(03-12-2014, 05:26 PM)TheLastCandle Wrote: The quest grind in SWTOR is exactly the same as it is in World of Warcraft or any similar MMO made in the last decade, with the addition of fully-voiced dialogue. After a while, the novelty wears off and non-story quests become even more of a chore because of the extra time taken up by the dialogue trees. I can read much faster than the NPCs speak, so if it wasn't related to the story, I found myself skipping through these non-essential voice-overs at a pretty fair clip. On some of the more quest-heavy planets (I'm looking at YOU, Taris) I wondered just how much longer the planet was going to drag on. This was compounded by the fact that most quests give a pithy amount of experience, meaning you pretty much have to do most if not all of the quests if you want to be at an appreciable level for the next planet.
SWTOR does some things right, though. Â Battle animations, for the most part, are done extremely well. I loved seeing my friend's Jedi expertly parry a blaster bolt behind his back, or perform a flourish when finishing an enemy with a lightsaber strike. My smuggler rolling behind a rise for cover before returning blaster fire made PVE pretty satisfying, from a cinematic point of view. The recent Galactic Starfighter added open-ended PvP dogfights, which is something that should've been in the game from the get-go, and is hopefully a step towards some free-roaming travel by flight. Some of the class stories (Smuggler, Imperial Agent, and what I played of Bounty Hunter) are pretty exceptional and are where SWTOR really shines as a game that otherwise lacks truly unique features outside of the focus on story.
Going back to the topic of RP, here's a bit of irony for you. In my experience, the stories were actually somewhat detrimental to the community in that far, FAR too many players were roleplaying as if the events of their given class's story happened to their characters IC.
Anyway, it's great that you're having fun. Enjoy the story, and be sure to tell groups beforehand that you want to see the conversation parts in flashpoints if you're doing them for the first time. A lot of players in the party finder are going to be bugging you left and right to "spacebar through" everything.
I'll be interested to hear how you feel about the game after playing it for a month or two.
To be fair, I do somewhat enjoy the story in FFXIV, it just is the kind of thing that seems to be happening to "another player". Â It certainly isn't happening to Orleans Ignacius, the Scions wouldn't touch him with a hundred foot pole and he doesn't seem like the kind of person who has supernatural empathy with other people. Â That's sort of my problem with stories in RPGs I RP in. Â No matter how good they are, they probably aren't about "my" character.
That said, I really enjoy FFXIV gameplay as well as setting. Â Particularly when I finally get to throw Life Surge into a True Thrust. Â There just isn't any other game I've felt as awesome in throwing in your average JRPG glowy weapon attack. Â They at least made the animations feel like they had some bollocks about them.
Also... I think I'm now spoiled. Â It's actually fun to craft stuff in FFXIV and to try to maximize your quality before your durability runs out. Â Crafting systems in other games just aren't as awesome.
Also, FATE quests are the best thing ever. Â I've never been so happy to have to dismount and be interrupted on my long ride to wherever.
FFXIV has a lot going for it.