Lore, FFXI or FFXIV

[Hinoto-no-Ryuji]

This is interesting! I just started playing XI, and while I've in no way experienced what those who played it even 5 years ago did, I can give a crack at my impressions so far. Disclaimer: I'm still very much at the beginning of the story, so I can't comment about how the Primals compare to the Avatars (although I deeply disagree that anything related to Primal lore is shallow), or how the Beast Tribes compare (so far, about the same, but it's not hard to imagine XI going more in-depth than XIV, where much of the BT conflict is basically flavor text), or whatever. And despite what I'm about to say, I am enjoying my time in Vana'Diel.

That said, so far? Lore-wise and world-wise, XIV is trumping it. I appreciate XI's method of going about things - it certainly does feel more like a big, dangerous world - but it doesn't actually make me feel immersed nor does it bleed history in the way XIV does. Early on, XIV's lore and the sense of Eorzea being a lived-in world with a long history behind it is what snagged me and kept me playing (I believe it was walking up to Ul'Dah and seeing "The 80 Sins of Sasamo" flash up on the screen that first gave me that sense, but it was far from the last thing). Nothing in XI has made me feel that. The cities don't feel as alive, the world doesn't feel as vibrant. Part of that is likely age, but I really do think XIV goes out of its way to make its world stand out as and feel like an Actual Place far earlier and more often than XI.

It probably doesn't help that, as far as story presentation goes, XIV is trumping XI too. I haven't actually hit any real story yet (just the city stuff up to around Jeuno, and whatever Rhapsodies is on about), but for all that XIV could work on its presentation, it's LEAGUES better at that than XI has been. Stuff just kind of happens in XI; there's no sense of narrative flow or build, and having every single add-on and expansion start up when I enter the relevant area is disorienting and distracting. And main stories aside, I feel like much of the world's lore has to be sought out and discovered on one's own...which would be fine, if the world was actually one conducive to exploring and seeking out stories in. XI is not that world. Maybe the story is super rewarding for those who find it, but when you need to spend months to years digging around a game (or using the internet) to experience it, it's far from the first thing I'm going to turn to when I want to have a story told to me.

I hear Chains of Promathia is excellent, though. Really interested in working my way up to that.