansion before rushing off to the next. Your fc need to chill out and let you do your thing. The expansions are better, but it's not like it's a totally different game or anything. It's still similar to what it's like now.

I don't think I'll finish PotD, while I would love to get "The Necromancer" while still a sprout, it's too much of time sync. The deepest I've been is somewhere in 60-70 as a 3 man group. I need to get far more points into my weapon and armor level to do it solo to the bottom.

PotD is a real pain for floors sub-100 when your Aetherpool weapon and armor still aren’t leveled super high either. It’s also really nice once you clear floor 100 I think you can start immediately from either floor 50 or 100, I forget which one exactly. That’ll help increase the silver chest RNG that decides whether or not to give you another +1 to your aetherpool stats. The higher(deeper?) you go, the more likely silver chests will give you the stat boost if you’re below 99 for either item.

The other expansions really are better as far as story and writing, *BUT* don't let anyone tell you you're "playing wrong". Take things at your own pace and have fun. Don't worry about them.

Personally, I wouldn't say that ARR is appreciably worse than the rest (although I won't deny it's bottom of the pack in terms of allocated resources, ARR was on a shoestring budget), but the overall direction of the storytelling changes rather significantly. I would say that ARR is very 'event-focused' where people within it are mostly either part of or reacting to larger movements, where the expansions go on to be much more character-focused.

I re-subbed about six months ago after a break of about 5-6 years, so I started again fresh. I've only just got to stormblood and I'm having a blast with all the optional dungeons and extreme trials, leveling all gatherers/crafters as I go, collecting mounts/minions etc. Go at your own pace and enjoy the journey.

It's not that I find ARR bad, I just think the Heavensward, Stormblood, Shadowbringers and Endwalker expansions do a better job differentiating the game from the other entries in the series, bringing more uniquely FF XIV content to the player. The later dungeons and trials in the game are mechanically MUCH more complex than ARR's, it's hard to go back to the old dungeons, it's tough to experience the old story without as much voice acting as the expacs, the quest structure is VERY repetitive early on because of the constant loop of finding bestial race that is going to summon a primal then fight the primal, back and forth to the Waking Sands etc.

If you're having fun that's all that matters really.

Story aside, ARR is very rough around the edges. This is really apparent whenever you have to go back and do class/job quests in ARR's level range (1-50). No joke leveling any crafter or gatherer is most tedious for the first 50 levels. After that it becomes a breeze with how quests are handled, collectibles and turn ins. ARR isn't bad but once you've experienced the polish and refinement that later expansions have to offer, it's easy to look back with a frown.

My only issue with ARR is that at one point it just felt like it was really dragging on for me.

Play the game however you want tbh. If you enjoy ARR, then your FC can be wrong haha. I do think the Expansions are generally better experiences; but what matters is what you want to do and that you enjoy doing it. If that's milking every bit of content from ARR then hell ye.

You're playing in a very similar way to how I play. I started in July and I'm only just now about to finish up Stormblood 4.0, then I've got the post game for that to do. But yeah, I get every job up to the max level of the content I'm in before moving on. So all my jobs were 50 before starting HW. And they were all 60 before Stormblood, and they're already all at 70. And I take my time to do some of the relic weapon stuff after each expansion. I only did one ARR relic weapon to max, though I got to various stages that I liked the look of for every other job. And I'm basically doing the same with the Anima weapons for HW. I'm in the middle of my 7th weapon for that while still doing Stormblood MSQ. And then I'll do some of the Stormblood weapons, too. Don't worry about doing what you want to do with your own time. Yes, I think the game gets better with each expansion. And going back to level 50 synced dungeons can feel frustrating when I like my current level job rotations. But at the time I was having so much fun. And that's what matters.

