Highlights

  • Final Fantasy 14 prioritizes keeping the storyline as the main focus, declining to add a free story skip in the game.
  • Developers are considering ways to attract new players to the immersive world of FF14 without compromising the experience.
  • Despite concerns about the growing length of the story, fans appreciate the game's commitment to its storytelling, even if it means no story skip option for now.

Final Fantasy 14 doesn’t have any plans to add a free story skip to the game any time soon for fear of ruining the experience. A free story skip may not happen now, but the ever-growing length of the Final Fantasy 14 Main Scenario means it could end up happening eventually.

With over 10 years and four expansions under its belt, Final Fantasy 14 is an immense game; the story alone takes hundreds of hours to complete in its entirety. Akin to five JRPGs in one, starting Final Fantasy 14 is daunting, but as an MMO, attracting new players to the game is key to its success. The new Dawntrail expansion is set to begin a new chapter for Final Fantasy 14, prompting fans to wonder if the critically-acclaimed MMORPG would add a way for players to start the game from this new point – a feature director and producer Naoki Yoshida confirmed he was considering during last year’s Fan Festival.

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Final Fantasy 14 Dev Wants to Make the Game More Challenging

As the wait for Dawntrail continues, a top Final Fantasy 14 developer states their desire to bring back a degree of challenge to the game.

However, it seems like Final Fantasy 14 won’t be adding a free story skip in the game at the moment. According to an interview with PC Gamer, Yoshida put the discussion to rest for now, confirming no such feature would be added in Dawntrail. “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 said. “So far, FF14 has been able to continue to grow while keeping the story as the main focus.” Despite this, Yoshida also recognized valid concerns about the growing length of the story, and that he may revisit the idea in the future.

Final Fantasy 14 Isn’t Adding a Free Story Skip Just Yet

Right now, players can technically skip all the way up to Endwalker using the Tales of Adventure story skip items purchased from the Final Fantasy 14 cash shop. However, in order to actually do this, fans would have to buy both the skip and a One Hero’s Journey level boost to get a job to level 80 – each of which costs $25. While Final Fantasy 14 may add a story skip for Endwalker as well, there is no way to blast through these expansions without investing a lot of time or money.

“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. So far, FF14 has been able to continue to grow while keeping the story as the main focus."

Many fans are glad FF14 isn’t adding this feature yet. The stories of Final Fantasy 14 are some of its best strengths, and one that brings players together. Some fear adding an easy way to skip the story would threaten to erode that community keystone.

On the other hand, others believe Final Fantasy 14 is getting too big not to provide such an option, especially with the Unending Codex, Unending Journey, and New Game+ features to let fans experience the past story in different ways. Final Fantasy 14 may not be getting this feature yet, but it won’t be long before it has to consider the option again.