Awfully weak story... or is it? [WARNING:SPOILERS]

[Arriverderci]

FFXI had the best characters and stories I have ever seen in my 25 years of gaming carreer (excluding, maybe, Mass Effect and Silent Hill), so it's not really comparable. And yeah, if you read carefully last part of main story, it's pretty clear Gaius was not only a honorable man, but also his actions, was he succeed, would actually save and evolve planet. So, yeah, I would sign for an empire in a heart beat.

Believe it or not, I was actually thrown into a loop when I saw Thancred the...Laberurea whatever. I was so damn surprised LOL.
I totally forgot about him. I liked Cid. Him, Biggs and Wedge are my faves. The whole Amnesia thing was stupid though.

I have to laugh whenever people raise FFXI as an example of quality storytelling when it took five years for the storyline to truly get going.

I expect a decent storyline and not take 40 levels to actually pay much attention.
I liked AION's storyline as soon I started playing it.
I never played FFXI but the story does seem pretty interesting.
The craft/gather story is pretty good to me...just the main storyline is not what I was expecting.
The Scion's aren't all that cool...