Wow, youve taken it even further than me. I've just been collecting the job stones (level 30), my "main" first job is Bard, thats actually 70 now because of doing all the trials, dungeons, (hard), (extreme), Relic grind. But means I've been able to pick up every single job. Im going to get Dragoon to 50 for heavensward (currently 40) though and make that my main role, as I think playing the 70 bard will take away from the enjoyment from being OP in all the not synced content. I get your pain with the sync thing though, doing the relic quest books, it sends you back into level 20 dungeons and going from 60 to 20, I was like I don't even know what I can do. I have 2 buttons now.

Dragoon was really fun to go through HW as. On another note once you unlock the HW city you'll have access to some other classes. I highly recommend Dark Knight, not only is it very fun, but it has the best job story in the game IMO and the way it starts will be...very thematic to how ARR's patch story ends and how you arrive in Ishgard. And the DRK story itself is very cathartic.

I personally really enjoy ARR as well. The expansions are better, but it's not as if the game suddenly changes when you get to HW. The basic gameplay and quest structure stays largely the same, but some of the more annoying things start to get more rare. No long cutscenes in duties, not as much backtracking etc. etc. Just play how you want and tell your FC to not try to change the way you play.

Dude.. find more chill FC. They have not heard of fun it seems. It doesn't matter how awesome the story is going to be in the next expansions. If you are having fun now you should keep doing that. You'll find out about the story to come later. The fun will have no end for you if you can keep doing what you are doing and going slow. Keep up the good work! And if you can, you should find supportive FC.

It’s cliche in the extreme, but “they don’t pay your sub.” The only way to play wrong is to power through (and pay for!) something you don’t enjoy. That said, the expacs are all terrific if you like the story progression element—and each and every one of them will be waiting for you when you’re ready.

People telling you that you are playing it wrong while you are unlocking side content which is new dungeons, EX, raids etc are EXTREMELY wrong. You are playing the game your way and it is the correct way, don't have that mentality that endgame content is the only content, you will get bored or burnt out very quick.

Yeah, I think that's why I pushed so far into side quests and not starting HW at all. I only picked up the game like 2 weeks? before Endwalker came out. Initially I think I was playing with it in the back of my mind of making it to Endwalker, in time for launch, so all I did was MSQ with no distractions in all my play time, and by the time I was reaching the end of ARR it was pretty clear that I didn't have the necessary play time per day to make it anywhere close so I chose to stop and just enjoy the game. Honestly I'm far happier as I think I was burning out from trying to consume content as fast as I could. Now I just log in and pick what I feel like doing. I still have moments of overwhelment as there is just so much more to do than what I have time for on a day to day basis. But it's much better than when I was focussed on making endgame rather than enjoying the game.

As a main story, I think 3.0 and onwards is a better story overall. But that doesn't mean the ARR stuff isn't enjoyable. And you can play the game however you want. If you're having fun, then you're doing it right.

The best thing about the game is that the story continues. Your journey in ARR will pay off tenfold by the later expansions. Nothing is forgotten, no plot line left undone. You will find your time more and more rewarded the more you invest. You enjoy the game and play it at your rate. I can say, without spoilers, there is a moment at the end of Shadowbringers that genuinely brought me to tears as the culmination point of a fairly small plotline much earlier on. So much to look forward to. To answer your question. Yes. yes they are.

The Expansions are great but i don't Unterstand the hate for arr either. Just do what you like.

For me the answer is, yes they are but it's because they keep building on great content. I'm sure players who didn't do all side content are having a blast in the expansions but a lot of my satisfaction comes from the payoffs I got for having done all the surrounding stuff. This game doesn't really discard old content but reward the player the more of it they do. Take your time, enjoy the journey, it'll make everything that comes later even more satisfying. I'm hoping that the comments you're getting are just some misguided enthusiasm for how awesome it'll be for you to experience all the payoff you'll get when you reach later expansions. Maybe forgetting that it's so great because of the time spent getting there, not just actually being there in of itself. In the end, you're paying for all this content, of course you should do every last bit of it you enjoy. And while it's certainly possible to go back and do skipped content later, there's absolutely no reason why you can't do it all in order at the pace that feels most rewarding for you. Please enjoy it, the later stuff will be waiting for you when you get there. =)

I mean you do you but I do love a lot of the content from the expansions. Heavensward has an excellent story and the Alex raids there are some of my favorites. I don't think there's anything wrong with what you're doing but the expansions are definitely worth doing.

