Where would you rate FFXIV's story compared to other FF games. [Spoilers]

[ddwarbird]

Now that the narrative is completed, I would personally rate FFXIV's story as a good narrative, nothing ground-breaking. I really went into Shadowbringers after my friend told me how amazing FFXIV had become and expected to be blown away but I just never was.

The problem I personally have with the story is the world does not feel fantastical enough, especially compared to other Final Fantasy games and the whole concept of Aether came off as the writers trying to be overly clever and turn it into a "science" rather former concepts like the Lifestream of FFVIII or the Mist from FFIX.

I also felt the story was needlessly pompous in a lot of areas, especially in the use of characters like Urianger that speak in an old-world and somewhat pretentious way, making it rather difficult to understand the story.

I found it really difficult to see the Scions as anything other then "MMO NPCS" because they really did feel like they lacked agency, instead you were having to do fetch quests in the Crysterium and Old Shayalan because they told us to. The narrative could have certainly done with more meaningful options, rather then just slight dialogue changes however I do accept that this is not so much the fault of Square Enix but the problems with MMO's in general.

I just really wanted that moment were I was blown away and I just was not because I found the Ascians boring, especially when we found out more about them. There was no big plot reveal in Endwalker because Hydalean turned out to be exactly as she said and Fandaniel was so annoying that it made Zodiak rather lackluster. The less said about Zenos the better and Metieon is really under-developed and has a rather lackluster design.

The fan service, although cool to begin with became far too distracting, the whole concept of Eden at the end of Shadowbringers was a little too much for personally and I felt it detracted from FFVIII's legacy.

In summary: Compared to the masterpiece stories that were Final Fantasy IX and to a lesser extent Final Fantasy X (Both of which had me in tears at the end. I am still bittersweet about Vivi, 15 years later) and the masterful build up and end battle (and some would say confusing plot) of FFVIII, I would say that FFXIV would rank near the bottom of the other FF stories.

I just feel there can be a thing as "too much detail and worldbuilding" and the more realistic atmosphere to the game and old world dialect makes the game less accessible to players (If you want to call me an idiot or philistine for criticising the dialogue, please feel free).

The stories that are told are just boring compared to the story of FFVII, FFVIII and FFIX and for me, it really didn't have the same impact.

DISCLAIMER: I understand that I may be biased towards FFIX but I had an abusive childhood and FFIX literally stopped me from taking my own life so just a little context there.

[Penthea]

You have made a lot of threads making some manner of complaint in the past few days.

In my opinion FFXIV is leagues ahead of the other FF games with its story but it has the huge advantage of being several times longer so it has more time to build up many threads and get you attached to characters. So I don't think it's fair to compare it to them. Better to compare FFXIV to other mmos with several expansions who have had just as much content to build up a good and very long story.

My personal favourite single player FF stories: FFVII > FFX > FFVI > FFIX > the rest.

[Misutoraru]

I have only play two FF title outside FFXIV, FFT and FFVII. For FFXIV, it is roller coaster for me, have to rate expansion to expansion.
My Personal rating
FFT>FFVII=HW=ShB>EW>ARR=SB

[Floortank]

VII > X > Shadowbringers > Tactics > Most of the others > Stormblood > Dissidia

[Caurcas]

Inferior to 12 and Tactics.

[Thaciscokidd]

VI > Tactics > IV> X > Heavensward > Shadowbringers > VII > All Others, Stormblood, and Tentative of later patches Endwalker > XII > XIII

[linayar]

Honestly, it's been a while since I've played the other games and I don't remember their stories much anymore. So, recency bias would put XIV near the top in terms of the story alone (based on 2.0-6.0), probably second only to IX for me. That said, I've only ever completed VII, VIII, IX, and XIII. I came close to the end of XII, but never completed it.

In terms of overall enjoyment, XIV is definitely number 1 now as it is an ever-continuing game. Sadly, the single player games have stopped their content.

[JohncarterIx]

I like shadowbringer it was sad to with the warriors of darkness . We just fought them in another stormblood and there already 100 years dead ? And the ship did the flood not them

[Enla]

Surprised by your comments about Meteion given your praise of 9. Especially since Meteion is essentially what happens if the writers ask 'hey remember Necron? Yeah instead of having an eleventh hour boss that's thematically relevant but kind of out of left field, let's actually make them a character so the twist pays off for more people'.

In terms of rating... (Only rating games I've played for more than a couple hours - which excludes FF4.)
FF9 > FF6/FF14 > FF7 > FF12 > FF5 > FF10 > FF8 >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> FF3.

Out of all of them, FF3 is the only one I wouldn't replay or consider particularly good. Groundbreaking and important for the franchise but a literal chore to play. While FF14 falters in many ways, I appreciate the story it's trying to tell and don't find it inferior to any of the past FF games.

[Hyrist]

Honestly, I'd say that this deserves a disclaimer of age as well as your rating. I'd dare say that people's rankings invariably shift depending on when they were introduced into Final Fantasy.

FF rankings exist as long as I've been able to play games, and comparing them, is literally comparing tastes, not quality.

That said, the Hydaelyn/Zodiark saga hits the realm of the greats for me. While I refuse to demean the series by putting a ranking chart on it. There are those that were life changing for me.

I'm 38. FFVI was my first I really got to sink my teeth into. It was FFXI that exposed me to MMORPGs and its story and environment rose games to a new height for me. But FFXIV is a personal story for me - having followed it and played since 1.0 Release. There's no way it can't be anything but momentous.

I rate it as "life transforming" for me, and many others.