More story content?

[Underpanties]

I've played ffxi since the beginning when it was first released on ps2 in NA.

The whole reason I've been leveling up/gearing my character is to play through the story lines, and I've watched the stories evolve a huge deal. When you compare the newer content with the first few missions/quests, it's like night and day.

When I joined and RotZ was the newest (and only) expansion, I thought the story was a bit weak, but I still really enjoyed the battles and felt accomplishment at getting Sky access. It wasn't until CoP came out that I started to actually remember the characters in the story, and I remember being very impressed by how I really wanted to see what would happen next in the story, and caring what happened to Prishe/Ulmia/Tenzen/Louverance. I felt like there were some unexplained things in the plot, but the characters/music/dialog were very good as a whole.

I thought COP was going to be as good as it would get for ffxi's story-telling. I played through ToAU's story and, although I felt it was ok, I didn't feel as big of an attachment to its characters. The music and some of the cutscenes were excellent, but I wish it had more supporting cast, like how Cait Sith became a important recurring character halfway into the missions. I really liked ToAU's other content, so I was satisfied with the expansion.

But just the past week or so, I've been powering through WotG's storyline. I had just barely began the questline when it was released, but didn't get very far and I was disinterested to continue, until they released Cait Sith and required wotg to be beaten to get it.

And man, I was -very- impressed by the story. I found myself attached to all of the characters, even the villain, and when I finally beat all the missions, I got that same empty feeling you get when you finish a really good book/movie - when you don't want the story to be over. I honestly was looking at completing all those missions as a chore, but about 10 missions in, when I started making progress into windurst's storyline, I couldn't put it down. No other mmo (and few games and even movies) gets me that interested in the characters than I had been with wotg's story.

Now I feel like I want to explore more, but Adoulin's story is incomplete and it seems like a shame to make some progress into the story, but then have to wait a few months to find out what happens.

Were the other addon stories (Crystalline Prophecy, Shantotto accession) any good?

Is there any other big questline with a good story that I'm missing?

Which xpac do you folks think had the best storyline?

[Stompa]

The Trilogy mini-expansions were all very good, the storylines and cutscenes were great, especially in AMKD, what a nasty villain he was, bad bad bad. Also some of the rewards are still useful in some situations. I really enjoyed the Trilogy mini-expansions a lot.

My favourite expansion missions was always WOTG. Best storyline, best hero, best villain - and best Last Boss battle. I do sometimes toss my Moonshade and go back to do the Last Boss again without ilvl gear, for the CS's and the battle graphics with Dark Sun etc. Awesome.

I'm totally looking forward to more SoA missions, the storyline has been very enjoyable so far.

[Rpro]

I finished WOTG myself a couple months ago after ignoring most of it since release and I loved the storyline immensely. I especially liked Lady Lilith

[predatory]

I'm really hoping they manage to tie delve, skirmirsh, and wkrs together in a way that feels satisfactory, and not just meh. I hope we get to save the world again, and I hope the areas are part of that adventure

[Xantavia]

I thought the Serpent Generals questline was worth the time to do. I think more people have done it now since its required for certain quests, but the character building of the generals was some of most enjoyable story I've experienced in the game.

[Draylo]

Best story imo was WOTG

[Edyth]

You should complete the Bastok (S) storyline--that one is juicy, unlike modern Bastok's missions, AKA Gumbah Fantasy XI.

After Bastok (S), complete San d'Oria (S). You haven't even finished the WotG stories yet, so go for it!

After that, Rune Fencer's limit break/AF quests have a good story for what they are.

Assault Promotion quests have very unique cutscenes, so you should do those too.

Also, definitely get the 3 mini-addons if you want more story. ACP is the best in my opinion, because it's the most related to the main story of FFXI.

Lastly, steer clear of Voidwatch and the Serpent General quests if you want good cutscenes; those ones aren't so great in my opinion.