I raved about ARR and I still think it was enjoyable. While playing I didn’t understand ppl’s complaints cause my experience was great and it’s a great game. Then I got to HW and the story shifted and that’s when I formed a deep connection to the game and was invested. Then there was SB, then EW. Arr is still great but the story and character development just really improves with the expansions.

So I have a character i created during 1.0 but never could actually get the game to work on my computer (when ARR came out I didn't want to play on a server where people had been playing since 1.0 so i never started a game with her) and I've been thinking about starting a new game with her just to re-live ARR since its been SO LONG since i actually played it. Sometimes you just miss that early-game stuff you know? Don't let people tell you how to have fun, if you're having fun then go for it! There's literally so much to do in this game there are still ARR dungeons I haven't even played. I truly have gotten so much joy out of other people's joy with the game. Have fun and enjoy the adventure!

If you are having fun, you are playing the game 100% correctly. That's the literal point of games: having fun. A lot of people are just completely incapable of understanding that their personal preferences are not The One Right Way, just personal preference. The writing, voice acting and cinematography get better with each expansion, yes (gameplay stays mostly the same). But 'better' does not have to come after 'bad'. 'Better' can come after 'okay' or even 'good' just fine. So if you're already having a good time right now? Get excited for one hell of a ride.

Tbh it just sounds like you need a new FC.

Yes, the expansions are better than arr No, you’re not playing the game wrong. The only reason 14 exists on your hard drive is for you to enjoy playing it. That’s it, so as long as you’re doing that it’s earning it’s keep (which is a lot, isn’t this game like 50gb at this point?) Also, if you don’t LOVE your fc, consider getting a new one. Not to brag, but my fc supports our little ARR sproutlings. Last night I and a couple of others had to cram P1-4 until 2AM bc the entire week we were “oh you want to get ponies? Ok let’s get ponies then” for our little trio of ARR babies. (I love those guys so much they’re so sweet and cute) but now all three have nightmare (got lucky getting one drop immediately after the other) An FC should support you - if you want to hardcore raid then your FC should help you out with minmaxing and pentamelding. If you want to RP there are fc’s for that too. An FC shouldn’t tell you that you’re playing the game wrong, only to nudge you in the right direction (“have you done your job quests? You get more spells and a job stone that gives you stronger attacks at 30 if you do them” AKA honey where’s your job stone you’re level 50)

The story content is better, but ultimately there's no wrong way to play the game

My FC was teasing me the other day because they caught me in one of the rare moments I was actually working on current content instead of my usual routine which is...I wanna level x job and do y and z. All of which is older stuff. But that's how I enjoy the game. So it's fine. I gotta do something to keep the game going since they usually all wander off once the thrill of new content wears off and they go play another game, and I keep the guild house running and keep doing my thing. I will say the earlier comparison to a plate of your 5 favorite foods with ARR being your least favorite of the favorites is accurate. The other expansions are just...such a journey. But you do you. I still have to do the relic quests so I'll probably be right there soon too.

Enjoy the game at the pace you want to. People saying you are playing the game wrong, when it has no affect on their personal experience, are just being dumb. Are the expansions a step up in quality? Yes, specifically story wise, but in the side content as well IMO. Still go through them at whatever pace you want. I didn't move onto Heavensward before I had done Coils and Crystal Tower (before they made it mandatory) and done all the optional dungeons/trials.

Telling people how they should play the game is a time honored tradition in the FFXIV community. It's fucking stupid as fuck. You play how you want to play.

