HA! What sort of standout storyline does an MMORPG have?!
At last count, FF XI has five distinct, epic storylines (some would argue six, but I don’t count 'Dynamis' as a storyline) which would feel right at home in a non-online version of Final Fantasy. The main problem with the game is that it takes freaking forever to get to the meat of these plots, in effect making every plot point before that little more than really long exposition scene.
For instance, imagine the beginning of FF IX. You know that the play is merely a cover for kidnapping Garnet almost right away. Now instead of how the whole thing played out, imagine that you first had to land the airship in a mini-game, set up the stage, wire all the SFX's, rehearse your lines, get bossed around by the director, cut some actors because they screw around too much, hire some new actors, rehearse these new actors, be guest of honor at banquet thrown by the Queen, then finally get to opening night, and have actually
perform the play
in its entirety, before you can kidnap the princess- which as you recall is only the first story arch of the game. Its no wonder so many people were turned off by FF XI. I thought it was the greatest thing since CT, and I even I had to cancel because it just too to damn long.
My MMORPG would filter out as much of that crap as possible. I just have to figure out how to do it. I'll get back to you on that.
