ILockhartI: “If you don’t know what an Ascian is - you skipped the MSQ.”

W0lfscythe: I got into XIV for 3 reasons. A friend recommended it to me, Shenpai's Hildibrand video, and the Reaper job. Took me around 2-3 months to get to Stormblood. Mainly because I was doing MSQ, level grinding, side content, and job quests. My friend plays the game longer than me, but was ahead of her in the story. Hell, she showed me the Landerwaffe and I got it before her. The best way to experience the game to play it at your own pace. 14 is a marathon not a sprint. You'll get to endgame in due time.

xleban5974: There was a take "FFXIV is RPG first and MMO second".

And it's still stands.

zesian5823: I'm one of the brave souls keeping the mahjong community going I queue at least 3 times every time I log on

SauceyNoodle: top 10 titles of all time

Crazytim7: i tell people often that the games story "gets good" when shiva steps on you. The music transition in the fight basically says "hey, its heavenward time."

FishSkeleton-: Personally, I think it's kind of the wrong mindset to want to skip cutscenes on your first character if you want to enjoy the story whatsoever. Like, jumping past ARR to get to HW leaves out such important things like how Ilberd betrayed you, how you're the hero of the realm forced into hiding by a murder plot, and you have no real context for things like tempering, the general mystery of the Ascians and the explanation of them, lessons on things like the Void, or why summoning in general is seen as such a serious and bad thing at that point in the story, or pretty much anything about Garlemald and the Garleans, and so on. All of that is important in every future expansion, since you'll be dealing with things like Ravana, Bismarck, the Garleans are the ones who killed [character] in HW that people liked, the Garleans are the central focus of SB, they're the reason Black Rose is even a threat to create the First's rejoining in ShB, you don't have context for who people like Elidibus are in ShB if you skip ARR, and so on. When I played the game at the end of ShB I felt ARR was a bit slow, especially wine and cheese for Titan, but I accepted that I was reading the first novel in a series that gets better over time, and it was laying out all the groundwork to get the setting established and such. The overly ADHD mindset of 'skip initial story to get to later story' is kind of weird to me, like diving midway through a book and ignoring the first fifteen chapters, then being frustrated at the book for not recapping and making things clearer from where the person jumped to. No, they should've just read the chapters, lol.

LittleHobbit13: I'm a fan of MSQ. Person who got me into the game was a cutscene skipper and convinced me to skip telling me I wasn't missing anything, and I didn't know any better, so skipped most stuff until partway through HW. Realized how much I liked the story, haven't skipped an MSQ cutscene since.

Morally ok to skip FFXIV? Sure, be my guest.

What's not morally ok is to make that choice for other people by acting like you're informed when you voluntarily aren't. What's not morally okay is to then trying to have conversations where you claim things don't make sense. What's not morally okay is to dunk on popular characters as being "overrated" when you opted out of the content which would explain why people love those characters. I've seen plenty of these types of comments from people claiming to have skipped MSQ because it wasn't for them.

I don't care if people skip MSQ, but I do think the flip side of that choice is that recognition that you have opted yourself out of the right to speak on some subjects.

infinitygirl92: Some people need to understand that not everyone might be playing for the story. Yes, the story is a big part of the game but the game is more than just the story. It is more than okay to play however you want. Lore people need to accept that unfortunately. The skip button is there for a reason. Ignore it if you don't want to use it.

archeremiya3533: As someone who just finished ARR and am starting to level my other jobs and work on all the feature quests, I really don't understand the hate for it lol

ARR is a little slow at first but it picks up pretty quick and gets super interesting, not to mention ending in a fantastic way.

I will admit though the random fetch quest for food before titan was annoying

LyohKoh: Skipping the story for end game raiding is like skipping a week of banqueting and staying for the Spicy One Chip challenge in the after party. That said, 'Day 6' of that banquet was handed off to the chefs child and arguably you might want to skip that day if given the option :/

MissKashira: "Little Sun! Little Sun!"

ZarnotRo: I know this is a Japanese game, but the "filler" parts of MSQ started to get obvious during Endwalker and Dawntrail. Yes, there is lore everywhere, but sometimes the game spends so much time telling you something that could've been told in a phrase.

BiT.d-K: Adding Vesper Bay teleport tickets took the teeth right out of Pray Return~ Rolled my first character (and still my main) in late Stormblood, so I got to enjoy the full post-ARR experience, complete with its many annoying rides from Horizon to Vesper Bay. Didn't find out about the shortcut -- Ferry near the Arcanist Guild in Limsa -- until much, much later.

caeluse: The fluff that makes 85% of the MSQ is what killed it for me. If it was more streamlined or at the very least the MSQ was really only the Main Story, then I wouldn't even consider skipping, but alas this is a MMO and padding for the sake of padding is the name of the game and it clearly sells. I really enjoy leveling, raiding, pvp, and every other aspect of the game, but MSQ just isn't my cup of tea. To those who enjoy it, I'm not trying to shit on it, nor am I saying that they should rework the story to fit people like me. I just wanted to express my perspective on how it felt trying to get into this game.

