Dawntrail | An Honest Review

My honest thoughts and feelings about the latest expansion for Final Fantasy 14, Dawntrail.
This is a deep dive into the narrative experience specifically the Main Story Quests. I examine the ideas, themes and character of Dawntrail and how they compare to previous expansions like Shadowbringers and Heavensward.
#ff14 #dawntrail
0:00 Introduction
00:37 The Mountain
02:17 The Labours of Lamaty'i
04:35 Flawed Promises
05:53 A Gilded Cage
07:03 The Paper Clip Problem
08:02 Dante's Inferno
10:12 Unforgivable Sins
12:33 Final Verdict
13:53 Support Love
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[@Null_Experis]

You mentioned something about financial limitations, and I can speak to this using Yoshida's own answer in an interview. Basically, FF14 doesn't have a budget. Square Enix collects all the money from subscriptions and uses them on other projects. They only distribute enough money to FF14 for basic maintenance costs and the bare-minimum budget their studio is allowed. If they want more for a special project, they need to pitch it to the board, get approval, get assigned a budget, and meet certain deadlines and benchmarks to not have it taken away. All told FF14 probably gets 10-15% of the revenue generated by subs for expansions, and upkeep of systems. 70% of those funds get spent on Square Enix flops like Forespoken. The only funds that FF14 is allowed to keep for extra development outside of their base budget is money spent on optional items. They get to keep 70% of that. It's a horribly antiquated business model. In order for ff14 to get full voice acting, they'd need approval from the board, who will outright reject it because it's an expense that has no benefit unless they can show how angry the JAPANESE playerbase is that the game doesn't have it.

[@USMC0331]

You confirmed what I was wondering playing through this expansion. I felt as if allot was missing.

[@asmiletoday]

yikes square....! can you point the direction of this interview? would love to watch/read it

[@russpc9739]

@@Null_Experis this. The money is going to their shit ass NFT and metaverse projects. In 2024. Lmao

[@Null_Experis]

@@asmiletoday London Fanfest 2014, I think. This was around the introduction of the shop, and he mostly talks about the funds being used for minions and glam items, but it applies to ANY extra content. As for the rest, that's just how the game industry worked in Japan in the 2010s, and it hasn't changed at all as far as I can tell. Studios work for the company, any money they make is forfeit unless it's part of a predetermined budget refresh.

[@FornaxTheHerald]

@@Null_Experis Damn, that sucks for the devs.

[@thepainsight]

The scions only exist in this expansion to be npcs to do dungeons with, Poor Krile deserved better than this.

[@uttrik]

The few scenes with Krile near the end of the MSQ had more emotional resonance with me than all of Wuk Lamat's combined.

[@Altaiir70]

@@uttrikthey really had to stole her moment of opening the gate and give it to someone else. Or make her not mention/ forgot she saw how the souls got taken. Or having the Twins explain thing she could have explained. Even with doing her dirty her story was more emotional to me than Wuk Lamat’s.

[@amecoeur]

Krile really deserves more than a quarter level worth of quests. I don't particularly like her but she drives to be better and more helpful, that is a trait I can always appreciate. Her parents are supposed to be a big plot point, being as important as they were portrayed. Yet they got a dozen of half-arsed quests and to make it worse Lamat is there.

[@gerfe2]

Nah they fit their role much better now. This is Final Fantasy and this is how companions have always been done. They are NOT plot devices. They are literally just companions that journey with you. Nearly every FF game does this - 90% of the time the people following you around aren't part of their plot - their involvement is just being there and experiencing it with you. IMO this is better. It allows the player and new characters to form a plot on their own without the scions constant involvement. It makes sense, given that the scions no longer have a function w/o Ascians.