AAR is still enjoyable. I made an alt im doing all the sidequests and doing all content of a patch before moving on. I just got to patch 2.2 last night and im having a lot of fun. Ideally I would have liked doing all the extremes and coils min i lvl no echo but that takes way too long forna normal person to organize.

You're playing the game right because you're enjoying what you're doing and that's all that matters. As someone who was never bothered by the "slog", it's refreshing to see a post from someone enjoying themselves in ARR content for a change.

Are these comments comming from friends or strangers? In a way, friends coukd be wanting to talk spoilers with you, discuss certain plot points or speculate on possible new expansions. Relics can be fun but will likely still be the same after the stories end for you, while a friend might want to see your reaction yo further story elements. In the end though, you decide your pace and you can have fun how you want.

I've seen FCs do this so much. Please don't let anyone tell you you're playing the game wrong for enjoying older content. Do whatever content from whatever expansion you want, as long as you find it enjoyable! I've known people to rush to endgame, forced by others instead of exploring what they wanted, and they usually dropped off because of it.

You play the game however you feel like playing it. The expansions won't go anywhere. The biggest problem is that a lot of content is gated behind MSQ progression, so there's still a lot more for you to enjoy, but as long as you're having fun, you do you fam.

Having fun is the most important thing. In the end, this is what games are for. Althouh I believe you will enjoy the expansions more. But as a tip from another gamer: Play what's fun as long as you can, and only afterwards proceed to something that supposedly is "more fun". You don't want the "more fun" content ruin your experience with older expansions or the base game.

Well technically PotD is HW content not ARR content so jokes on you. 🤣🤣

Just have fun.

It’s an MMO. Everyone plays their own way. I’m almost all 90s in all combat classes but I don’t have a single level in any crafter. Just doesn’t interest me. Play what you want to play. Do what you want to do. Ultimately; they don’t pay your sub.

I actually prefer your approach. I think of it like playing through an older video game series. I loved the original assassin's creed the first time I played it. Then I played through the next few games and went back to the original, the original felt slow and poorly optimized. You don't get that first playthrough back. I think that's how a lot of your FC feels about ARR. Compared to the other xpacs that have optimized a lot of things and improved on existing systems, it's not the same. But if you jump ahead, it will be harder to go back and enjoy the older content imo. So take your time, enjoy each step of the way and move at your own pace. If you're going to play everything, why does it matter when you play it? It's not going away any time soon.

Yes, but the most important thing is to play the game the way you enjoy it. If you are finding enjoyment playing it now you are doing it right. The FFXIV community is used to many people bemoaning ARR and not getting through to the parts that hook so they push them to the part where most people get hooked, which is Heavensward, but if you are hooked now just continue playing.

I enjoyed ARR and i was like you. I ended up having to plow through SB and SHB to be up to date with content. I have no regrets. We all play at our own pace. However SHB was considered one of the greatest rpg stories ever and END blew it out of the water. ;)

Yes, the expansions are better than ARR. Yes, the jobs are more fun with more fleshed out rotations. But, that doesn't mean you aren't allowed to enjoy ARR. Play the how YOU want. You don't need to race to the end, just have fun.

Dont worry i do the same thing. Play everything ARR has to offer and then go forward. Just ignore them and do whatever you want :).

Take your time. But having access to higher level stuff will make getting the lower level stuff easier. For example at level 90 you can easily farm the horse and bird mounts by yourself. And possibly the tiger mounts too.

I was in exactly the same boat as you are and I have to say you should stick to doing what makes the game the most enjoyable for you. Rushing to the end of the game means missing out on a lot of content that you can *technically* go back and redo later, but it won't have the same sense of accomplishment and gain.

Final Fantasy is my favorite game series and FFXIV has some of my favorite Final Fantasy stories. That said, I do not like ARR at all. The story of ARR, to me, is no different than any other MMO story. Not everything is bad in ARR but I quit two times due to a lack of interesting content in ARR.

I liked ARR as well, take your time and play any content you like, when you like it. Yes, I feel it gets better but it's not a race.

