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Final Fantasy 14 may have over 10 years of story across four expansions to catch up on if you're new to the MMO and want to be ready for Dawntrail, but don't expect a new story skip feature anytime soon.
Producer and director Naoki 'Yoshi-P' Yoshida, did hint at the possibility of something during a question-and-answer session with the press at Final Fantasy 14 Fan Fest last year in Las Vegas that GamesRadar+ attended, though he stressed he was hesitant to recommend it if it did get added. He likens Final Fantasy 14's story to a TV drama, as you'd typically start from episode one rather than jump right to season six.
Months later, it appears that Yoshida is leaning further towards the no. The Square Enix veteran tells PCGamer that the team isn't currently planning any sort of new skip feature.
"This is something I'm constantly torn about, and we have already finished implementing a feature that allows players to learn about the story, setting, and characters even when they skip the story," he says.
Yoshida is likely referring to Final Fantasy 14's appropriately named Unending Codex there. The feature came to the MMO after Endwalker, providing helpful information about your surrounding areas and characters. It's handy for both those who are new and those who need a reminder.
It's worth noting that you can purchase a story skip if you want to skip expansion content, though doing so right now would take you to the end of Endwalker and require you to catch up on the post-expansion story content.
Still, Yoshida doesn't seem totally against adding something in-game that would catch you up with what's happened for free. He just doesn't know if it's really for the best: "I'm concerned that if the globally acclaimed storyline can be skipped through a function, the value of the FF14 game itself will be diminished," he says. "So far, FF14 has been able to continue to grow while keeping the story as the main focus."
He concludes by saying, "As such, please let me think about it some more. Of course, I do understand where you're coming from [about the increasingly daunting length of the story], so no need to worry about that."
Yoshida's hesitance is easy to understand. Just recently, his words from Fan Fest resurfaced on a forum, leading to Twitter chatter over whether allowing players to skip the story is for the best.
"The part of me that loves [FF14's] story hates the idea of new players starting in 6.1," one player says. "The part of me that has to tell friends 'Oh you just have to play, like, 1,000 hours before you can play this MMO with me' is happy about it. It's kind of a no-win situation."
One common issue players have is the gameplay itself. Final Fantasy 14 has added more layers of gameplay mechanics over the years that catch people out even today. For example, it's more important to watch the bosses themselves these days to see what attack is coming next—left arm raised? Maybe stand on their right.
In the MMO's earlier days, attacks were telegraphed more clearly and generously, as the floor lit up to essentially say, 'Don't stand here.' That still happens a decent bit, but not as much.
"You're gonna implement a skip to 6.1 feature for new players when the people who played manually to 6.0 still don't know what an AoE is; I would love to see the combat tutorial plan here," another fan says.
As fans themselves attest, it's a lose-lose situation. Anyone who plays the entirety of Final Fantasy 14 will likely benefit more than someone who skips right to its current point, but how many people really have the time to do so?
Final Fantasy 14's Yoshi-P regrets making the MMO as stress-free as it is.