[@NaviMoccaa]

I love dawntrail bcs Wuk Lamat has finally given me the strength the push the Skip Button, something I wasn't able to do in the other expacs. Truly an expansion of all time

[@KanemiX3]

omg haha

[@BunnsAndGlory]

@@NaviMoccaa this made me laugh thank you for tha. I Just finished the MSQ and I sorely need that after the utter shit it was. I wish I'm as strong as you and clicked the skip button but I just wanna see my WoL more even if he's just literally a fly on the wall in this DLC. I worked hard to get that glam ya kno? 😩

[@RED_Theory038]

I was too weak and hopeful that the msq would redeem itself. My suffering was for naught T.T

[@oszaszi]

so true. like in the final fight, anything said by her makes zero sesne : "we will bear the burden for you" what burden? We murdered Sphene's people and we never treated it as such... all she said during that fight makes zero sense.

[@JustinK0]

@@BunnsAndGlory I dont think the msq was shit, just wuk lamat.

[@l.k.2355]

Dawntrail does a LOT of tell and not show. There is one scene in a flashback where the characters- in excited tones- say HOW a battle went rather than show us. And it highlighted the major issues with the expansion. Koana was someone I wanted to mentor more. This was NO summer vacation. We traveled to a distant content to help instate a nepobaby lord into power. Where is the vacation?

[@MarcusMaybenot]

Dude Yoshi P kept winking every fucking time about the '' vacation '' bit they made it REALLY obvious that it wasn't going to just be '' vacation time '' like how can you not have taken the hint? We also don't need to literally witness every battle characters talking about battles etc happens all the time it even happens in tv shows and movies with enormous budgets it's not feasible to have a big flashback or whatever to every moment a character talks about.

[@joshk6929]

​​​@@l.k.2355 To be honest, since the start of A newfound adventure until it's end, the WoL would have enough of the much deserved "vacation". Extending that to a new continent with so much unknowns is just too much....don't tell me it won't get serious till 8.0, I will see that as an indication to quit.

[@user-ko9zk4zk3b]

did you unlock island sanctuary yet?? lmao

[@Tigerhearty]

The story is way too childish and Wuk Lamat is a discount naruto that really is the hero of the story and you take a backseat all the time, she even intervenes at times where she shouldn't be there or said to be finally out of our party just to come back like a teenager on aderall to break the fourth wall. It really is a pretty bad story.

[@user-ko9zk4zk3b]

@@Tigerhearty Square Enix mentioned all along after defeating the fkn universe in EW the WoL is gnna have a backseat ("vacation wink") and be a mentor to the new character. People have had since post EW to be upset about this and then get suprised when they carry out what they said. If I owned the game I would reset it too. And you know what that would involve? Starting again and meeting some new "baby" characters to grow through.

[@DerrPhi]

Loved that, whenever there was a crowd cheering, all NPCs with the same model would move in perfect synch. That look so bad

[@geekwars3998]

Dawntrail is by far the worse FFXIV expansion for me from a story perspective. The plotline is too predictable. No new narrative hook for the new overarching story (like literally, this could've been lumped as filler under the Hydaelyn/Zodiark saga). But most jarringly is the lack of any compelling characters. The scions (WoL included) were turned into Wuk Lamat's cheerleading squad with no agency whatsoever. Even the main antagonist barely had any time to be properly developed. Wuk Lamat herself felt like a generic battle Shonen protagonist and was too naive to be a believable leader. Compare her with the Crystal Exarch, for example. He also had lofty high morals and unshakable faith in his people. But it was grounded in a very clear realism with solid proof of his beliefs, as well as proper understanding that sacrifice is inevitable (not everything can be solved with friendship speeches). But what's by far the most concerning to me is the theme of the expansion. It's retreading old tropes that were already explored way better in past expansions (the concept of death's inevitability and its acceptance as a natural part of life rather than as a reason to despair). Living Memory felt like a revisiting of Amaurot. The antagonist felt like a failed attempt to replicate Emet-Selch. And to top it all off, it was all presented in a very "Disney-like" manner that lacks maturity and nuances. This lack of new direction is worrisome because it bespeaks a lack of confidence on SE's side in their own writing. They basically played it far too safe, with revisiting what they thought worked in the past, and keeping options completely open by having no clear new story arc. It's very disappointing. Is it a good story by "MMO" standard? Yes, but that's not a very high standard to begin with. Is it a good story by Final Fantasy standard? Absolutely not. It's very average and not particularly compelling. Most jobs remain as boringly dumbed down as they were in Endwalker, unfortunately. And I'm appalled to see that SE's knee jerk reaction to criticism about VPR's supposed "busyness" is to simply plan on dumbing it down as well (reducing positional requirements and lessening the fast pace, according to their Lodestone post). The saving grace of this expansion for me personally is that they're clearly trying to level up their encounter design and come up with new ideas for mechanics (though it still boils down to finding the safe spot for the most part). This got me excited to see what they cook up for the Savage tier and Eden Ultimate. The return of midcore content with a new Bozja-like zone will be much welcome as well.

