I’m a good little Eorzean. My Warrior of Light in Final Fantasy 14 does her daily chores without a complaint. It’s a hefty to-do list when juggling a full-time job and other adult responsibilities, but I’m aiming to finish leveling all of my jobs. I have a loose order to things, I knock out the fun and easy ones first, like PVP, Trial, and Normal Raid roulettes. I hop into Leveling Roulette on whatever class it is I’m trying to learn at the moment, then will finally grit my teeth and wrap up Alliance Raids. It’s not until the end of the day, when I’m the most irritated, ill, and tired, that I try the worst one - the dreaded Main Scenario Roulette.
If you fancy Final Fantasy 14, even as a more casual player, I can strike fear into your heart with one simple question, “want to run Main Scenario Roulette with me?” Shiver, recoil, etc. etc. Main Scenario Roulette is a bit of a bore, isn’t it? I usually wind up in there with six other players who have run it a million times and one new Eorzean - but even the new Warrior of Light is complaining about it. Why can’t they skip cutscenes? Why can’t they run ahead - I’ve heard it all - and explained why a million times.
For those of you a bit newer to the realm, A Realm Reborn has two dungeons that use an old design strategy from Square Enix years ago, The Praetorium and Castrum Meridianum. The first time you do it in A Realm Reborn, it’s kind of neat, I guess. The story bits are all important, though long-winded, and you’ve got to complete it for Final Fantasy 14’s winding narrative to make sense. The formula is rough, everyone queues into a long five-minute cutscene, you fight a small mob, watch another extremely long cutscene, fight a mob, another way-too-long cutscene, fight, etc. Square Enix has long since acknowledged this formula was awful, and never chose to implement story content this way again.
But we still suffer from it. To be clear, I’m not complaining about new players trying to watch cutscenes. I’ll fight someone for rushing a brand new person through. I am begging Square for some sort of “vote skip cutscene” option, though. I don’t know, just something, anything to make those two dungeons not drain every ounce of energy from my body and immediately put me to sleep.
Look, I know I don’t have to do it. Yoshida isn’t forcing me to drag myself through and no one will miss me if I skip it. It’s good experience too, and I’ve still got things to level. I’m just saying, if people are routinely going AFK in your dungeon and joking about how they’re doing other, real-life chores during your cutscenes is a constant thing - then maybe there’s a problem. Main Scenario Roulette doesn’t lock anything of value behind it, but damn, at least streamline it a bit for more incentive for veteran players.