The game and its current state

[Adire]

snip.

I use The Secret World as a comparison to this game a lot. Its story and side stories blows FFXIV's out of the water in my opinion if we want to compare MMO storylines. The quests themselves are more unique too in their formula. There are investigation quests that actually require research outside the game (such as one requiring you to figure out that you're supposed to scan a bar code, another where you have to translate morse code, etc).

I'm not really interested in comparing it to other MMOs though. I just take FFXIV's story for what it is to me - lackluster. Not compared to anything, just lackluster on its own. For an MMO, sure, it may be above average compared to most, I'll agree. But on its own, it isn't anything special for me.

It has not engaged me for the majority of it. The only time I've been engaged by XIV's story is for certain memorable characters and their deaths.

The strong points of this game for me are the combat, game systems (such as the ability for one character to play any job), and grinds that don't drive me to the brink of insanity or make me run out of things to do too quickly. Not the story. I have The Witcher 3 for example for my story desires.