Realistically How Much Time Does It Take To Get Through The FF14 Story?

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Realistically how much time does it take to get through the FF14 story?

• Thread starter sn00zer
• Start date Jul 22, 2021
• Square Enix

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sn00zer

Member Feb 28, 2018 8,470 I want hours. Not "oh it'll be a while". Is this 100 hrs? Is this 500 hours? Is this 1000 hours? Is there even a ballpark estimate on this sort of thing?

Piecake

Member Oct 27, 2017 2,298 200 to 300 hours? It could certainly take you 500 to 1000 hours if you take your time and do a bunch of side content

Redhood

▲ Legend ▲

Member Oct 27, 2017 894 I finished all of Realm Reborn recently after all the changes and it took me 44 hours. I was ready to enter Heavensward. I beelined the main story quest on a new character. Cannot say about other expansions. Last edited: Jul 22, 2021

Alavard

The Fallen Oct 25, 2017 7,544 I joined the game earlier this year and I'm like 3/4 through Shadowbringers (and then there's the post-Shadowbringers stuff), and have about 430 hours in the game, but I've also been levelling secondary jobs and doing lots of optional content. So the answer is significantly less than 500 hours.

Griffith

Banned Oct 27, 2017 5,585

Redhood said: I finished all of Realm Reborn recently after all the changes and it took me 24 hours. I was ready to enter Heavensward. Click to expand... Click to shrink...

Having replayed Realm Reborn recently on a new character I find this really hard to believe unless you had someone escorting/flying you from area to area and helping you clear quests quickly. Even if you're beelining Realm Reborn it will normally take at least a couple of weeks in my experience, more if you're taking your time and exploring some of the side-activities the game presents to you. The dungeons and raids that you have to do, alone, will probably take you about as long as you suggested, specially now that the crystal tower raid is obligatory.

Milan

Member Jan 15, 2020 9 Out There It took me more than 65 hours to finish A Realm Reborn MSQ, I was just learning everything, reading all the dialogue and watching all the cinematics. My prior MMO experience was just WoW. This was around 2019.

TwinBahamut

Member Jun 8, 2018 1,360 Hundreds of hours. Even playing a few hours a day, it could take me a month or more to get through a single expansion story. Getting through a major patch story takes a couple days. And that is for every expansion and patch. Adding sidequests, dungeons, leveling secondary jobs, beast tribe quests, and more, and the hours will pile up dramatically.

Deleted member 3924

User requested account closure

Banned Oct 25, 2017 46,074 I only did Main quests, while also skimming through much of the mountain of dialogue and my total was around 300 hours. minus at least some of that for the optional (non hard mode) duties.

DasFool

Member Oct 25, 2017 216 I'd say about 40 hours for each base expansion (2.0, 3.0, etc.) then add on about 4-5 for each patch storyline (2.1-2.5, 3.1-3.5, etc.). So if you want to go from start to finish mainline, I would estimate anywhere from 200-250 hours, depending on your reading speed. What constitutes a lot of this length is that the game has an absolutely gargantuan amount of prose and a lot of it isn't voice acted, so it's really your reading speed that could possibly shave off entire hours. They did cut out a lot of chaff from the base game, but it is still the longest portion by far due to the amount of dungeons/trials and menial returning to the Waking Sandsing you need to do to progress. If this seems daunting, try and remember that this game has had continuous story updates for over 8 years and amounts to playing 4 separate full-length JRPGs. Most people play the game at their own pace and there's no real rush to endgame as, even months later, people still run the latest fights for equipment and other rewards.

Richietto

One Winged Slayer

Member Oct 25, 2017 28,954 North Carolina From start to finish the main scenario will take like 200+ hours at an average pace.

Hella

Member Oct 27, 2017 25,245 Casually playing through FFXIV and genuinely absorbing the story as you play? Say like 250 hours all told, if you're not getting immense duty finder queues. FFXIV is unashamedly an MMO and not something you'll just burn through in a week or even a month. So it's not as insurmountable as it seems.

Keyouta

The Wise Ones

Member Oct 25, 2017 4,710 Canada I'd say 200 hours just about if you just bee-lined the story.

Giolon

One Winged Slayer

Member Oct 25, 2017 3,816 ARR is roughly 50-60 hours. Every expansion after that (HW, SB, ShB) is about 50 hours. This is all assuming you're mainlining MSQ only. So it's about 210 hours altogether at this point.