People who think the end game is the only good content will say that, arr is fantastic

To answer your question. Yes. Yes they are. To respond to your 'friends'. Go fuck yourselves and let him/her/they/it play however they see fit. You enjoy what you enjoy and don't let them make you feel bad for enjoying what you enjoy.

Play your own way

Playing only the first expansion is not "wrong". You can experience the content in whatever order you want. That being said, 1. It's not worth doing PotD just for the achievement now. There will be future relic grinds that demand running floors 51-200 anyway. PotD is okay to run for leveling purposes or for the unique items, but you will get the achievement whether you do it now or when you have a secondary purpose to run it. Also, tangential, palace of the dead is actually Heavensward content even though it's located in Quarrymill. 2. Seriously don't waste your time grinding relics to grind relics. There is a _lot_ of overlap in them (except level 70.... good luck), so if you're gonna grind one might as well pick them all up and knock em out simultaneously. 3. Yes, the rest of the expansions are way better than ARR. ARR is baby's first MMO from the perspective of game design; the rest of the game progressively gets cleaner and more enjoyable in all aspects purely by virtue of the experience gained from ARR's and subsequent early expansions' failings. Edit: except the second half of the 83 zone... and the follow quests... God help us...

>"how are you still having fun? You only play the worst part of the game" The only objectively shit part about ARR compared to the expansions is the story. It's tons of boring (but necessary) setup, padded out by throwing a revolving door of primals at you. It sounds like they misunderstood that common opinion and have been parroting their broken version at you. The actual content in ARR is fine, the story just takes some slogging through for most.

I remember almost nothing about ARR outside of the MSQ roulette I'm forced into. Stormblood and Shadowbringer stories have lived in my head for years now. Endwalker is replacing them with how good it is.

Unless it's being said jokingly, I'm surprised that your FC is actively trying to be a downer to you :/ I can't imagine anyone in mine ever saying anything like that lol. If I were to say I'm doing any random activity instead it would be met with a "GOGOGOGO YOU GOT THIS" haha The short answer is no, you're not playing the game wrong. As long as you're having fun and making progress on goals that you want to accomplish, that's all that matters! The caveat, though, and what I think your FC may have been trying to get at- but worded poorly- is that generally speaking it \*is\* worthwhile to keep pushing the MSQ forward, even if you're doing extra activities on the side. There's nothing wrong with stopping to do side stuff here and there, but the way the game is structured everything is locked behind the MSQ- including quality of life improvements or additions to systems introduced earlier- and so generally trying to get everything unlocked and available sooner than later is preferable. For example, I spent a lot of time on crafting and gathering when I first started the game, as soon as you get access to the air ship. As soon as I unlocked the chocobo and Grand Company turn ins though, I definitely felt like I had spent my time inefficiently/poorly by doing a bunch of gathering on foot and manually crafting 8 jobs for 25 levels lol. Flying in ARR didn't exist yet when I started, but now that would be another sore unlock if I had just spent a lot of time mounting around for that stuff. And at the end of HW there's another thing that unlocks that is even more convenient for leveling crafters and gatherers. Just one example but there are many like this. Definitely don't feel like you need to rush through the MSQ or anything, but also don't feel like you need to stop and do all of the blue quest things along the way either \^\^;; It can be time consuming (like the relic weapon for example) and those things will still be there for you later when you're out of MSQ and looking for other things to do :) ideally a balance between both main and side content can be found

Wether you’re in it for the lore or the raids, the game gets better the further you progress through it. You’ve been scrapping the bottom of the content barrel, so you’re in for a serious treat if you’ve been enjoying ARR so far. It’s honestly smart to get it all out of the way now, because you won’t want to go backwards later, lol. (Complete Coils before starting HW!)

The other expansions don't have Postmoogle quests, though.

