Lore, FFXI or FFXIV

[Nalien]

I'm fond of Primals over Avatars in just about every way and I feel like they're more developed on the lore-scale in general.

Hmm... I'm much more fond of XIs Elemental six than XIVs... The backstory surrounding the Avatars just blows what most of the Primals have out the water... We've got some mythology for Primals, but for the most part its a couple sentences at best... Good King is probably my favorite, just from speculation on his origin (their relation to the Twelve being Thordans Twelve Knights, rather than the Twelve, the calamity in the sky being Nidhoggs rage, rather than second(?) Umbral Era, etc.), but even that pales in comparison to the short stories we got with the six Avatars...

I think XI did a much better job of making the summons part of its world, where as with XIV they're just there because its a Final Fantasy title and here's a quick justification for their existence... Even if most of the short stories revolving around the Avatars had absolutely no grounding in the game (though Ramuhs Olduum civilization eventually bore fruit).

[Tanathya]

Hmm... I'm much more fond of XIs Elemental six than XIVs... The backstory surrounding the Avatars just blows what most of the Primals have out the water... We've got some mythology for Primals, but for the most part its a couple sentences at best... Good King is probably my favorite, just from speculation on his origin (their relation to the Twelve being Thordans Twelve Knights, rather than the Twelve, the calamity in the sky being Nidhoggs rage, rather than second(?) Umbral Era, etc.), but even that pales in comparison to the short stories we got with the six Avatars...

I think XI did a much better job of making the summons part of its world, where as with XIV they're just there because its a Final Fantasy title and here's a quick justification for their existence... Even if most of the short stories revolving around the Avatars had absolutely no grounding in the game (though Ramuhs Olduum civilization eventually bore fruit).

I remember avatars having a developed lore, and they had stories explaining how they turned to be celestial avatars, so I agree with this. FFXIV's feel somewhat shallow, most of them.

[CyrilLucifer]

I think XI did a much better job of making the summons part of its world, where as with XIV they're just there because its a Final Fantasy title and here's a quick justification for their existence... Even if most of the short stories revolving around the Avatars had absolutely no grounding in the game (though Ramuhs Olduum civilization eventually bore fruit).

I originally had something similar to that typed up with the Fenrir comment. Fenrir really felt like his summoning impacted and molded so much of Windurst's current culture. In XIV, I want to say the summoning almost feels detached. However, I prefer the idea of strength based upon the summoner's faith, and how it can be twisted and mutated so yes, Thordan is exactly what I enjoy about XIV's summons.

Actually, I feel the same with Beast Tribes. Again this may just be the XIV method of storytelling, but I feel like XI's beast tribes are a lot more integrated into the culture of the cities. XIV suffers a lot by using the current modern MMO storytelling methods for quests, in my opinion.

Belated edit: I'd also like to give Bastok a neat little thumb's up for basically being the only "industrial" city in a fantasy MMO that I enjoy from a lore perspective. I love the struggle for natural resources with the Quadav, I love the class struggle and racial struggle, and I love how those all accumulated into an embodiment of hate that almost destroyed the world (or actually did, in the true XI universe. yay multiverses). It's not like the fake pretentious "aloof" racism in San d'Oria or what we see in Gridania that is more of a "tell, don't show" type racism. I feel like Ishgard is trying to emulate it, but it isn't really working.

[Haprimac]

Good King is probably my favorite, just from speculation on his origin (their relation to the Twelve being Thordans Twelve Knights, rather than the Twelve, the calamity in the sky being Nidhoggs rage, rather than second(?) Umbral Era, etc.), but even that pales in comparison to the short stories we got with the six Avatars...

Where was that mentioned? o.o I can't honestly remember anything like that, but it sounds super interesting. Was it the moogle sidequests? Must've been, because I didn't have the patience to read through all those kupos.