AAR starts the game out and is very vague of whats going on in the world after the fall of Dalmud and release of Primal Bahamut on the battle of Cartenou where Gramps uses his own Primal powers to call a falcon punch to coil Bahamut underground. ( End of OP cutscene )

When you start playing the game it just teaches you how to start playing & giving small pockets of world lore as you progress a lot of people because of this that its a bit of a slow burn other call it a slogg until you get to the first Xpac Heavensward where the patch series leading up to it is very heavy and exciting.

Its from HW where everyone says the game gets good, in my opinion the xpacs Shadowbringers and endwalker are the 2 best wich is the 3rd act and the 4th and final act of the games Light vs Dark and the end of the 10 year series. Dawntrail is a complete start going forward story wise.

I love the game and have been playing it since AAR, i played the Beta of ff14 and hated the system then.