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

[Fellgon]

I was just mindlessly shitposting but being better than a cheesy romance novel or 50 Shades of Ugh is a hilariously low bar.

My actual opinion on 14's story is that it's alright. It's not God's gift to man as some people would have you believe, nor is it the worst thing to ever exist. I have my gripes with the story such as Shadowbringer's tagline being misleading (Become the Warrior of Darkness except you never actually use the Darkness, in fact you win solely because of the Blessing of Light letting you eat Lightwardens for breakfast), Varis getting sidelined for more Zenos, Garlemald being all but guaranteed to be a ruined shadow of it's former self before we even reach the dang place, and other things that I don't really feel like elaborating on right now.

It ain't the worst, but it certainly ain't the best either.

yes. i like the Heavensward, for me was the best expansion.

[Thaciscokidd]

The story is good, not CT/4/6/10 level but no where near the bottom. The only complaint is that sometimes the WoL to the Scions is like Vaan from 12 is like to his cast. You're there in presence but the story is about Ashe and Basch.

[BaconBits]

The story is good, not CT/4/6/10 level but no where near the bottom. The only complaint is that sometimes the WoL to the Scions is like Vaan from 12 is like to his cast. You're there in presence but the story is about Ashe and Basch.

I still find it hilarious that Vaan has as much presence as a particularly noisy brick wall, but the stats of a God. Strength tied with Basch, 3rd highest Magic below Ashe and Penelo, 2nd highest Vitality below Fran, 2nd highest speed below Balthier, 2nd high max HP below Basch, and 3rd highest max mp below Ashe and Penelo.

For someone who just happens to be along for the ride, he's got main protagonist stats.

[Lauront]

My recommendations would be:

Vagrant Story, Shadow Hearts, Forbidden Siren, The Legend of Dragoon, Grandia 2, Ghost of Tsushima and Final Fantasy 12.

I'd add the following to that list: Baldur's Gate 1 and 2 (massively recommend this one), Throne of Bhaal, Planescape: Torment, Icewind Dale 1 and 2 (very atmospheric games with beautiful music) and Divinity: Original Sin 2. Still waiting for full release of Baldur's Gate 3 before I comment on that. Someone already mentioned KOTOR, and I'd add KOTOR 2 to that.

JRPG-wise, it'd be FF7 (and yes, its remake too), FF8, FF9, FF Type 0, Chrono Trigger, Chrono Cross, Xenoblade Chronicles and I also enjoyed FF15 in spite of its bumpy release. I don't always care for the themes they run with but some of them are still fun and memorable games. Octopath Traveler, even if not the most novel or well written stories, had a pretty interesting style to it, as well; I'm hoping the upcoming Project Triangle can improve on that sort of formula. I do wish Matsuno would write more games!

The game and its story is really lengthy so I give it some benefit of the doubt but I agree, for the most part. Some moments are great. But I just find myself bored or annoyed at the progress, most of the time. The characters are largely dull and have no life outside of their involvement with you or whatever the villain of the expansion is, the major enemies have little time to be built up, and they use cheap relationships and revelations that make no sense to try and give the story more impact at the last minute. They've gotten better, for sure, but I'd still say about 70% of the game is just downright bad writing. ShB's MSQ was great, don't get me wrong, but after that it's been a return to mediocrity.

I've been playing Genshin Impact up to the latest release and I'd say it blows FFXIV's story outta the water in storytelling. The characters are more dynamic, there's poetry and philosophy, and they make sure to tie it into the story so it all has relevance in theme and atmosphere. Not to say the side-quests in FFXIV don't have their moments, but again it's sparse moments of greatness spread out between things that are generally lackluster.

And yes, all just my opinion, yada yada. I'll go to my grave saying several of the main antagonists have been written horribly, though.

I agree with that. It's a mixed bag. Base 5.0 and parts of 5.2-5.55 are good to great, but it's not 1) the best story ever nor is it 2) unambiguously great, manifesting the issues you mentioned. I also don't always like the story direction/"themes". Part of it is also down to it being an MMO, and a faction-less one at that, so they have to be a bit more linear in the storytelling, whereas I tend to like having more control over how my character reacts to things etc., or at least being able to pick one closer to my tastes, but I won't hold that against it as it comes down to personal preferences more so than a flaw per se.

