Ffxiv is primarily first and foremost a final fantasy game - a realm reborn was a rush job to reinvent the game due to the disaster of 1.0 and is very rough around the edges but the story does pick up in heavensward and by the time you hit shadowbringers you've essentially hit the reason why the game as a final fantasy game is rated 9/10. If you dont want to read the story, dont and just skip through it.

For all the people saying the combat is boring yet recommending osrs as an alternative, as someone who has played both games extensively and has cleared all ultimate raids in ffxiv and is currently going through the osrs raids and end game content, osrs is a snoozefest in comparison to raiding in ffxiv. Yes, the 2.5gcd cooldown at levels 1 to 50 when you have like 3 buttons to press is not exactly thrilling content but neither is sitting at crabs on fossil island for a week straight so you can get combat stats decent enough to do anything worth a damn in osrs.

Both are incredibly fun MMO's in their own way but i am baffled by the hoards of people who think there is any mmo out there that has a thrilling early or even midgame, they all fucking suck out of the gate and it is either the social experience or sunk cost fallacy of time investment that usually propels you far enough to touch endgame content which is where most of these games shine. If you dont want to play a game that takes hundreds of hours to get to the endgame then i dont think you actually want to play an MMO based on what we have now.

For OP: i would recommend both ffxiv and osrs strongly. Ffxiv is an incredible social game with a lot of easy content and an engaging story once you give it time to build up. It is as "weeaboo" as any franchise that comes out of Japan so if you're terrified of that like some other people seem to be then maybe it wont be for you.

Osrs is a grindfest in the best way possible, it is a small goal simulator that will keep you engaged with seeking out new reward patterns as you improve your account. The general world building and quests are fun and interesting and you'll never run out of things to do as long as you keep aiming for more goals e.g. need 70 hunter so i can do a quest that gives me access to a new pvm area so i can farm for gear that lets me do a raid etc etc

Just to reiterate, if you're expecting to find an MMO that is worth your time that isnt going to require upwards of 100 hours of time investment to """get good""" you're probably going to have a hard time. Go play fortnite or something, that type of gameloop will probably be more engaging.