i never played ff11 what was the story like?

[papichulo123]

can any1 summarize what happened?

[Akuryu]

It's going to be difficult for anyone to summarize nearly 15 years of story.

I will say that, IMO, Chains of Promathia had the best story of any MMO, including FFXIV.

[Ruri]

It's going to be difficult for anyone to summarize nearly 15 years of story.

I will say that, IMO, Chains of Promathia had the best story of any MMO, including FFXIV.

I completely agree. COP was amazingly epic in every way.

And yes its impossible to explain the whole history of Vanadiel (probably spelled wrong) since its been out for so long. But I am sure there is a webpage or something that explains it pretty well.

[Tagihi]

It has a very good story, And telling whole story gona take longtime. Beside best is to play it.

[Lewtskie]

XI's story at the majority was very solemn and somewhat melancholy. You are confronted much like Eorzea's, but on a much less positive scale. Everything is in turmoil, all nations have just been beaten down by endless struggles from many different points. Honestly where as XIV kinda plays out halfway like a saturday morning cartoon sometimes, I'd probably compare XI's story to maybe a HBO light-drama. Still some humorous moments, but they played them out much better than some of the ham-fisted scenes in XIV. Plus when that game tugged some heart strings, it really hurt.

[DragonSlayer45]

I'll just explain the basics and say that the game is set twenty years after the end of the Crystal War that ravaged Vana'diel. The three nations of Vana'diel: San d'Oria, Bastok and Windurst militarized to meet the threat posed by the beastmen led by the Shadow Lord. They sought adventurers (the player) to bring peace to the land and drive back the beastmen.

That's only the prologue. A simple google search can better summarize each expansion's plot and the overarching story of FFXI.

And yes, COP's story is amazing. I really think its one of those stories that you have to experience for yourself.

[Enkidoh]

The thing is, arguably FFXI's story truly finished at the end of Chains of Promathia (the second expansion) - everything else that came after was just either side-stories not directly connected to the main storyline (like Treasures of Aht Urhgan), or completely retcons and invalidates everything in the story that you did previously (Wings of the Goddess, Abyssea), to the point the story ran well and truly off the rails.

And from what little I've played of the final expansion Seekers of Adoulin, it's clear the FFXI team has been sneaking around the FFXIV team cubicles and 'borrowing' story and concept ideas, as I'm seeing a lot of similar ideas from FFXIV popping up in odd places in Adoulin (the GEO Job being seemingly lore wise a thinly disguised CNJ), the 'Twelve Orders of Knights', a sentient forest that frustrates intruders and even claims them as it's own, aetheryte camps, sorry, bivouacs... yeah...

However, FFXI's story was still amazing and had many twists and unexpected revelations occurring throughout it's narrative. It just started to fall into retconning in later years sadly.

The other problem with FFXI's story is unlike here in FFXIV where the story does actively involve you as the main protagonist (the Warrior of Light), FFXI... you were treated generally as more of a sidekick to the real stars of the narrative like Aldo, Lion, Prishe and Lisette. A nameless adventurer that just happened to be in the right place at the right time to become involved in battles for Vana'diel's future, and who never really was given the proper credit, the story npcs always taking the lion's share of the narrative time. We were there just along for the ride basically. Ah well, I still loved FFXI's story either way, despite these brickbats.

[JonLuso]

And from what little I've played of the final expansion Seekers of Adoulin, it's clear the FFXI team has been sneaking around the FFXIV team cubicles and 'borrowing' story and concept ideas, as I'm seeing a lot of similar ideas from FFXIV popping up in odd places in Adoulin (the GEO Job being seemingly lore wise a thinly disguised CNJ), the 'Twelve Orders of Knights', a sentient forest that frustrates intruders and even claims them as it's own, aetheryte camps, sorry, bivouacs... yeah...

The other problem with FFXI's story is unlike here in FFXIV where the story does actively involve you as the main protagonist (the Warrior of Light), FFXI... you were treated generally as more of a sidekick to the real stars of the narrative like Aldo, Lion, Prishe and Lisette. A nameless adventurer that just happened to be in the right place at the right time to become involved in battles for Vana'diel's future, and who never really was given the proper credit, the story npcs always taking the lion's share of the narrative time. We were there just along for the ride basically. Ah well, I still loved FFXI's story either way, despite these brickbats.

Maybe for 1.0, yeah, SoA borrowed from that, but they instituted things in that game before 2.0 launched, such as the use of item levels, a version of FATEs called Reives and home point teleports within areas or zones (aethernet).

Rhapsodies of Vana'diel pretty much makes your main character more important than anyone else now. Shame that it took this long for you to truly take center-stage.

Quick questions, is it possible to purchase the game and just burn through the story solo in the free month? Are the quests simple to follow like FFXIV with the quest markers being special for MSQ or will I have to look up which quests to follow?

I doubt you'll be able to finish the story in a month. Maybe 2-3 because of the items for certain quests you'll either need to save up to buy from the Auction House (which can be a sizable amount of gil) for proceeding through the quest line or periods of time where you're forced to wait until JP midnight time for certain events to continue/reset. Not to mention the grind you'll need to have when you you want actually solo the bosses yourself (item level gear is pretty much necessitated to alleviate the sub-par AI some of the Alter Egos have).

The quests are not marked with an arrow or indicator. The quest description in the menu is all that you have to go by. The NPC either gives vague hints or leaves you to figure it out, which was appropriate back then for this type of game since it was one of the first of its kind. Nowadays, people just look up info on anything XI-related on BG Wiki, FFXI Encyclopaedia Wiki or the FFXI AH Wiki.

[Calypsx]

The other problem with FFXI's story is unlike here in FFXIV where the story does actively involve you as the main protagonist (the Warrior of Light), FFXI... you were treated generally as more of a sidekick to the real stars of the narrative like Aldo, Lion, Prishe and Lisette. A nameless adventurer that just happened to be in the right place at the right time to become involved in battles for Vana'diel's future, and who never really was given the proper credit, the story npcs always taking the lion's share of the narrative time. We were there just along for the ride basically. Ah well, I still loved FFXI's story either way, despite these brickbats.

This was probably my favorite thing about XI's story. I kind of feel like my character being the center of everything is a little cheesy I guess. I'm more interested in the story npcs development than my own to be honest.

[SendohJin]

The other problem with FFXI's story is unlike here in FFXIV where the story does actively involve you as the main protagonist (the Warrior of Light), FFXI... you were treated generally as more of a sidekick to the real stars of the narrative like Aldo, Lion, Prishe and Lisette. A nameless adventurer that just happened to be in the right place at the right time to become involved in battles for Vana'diel's future, and who never really was given the proper credit, the story npcs always taking the lion's share of the narrative time. We were there just along for the ride basically. Ah well, I still loved FFXI's story either way, despite these brickbats.

this is the best part of XI and unlike the WoL in FFXIV, that means you do a lot less dumb stuff that's out of character and forced on you by the story. in comparison to the FF series in general, you're kind of like Vaan in Ashe's story.

and it's not as much as you're in the right place at the right time, you earn your Rank for your starting nation and you represent them most of the time as one of their heroes/champions. that's how you end up in most of those situations, it's not by accident.

also you get tons of credit from the Rhapsodies missions.