[@RED_Theory038]

I had no issue turning off the servers for the Endless. In fact, i was rather annoyed that we were forced to meander around to learn about a long dead people we were about to erase once and for all, especially when we're on the clock for a calamity level event at that moment. Also the Endless are living a parastic existience at that point. Essentially vampires in need of "living aether" and are willing to kill all of us in the real living world to sustain it. I think the choice is pretty clear. Its them or us.

[@Exceltiaawesome]

@@RED_Theory038 I strongly disagree with all of this. I felt like theirs was a pointless sacrifice.

[@youtousim]

I feel bad for the rest of the cast.

[@leonwolf4]

No matter how much money XIV makes, it's taken to carry the rest of SE which is constantly under-performing/bombing it's other games.

[@MarcusMaybenot]

????? This is probably the highest production MSQ we've ever gotten lmao. Like people are whining about '' lack of voice acting '' but I dunno how much there was we'll see when someone uploads all of it. But Endwalker in its entirety had 16 hours of voiced cutscenes and someone uploaded a video of all of Sphene's scenes that are voiced and those scenes alone are like 1 and a half hour.... And that's just ONE character that isn't until towards the end of the game...

[@ScribbleNuts]

The writing is all over the wall that Mihoyo is the silent killer of Square. FF as a whole is not capturing modern and newer gamers well at all. Older fans are feeling alienated. The walls are starting to crumble with XIV because the quality is not matching Mihoyo's games. It pains me to say this, but I feel it's true.

[@herebejamz]

@@MarcusMaybenot I really liked Dawntrail, but Square Enix not giving CS3 the budget it deserves with the amount of money it prints for them has been an ongoing issue for years now.

[@25xxfrostxx]

I completely agree. I don't want to sound like I'm being mean to the new writers but, they just don't seem to have what it takes to handle a full MSQ. There are basic necessities in a story like these that have to be met when introducing new characters and they were not present here. I would write a wall of text on this but I will refrain. In short, a character needs to arrive in a story with a past full of lived experiences and occurrences that shape who they are and how they react to different situations. A skilled writer will give a surface level introduction and then allow the player time to see how this person reacts to events to make their own determination on the person. Then during the story they lift the curtain just enough to give a peek into the character's drives, needs, desires and experiences. This allows the interactions rather than the exposition to shape the character in the narrative. In DT, we got a lot of direct exposition telling you how people act and what their 2 dimensional personalities are. We are told, not shown. Then in the case of characters like Wuk Lamat (I didn't dislike her as a character and I thought her VA did just fine) we get very little to no character progression or growth. The first half involved a journey that was meant to teach her a lesson about each culture and none of these lessons felt like they carried to the next area. Then at the end when faced with "This is not a person, it's a machine with an AI built with memories that just runs program and it will kill trillions willingly and plans to" we get this weird and unrealistically braindead "I have to talk to her!" refrain that lasted all the way to the end of the game. If the same team handles 8.0, I don't know how long I will stick around. I really miss Ishikawa.

[@fayte0618]

I disagree. 14 has always told its story this way because of technical limitations and they deliver their story similar to stage plays to make it work. Thats why Ishikawa also studies Shakespeare a lot Also, Wuk Lamat grew in the course of the story, she learned to be honest about her limitations and learned diplomacy through mutual understanding. Those lessons carried over to the 2nd half through her actions especially since she and Sphene are mirrors to each other thats why she reached out especially in the end because she knows more than anyone how it is when you love your people and would do anything for their happiness

[@tonydak8573]

@@fayte0618That’s why Ishikawa’s style works.