Orayn

Member Oct 25, 2017 15,902 In another thread, people were telling me it's in the neighborhood of 120-150 after the revamp of 2.X if you focus mostly on the main story. I just resubbed and made a new character so I'm about to find out.

Deleted member 3924

User requested account closure

Banned Oct 25, 2017 46,074

Orayn said: In another thread, people were telling me it's in the neighborhood of 120-150 after the revamp of 2.X if you focus mostly on the main story. Click to expand... Click to shrink...

That sounds like an extreme low ball number.

Gamer @ Heart

Member Oct 26, 2017 12,795 It varies WILDLY based on your reading speed and your job. Going as a DPS will add half a dozen hours to your playtime through 4 expansions for the simple fact that you will be waiting for dungeon queues and there is one every other level while leveling after you hit lvl15, with story ones at level cap between expansions. Speeds through dungeons vary between 20-40 minutes depending on those involved and their skill/comfort Reading speed is self explanatory but is again, a HUGE factor. 2.0 has far less voiced cutscenes than the expansions. You can change the speed of how quickly text boxes auto advance at any time or click through yourself. Think of the base game as 40-80 hours (assuming no waiting to get into trials/dungeons with variable read speed), with 15-20 hours of story patches and dungeons between them. The expansions meanwhile are closer to 40-50ish hours. This is presuming you are on a preferred server or have the XP boosting accessories, meaning you will stay above the leveling curve for main story until basically shadowbringers. Last edited: Jul 22, 2021

Holundrian

Member Oct 25, 2017 11,965

sn00zer said: I want hours. Not "oh it'll be a while". Is this 100 hrs? Is this 500 hours? Is this 1000 hours? Is there even a ballpark estimate on this sort of thing? Click to expand... Click to shrink...

It's basically the length of 4 jrpgs playtime will hugely vary with how hard you going to critical path it. But I'd say a good average for each part is 50-60 hours?

psykomyko

Member Oct 27, 2017 194 I just recently got caught up and I only did the MSQ and it took me 215 hours.

Cerulean_skylark

Attempted to circumvent ban with alt account.

Banned Oct 31, 2017 6,408 Several streamers and mrhappy just did all of ARR. the streamers took a week, mrhappy said like 48 hours for arr with all cutscenes. folks need to remember it got trimmed up and teleports to waking sands, flying in 50 zones is avail at level 50. There are lots of reasons it's faster now than ever. Especially if you read faster than the acting and skip allllll the sylph dialogue

Astroroom

Member Aug 19, 2020 351 If you're worried about how long it is for you, it's too long.

LossAversion

The Merchant of ERA

Member Oct 28, 2017 12,394 70 Days, 15 Hours, and 19 Minutes.

Deleted member 3924

User requested account closure

Banned Oct 25, 2017 46,074

Cerulean_skylark said: Several streamers and mrhappy just did all of ARR. the streamers took a week, mrhappy said like 48 hours for arr with all cutscenes. folks need to remember it got trimmed up and teleports to waking sands, flying in 50 zones is avail at level 50. There are lots of reasons it's faster now than ever. Especially if you read faster than the acting and skip allllll the sylph dialogue Click to expand... Click to shrink...

ARR still felt like an absolute slog. The sheer fact that vesper bay tickets didn't originally exist and that you had to do twice as many normal quests sounds completely absurd.

Tofd

Member Jul 8, 2018 1,181 From my experience, ARR-2.5 took ~50 hrs. Every expansion after took around 25-30 hrs assuming you just beeline through the MSQ, no sidequests except the ones for your job.

Musubi

Unshakable Resolve - Prophet of Truth

Member Oct 25, 2017 29,966 If you mainline it and don't get distracted by any of the other side content I'm going to estimate at least 250 hours.

MrNelson

Community Resettler

Member Oct 25, 2017 4,356 If you're just mainlining the story and your class quests, then probably like 250 hours at the minimum to go from the start of ARR to the end of Shadowbringers. There's a lot of factors at play like your reading speed and how long it takes you to queue for story dungeons (DPS takes longer than tank and healer to queue). Also your familiarity with MMOs will play a factor. If you've played one before, you'll have an easier time getting acclimated, but if this is your first go-around then you'll have to factor in that time to learn the ropes as well.

texhnolyze

Shinra Employee

Member Oct 25, 2017 28,558 Indonesia It used to be much longer since in the earlier days of ARR, you actually need to grind in-between main story quest because they only give a fraction of exps you need to level up. Even after cleaning up the side quests in the area, you'll need to grind FATEs and/or dungeons.

