hwarang

Member
Oct 27, 2017
3,470
I'm currently going through ESO and having a blast. Star Wars: The Old Republic is next in queue (Imperial Agent story).

Any other recommendations? (I have also heard good things about Star Trek online. How is it?)

Top mentions to those lurking opening post -

The Secret World (Unconventional settings such as Transylvania, Tokyo, Lovecraft-aesthetics)
Star Wars: The Old Republic (Distinct class stories and distinct faction stories per planet up until Chapter 5 *which is enough content and brings class closure)
Guild Wars 2
FFXIV (Heavensward & onward)
FF XI
The Elder Scrolls Online
 
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Cenauru

Dragon Girl Supremacy
Member
Oct 25, 2017
6,175
Final Fantasy XIV. The main story is singleplayer (outside of story dungeons) and completely mandatory. It's a Final Fantasy game first, and an MMO second.
 

DrForester

Mod of the Year 2006
Member
Oct 25, 2017
22,173
Final Fantasy XIV. There are still dungeons and raids, but with the party finder system, you can queue up and then do you own thing until then.
 

atomsk eater

Member
Oct 25, 2017
3,872
Yeah, FFXIV. I played a good bit of it solo except for the dungeons. Traveling solo usually isn't a problem since there's multiple ways to get around and really strong aggro monsters are easy to avoid.
 

kennyamr

Banned
Oct 25, 2017
3,587
New York, NY, USA
FFXIV is very good in that sense. They are even adding an AI squad to help solo players get around the game with the next expansion (Summer 2019).
It has good lore too, the start may drag on for a while, but later on (after lvl 50) the story gets much, much better (the 2 expansions are VERY good lorewise).
Give it a try, you can play for free (with some restrictions) until level 35.
 

Android Sophia

The Absolute Sword
The Fallen
Oct 25, 2017
6,222
Final Fantasy XIV or Final Fantasy XI.

XIV is mostly soloable, save for the dungeons which has a matchmaking system.

XI has the Trusts system, which allows you to solo almost anything before the level cap. It's a bit dated, however.

Both have insanely good lore, story, and world building.
 

Enforcer

The Fallen
Oct 27, 2017
2,968
Definitely Guild Wars 2. It even has jumping puzzles. Lots of activities to do.

Once you reach end game your stuff doesn't get invalidated after you take a break.
 

Malkier

Member
Oct 25, 2017
1,911
Guild wars 2 was pretty good but haven't played the expansions.

Ff14 if you got a LOT of time on your hands.
 

Deleted member 2229

User requested account closure
Member
Oct 25, 2017
6,740
Outside of raids in Warcraft which have major story beats in them the rest of the story you get from single player content.
 
Dec 6, 2018
574
Adding to the FF14 hype, as someone who is perpetually afraid of being a deadweight to the party I still logged in a lot of hours doing random stuff and only getting through the first few dungeons. Really excited for the trust system!
 

Harp

Banned
Oct 27, 2017
1,206
I cannot recommend Secret World enough, especially if you want to get away from more traditional fantasy or fantasy-in-space (star wars). It takes a lot from horror writers like Clive Barker, Steven King, and, of course, H.P. Lovecraft, and you get to explore a lot of really cool locations. Lore is legit awesome and does a good job of being fun horror fantasy, conspiracy thriller, and goofy parody all at once.

Classes are pretty original and interesting, there's a ton of customization, and combat is really actiony and fun. I'd compare it to TESO's combat, where it's basically traditional mmo combat with some hacky slashy action thrown in for funsies.

Definitely check it out. It's a very fresh take on the genre, and there's a boatload of content in there to last you for a very long time.
 

Chasing

The Fallen
Oct 26, 2017
11,129
Echoing FFXIV. Heavensward is peak FF that too many fans have failed to touch.
 

whiteninja

One Winged Slayer
The Fallen
Oct 27, 2017
1,794
Everquest is actually very solo-able now. Being so old means there a crap ton of lore

STO is great and the missions are pretty much designed to solo. The unfortunate part are the loot-boxes with really horrible odds.