[@fayte0618]

@@tonydak8573 I don't doubt her skills. I really like how her work is more on the darker side of fantasy. But, the new expansion demands the bright side of fantasy which people attribute to bad writing even when these were all approved by Ishikawa since she's the narrative supervisor still.

[@tonydak8573]

@@fayte0618 You can have bright Fantasy without being so ham fisted in driving a message. Final Fantasy X/X-2 has proven this. Dawntrail is poorly written and forces characters on you.

[@fayte0618]

@@tonydak8573 10/2 wasnt bright. It was about them finding meaning after a thousand year cycle of death and trauma. Anyway, DT isnt really it. You just dont like Wuk Lamat because she doesn't have trauma and grew up loved, and chose to love people because its her happiness. But, you attribute that to bad writing when all it is is your preference.

[@SniperYanda]

I feel like a big missed opportunity was that Koana wasn’t present for any of Solution 9. He’s a new character marked to lead the kingdom, with one of the biggest flaws he develops from being a focus on integrating foreign technology without concern for culture. Solution 9’s a part of his kingdom integrated into a high tech foreign kingdom for 30 hours, with cultural exchange going both ways. Outwardly Sphene’s everything he idealizes wanting to be but can’t express well as a leader. He’s tailor made to be a great foil to that section, just odd they don’t use him.

[@4mb127]

Yeah I was quite disappointed with the MSQ, but the battle content was really strong. At least I had a ton of fun with it. Also some of the best new music tracks ever. *shrug*

[@cks796]

(SPOILERS!) ... ... ... ... The part where the story _really_ went off the rails for me was when we first went to Heritage Found and all of the people there had the same thing on their head that Baddie Brother (because I can't be bothered to remember his name) had on his head. Despite that, we were just happy to go along with the story without asking "What are those things?" immediately. Plus the fact that the Queen herself doesn't have one. Isn't that, I dunno...A GIANT RED FLAG? Yet our character, who has seen all kinds of shit through various reflections and realities just goes, "Yeah, I'd like to learn about farming!" I checked out of the story at that point and began skipping. Painfully stupid writing. I went into a rant after this and typed like four other paragraphs of irritations but I just deleted them all. There are too many glaringly obvious writing problems with this story to even get into in one KZbin comment. I really hope that 7.x is better. The JP players hate the story too, so maybe there is hope after all.

[@Exceltiaawesome]

Oh man, you raise a good point. Wandering around talking about farming for so long felt so dumb.

[@leukos22]

Dawntrail was a tremendous letdown for one of the reasons you said you liked it - the companion NPCs. With the introduction of Trust Dungeons where you can use your NPCs to take part of coming trial or dungeon, it felt like the Scions were only brought along to fill the role of tank/dps/healer for those duties because they had next to zero impact on the plot and story of Dawntrail. I'm dead serious, ask yourself the following: -what did Estinien do that changed the story? -if Y'shtola didn't show up for the second half of the story, how would it have changed - if at all? -why did Koana need Thancred to come along (other than to kill people)? If the scene where Koana was told to "open up more" was the reason why, would the story be changed at all if it were the village chief to tell him that? -what was Urianger's main contribution to the story? -what did G'raha do other than fill out the duty support for trust dungeons? -how did the twins impact the story AT ALL? I understand that the common defense of this is that the player isn't supposed to be the protagonist this time but I'm just asking for the "side characters" we've known and grown to love for a decade now would be treated better than to serve as mercenaries for Wuk Lamat's rise to power. I just wanted a reason for the scions and the WoL to be there other than to kill things for her, /nod in agreement, or to do a cool action pose (before killing something for her). I know that Ishikawa was promoted"to a managerial position within the company and has passed the torch to lead writer to someone else (Endwalker patch writer) and man, her absence is clearly felt. I have never felt so disconnected with a central Final Fantasy character than I have with Wuk Lamat compared to the entire franchise's history.

[@FornaxTheHerald]

@@leukos22 Fair, and I do agree, we and the scions were window dressing this expansion. I think it could have worked better if the writers had made a deeper more compelling tale with more engaging characters.

