[Robot Carnival]

How would you guys rank all the expansions including the MSQ for FFXIV?

FFXIV MSQ (2013)
Heavensward (2015)
Stormblood (2017)
Shadowbringers (2019)
Endwalker (2021)
Dawntrail (Summer 2024)

I spoke with a handful of fans the other day and they believe there will be at least another three expansions after Dawntrail. Seemed confident about it too, like three was the minimum

MSQ as in ARR or 1.0?

personally I like Stormblood more than Heavansward despite it's flaws. but I would say Shadowbringers and Endwalker are definitely the ones fighting for top spot. probably Shadowbringers edges out Endwalker thou.

as for how many more we will have, I think 3 more is pretty easy for sure. even XI got like 6 or 7 I think.

 

[Franky Family]

MSQ as in ARR or 1.0?

personally I like Stormblood more than Heavansward despite it's flaws. but I would say Shadowbringers and Endwalker are definitely the ones fighting for top spot. probably Shadowbringers edges out Endwalker thou.

as for how many more we will have, I think 3 more is pretty easy for sure. even XI got like 6 or 7 I think.

I'm not sure what ARR is but someone was saying that 1.0 is obsolete now or something? Not sure, maybe a patch took place. Was trying to figure out what order to play the FF games in since I've now completed IX, VII, XII: TZA in that order. I figure VI, XIV, and VIII would my next top choices to go by. Trying to get a feel for what FFXIV is all about cuz some have said they've already played like 520 hrs of it within two months of playing. I'm wondering if the overall game is truly that excellent or if the MMO combat and RPG elements are just that addicting. Guess my main question is, how great is the story and adventuring within FFXIV and its four (soon to be five) expansions?

 

[Robot Carnival]

I'm not sure what ARR is but someone was saying that 1.0 is obsolete now or something? Not sure, maybe a patch took place. Was trying to figure out what order to play the FF games in since I've now completed IX, VII, XII: TZA in that order. I figure VI, XIV, and VIII would my next top choices to go by. Trying to get a feel for what FFXIV is all about cuz some have said they've already played like 520 hrs of it within two months of playing. I'm wondering if the overall game is truly that excellent or if the MMO combat and RPG elements are just that addicting. Guess my main question is, how great is the story and adventuring within FFXIV and its four (soon to be five) expansions?

are you just trying to get an idea of the game and if you want to jump in or not? if so, give the free trail a try. it'll allow you to play up until the end of Stormblood expansion, up to level 70 for free.

regarding the 1.0/ARR stuff, it's been well documented already but if you don't want to watch any of the videos on it, here's a slightly shorter summary.

back in 2010, the original XIV was released. but due to a lot of issues, it ended up being super terrible. SquareEnix actually suspended charging the monthly fee for everyone while trying to fix the game. but even after they changed out the leader and placing Naoki "Yoshi-P" Yoshida (the current producer and leader of the game), the game was still consider unsalvageable. however, since this is a mainline FF title, SE just can't let it go down as one of the worst title of the company, so they accepted Yoshi-P's suggestion, and decided to "reboot" the game. they still worked on improving the original 1.0 version while also working on a rebooted 2.0 version. they were able to succefully merge the ending story of the 1.0 game into a new start for the game. the end result was "A Realm Reborn" (ARR). so when people talking about 1.0, they're talking about the version of the game that no longer exist. ARR is the base current game. I think XIV and No Man's Sky are the only 2 games ever that had came back from such a disastrous launch.

when talking about MSQ, that means Main Scenario Quest. that's basically the main story of the whole game. it's always the core of the game and you will have to play through it from start to the latest expansion in order to make progress for a lot of other stuff. and unlike some other MMOs, you don't really skip the base story (well, you could if you want to pay for story skip and stuff, but those are STRONGLY advise against) and go into the next expansion's story. you WILL have to start from the ARR story and progress it even if you got the latest expansion.

edit: as far as story goes, I think the main story of XIV is by far the best out of all the number FFs, with maybe XI giving it a run for it's money. that's mainly due to the fact that you can do a lot with it in a MMO format. while the ARR base story is nothing we had not seen before, the end of ARR really dial things up a lot and making you really hype going into Heavnsward. each of the expansions that followed had only bring the story to a higher high, with Endwalker being sorta like the "Avengers: Eng Game" of the MCU, concluding that line of the story and giving the game a fresh start into the next one.

