Story?

[Moomba33]

If you don't mind me asking, who's your favorite character(s) and why?

Sure. My favourites have changed over the years so I'll talk about a few characters if that's alright.

Back during the A Realm Reborn days my favourite character was Y'shtola. While I enjoyed playing the people's hero that slayed primals I appreciated her for calling out Merlwyb on the fact that some of the problems were self inflicted with the Lominsans breaking their treaty with the Kobolds leading to the summoning of Titan. It helped to flesh out that there were two sides to every conflict. I also liked smaller details that connected her to the world like when I leveled summoner and met her sister (the trainer).

During Heavensward my favourite was Aymeric. The idealistic leader committed to the well being of the people is an archetype I enjoy but I also appreciated that his idealism didn't always work out for the best. For example, when his poor decision to confront his father led to the loss of an ally at the Vault.
For Heavensward as a whole I consider it to have the strongest soundtrack of the game so far. When I reached the final steps of faith I felt the weight of my journey so far as well as the excitement of the battle in later phases.

I won't give specific examples for my favourite Stormblood character since you haven't met him yet. I'll just say that he's a leader that wanted to make sure that war was the path desired by his people before charging in. For an expansion centered around revolution I liked that some time was spent considering if it was the right/necessary way forward.

For the game as a whole....I'll be in the minority that actually likes Alphinaud. I feel he's the character that has most benefited from this being an MMO instead of a single player game. His arc from an arrogant youth to losing everything to trying to pull himself back up to help the people he cares about feels very real to me because of the years I've spent watching him grow. At this point I imagine my WoL sees him as a kid brother she's seen rise and fall and shared some of her best and worst moments with.

I guess overall I can say the game hits a sweet spot for me where I can play out my heroic fantasies but still has enough moments of darkness that I don't feel infallible . The music elevates what could be just a bunch of cliches into something emotional and meaningful. And seeing these characters change over the years has helped to endear them to me compared to characters in single player games.