Hey all, I got this game and the fucker finally finished downloading yesterday. I've already played so much and I'm loving the actual game/music/world/everything about it. It's my first MMO and I'm already kinda hooked.

With that being said...

The quests themselves are a slog. I was hoping this fetch and "go here" shit would be mostly tied to the side quests and not the main ones but nope. Thing is, I was super ok with it for a while because I'm learning the ropes of everything...I definitely feel like I've learned the ropes of fighting and delivering shit at this point though. I'm starting to feel the main quests wearing me down. So anyway, my friend has been urging me to get the 18 dollar story skip because it's apparently super not worth it to play through dozens of hours of this. Plus, he tells me there's a thing I can use to view the cutscenes if I wanna see them. I'm NOT gonna get the level boost item though, fuck that...but Paying 18 dollars to skip tedious gameplay and unlock all the basic gameplay doesn't sound so bad once I read how long ARR takes. What do you guys think? It puts me right before heavensward from what I understand

It's a very long set of quests that are not at all interesting unless you are into the actual story, I did them once and never will again.

There is another set of them after heavensward as well, although not as much from memory. These quests are part of the reason people keep subbed, they are drip fed over an expansion and are interesting at the time they don't however play well in one big chunk imho, you wont miss too much skipping them. You will probably just see some story characters that you have no idea who they are.

I don't recommend buying that story skip thing. While there are certainly more of those annoying mandatory fetch quests in ARR than there should be, there is still good stuff to see as well. (More good than bad, imo.) Plus everything that happens in Heavensward and Stormblood after it builds directly off of the events of ARR, so if you do care about the story you should see it first hand. The cutscene viewer isn't really a replacement, as there a number of events that are part of the story that are not cinematic cutscenes, which is the only thing that records.

I mean, it's really up to you of course. If you get to the point where you'd rather buy that or quit playing then you might as well buy it, but I highly recommend against it if you have a little patience.

Where in the story exactly are you right now?

I wouldn't, its easily the weakest and longest part of the story but it spends the time setting up the world and the characters in it, it takes a long time but even without it, you're still going to spend hours and hours grinding for xp. You at least get story to go with the grind. And the story eventually gets good, enough that watching them all at once in cutscenes won't really communicate, and there are quests that have gameplay that I thought supported the story well, specifically the quest where you retrieve the corpses of your allies from the Waking Sands and put them in a cart.

I don't really see any benefit for just buying the story skip. Its been a while but I can't remember any skills being locked behind story, its all level checked, so if you don't buy a level up then you aren't really gaining anything there. If you like the game, paying 20 bucks to skip playing a huge chunk of the game seems counter intuitive? It seems like the sort of thing that's for people that are starting a second character and have already played through the story and don't want to do it again. Plus, the story quests themselves aren't that different after ARR, they're the same gameplay wise but the story is better. Well, Heavensward is better.

If you have money to burn, then yeah, skip it. Definitely. I recently tried going back to ARR with a fresh ult and I did not find it fun at all. I don't remember hating it at the time it came out, but times were different. Everything was so new and exciting back then. After Heavensward and Stormblood, ARR just doesn't hold up.

You honestly wouldn't be missing out on anything. Most of the ARR is extremely forgettable. The rest is just badly written (dear sweet baby Jesus, don't even get me started on the thing that happens right before HW...).

edit: Apparently, I misread/assumed wrong. I thought the story skip auto-leveled one job to 50 so you could continue the story...which seems like the smart fucking thing for them to do, but I guess not. If it just unlocks the story then still forces you to level up yourself, then you might as well do the whole thing yourself. The alternative is grinding ARR dungeons and, maybe it's just because I'm just a bitter veteran, that sounds like pure hell.

No, definitely don't do that.

If this was right after Heavensward's launch I could maybe see the point, since you'd be able to catch up with the playerbase a lot quicker, but even if you skip ARR you still have a long road until you catch up to current content, so you might as well take your time. It's not really that bad, especially as you get farther into ARR content. For the most part they greatly reduce the amount of that stuff in the post 2.0 content.

If you could skip it and gain all the knowledge matrix style? Yes. But as it is? I mean...I'm not gonna say it isn't some of the most boring content in the game, but if you're going to skip this, I would say skip all cutscenes from then on(or watch a very very good video detailing all the stuff you skipped). You would miss out on so much that the story would be extremely disjointed to you and I feel like you'd never catch up with some of it without outside help.

Also do you get the xp from story skip? I imagine not. It's a lot of xp you'd be losing. If you're like a tank or your friend is going to grind dungeons with you it might not be huge loss, but if half the time you're playing alone as a dps, then skipping the story literally might make the game take longer.

It just seems like a real bad idea for a first time player.

I have done the ARR through Heavensward stuff multiple times now though so maybe I can say just stick it out a bit too easily.. but I still hold the opinion that the story does pick up substantially in the back half and is very important to BOTH Expansions going forward. Catching up on the story through the cut scene viewer is also a really bad way to go about it.

@efesell: @wiseman4545: @charongreed: @zeik:

Damn...overwhelmingly against I guess? You guys convinced me.

See, I think my friend just wants to rush my experience so he can do raids with me. It's also worth noting he himself did the story skip and didn't even do ARR. I think I will take your guys' word for it. I paid for this complete edition on PS4 with ARR, Heavensward, and Stormblood. I got this complete fucking package and it does feel silly to pay more money to SKIP content I just paid for.

