Last Fantasy 14 is attending to be a mighty lengthy sport. With one base sport, 4 expansions and a fifth one on the best way, I do not assume it is too on the market to reckon that you just’d be spending a very good 300 – 400 hours ploughing by way of the story alone.
That may be a giant roadblock for would-be Warriors of Gentle and truthfully, if I hadn’t been taking part in for nearly a decade I do not essentially know if I might have the willpower to get by way of all of it. In fact, there’s the choice to cough up a couple of bucks for a narrative skip, however with Dawntrail marking the start of a brand new narrative arc, I hoped that there’d be an possibility in-game for another leaping in level.
The potential for a skip to permit folks to affix the story through the post-Endwalker patches was mentioned final 12 months, so in a current interview with director and producer Naoki Yoshida I believed I might carry the query up once more. Sadly, nothing is within the works anytime quickly. “For the story we’re not presently planning any form of new skip function,” Yoshida stated. “That is one thing I am continually torn about, and we now have already completed implementing a function that enables gamers to study concerning the story, setting, and characters even once they skip the story.”
Presumably Yoshida is referring to the Never-ending Codex, a function that was carried out shortly after Endwalker’s launch. It has a ton of information round completely different characters and ideas throughout the sport, offering useful reminders or catch-ups on the key gamers inside Eorzea and past. There’s the Never-ending Journey too, a long-running function that allows you to return and watch cutscenes for earlier quests.
Regardless of providing in-game entry to lore and a money store skip, Yoshida seems to be hesitant to make the method of ignoring 10 years of story simply accessible. “I am involved that if the globally acclaimed storyline may be skipped by way of a operate, the worth of the FF14 sport itself might be diminished,” he stated. “To date, FF14 has been capable of proceed to develop whereas maintaining the story as the principle focus.”
Whereas that reply does appear to largely write off the potential of a free in-game skip, Yoshida’s reply did not finish there. “As such, please let me give it some thought some extra,” he stated. “In fact, I do perceive the place you are coming from [about the increasingly daunting length of the story], so no want to fret about that.”
It is a disgrace in a means, however I do perceive the place Yoshida is coming from. A number of my love from this sport has come from spending a number of hundred hours with its vibrant forged of characters. I am unsure I might be so darn hooked up to my Warrior of Gentle in any other case, however in fact that is my very own desire. I’ve friends who love the sport simply as a lot as I do whereas being unabating cutscene skippers.
There’ll nonetheless be a paid choice to skip forward—one thing that I do not essentially love, however not less than it is there—however for now these trying to preserve their wallets closed must energy by way of the story. Or on the very least, utilise the escape key a complete bunch.
In case you’re wanting some extra morsels of stories and data from Yoshida, excellent news! This reply is a component of a bigger interview coming to PC Gamer journal the place I speak to the director and producer all about Dawntrail. The problem’s out on March 28 within the UK and April 16 within the US, and you may decide up a difficulty over on Magazines Direct.