What is the story the quests are trying to tell?

[Simaril]

Story basics: "You're the god damned Batman of Light."

This story basic will basically be the foundation of the entire story until the game shuts down. MMOs do not have an end.

The several hour storyline of Leviathan is about as entertaining as slamming my head into the wall. You aren't required for most of it, and you, despite everyone saying "i'm sorry, someone else should really do this", are basically an errand person.

Go here.
Watch me talk.
Bring me soup.
Watch me talk.
Follow me here and watch me talk.
Nod your head.
Nod your head.
Watch me talk.
Go talk to the funniest Roe in the land.
Watch me talk.
Watch everyone else be awesome but you.
Watch me talk.
Watch us plan.

And so forth.

Totally this.

The last couple steps were great, the first 10? were unbearable. It's like they had too much story to tell so they made you teleport somewhere else so it seemed like another quest... There was little "challange" and you could be totally disengaged in what was happening.

[Simaril]

I will say, the sideplots and world-building as well as some of the class/job quests are much more enjoyable than the main storyline. If all you're looking at is the Main Scenario, you're missing a lot of good stuff.

I'm am lv 50 in all DoH, Min and Btn. I was surprised that those quests were generally more interesting, challanging, and engaging, than the "errand person teleport here, talk to tat guy" type quests of the main story.

Really? We must have played two different "A Realm Reborn" games then, cuz I didn't experience any of this. At all. IMO, the story is rather strong. I remember playing through it and being like "Holy shit, this doesn't feel like an MMO, this is like a standard single player FF game!" it kept me drawn in, and when I hit the parts of the story that I had to raise my level to continue, I was actually upset, cuz I didn't want to stop! In the end, the game is what you make it to be. if you let yourself enjoy the story and get into the characters, it will be great, if you go into it all jaded and expecting absolute crap, that's what you'll see.

This is an MMO, the fact that the quests are like a SP mmo is confusing and inappropriate IMO. I know I'm not the only one playing this game, and I know I'm not the only one doing this
quest... I prefer the quests that you can actually understand that there is the need for many adventurers and you are not special. To me it feels like they just ignored that it’s an MMO and made a single player game with online multiplayer content.

[gornotck]

So would you prefer the storyline be where you ARE special, but there are many people like you? The Echo makes you special, but you are one of many people with the Echo, which comes in many flavors and degrees.

[MilesSaintboroguh]

Unless Square decides to focus more on stories where combat and conflict aren't involved, this is what you will get.

[Almalexia]

This is an MMO, the fact that the quests are like a SP mmo is confusing and inappropriate IMO. I know I'm not the only one playing this game, and I know I'm not the only one doing this quest... I prefer the quests that you can actually understand that there is the need for many adventurers and you are not special. To me it feels like they just ignored that it’s an MMO and made a single player game with online multiplayer content.

It requires some suspension of disbelief. The world simultaneously recognizes the PC as one of many and one alone, whichever suits the content better. eg. Crystal Tower says "gather your companions" - who? Meanwhile, Bahamut's Coil presumes it's just you and elf boy, er, girl, er, elf going up against Twintania together and coming out of it in one piece.

Unless the game was designed from the outset to let the player be insignificant until proven otherwise--uncommon for theme park MMOs like XIV--you'll have to reconcile this little bit of silliness and press on.

Eat, breathe, science facts, show, relax, etc.

[Raxiaz]

4. Beast tribes now our enemies because Primals are a threat to Eorzeans and the very "life force" of the planet, the "Aether," takes a huge toll whenever a Primal is materialized. Because of these reasons, we have to defeat Primals. Beast tribes now our enemies because we are killing off their deities.

If that's the case then the world should have already ended from the many times Garuda has had to materialize for me . . . rofl.

[Simaril]

It requires some suspension of disbelief. The world simultaneously recognizes the PC as one of many and one alone, whichever suits the content better. eg. Crystal Tower says "gather your companions" - who? Meanwhile, Bahamut's Coil presumes it's just you and elf boy, er, girl, er, elf going up against Twintania together and coming out of it in one piece.

Unless the game was designed from the outset to let the player be insignificant until proven otherwise--uncommon for theme park MMOs like XIV--you'll have to reconcile this little bit of silliness and press on.

Given that the designers were willing to accept the silliness of the PC being one of many and one alone - whichever suits the content better, you'd think they could come up with a more compelling story than, "bring me some soup, look for some hiding kids, kill one eye, talk to this guy who lied to you before..." I think I could accept one or the other but those two things together bother me.

[whiskeybravo]

There is some disconnect between the older games and new ones. Remember how you used to have to talk to everyone to figure out where to go next? It's not like that anymore, you don't need to talk to anyone because it tells you automatically exactly where to go. It is more convenient, but I think little things like that make it so you don't even need to read to know what to do next (and subsequently make reading the text less interesting/necessary, in general).

That being said, there are some touching moments (moments that touched me anyways) throughout the various story lines. Not all are great, but there are some good moments. There is a lot of text to read sometimes, but at least it's in depth and not just a cheesy one-liner. That, I can respect at least.