If you enjoyed FFXVI, it’s worth considering FFXIV.

It’s currently free to play through its first expansion and the second expansion will be free next year. So it’s a safe game to try from that perspective.

The producer of FFXIV is the same as FFXVI. His mentality has been that he’s wanted players who don’t want to play an MMO to be able to play through FFXIV’s story as if it were a mainline FF game. I’d say 95% of story content can be soloed at this point.

The two caveats are these: This is like playing through five full length JRPGs. To finish FFXIV’s story takes months. It’s easily 400+ hours of playtime imo.

The initial base game story, called A Realm Reborn or ARR is mediocre. It’s not bad, but the story quality spikes up in a big way at the first expansion and then never backs down. Even the end of ARR is really good, but it’s only decent up until then. However, after ARR is some of the best story writing I’ve ever had the pleasure to play. Shadowbringers and Endwalker in particular still bring tears to my eyes when I hear certain songs or rewatch some cutscenes. Truly a beautifully told story.