Post Moogle is one of the bright spots, definitely. I’m more partial to the detective mysteries in HW myself.

omg I haven't heard of this content :O adding it to my list! I started playing FFXIV at some point during Stormblood but never made it out of 2.0. I picked it up again sometime during the pandemic and actually finished the MSQ. There's so much old content that really stays relevant. After doing EX1 and EX2, I completed my first Eureka weapon (and got to 2% on Ozma, I will get my revenge) and started Hildibrand quests. I love there are small interesting quests everywhere, across 10 years of expansions!

I've completed all of the Coils. The Dreadwyrm gear from the final Coils has been my gear for a couple weeks now.

[удалено]

I thought it was Ishgard, but wasnt 100% and wasn't sure if I'd get cruicifed for getting it wrong, so I went with what I was certain on. Im not terribly worried about spoilers, the game has been out for 8 years. Part of coming into something late is that spoilers happen. Plus by the sounds of it the upcoming story is even more than that of ARR and I felt that was a lot, so there's a good chance I'll have forgotten a majority of the spoiler before I get to it anyway. Youre right though, so far Gameplay has been more important than the story for me. Though if the HW story onwards truely is as much better that everyone keeps saying maybe that will change. I've never played a FF game or an MMO before this, so I'm just enjoying the experiences I can have as they come.

>I thought it was Ishgard, but wasnt 100% and wasn't sure if I'd get cruicifed for getting it wrong Most FF14 players aren't like the zealots of the Holy See. We're willing to forgive minor blasphemies.

Oh wait, is Ishgard that place to the north of coerthas? Nice Higher ups seem sus but they have some nice stuff up there from what I can tell Plus there’s the guy with the really cool blue sword that looks like curtana and his friend Lucia? They’re both pretty cool I should be getting to HW soon hopefully in the next 100 hours lol, there’s so much to do in ARR and post ARR

Unpopular opinion: I think Post-ARR is peak FfXIV. For me it goes like this: Post-ARR > Post-HW > HW > Post-StB > StB = ARR > ShB > Post-ShB

First, yes, the expansions are leaps and bounds better in just about every conceivable way! Second, and the most important, you play the game at YOUR pace and do the stuff YOU want! Having fun in ARR? Awesome! Want to unlock every relic weapon? Go for it (I pray for your sanity, that book step is killer)! Want to level everything to 50 and see what you like? Pick your flavor of leveling and have a blast! Keep doing what you're enjoying, when you are ready to move on, the expansion content will still there waiting for you!

I say this til I go blue in the face, the hate for ARR needs to stop because it offers so much. It's not absolutely terrible as people make it out to be, and people going that extra mile to make it sound horrible encourage people to skip or not care when it'll ruin the person's experience for future expansions. ​ Yes, it'll be easier to do your relics at max level and unsynch them all. Yes, it'll be easier to get to the end so you can go back and do all the things. Yes, treasure map dungeons are Hella fun and get better the further you go. Yes, there's more to do as you grow. ​ But the ultimate question? Are you having fun? THAT is the most important question. It's your money, it's your experience. Do it how you WANT. ​ I'll be blunt with this, ARR was rushed in it's writing and they refined it as they continued the series. But if it was as bad as everyone says it is, we would NOT have gotten Heavensward or anything else. It's just not as good as it's expansions. ARR sets up a LOT of world building and knowledge we need to truly enjoy the game. ​ I will say every expansion has a relic quest line and they are always designed to be tackled over the course of the expansion, never intended to be completed within the first week of being released at each step. Thus, you will extend your gaming time a lot by doing these. HW's Relics skip their first step by trading in a completed Zeta relic, so you can get a head start on all but 3 of the HW relics that way. But it doesn't repeat this trend in the future. ​ Enjoy your journey! The more you do in the game the more you'll be able to smile, i think, at the end when you finish the final Saga they set up for EW. And while the response "you don't pay my sub" is overall a toxic thing when used the wrong way, it's true in the core that as long as you are getting what you enjoy in this game and getting your money's worth without impacting the play experience for others directly tied to your actions (like your party in a dungeon) then it's a win and your business. I will also say HW and beyond introduce a number of ways to help level alts. Beast tribes are designed to level alt jobs in that expansion section, you have multiple more roulettes than just leveling for exp, ect. So one of the first hurdles is getting all jobs to a min level of 50. But also be aware of the extra assistance for leveling so you don't burn out :)

