#also like... i'm unemployed and waiting for my classes to begin a few weeks from now. i have INFINITE free-time.

[racke7]

Me vs FF14 part... 2?

It's taken me pretty much three full days of running from cutscene to cutscene. But I've finally reached Heavensward.

And like... on some level? I'm kind of offended?

Like, a part of me genuinely wants to replay the entire game from the start "as something else" (different main-class, different race, different starting-area, whichever), because the dungeon-queuing system is actually really fun when you start to Understand it.

As in, FF14 has somehow made an MMO that has almost eliminated the feeling that it is a level-grind? Partially? It's turned the whole thing into a surprisingly comfortable level of (limited, but genuine) social interaction.

To the point where even someone who isn't obsessively grind-focused like me, can genuinely enjoy themselves. Just queuing up for dungeons, Hunting some bounties, and-...

And then FF14 has so many fucking quests that it literally chokes the life out of the gameplay.

As an example, one of their biggest dungeon-draws (bcs high rewards) is a quest that almost everyone hates playing. Because doing that dungeon means watching literally eighteen minutes of unskippable cutscenes.

And that's with them having reduced the amount of cutscenes in that dungeon, because the players complained so much about them.

Like... I'd be perfectly happy replaying the game from the start with a different character, even knowing that leveling isn't some kind of pain-free thing. But the thought of having to restart the fucking Main-Quest? Of having to spend literal days just running back-and-forth to cutscenes?

I'm currently feeling a bit burned-out as a result of the binge I went on to get here, but I'm pretty damn sure that I wouldn't replay this fucking thing even if you paid me for it.

(And, of course, Heavensward also has a Main-Quest continuation that you have to follow. And now I'm not even allowed to fly everywhere to cut down on the "running back-and-forth"-part of my complaints. Not until they arbitrarily allow me to discover flight for the new areas, by going through even more of the Main-Quest.)

(Not to mention that now I have to go back and do even more Class-quests, with their own cutscenes, in order to unlock a bunch of skills.)

(I'm very fond of the "the church is evil because it doesn't let you fuck dragons"-meme, and I'm very much seeing it. But like... come the fuck on. Why is this MMO a feature-length movie-series? Why can't I just play the game and have fun?)

#and yes. i'm very much aware that ''you can do anything with one character'' #bcs everyone gets one (1) race-changing potion. and classes can be switched out super-easily. but that's not the point. #video games #ff14 #rants #personal stuff #also like... i'm unemployed and waiting for my classes to begin a few weeks from now. i have INFINITE free-time. #and i still feel like ff14 is actively trying to waste my time by ''telling a story'' that should be in a single-player game. #... actually. that'd explain a lot. did the writers of this game learn to write from single-player games? #is that why there are so many cutscenes and minor characters to constantly juggle? did nobody tell them that they were making an MMO? #(the feeling of going ''all-in'' on the genuineness in the cutscenes even when it's corny as shit? good.) #(being forced to sit through cutscene after cutscene instead of actually playing the game? bad.) #like... even just the dungeon-cutscenes? to some degree it's expected that you SHOULD skip them? bcs you're making others wait? #(and during the Raids. that means outright being left behind. ain't nobody stopping for anyone.) #so you're losing a massive bit of story-telling. bcs it's trying to tell that story in the WORST place. #it's a good story? i guess? but it's so fucking inconvenient to _play the game around_ that it feels more like a chore than an adventure. #and in a single-person game? i think it'd be great. maybe not entirely my kettle of fish. but genuinely good. but as an MMO? #like i get that a lot of it has been added onto it over the span of YEARS and that ppl playing it since launch would've been desperate #for new content. despite how the amount of content seems incredibly overwhelming for new players. #but jesus fuck. at least let people wanting to start a new character to just... skip the fucking thing? they've already seen it once. #* nevermind. they thought of that. they're selling ''story-skip''-potions for 10$. wow. just... wow.