Last time I played (trial) FFXIV I had to wait like 40-60+ mins to get a mandatory party for some of the dungeon missions. Kinda killed my interest in the game.
 

Silver-Streak

Member
Oct 25, 2017
3,015
FFXIV, Star Trek Online, LOTRO (if you're feeling more classical style MMOs. Every class is a hybrid other than maybe Guardian and Champion), SWTOR, and The Secret World.
 

Deleted member 8861

User requested account closure
Banned
Oct 26, 2017
10,564
Aye. He's right. Heavensward onward would easily give any mainline Final Fantasy game a run for it's money, if not outright surpasses it.



And the award for "Didn't read the OP closely enough" goes to... :D
Don't know what part of my comment you're referring to, but yeah it's almost all single-player until endgame. Of course, you can do dungeons and other stuff with friends, but if you want just story, it's almost completely single player.
you just sold me
 
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OP
hwarang

hwarang

Member
Oct 27, 2017
3,470
I cannot recommend Secret World enough, especially if you want to get away from more traditional fantasy or fantasy-in-space (star wars). It takes a lot from horror writers like Clive Barker, Steven King, and, of course, H.P. Lovecraft, and you get to explore a lot of really cool locations. Lore is legit awesome and does a good job of being fun horror fantasy, conspiracy thriller, and goofy parody all at once.

Classes are pretty original and interesting, there's a ton of customization, and combat is really actiony and fun. I'd compare it to TESO's combat, where it's basically traditional mmo combat with some hacky slashy action thrown in for funsies.

Definitely check it out. It's a very fresh take on the genre, and there's a boatload of content in there to last you for a very long time.

Are the story content similar in both the original and "remake" enough to where I would be content with the latter?
 

Bonezz

Prophet of Truth
Member
Oct 25, 2017
601
Pennsylvania
Probably FFXIV and GW2. I wouldn't recommend WoW to anybody to play for the "story". From a lore standpoint the leveling experience is a clusterfuck and not much will make sense because of how the expansions released.
 

cmdrshepard

The Fallen
Oct 30, 2017
1,558
Do yourself a favour and play at least the imp agent and the Jedi Knight in SWTOR as both the classes play differently and the story beats on the empire and republic side are different. These days I recommend subbing for a month and then you get the expansions all for free too (yours to keep even if you go F2P later)
 

PanzerKraken

Member
Nov 1, 2017
15,197
SWTOR offers insane amount of storyline to play through for free now. They also went back and streamlined the leveling experience so solo players can play through the story easier with having to do less MMO like side quests, and can focus largely on the main storyline instead. Subscribe for just one month and it unlocks all the expansions forever released up to that point you subscribe, they don't go away when you cancel
 

Thorn

Banned
Oct 25, 2017
24,446
I would have said The Secret World...before they screwed it up with their overhaul.
 
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OP
hwarang

hwarang

Member
Oct 27, 2017
3,470
Do yourself a favour and play at least the imp agent and the Jedi Knight in SWTOR as both the classes play differently and the story beats on the empire and republic side are different. These days I recommend subbing for a month and then you get the expansions all for free too (yours to keep even if you go F2P later)

In regards to the universal planets visited by each side, does the story also play differently for each planet? (Excluding the side-exclusive planets)
 

SweetNicole

The Old Guard
Member
Oct 24, 2017
6,544
If you want a solo MMO do SWTOR

  • Different stories per planet for both Republic and Empire
  • Different class based stories too
  • All fully voice acted with great casting
  • Great writing
Easily 50+ hours of story to play there

Would recommend Imperial Agent + Jedi Knight + Sith Warrior/Inquisitor
 

BossAttack

Member
Oct 27, 2017
43,745
Star Wars The Old Republic will fulfill all your needs on that front. The entire "MMO" is really just a SP RPG with Online elements. As you mentioned, do the Imperial Agent storyline first, then Jedi Knight and after that whatever else you fancy.