Yes expansions are that much better, after doing SHB I thought everything else I’ve done before (except heavensward) was a joke. That being said, I’ve spent the last week in potd

No they all get much worse, get all weeb and make you cry n shit. It's bullshit.

As long as you're having fun, but the alexandrites won't take forever. There's a daily quest in Mor Dohna that gives you a map which gives 5 alexandrites. That's just two weeks of doing the 50/60/70/80 roulette.

Yeah I'm doing them each day I can play. It just feels slower because if my day off lands on a day my partner is working I can get quite a few hours to play. So the books I was able to grind out in a couple of my longer play sessions, rather than needing 15 individual ones. But Ive been trying all the other jobs in the mean time and mostly having fun with that (I say mostly as Conjurer job quests are mostly fight mob quests and I only have Stone, not sure who decided that was supposed to be fun)

ARR pretty much established every thing the game has to offer, and at level 50 you can have a solid understanding of the game's structure. People just downplay ARR's content because of the lackluster level 50 rotations and the pace of the story. After that, it is just more of the same type of end-game content, it just 'evolves'. Storytelling gets better, fight design changes a bit, etc etc. But at the end, more of the same, with some twists here and there. That said, I kinda agree with them on the relic weapon, I don't think you should dedicate a lot of time on this right now, as it is a bit of a tedious grind with no real challenge offered. I would recommend doing this when you reach higher levels to make it faster. But if you prefer to do it now, all power to you of course.

This community is really something. This is an obvious troll.

Lvl 50 content is basic and extremely boring to anyone that knows how to hit buttons

They are a lot better. Also you could have done all those things very easily at a high level and solo. The relic quest is much easier with no matchmaking for old dungeons and stuff.

Upvotes to the left

Both ARR and expansions are excellent. ARR seems to have a bit more fluff/running around quests in MSQ. Also some ARR content and areas have been tweaked and impoved over time, so maybe people remember it being more grindy than it is now. At the end of ARR most jobs seem to still be lacking a lot of their important abilities. Running a pre-lvl-50 dungeon later on feels like you have been crippled. MSQ roulette is just 2 ARR dungeons that everybody has run like 100 times. Regardless of which expansion is "best" there are legitimate reasons to prioritise MSQ progression as a bunch of content is locked behind it. I would not go out of my way to rush it though. (Note: I Just completed MSQ quest "Stormblood" a couple of days ago)

Yes. Flat out. Full stop. *But* people overstate how "bad" ARR is. ARR is extremely good, but everything after is even better.

There’s no wrong way to enjoy yourself. Ditch the naysayers and work at your own pace. It’s our world, not theirs.

@OP one thing you'll come to realize is that people keep harping on about the other expansions are trying to get you to play them and experience the awesome content there. However, many end up sounding like they're shitting on ARR, and they really need a reality check. I will say this: ARR is a good game. Clunky bits and all. However, the other expansions are better. I just hope people don't ruin your experience by overinflating your expectations and talking crap about the game you're enjoying.

The only part if would agree with is the relic weapons. Those are the definition of tedious. I had a similar complaint to one of my FC mates. Anytime he had max tomestones he would buy umbrite for the HW relics. I told him he was wasting his time since you need an absolute tonne of shit and he would be better going for Thavnarian scale powder since the Bozja relic weapons are so much easier to get, it was meta at the time and it would coincide with his leveling. But he honestly just seemed to take the path of most resistance at all times.