Gamer @ Heart

Member Oct 26, 2017 12,795

Deleted member 3924 said: ARR still felt like an absolute slog. The sheer fact that vesper bay tickets didn't originally exist and that you had to do twice as many normal quests sounds completely absurd. Click to expand... Click to shrink...

I know youve seen the graph of what was cut or changed at this point since your in every 14 thread. They did not cut half of 2.x. And again, Context matters. On release, there wasn't some rush to get through it all to get to what comes later. 50 levels of content spread over 3 times as many zones as a single expansion is alot to have to piece together. It is what it is, and not nearly as bad now as when you played it, or even at release since XP gas been boosted so significantly.

AwShucks

Member Oct 27, 2017 3,265 At this point beginning to current end? I'd say a normal pace is probably 200 hours.

Redhood

▲ Legend ▲

Member Oct 27, 2017 894

Griffith said: Having replayed Realm Reborn recently on a new character I find this really hard to believe unless you had someone escorting/flying you from area to area and helping you clear quests quickly. Even if you're beelining Realm Reborn it will normally take at least a couple of weeks in my experience, more if you're taking your time and exploring some of the side-activities the game presents to you. The dungeons and raids that you have to do, alone, will probably take you about as long as you suggested, specially now that the crystal tower raid is obligatory. Click to expand... Click to shrink...

You are right I took 44 hours. It was a typo.

Outlaw

Member Oct 25, 2017 1,359 This brought back nightmares. The MSQ grind is TOUGH. I'd say 60 hours or so just to finish the lvl 50 story (MSQ). Tack on 20 more hours in between ARR MSQ and the 1st expansion. Then I'd say 40 hours a pop for each expansion (2). In total, I'd say 160 hours if you focus just on MSQ.

samcastor

Member Apr 21, 2021 2,151

sn00zer said: I want hours. Not "oh it'll be a while". Is this 100 hrs? Is this 500 hours? Is this 1000 hours? Is there even a ballpark estimate on this sort of thing? Click to expand... Click to shrink...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G_O9NPTSCsE&ab_channel=Mrhappy1227 So Mr.Happy did a video of him doing the solo experience through all of ARR and he has another video up now with Heavensward finished as well. The time for ARR is dfeinitely an outlier but going forward you can expect the rest of the two expansion to take as long as Heavensward. It took hi 47.5 hours for ARR and around 40 for HW MSQ. So somewhere between 160-200 hours if you do JUST the MSQ

KeyChainDude

Member Oct 28, 2017 837 Way too long, in my experience. I played for over 20 hours and got up to lv30 I think, with absolutely NOTHING worthwhile happening storywise. So I just dropped it there.

j_tosavetheday

"This guy are sick" and Corrupted by Vengeance

Avenger Oct 25, 2017 25,245 USA I'd guess a straight-forward shot through the Main Scenario Quest (MSQ) would probably weigh in around 200-250 hours. Much of the tasking along the way is fairly repetitive in nature and the gameplay design probably won't strike single-player-focal players as highly engaging. If you plan to do FFXIV, IMO you'll very likely need to approach the game with an open mind and kinda embrace the online/community focus of the game to actually extract value out of it. It tells a great story but it's just as important to experience stories of your own as a member of the community, and I think that's always been extremely important when approaching MMORPGs. That said, it's not impossible to enjoy it for just the main focal story if that's your goal, but if you think games like Assassin's Creed Origins/Odyssey/Valhalla are boring and repetitive, then an MMORPG is often kind of that style of flow with less variety and a lot more repetition when it comes to experiencing the storyline only. It gets made up for and becomes worthwhile as a long-time investment by trying to engage with the community some, and at least in my experiences with XIV, it's often a pretty positive and rewarding experience that makes me want to keep playing.

Zen Hero

Member Oct 25, 2017 6,324 Think of it like a series of four full-length JRPGs. Each of which has boatloads of side content and endgame content that can potentially distract you.

Arkeband

Banned Nov 8, 2017 7,663 Probably like 40-50 hours per expansion. Each post-expansion patch, of which there are 5, takes like 4 hours apiece themselves. It'll take a lot longer if you dip into any side content, of which there is an immense amount.

InfinitePotat0

Member May 29, 2018 1,959 I've been taking my sweet time since February I picked up halfway through heavensward since then I have about 250 hours and I'm almost done with shadowbringers.

