Skipping cutscenes is perfectly fine, just so long as you don't start whinging about how the story makes no sense, it's pointless, etc. The beginning story is a lot about establishing early elements for the story, but it also might not be overly interesting all the time either to everyone.

And you can always rewatch cutscenes in an inn by using the Unending Journey, or by doing New Game+ which basically has you redo MSQ portions when you reach certain points to unlock segments.

But welcome to the game!

Just play the way you want to play. You can always go back and enjoy the cutscenes later

Welcome Warrior of Light!

I mean personally I would encourage you to experience the full story yourself. It's the main appeal of the game, and personally it's overall my favorite story from any game I've played. The Shadowbringers and Endwalker expansions in particular are truly masterpieces and made me cry many times, but you need the context of the prior stories to understand them. The initial story in A Realm Reborn is very slow though so I definitely understand why it might be a struggle early on, but believe me that it has amazing pay-offs later on.

I do think that skipping XIV's story is robbing yourself of the full experience of the game. But ultimately you should play and enjoy the game however you want. I will say that if you change your mind, at Level 25 MSQ you're still very early in the story, so it will not take much time for you to get caught up on what's happened so far.

If you're around 25 MSQ, it's around the time story start to really start so it'll be a good point to start skipping less

The early game MSQ is pretty rough for some people, especially if you're not one for lore and story. I find that people who really love that stuff find the early MSQ really engaging but in the original A Realm Reborn MSQ it doesn't really get interesting until about MSQ 45-ish. I'd even argue the MSQ 40-45 is actually a super low point, like padding until MSQ 45.

Honestly, you should be okay skipping the story somewhat early on. In many cases you can speak to NPC gathered around Quest NPCs and get a "tl;dr" summary of what's going on. This is done purposely in case you go do other content and comeback and forget what is happening in the story. There should always be some "context" NPCs gathered around.

I will say that story wise, Shadowbringers and Endwalker are the key points that everyone points to. These two expansions are done incredibly well and are such a stark contrast to the story that A Realm Reborn is telling.

But likewise, Heavensward and the cutscenes leading up to it really show a shift to a stronger story focus. Stormblood is okay, but the content within it is really good.

I’ve been playing on and off for 10+ years, and the only cut scenes I’ve watched are the ones you can’t skip lol.

I play the game because I enjoy the endless possibility of gameplay, and it’s fun to gear your characters.

I’ll always arrive at a boss and think “I don’t even know who the f you are” haha
Don’t let anyone tell you how to play the game, you pay for the sub.

Although there are some characters that I will search up and dive into their lore. However for the most part, it’s gonna be skip from me dawg.

Edit: Spelling

It's great when people are on and i have msq, but alt levelling really sucks as well as being forced to be tank or heals for certain jobs. Id kill to play pally or drk as dps.

The only thing that is not necessarily a great fit for me (but not a deal breaker) is that I’m generally not into lore and story I a game and I still have the habit of skipping all cut scenes. I know it’s a crime as everyone praising the cutscenes and story. I should try to watch them and stop skipping / rushing it.

The story for ARR is... fine, but not exactly compelling. It gets better right at the tail end, and as you go into Heavensward though, so you might find yourself warming up to it a bit down the road.

But one piece of advice: when you eventually get a quest called "The Rise and Fall of Gentlemen", DO NOT SKIP THESE CUTSCENES.

I've never watched any of the cutscenes. My headcanon is that I'm basically Jason Statham in the Transporter movies. You just tell me what you need done. You need something taken somewhere? You need a guy dead? Just lay out the terms and the payment, I don't need to know why. No women or children. I don't care why this dragon is up in your business, or why this dude has to go. The less I know, the better. I got a crew to do it with, too. I got Squall, Kain, Bill Shakespeare, Palom and Porom, Matoya, some lady named Milfilia, and Jessica Jones. Whatever it is, we can handle it.

Also: Your disappointment with the game will grow with your playtime. I genuinely don't mean that as a "this game sucks actually" swipe, but as you acclimate to the content, you will realize how rote the arrangement of everything in FFXIV is. I've played it for several years now, and I find it's best in short bursts with big breaks in-between to avoid burnout.

It’s fairly ok to skip story in ARR as it’s most just setting things up. You may just want to watch voiced cutscenes and maybe, just maybe, you might want to ĺearn more about what’s going on by stormblood

Welcome to the game! What server are you playing on?

It’s a fantastic story you should def pay attention to it

Do what you want story wise. I only care about endgame stuff in MMOs and you know what for a new player coming into the game now is a hard sell telling them that the game gets good after level 50 and then start watching story. That is still hundreds of hours of story and frankly for a lot of ppl that is just not feasible. My friends just give me the lowdown on the story every expac lol

I am on the second expansion in the free trial. I did the WoW free trial too after quitting a dozen years ago. I am having a better time than wow easily. This is my favorite mmo so far. The story gets even better after the beginning! Good luck!

it’s fine if you’re not interested in the story. just don’t complain about it and no one will care. a lot of people skip cutscenes and then get mad when they have no clue what’s happening. there are some lore video and stuff than cover the basics if you get interested, and there is also a new game + feature you can use to replay parts of the story if you get interested later. you can also rewatch cutscenes in the inn if you want.

regardless there are plenty of fun dungeons, trials, and raids to enjoy. there are weapons for glamour and stuff like that to grind for.

What're these immersion and RPG elements stuff...?)

Welcome home!

I skip everything besides the cs with voice acting so I still know what’s going on kinda, if your on Seraph hmu and I’ll help you with anything you need 🫡

I have a suggestion on how you can keep up with the main points of the story while not being overly slowed down by how drawn out and "filler-ish" some of the plot points can seem to be (because they are laying foundation for plotlines an expansion or more later):

If a cutscene isn't voice acted, skip it, and read the summary of what happened on the quest in your journal (might need to look under 'completed quests'). If it's voice acted, watch it, they're usually major story moments. And if you've read the summaries in the journal, you'll have the gist of what's going on, and can appreciate how the voiced moments build on it.

This advice is mostly for the story up to the end of Stormblood. Because although they've increased the amount of voice acting with every expansion, it's not always used in the places I feel it should be, and vice versa.

Even though the story after that point is the best FF14 has to offer, there are some really good story moments that connect major voiced cutscenes that aren't voiced for whatever reason. If I had to speculate the reason for this, I'd say it's because they were rewriting these types of moments a lot and couldn't get finalized dialogue in time to get VA for them.

Plenty of people play the game only to raid and so skip the cutscenes to get to the raiding faster. Obviously, people will push for you to try it because it is the main selling point, but it's far from the only selling point. Plus, there's a New Game+ feature you can take advantage of should the urge ever hit you.

I’m doing Stormblood now and if it wasn’t for the story, I’m not sure I’d love the gameplay loop as much as I do. Having said that, the game gets better no matter what and everyone enjoys it differently.

If you play on PC and what a nice skills layout on your hotbars, let me know which class, I got you. I have the perfect layout for each class.

ARR through endwalker may be the greatest story ever told in video games!