[@leukos22]

Yeah I just feel like it was a wasted opportunity by not setting up a new arc and introduce new characters rather than re-using the Scions. By all means, keep Erenville and Krile but I would have liked to have met some new characters in Toral that we'd be likely to take with us into the next expansion.

[@bene5594]

To be fair, I loved Estinien's role in dawntrail, the man was on vacation nothing more nothing less. Did he come help out when there was a need sure but its purely coincidental and it didn't have to be more than this. The rest of the aforementioned scions where brought into a the story to do a job but didn't feel like they should have, can you twist and twirl reasinings around to justify them being there certainly but did they bring much value absolutely not

[@Itsnotthatdeep88]

@@leukos22 Yea I agree with this statement I think halfway through the first half of the story I thought to myself 'Exactly WHY is the twins here again" Even in storywise everyone else at least had some thinly veiled reason why they were out there (Krile wanted to find out more about the letter/golden city, Thancred and Uri were asked on request to escort koana, etc) Couple the fact with this is the start of a new story new expansion I don't understand why the writers still feel the need to essentially have us babysit yet again the twins the codependency between our character and the twins is suffocating now. I think the writers kinda shot themselves in the foot because if they don't at least introduce more characters for the trust system, we will forever be chained to the scions being where wherever we are regardless of the fact they story-wise it even makes sense for them to be here. I allowed myself the chance to think "ok so with a new expac we SHOULD be seeing some new characters/allies" but no we basically just laterally moved the scion trope from one story to another. Maybe as more expacs are created they will at least breakaway and allow the WOL to actually explore and have adventures and perhaps have the scions be cameos and/or short scenes that intertwine with our story somehow....idk that's just how I feel about it.

[@Itsnotthatdeep88]

@@bene5594 I would say with the exception of the twins, and estinien...the other scions were either asked to come help out or had their own reasoning for traveling to Tural. And you are absolutely right, replace Alphi or Aliasie with a generic NPC and basically the outcome will be the same. They brought really nothing to the story imo

[@OldManDoom]

I love my toon. I have for nearly a decade. Great care has been taken in crafting her personality, back story, style and ethos. At least as much as I am allowed by the limitations of the game. I would be a mentor to Arenvald, Fordola, Pipin, or any other of the great and endearing characters we have encountered so far. But my character would never for a moment entertain the forced pride that our characters are compelled to show in someone as grating and unimpressive as Wuk Lamat. There is just no way that I would ever choose that for my character, and I would not cheerlead the direction that Lamat took from start to end. This is the most let down I have ever been in a FF14 expansion, even more than when we were forced to care about the First in Shadowbringers. If Square is smart, they will just take the loss on Dawntrail 7.0 and realize they VASTLY overestimated their own ability to give the players just any old story and have us eat it up. Give us something better next time, Square. We are paying you for it. Just learn from this failure and give us something better

[@anteprs7908]

it a failure of your understand of what the wol is clearly

[@OldManDoom]

@@anteprs7908 Is this a serious comment? This can’t be serious. If you are so easy to please that you enjoyed Dawntrail’s story, then maybe I am wrong and Square understands that they don’t at all have to provide good content and all the little marks will eat it up

[@anteprs7908]

@@OldManDoom the story was ok ,we aint all blind haers with moronlc reasons to hate wuk lamat.

[@Nihonguy]

I see what youre saying most of the discourse ive seen with the story is whether or not one likes and agrees with wuk lamat, i cant lie when i met koana and learned what he was about i deeply wanted my character to side with him, i think wuk is alright but i never once felt outside of being a decent fighter then she would be a good leader, even after the story ends i feel this way but i can only hope future updates to the story help me accept that my character fought so hard for her

[@silverspell2830]

I'm right there with you, by the time I finished the expansion I just went 'she (my WoL) would literally not support Wuk Lamat. she would have seen how unfit she is to rule by like, the end of the first dungeon and refused to support her.' So now I'm in the midst of writing my own version of the MSQ where my WoL just goes and has her own adventures. :P It has unironically made me more excited about Dawntrail than the MSQ itself. Highly recommend. But ya, I really hope they take a look at all the criticism and maybe put these writers on the bench. They're ok with the side story, but they were clearly not ready for something like the MSQ. If they don't, well... it'll be a tough 10 years for 14, I think. I don't know how many of us will be sticking around. I certainly don't think I would.