AnansiThePersona

Started a revolution but the mic was unplugged

Member Oct 27, 2017 15,682 you won't like the answer bruh

Perfect Chaos

Member Oct 25, 2017 3,823 Charlottesville, VA, USA

Deleted member 3924 said: ARR still felt like an absolute slog. The sheer fact that vesper bay tickets didn't originally exist and that you had to do twice as many normal quests sounds completely absurd. Click to expand... Click to shrink...

I think it took me and a friend about 2 weeks to finish ARR when it first came out. The XP curve was pretty nasty. I think a lot of folks had to basically FATE grind from 48-ish to 50 because they simply ran out of content but weren't high enough level to finish the story quests lol

SkyOdin

Member Apr 21, 2018 2,680 Honestly, I would recommend against just powering straight through the MSQ and leveling from 1-80. Taking your time and pacing things out to do the things you want to do when you want to do them helps avoid burnout. If you get really hooked by the story, go ahead, but don't feel like you are missing out if you are not caught up. Trying out new classes, checking out optional dungeons, or just going exploring are all still ways to enjoy FFXIV that don't require being caught up in the main story. In other words, don't get caught up in the idea that you *must* commit to running through the entire MSQ in order to enjoy FFXIV. You can still play with other people and enjoy the game even if you never get caught up.

Deleted member 3924

User requested account closure

Banned Oct 25, 2017 46,074

Perfect Chaos said: I think it took me and a friend about 2 weeks to finish ARR when it first came out. The XP curve was pretty nasty. I think a lot of folks had to basically FATE grind from 48-ish to 50 because they simply ran out of content but weren't high enough level to finish the story quests lol Click to expand... Click to shrink...

"pray return to the waking sands" probably held a different weight to it

Kupo Kupopo

Member Jul 6, 2019 2,959

Astroroom said: If you're worried about how long it is for you, it's too long. Click to expand... Click to shrink...

/thread...

Rhaknar

Member Oct 26, 2017 57,591 I played about 600 hours last year going through ARR all the way to Shadowbringers, but keep in mind, I was doing everything not just the main story. For just the MSQ (main scenario quests) I'd say about... 300 or so? I guess?

antitrop

Member Oct 25, 2017 15,901 300 on the low end. But ya, if you have to ask, you're already starting off on the wrong foot. The pacing can be dreadfully slow, but the MMO nature of it gives a scale and scope to the narrative unlike any other game I've played. Journey not the destination, blah blah blah. That it has so much time to breathe is a huge asset, not a detriment.

penguindrum

Member Feb 10, 2019 975 It took me like 450 hours when I went through two years ago.

Brat-Sampson

Member Nov 16, 2017 4,741 I mean it's a full campaign plus patch content plus 3 expansions with their own complete patch content. It's suuuuuper long. I'd say not to think about it honestly, just play at your own pace and make the most of it. Endwalker and endgame won't be going anywhere, hell ARR endgame content is still engaging and relevant 7-8 years later.

Diabolique Veridis

Member Nov 21, 2019 724 I'm new. I clocked in at nearly 250 hours playing both ARR and just finished Heavensward (including the post-HW quests). But I took some detours here and there so it wasn't a straight line. Calculating everything it'll probably take me 200 or more hours to finish Stormblood and Shadowbringers. Tho I'm not rushing at all. It's a great time, you won't feel it (except for some parts of ARR and the early post-ARR quests). Edit: My tip is do the whole "journey before destination" thing (as cliched as it sounds). Try not to think of any future expansion/story and just immerse urself with the current one. The pace will fluctuate between slow and going HAM with everything important happening at the same time cus it's a bit like reading a book, they don't expect u to finish it in one sitting. Just relax and play.

MayorSquirtle

Member May 17, 2018 12,098 I no-life'd it and it took about two months, maybe two and a half.

thetrin

Member Oct 26, 2017 14,364 Grand Junction, CO

KeyChainDude said: Way too long, in my experience. I played for over 20 hours and got up to lv30 I think, with absolutely NOTHING worthwhile happening storywise. So I just dropped it there. Click to expand... Click to shrink...

LOL, it's an MMO dude. You expected something of worth to happen in 20 hours, when the average player i spending HUNDREDS of hours in the game? You guys have such unrealistic expectations.

N1corex

▲ Legend ▲

Member Jun 7, 2020 2,743 i did it in 190 hours. msq from start to 5.5.5

eathdemon

Banned Oct 27, 2017 9,690 for most about 250 to 300 hours. remember you are latterly play 4 full length jrpgs at this point.

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