If you want a solo MMO do SWTOR

  • Different stories per planet for both Republic and Empire
  • Different class based stories too
  • All fully voice acted with great casting
  • Great writing
Easily 50+ hours of story to play there

Would recommend Imperial Agent + Jedi Knight + Sith Warrior/Inquisitor

Yep/
 

Deleted member 18021

User requested account closure
Banned
Oct 27, 2017
4,000
FFXIV is the best FF game that does not have "Tactics" in its title.

Reciepts:




XI's story is great, but the game itself and how it's presented probably isn't going to be terribly palatable to fresh eyes in 2018. Free trial, though.
 

cmdrshepard

The Fallen
Oct 30, 2017
1,558
In regards to the universal planets visited by each side, does the story also play differently for each planet? (Excluding the side-exclusive planets)

Essentially on each main planet there will be 3-6 main "class" story missions that will be purple in your quest log. There will also be on each planet a "World" story arc that you can pick up and do (from again a purple, mission critical quest giver and most are worth doing) and they differ per faction (so 2 world arcs on each planet, one per faction - only tatooine has the same World story beats for each faction). All side quests as well are completely faction dependent.

It is worthwhile having a look on fleet every now and again for purple quests to mission critical "flashpoints". Some of these are important to understanding the story. See the guide below (you are safe to ignoe the bonus series and operation icons and most of the flashpoint icons minus the chapter two flashpoints (Boarding Party + Foundry on Empire and Taral V and Maelstrom Prison - all can soloed)

swtor_story_progression__planets_and_flashpoints_by_dreamingeisha-d6wwupy.png

So thats the gist of it levels 1-50 (ending on Ilum) and also in the first expansion Rise of the Hutt Cartel (Makeb).

Faction specific story and class story ends in Shadow of Revan and subsequent expansions (for the most part). You will not need to play these newer expansions twice but the quality of the expansions in terms of cutscenes and storytelling i believe are vastly improved in Knights of the Eternal Empire and Eternal Throne.

As was said above - Easily 40+ hours content for a run through start to finish for a new player on one toon. Easily 65+ for two characters.

More then happy for you to reply or pm me any questions. Google dulfy and give her site a read as it is essentially the authority on SWTOR.
 
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Callibretto

Member
Oct 25, 2017
9,655
Indonesia
holy fuck, seriously?
yeah, the xp gain has been tailored that if you do the single player and some sidequest along the main story, you will level according the main story mission level requirement. you can ignore everything else like crafting or gathering. actually you don't even have to buy anything during the main story part because those story mission reward equipment that keep up with your progress.

of course there's a lot other activities too if you want and the feature will just keep expanding the more you progress in the game.
 
Dec 2, 2017
3,435
Destiny. It's really only raids & nightfalls you need other people for. The written in game lore is incredibly well done and deep. Some of the stuff Reddit mines out of it is incredible, stuff like a bit of flavour text from some unremarkable gauntlets in the first game turns out to be a setup for major events in the second. Hints about the reality of what's happening that 99% of players will never realize.
 

Adathir

Member
Oct 25, 2017
776
Lord of the Rings online would definitely get my nomination. There is loads of solo landscape content in that game and a few instance based systems that allow you to do those solo or with groups as well. The game has aged at this point, but there is more than enough to keep a solo player busy for awhile.
 

Wulfric

Member
Oct 25, 2017
5,991
Guild Wars 2 is a good one. The story really ramps up after you get through the vanilla game, and you can do everything by yourself in the PvE. Great fantasy aesthetic without being dreary or too colorful.
 
Nov 1, 2017
8,061
You already know of The Old Republic and The Imperial Agent story so all I'll add is to make sure to subscribe during this, you'll benefit from it much more than if you try free to play which is damn limiting in every way conceivable.