[@206Zelda]

What I've gathered thus far is that MY vacation with MY friends will start once I am able to stop holding Wuk Lamat's hand. This is becoming torture. If this is the experimental expansion to test-drive a new idea, then I think the varied data they're getting should be useful. Don't quite know what the choice dialogue was hoping for, but I am not simping for Miss Mittens. Erenville can hold her hand, she can go to the bathroom by herself, and I am going to go exploring and have some ME time.👍

[@ProfiteerProphet]

Ok so, about Living Memory: First of, the game makes it very clear that the entities that inhabit that place are not full people, and they are not living full lives. They are ghosts, endlessly repeating the same patterns, doing the same things over and over again, a depressing, meaningless existance. They have no souls. They have lived their lives and died. What we did there tantamounts to exorcism. Hell, a lot of the quests seems to be about dealing with their "unfinished business" before they can go, and literally none of them cares when they dissapear. The ones that matter - Erenville's mom, Krile's parents - actively WANT us to end them because they understand their situation. Also, they require souls to exist. The game estabilishes quite clearly that they need the souls of the living, no other source of aether works. They are not the same as Ottis, as Ottis was a soul placed in a machine. But the Endless have no souls - their souls were refined into a resource, like oil or coal. They are just memory inscribed in a computer. And we know that they are fake, 100% fake...because while Ottis's soul, the real Ottis, was in Heritage Found, the fake Ottis memories were in Living Memory. What if Ottis had not died? We would just have two of them? Can we even make more copies? We also see with Wuk Lamat's nanny, Namikka, that their memories in Living Memory aren't even that accurate - she existed in a state where Wuk Lamat was still a child. How can we trust that any of those memories were not tampered with? How do we know some of those "children" were not simply adults who were simply happier as kids, and had their memories scrambled by a computer to maximize happiness? Sphene herself is a victim of that. She was a real person's memories, but her intentions were tampered with. She had no free will. She was not a real person. None of them were. They were as real as Replika. They were vampiric, necromantic chatbots. They were no more real than the rainbows in the pools and the fire in the volcano. What we did was preserving the natural order. Literally everything in the game supports that.

[@25xxfrostxx]

Yeah. They split the souls from the memories. Load an AI version of the memory in the cloud, then devour the souls. They were unwilling vampiric entities.

[@tpkarclight3118]

In fairness, Namikka, was being processed during the time when it was stated that 'any rushing to the process, can degrade the memories, or the personality stored within'.

[@this_epic_name]

It's a bit odd, though, that they constructed a story for which they felt they needed to bend over backwards in such a way...to avoid, what? Grappling with the difficult question of what existence and sentience really are? The perception that the protagonists might be doing what the reviewer suggested (committing genocide)? Portraying extremely difficult and morally ambiguous pathways to victory (the preservation of our "tribe" in the face of extinction by outside forces)? The 2nd half of the MSQ teed up those topics as the reviewer suggested, but you're suggesting the writers merely handwaved all that away (for the reasons of safety, I suppose). So if such handwringing was necessary, why broach (or at least tease/suggest) the topics in the first place? But I can say that the last half seemed to me to be a very harsh rebuke of the value society currently places in artificial intelligence. With regard to Namikka, you left out two important details: that the "people" in living memory took on the form of their happiest days. When we first see Namikka, she's younger and remembers Wuk as a child, having come into her motherly stride after losing her own child. But then *she transforms* into the elder Namikka; we can only assume her appearance changed when "mother brain" realized that Namikka's happiest times were actually seeing Wuk come into her own and ascend the throne. I don't think memory tampering is at play here. But whatever the case, were humanity ever able to develop the ability to store consciousness digitally (as the Alexandrians did), the narrative of DT seems to believe that those minds would have no value except in their deletion. The "natural order" was preserved yes, in lieu of an expansion of the term's definition.

[@serphv6531]

There is a side quest where u help a little boy look for his brother, at the end of the quest it turns out he was an old man, so u are correct that many of the children in Living Memory are indeed adults.

