Final Fantasy XIV doesn't actually have that good of a story

[WhiteArchmage]

Characters also actually do things even when they're off-screen that come up later, in most other games your character is the center of the universe that solves all problems but in FFXIV that's not really the case.
In FFXIV characters are active even when they're away from you and then when you meet them again it turns out they've actually been up to something that matters instead of shoving that unto the player too.

*Stares at Hoary Boulder, Coultenet, Riol, F'lhaminn, Arenvald, Isildaure, the minor Domans, basically all the Scions, half the named Ishgardians, the entirety of Doma...*

Talking to the "random" NPCs in the Rising Stones/Waking Sands in-between quests reveals A LOT about the plot.

[WanderingMist]

*Stares at Hoary Boulder, Coultenet, Riol, F'lhaminn, Arenvald, Isildaure, the minor Domans, basically all the Scions, half the named Ishgardians, the entirety of Doma...*

Talking to the "random" NPCs in the Rising Stones/Waking Sands in-between quests reveals A LOT about the plot.

Which brings me to one of the biggest principles of good story-telling: "Show, don't tell"

We are constantly told by Minfillia how much each Scion does for the cause, but if we never see it, it means nothing.