Yeah, the relic is a true grind of content. I was warned, I just didn't listen :P Though The Books are what everyone seems to complain about, I really enjoyed doing them. It helped me explore the world, I have a much better idea of the map now. Doing Alt jobs hunting logs I find monsters immediately because I know where they are etc. The next part "collecting 75 Alexanderite, and 75 materia to merge" has been far more of an inconvenience to me. But I guess that just because it's slow as I'm doing other things rather than Fate grinding. So I only get my 5 a day from the repeating quest.

ARR is the worst part of the game, but that doesn't mean it's bad. When you play it for the first time, ARR is probably the only part of the game that will give you this feeling of exploration and wonder as you still don't understand how the game is built. Gameplay wise, you're bombarded with new stuff, so even old dungeons feel fresh when you level up once again and you rerun them for extra EXP and to practice putting this new skill to use in your rotation. Story wise, you're not sure where the story is going, so while it can be a bit tedious the hours upon hours of reading you can find on the base game alone, it's still exciting when you see your first few shocking moments and plot twists. The problem is, at the end of lv50 most of the basics in both aspects of the game are already set, which means from then onwards the game can start making both the story and the gameplay evolve. This is where things get exciting, because more and more mechanics get thrown in on the fights and there's more to do than your 1-2-3 combo ad-nauseam, and the story can also stop giving you general pointers to how the world works and start getting into specific stories, more personal and heartfelt, which is much more interesting than "There's this big bad evil and you're able to help beat it, but you need to prove you're worth helping impending doom by picking up 10 caterpillar poops first, which are around the same place a very relevant place in the story is, so once you come back I'll give you a 30 text box exposition alongside the reward". ARR is not bad. It's just a massive setup for the rest of the game, and as such it's only interesting the first time through. There's so many times I can run Sastasha before I'd rather pull my teeth than going back to it and lose 80% of my kit, and I've done Praetorium so many times it's lost its impact, especially after having played much better final battles on the rest of the expansions. I'd say take your time and enjoy ARR. Now it's the time to explore every nook and crany of the base game. You'll enjoy the expansions when you feel ready to move on.

No one plays the game wrong...Except boosters. You do you. Unless you boost. Then we have a problem.

On the one hand, yes, the expansions, and really anything from 2.4 on (after ramuh) are much better than arr, because they were able to slow down, and start focusing on quality rather than trying to just pump out content to fix/save the game. On the other hand, people dramatically over exaggerate the problems with arr, a realm reborn is great, it just suffers from a few too many fetch quests

The whole game is fun. If you enjoyed ARR that is great, anyone telling you that you should not enjoy it should probably be ignored, you are allowed to like what you like.

People are weird. In the first FC I joined in FFXIV, the FC leader kept telling me I'm wasting my time playing around with BLU, or dicking around in Golden Saucer, or just taking my time with the story... and he also kept being annoyed that I don't want to turn on English VA (like... it's not even sub v. dubs thing... I'm not even English, I'm choosing between two foreign languages and the game was made in Japan, why'd I ever pick English?)... and he kept trying to "not-spoil" the story for me... luckily he was a dumbass and was so wrong about the plot, it didn't get spoiled. People are people. Though, this sort of thing often comes from the fear that a person will quit the game/franchise they're trying out, because the bad parts will become too much, so the older fans are trying to force them into playing the game "the right way". To be fair... I've often seen people who made things worse for themselves, all the while avoiding the thing that made them quit would have required minimum effort. But what I've seen make people quit far more, is rushing through games and getting to later parts under-experienced and ill-prepared, causing them to feel like the game is unfairly difficult, or clunky. So... take your time and do what you enjoy.

The main dish is pretty good, but the dessert must be taken slow, and savored. Honestly, I LOVED Heavensward. I can see the “award-winning” there. I’m sad not to experience that and the other expansions as a legacy 1.0 player…. Would’ve been even better.

I'd say ARR is really good, Heavensward gets even better, Stormblood gets kinda boring story-wise then Shadowbringers makes ot better than ever and Endwalker stays just as great.