SateLight: tbh, you "could" skip all of it.

Now hear me out before you guys say anything, i'm an MSQ enjoyer. I study the lore of this game so deep. i know it's weird when an MSQ enjoyer like me actually say you could skip every MSQ. If you asked me personally, i will 100% recommend you to watch every cutscenes, and even do hildibrand story for the fun.

But the game is for everyone. If i have to be objective, there are people who mainly plays MMOs for the social aspect or only care about raiding and endgame stuff. FFXIV is an "RPG first, MMO later" meaning most, if not all, the social and multiplayer aspect of the game are locked behind the story.

"Oh you want to visit your friend's house in Shirogane? Too bad! Wait until you reach Stormblood!"

"Wanna do the latest extremes? Too bad, wait until you finish the latest expansion!"

It really sucks if you like socializing or playing with friends that are already at the latest patch. There's a reason why they sell story and job lvl skips on FFXIV store, it's an option you can purchase so you won't have to spend hours doing it. You can always play the story again via NG or creating an alt.

Play however you like, watch the story, or skip it, it doesn't matter. What matters the most is you're having fun in the game, alone or with friends.

TheOwlverlord: Dawntrail: Yes, Skip from 7.0 until 7.5

greg_e_audio: The MSQ is honestly one of the best in any MMO, and pretty much every detail is either world-building or something that gets referenced later on, even seemingly small insignificant details. The only cutscenes I skip entirely are the Wandering Minstrel singing about whatever the latest Extreme Trial is, and I kind of breeze through the Allied Societies unless I personally find them super interesting, just because it's something that's going to take you multiple weeks to finish and is largely inconsequential to anything else.

elijaharisyn2105: Genuinely loved Heavensward and a good amount of ARR but my issue is just that its SO much all at once. 100 hours in and I still have like 3 or 4 dlcs to complete, and I know you can technically raid or do extremes and everything as you go, but looking for a duty finder or randoms through a whole bunch of discords or however you find groups personally is miserable, so even the story can be more rewarding than an hour long queue for one extreme

Iamjitterdoll: I started playing during Stormblood, and someone in my FC bought me a skip when I was around post ARR so I could do mount farming HW bird farming with the FC.

I've personally never regretted skipping HW and ultimately think it is a reason I didn't quit XIV. Over the years, I've now played through HW 3 or 4 times between making alts to go back and do story with, or with new game .

I love MMOs for social gaming, but MSQ isn't social. Having to grind MSQ when all the friends you're making are doing content you can't do was pretty miserable for me. I'll agree that HW has a wonderful story, but there was just so much else I wanted to be doing that I wouldn't have taken my time and enjoyed it during that time period.

I wanted all the cool sparkly bird mounts my FC was getting. I wanted to understand what trying to do Kugane Tower was like after hearing my friends' woes and triumphs. I wanted to just be included with everything my FC was doing and not just someone to do roulettes with.

I still play xiv all these years later, I still love and value the story, but ultimately, if someone wants to skip the story because they're bored / want endgame stuff and is thinking of doing so, I fully support them. The game makes it so easy to go back and do story again, and from my own experience, I can easily say that the current expansion story is still heavily enjoyable even if some things fly over your head.

-tiekkim3129: I'm in no hurry to reach endgame, 300 hours in and I just finished Heavensward, like, TODAY. I did skip some of the post ARR quests tho, some of those were boring as hell

negentropyagent7337: I skip it all. I rather watch a story that isnt afraid of killing its characters. Scions are the characters with the most plot armor ive ever seen in media, specially Yshtola. Is very hard to take serious.

DarthLeo64: I’m a sprout and still going through ARR. while I do see how slow it can be I’m still going through the MSQ. Once I got to the Ifrit fight I felt rewarded from doing all the MSQ, side quests and job quests. I’m intrigued by the scions and I was introduced to Estinien once I unlocked dragoon, he’s pretty badass. I’m honestly glad I’m not skipping any of ARR and I know I’ll love the game even more once I get to the expansions.

ImSofaKingGood: I played ARR through the first ending with Ultima Weapon, then I looked into how long post-ARR MSQ was and I decided to skip to the beginning of HW, but I watched someone else's playthrough of post-ARR on YouTube on double speed on free time away from the computer lol. The post-ARR MSQ was actually good narrative-wise but it was just very long while I was aching to get into the really juicy stuff in the expansions.

mikavert: holy you were my childhood with mabinogi videos and i just RANDOMLY found you again, WHAT

servitudenations: if you skip ARR, you will miss on the main moment of shadowbringers,

and all those simple quest at the beginning

and bahamut story line

and everything in ARR

will make a lot of sense, in endwalker.

from a simple adventure, where a lot of young adventure die a lot the way,

and yes the journey is worth it, every moment of it~

if I can play Free trial again, I will do every single quest that I can, cause without time limit, i can sit and enjoy all the simple quest,

all those moment in time, that you cant never experience it again.

moosen135: I agree. If you need to skip anything, just skip A Realm Reborn and watch a recap. It's better than hitting the great filter that is the Titan arc.

May 20 2026

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