Forced Grouping or Solo Frienly ?

Shadanwolf

I play solo. Does this game REQUIRE grouping in order to advance ?
Thanks in advance for your help.

Kajidourden

Yes.  Unless you buy a jump potion of some kind but even then the new expansion content will require it. 

It's an mmo, not a single player FF game.

free2play

The game is gated behind main story quest and that is gated behind duty finder, dungeon content that is scripted in to 4 and 8 man instances. While you could level solo though achievements, fates and other content it would take you 50 times longer and you would still be obligated to do main story dungeons to unlock Heavensward and Stormblood. You could drop $25 to $50 and jump potion through both but unless you really enjoy crafting and gathering there wouldn't be much left to do. Even Fates and Hunts rely on groups of people to complete. They don't encourage group, they pretty much jam it down your throat.

mrputts

free2play said:

 They don't encourage group, they pretty much jam it down your throat.

But it is nowhere near as bad as FF11 

Shoko_Lied

mrputts said:

free2play said:

 They don't encourage group, they pretty much jam it down your throat.

But it is nowhere near as (or good)bad as FF11 

The heavy emphasis on grouping was what so many loved about FF11. Though admittedly not very appealing to the mmorpg audience of today.

wanderica

Shoko_Lied said:

mrputts said:

free2play said:

 They don't encourage group, they pretty much jam it down your throat.

But it is nowhere near as (or good)bad as FF11 

The heavy emphasis on grouping was what so many loved about FF11. Though admittedly not very appealing to the mmorpg audience of today.

I think some amount of forced grouping would go over a bit better than you think.  It has the added benefit of making community matter.  I guess that's what we all loved about FFXI.  Strangely enough, I find FFXI to be in a much better place than its counterpart, EQ these days.  It's a smooth journey from 1 - 99 and beyond.  EQ, well . . . EQ's a mess today.

To the OP, yes you will have to group eventually, but you can experience the entire story solely through use of the group finder tool (Duty Finder).  Unless you want to purchase the ability to bypass all of the old story (expensive), then you will need to use the duty finder to get through it in both ARR and Heavensward.  Still though, like WoW these days, you can experience the game fully without ever having to utter a word to your fellow players if that's what you wish.