 

[Franky Family]

are you just trying to get an idea of the game and if you want to jump in or not? if so, give the free trail a try. it'll allow you to play up until the end of Stormblood expansion, up to level 70 for free.

regarding the 1.0/ARR stuff, it's been well documented already but if you don't want to watch any of the videos on it, here's a slightly shorter summary.

back in 2010, the original XIV was released. but due to a lot of issues, it ended up being super terrible. SquareEnix actually suspended charging the monthly fee for everyone while trying to fix the game. but even after they changed out the leader and placing Naoki "Yoshi-P" Yoshida (the current producer and leader of the game), the game was still consider unsalvageable. however, since this is a mainline FF title, SE just can't let it go down as one of the worst title of the company, so they accepted Yoshi-P's suggestion, and decided to "reboot" the game. they still worked on improving the original 1.0 version while also working on a rebooted 2.0 version. they were able to succefully merge the ending story of the 1.0 game into a new start for the game. the end result was "A Realm Reborn" (ARR). so when people talking about 1.0, they're talking about the version of the game that no longer exist. ARR is the base current game. I think XIV and No Man's Sky are the only 2 games ever that had came back from such a disastrous launch.

when talking about MSQ, that means Main Scenario Quest. that's basically the main story of the whole game. it's always the core of the game and you will have to play through it from start to the latest expansion in order to make progress for a lot of other stuff. and unlike some other MMOs, you don't really skip the base story (well, you could if you want to pay for story skip and stuff, but those are STRONGLY advise against) and go into the next expansion's story. you WILL have to start from the ARR story and progress it even if you got the latest expansion.

edit: as far as story goes, I think the main story of XIV is by far the best out of all the number FFs, with maybe XI giving it a run for it's money. that's mainly due to the fact that you can do a lot with it in a MMO format. while the ARR base story is nothing we had not seen before, the end of ARR really dial things up a lot and making you really hype going into Heavnsward. each of the expansions that followed had only bring the story to a higher high, with Endwalker being sorta like the "Avengers: Eng Game" of the MCU, concluding that line of the story and giving the game a fresh start into the next one.

Thanks, this pretty much sold me. I'm not sure when I'll get back to the FF series but when I do this game will be very high on the consideration list. Haven't played even a minute of free trial but when I do I'll probably milk that free offer for all that it's worth (as long as my saved playthrough transfers over). Your comments about Endwalker make me wonder about the story in the same way as I sometimes wonder about FFVI; I did hear that FFXIV has put out some outstanding work. I'm just glad that the fanbase is expanding strongly even to this day. Comforting to know that by the time I decide to jump in, that there will be Dawntrail, possibly the expansion that follows that, and then 3-4 more expansions before this game starts to maybe slow down some. Maybe that is not the case and it's legacy will only grow stronger. Either way, sounds like a once in a lifetime experience and it'll be great to experience something epic like this while the fanbase is still active

 

[Robot Carnival]

Thanks, this pretty much sold me. I'm not sure when I'll get back to the FF series but when I do this game will be very high on the consideration list. Haven't played even a minute of free trial but when I do I'll probably milk that free offer for all that it's worth (as long as my saved playthrough transfers over). Your comments about Endwalker make me wonder about the story in the same way as I sometimes wonder about FFVI; I did hear that FFXIV has put out some outstanding work. I'm just glad that the fanbase is expanding strongly even to this day. Comforting to know that by the time I decide to jump in, that there will be Dawntrail, possibly the expansion that follows that, and then 3-4 more expansions before this game starts to maybe slow down some. Maybe that is not the case and it's legacy will only grow stronger. Either way, sounds like a once in a lifetime experience and it'll be great to experience something epic like this while the fanbase is still active

glad to be able to drag introduce another victim player into the game. do keep in mind that with free trial, there are some functions you won't be able to utilize, such as trading with other players, joining Free Company (guild/clan) and selling stuff on marketboard (auction house). and if there are server congestions, free trial players would often have to wait longer to log in to the game than paid players. you also won't be able to purchase in game housing, thou a lot of paid players can't get them either due to scarcity so that's not a big deal. you can still talk to other players and enjoy all the other in-game stuff thou.

story wise, I would suggestion to temper your expectation during the early ARR parts. they're not bad pre-se, but it's definitely not good either. the early English voice acting was also rather... inexperienced I guess would be the best way to put it. but you can always switch to Japanese if you don't mind it. things do get better once you get into later parts of ARR and then into Heavensward, including the voice acting. Stormblood has mixed reviews and often got rated by the community as the worst expansion out of all of them for trying to do too much with the story (and maybe for being more "eastern focused", ie. weeb), but I personally like it more than Heavensward. Shadowbringers was where the story truly got elevated to the next level and where a lot of players consider the best part. even the music is next level. the main music producer, Masayoshi Soken, was actually going through cancer without most of the dev team's knowledge through the middle part (I think) of the Shadowbringers developing storyline. he wrote one of the battle theme song of an important battle in the later part of the story while he was still in the hospital going through treatment. it was really an inspiring tale within the actual game story.

in any case, if you are in one of the NA data centers and need help, let me know. I'm in the Ultros server and probably can hop over with the world travel system.