[Poporito_Popoto]

yes. i like the Heavensward, for me was the best expansion.

For me, it was the worst, especially the guy who kept hitting on my female character.

I didn't shed any tears for him at the end.

[KizuyaKatogami]

I played a lot of other Final Fantasy's and a lot of gaming sites say that FF14 has one of the best stories in the franchise so I tried it out. This is an issue of the hype killing the game. FF14 has a good story but it's not as good as the hype makes it out to be so in the end I was disappointed. I can give you 50 games that had a better story than FF14.

The first issue is that there is too much filler in the story that adds next to nothing to the lore or the story. Having to play hide and seek with children is not interesting. Having to harvest vegetables as the freaking Warrior of Light is stupid. The game suffers from being an MMO by having to give you way too much filler.

The second issue is that the game can't be as immersive as modern story-driven games. The Last of Us 2 is capable of making you feel sad, angry, and horrified because the game is designed in a very immersive manner. FF14 makes you read the dialogues which isn't as immersive as modern story games.

The third issue is that even in world-ending, cataclysmic events, there is no sense of urgency. This is partially because FF14 isn't as immersive as single player games. It's also because there are way too many Mary Sue moments in the game where you expect someone to die but they miraculously survive. After a few Mary Sue moments you just don't expect anyone to die anymore. Because of that there is not much tension to be felt in the story.

I'm not saying the story is bad, but it's definitely not one of the best stories in a video game nor is it really even one of the better stories among the Final Fantasy franchise. I enjoyed FF14 and it does have a better story than WoW but I don't think it matches up to actual single player games at all. So I really don't get the hype and IMO people have just not played enough thought-provoking story games outside of FF14. Saying it has one of the best stories in video gaming history is an exaggeration at best.

I have to agree. I’ve played every other single player final fantasy game in the series. I was super excited to start playing 14 and for awhile i had a lot of fun and enjoyed the story a lot. I actually liked ARR my first run through and heavenward. Even sb was pretty okay to me but had big flaws. ShB was when i realized the story was kind of taking a nosedive and the post patches just confirmed this. I wish they’d go back to their roots in their storytelling. Dark stories like Heavensward and ARR were nice. The story right now just feels like a huge slice of life anime and it feels like it’s catered to kids lol

[Garnix]

But the patches were in direct connection with ARR and HW though...Pirates, tempering, Tiamat, dragons, beast tribes...
I mean, yeah it certainly had some very 'childish' moments (the humor, porxies) and slice of life moments. But that certainly is not the only thing there is to it.

[Averax]

It doesn't break any boundaries, but it's not bad either. I like the never-ending story aspect we have here, and it does get better over time.

I recently replayed through ARR. Man we started off weak, from both a storytelling and voice acting perspective (in english). Both got better over time

(man, the 2.X voice actors were super bad at first, but by the end were rather comfortable in their roles. Got very used to them again before the Heavensward switch, which is just as jarring as i remember it being)

One day i hope we can reach the heights of 1.X cutscene fidelity. Those intro cutscenes back then were gorgeous

[ScionN7]

As a WoW refugee, watching FFXIV fans complain about the story, is like watching upper class people at a fancy restaurant complain that there's not quite enough fat in their steak to really give it extra flavor. Meanwhile I've been eating Taco Bell for the past decade.

[Mezzoforte]

I think this is a WoW player trying to attack FF14 because their game is dying. WoW players do this a lot anytime WoW starts suffering they go into other games and just start troll posting for some reason. I don't understand why but it is the nature of the beast.

As a WoW refugee, watching FFXIV fans complain about the story, is like watching upper class people at a fancy restaurant complain that there's not quite enough fat in their steak to really give it extra flavor. Meanwhile I've been eating Taco Bell for the past decade.

This guy is 100% on top of it. FF14 does have a really great story, it is a bit slow in ARR, and a bit choppy in Stormblood, but Heavensward and Shadowbringers are 10,000% on point for be exceptional and better than a majority of single player games. Probably better than any single player game released in the last 15 years. I do find it weird that almost all the complaints about the story from trolls or people who barely played it are about World Building components that are needed to make the story have more impact. It takes a lot more effort to feel for the world than it does just doing a standard "aw puppy got kicked FEEL SAD" storyline which is what is being brought up the most.