Nah, you would definitely pop on and play some dungeons/trials with good old Kong now and then too (as Mikhail should be doing at some point)!James wrote: ↑Tue Jan 17, 2023 5:55 pmThat doesn’t sound so bad. And really, that’s how I would probably end up playing it.Mikhail wrote: ↑Sun Jan 15, 2023 11:11 pm I would honestly treat FF14 as a single player game over an MMO. I would say about 90% of the story content you could do by yourself and the game does well to match you with others when you need to group so you wouldn't really need to do any planning or pre-gaming coordination. And any story related group content (like dungeons or raids), even if you're bad at the game, can be easily bypassed because the majority of players can easily carry others through it. I basically played and beat all of the expansions as a solo player and I enjoyed my time immensely. Furthermore, there's very little in the way of FOMO or time-gated/weekly content that is required so you can generally take your time (subscription permitting of course). I would venture to say that a non-minority of FF14 players treat the game as a single player story game than a hardcore MMO.
Of course that isn't to say that there's nothing in the game if you wanted something hardcore or something you want to really dedicate yourself to. There are plenty of professions, collectibles, group content, transmogs, side quests, etc., that you can really sink your teeth into if that's what you want to do. But that's up to the player really. I find that in general, FF14 respects the player's time compared to other MMOs like WoW.
To Mik's main point though, the general gameplay & progression doesn't really require parties. You only group up sometimes in dungeons. So the way I play it with my friend who is also currently playing for the first time is: we go our separate ways, enjoy the story and side-missions and exploring etc. on our own time, and when we come to a point in the story that we're supposed to fight an instanced dungeon or boss, we group up. It's a good system.
I come up just short of calling it a good single-player RPG though, because it really is designed with an MMO mindset, that is, a lot of filler and fetch quests to pad the main narrative out. So even when you're just blitzing through the story, you have to interact with the game in a less-than-engaging way. But of course it's all about expectations and what you want to get out of playing a game like this.