I don't know. Depends what you're there for. If like me you're looking for the gameplay, the group dynamics and the dungeons and raids, sure, skip that shit. I skipped all cutscenes in ARR, I even did it in Heavensward (which admittly looked much better than ARR). But yeah, I skipped every single one of those fuckers and I don't regret a thing.

I believe that is the right choice. There is no reason to make an alternate character, no real reason unless you just want to, so you'll only ever have to see it the one time.

If you're genuinely enjoying the world and story, no don't rush it. Like Dark said it was less of an issue for most of us during the release ramp because the drip-feed actually counts towards world-building and plot setup, but ARR specifically gets to be a slog to get through if you're plowing through it these days. Try slowing down for a while and decide for yourself whether or not you're still enjoying it. ARR is the worst of it (there's some post-Heavensward, but they definitely got better about future-proofing the pacing). Even if the bulk of them are just fetch quests, the window-dressing around some of it works for people who want it to.

The only people who really need to skip it are people who just want to ride the hype-wave of new content (which is really only relevant for expansion releases) and the people who onlycare about raiding and nothing else. Outside of those people, there's enough in the game to just take your time with and enjoy.

If I would ever advocate skipping anything it would be the things between the main story of ARR and the start of Heavensward. I think there's still value there and really important set up but I admit it is harder to defend than the rest.

@efesell: I actually kinda feel the opposite. The post 2.0 content ended up being a significant step up for me by the end. ARR's story was serviceable, but it wasn't until the post main story stuff that I actually started to get invested in it. Maybe because the focus on the Garlean Empire is drastically reduced, which I've always found to be one of its weaker elements. And the stuff they do leading up to Heavensward is just way more interesting than anything that happens in 2.0's plot.

@zeik: I don't necessarily disagree with this but I would also point out that it's probably the latter half of those patches you are thinking of and it's an awful lot of go talk to this person then come back and talk to me before you get there.

Just be aware that the story skip and the level boost are not the same thing. If you skip past the ARR story right into HW range, you would still have a lv 1 character but lack any MSQ to do below level 50.

Just to update everyone, I'm on the Uldahn questline and I'm on the Uldahn Envoy quest.

According to this list I have here, there's like two more quests until I get to the point where all classes share the same main quests.

I think I'm level 19 now. I stopped playing earlier

Oh wow yeah that's.. a lot of grinding you would have to do if skipped at this point.

That's also probably before you have been introduced to actual dungeon content?

@efesell: Yeah I haven't done a dungeon yet. I've encountered one but it was blocked off because I need to progress.

Since I would have to grind with the story skip anyway, I guess there's not point in story skipping. Might as well have a sense of progression and story to go with it.

@frostyryan: If you have the new player xp bonus, yeah you're going to outpace the dungeon openings in the story. You'll be synced down with them for awhile.

@frostyryan: If you're that early you're definitely jumping the gun a bit. Even in ARR you'll soon be past the most fetch quest intensive parts of it.

And if you haven't even done a dungeon yet the game still has a lot to teach you before you're ready for the more advanced content. Going through each of the dungeons as they appear is pretty important for being to understand the more complex boss fights later.

the only thing worth playing this game for is the story, I wouldn't skip but if you do I suppose you can watch the cutscenes at the inn so you know what's going on.

Don't do the story skip. Tell your friend to can it and be patient because rushing through the game to try to get current endgame will just make you hate it.

If you're lvl 19 and haven't even done first dungeon yet, you're well on your way to being super over-leveled. Ignore any sidequests that aren't a + icon. Save those for alternate jobs later. Do the + icon ones tho because they are quests that unlock content. Rush through MSQ as fast as possible so you can get your mount. Getting to the dungeons will liven things up for you again, but there's still plenty of fetch quest-y slog on the way. Stick with it! It'll be worth it when your job starts to require brain cells to fight and the story starts to ramp up.

People feel like since they're paying a monthly sub they gotta rush through MMOs to get their money's worth and then they get to endgame and get bored and quit. Enjoy it. Take the time to talk to non-quest NPCs. Walk next to unnamed NPCs to see what flavor chat bubbles pop up.

I'm playing for the first time right now, im around level 35.the story is soooooooooooooooooooooo bad. Just the absolute worst

Just wanna thank everyone who convinced me not to story skip because I've unlocked raids at this point, which is like the big thing I was being nagged about, and I'm only level 20 lol.

I've really enjoyed experiencing the game normally at my own pace. Story isn't very good right now but the act of progressing and playing it in this big lively world is lots of fun

@frostyryan: Nice! The story of ARR is quite slow (and with bullshit like "port to this other place to have one conversation, then port back and have to run to your base because there's no goddamn aetheryte there"), but I found it somewhat pleasant for its chill pace and willingness to make you engage with the world (things like treating with beastfolk; don't think you're there yet).

And the foundation it lays for characters and the world makes everything post-ARR better of course.

@theht: Yeah the main thing I'm enjoying it for is it's basically a long tour guide for this giant world. If I had just skipped all this, exploring everything would be very oppressive.

Glad you didn’t skip all that stuff. I think it’s important to see as much content as possible when you are new to a MMO, even though it feels like a boring slog most of the time. And it’s always tempting to bypass all that if you have the option, and especially when friends are urging you on but I think it’s more likely you’ll burn out on the game if you don’t take your time with it. I was never invested in the story in FFXIV so I know how tiring a lot of those quests are to do.

Man having to play all that extra content they released between ARR and Heavensward is a big bummer fuck is it boring as hell i took me a while and i finished it eventually but man not worth wasting your time. Hope Heavenwards is at least a bit better