[@LunarValkyria]

I'll be honest. Dawntrail is the very first time I felt incredibly lukewarm about an expansion release. So much so that somebody like me who pre-ordered every expansion out of sheer excitement still hasn't bought Dawntrail. The only thing about it that got me excited was the jobs. I'm a narrative gamer so the new jobs alone won't be enough to grab me. Now I'm hearing things about the story that just coincide with the vibes I was getting and now I'm feeling myself lose even more interest fast.

[@fayte0618]

Dont believe them. Play it yourself and form your own opinion

[@LunarValkyria]

@@fayte0618 I'm not going to waste my money on something I don't know if I will enjoy it, even more so when I was getting a vibe that I wouldn't long before it went live.

[@CosmicChris]

@@fayte0618 Yeah, no. Gaming is a expensive hobby. People look to opinions of others in an effort of trying to be sure if it is worth the time and money to commit to it. "Them looking to others is so they can see if your opinion or gut feeling is illfounded." What you are saying is incredibly dismissive .If anything, dissenting feelings on this is healthy. "Gives something for the Devs to look at and see WHAT is causing the contention in question." When even people who defended the worst parts of 14, are turning on it due to the expansion's writing? That is clearly something to be wary of for narrative first players who only care about the story. It is "Maybe get it on sale..." for many, but not out of spite. "I should never see a protagonist that makes me actively want to skip content." If the person feels off based on the trailers, or some reviews. It confirms their gut feeling. "Trust your gut when it comes to hobbies."

[@divebarverse]

Wuk lamat is simply not a good character. Coming out of the zero story Arch, which was fantastic

[@cyricmoonblade]

I have so many friends that won't play because of the lack of voice acting, it really is a huge shot in the foot.

[@MrErick1160]

This. Actually, if it was voice acted, id play 100%, with ADHD it has been impossible for me to do the MSQ, thus the game has no point for me even if I really snt to play it. So yeah i really dont get why they do not voice act it, ina game that make their main quest so important in the game, wtf is wrong with them.

[@sasquanaut611]

Spoiler Alert: it is voice acted. Look it up. Just not EVERY line. All the big story beats are voice acted. Otherwise, learn to read 😢

[@tremor3258]

They didn't voice the very opening cutscene, go figure.

[@thepainsight]

@@tremor3258 It should have been a sign of things to come, IIRC each other expansion starts with a voiced lines.

[@FornaxTheHerald]

@@sasquanaut611it is unevenly voiced. Sorry I was not clear about that.

[@Geniuswrath]

I think a lot of the rigging problems with the models you mentioned are because they are ripped and upscaled from ff11. They were never designed to have fluid mouth movements in that game.

[@shh532]

While I enjoyed the MSQ in places and thought it was very gorgeous, I feel Dawntrail pushed a lot of XIV's real story flaws into too much of a spotlight, while adding a new one in allowing one character (Wuk Lamat) to come at the expense of essentially everything. I also agree the VA is more needed, especially in the literal sense of forcing them to be more economical with the script as there is just plainly far too much pad in DT. I also think the overall story of 90-95 is simply too weak and lacks the interest of even Stormblood, and while 95-100 is better, it's also disconnected and doesn't get far enough away from the problems of the first half. With Wuk, even if you liked her, I just don't think it was the right play how it was handled - she gets too much focus, robbing opportunities for other characters (both protagonist and antagonist) to have moments. Krile for instance who has waited since Heavensward for her moment to shine basically gets shelved in favour of Wuk. I feel they lost how important the player perspective and agency was in building the character and MSQ, even if not necessarily in the WoL but all the dynamics, and instead thought only about Wuk. And as the WoL, try to name a moment you had that felt 'on par' with anything from previous expansions. Probably the highlight is the Gulool Ja Ja fight but right after we're back to playing second fiddle. On the Endless, the story was successful in giving us the serious disquiet and uncertainty in turning them off, but overall, it is the right thing to do. Living Memory is an unsustainable ruin, the aether drain means that their 'life' comes at an insane cost of death, bio-transference as opposed to simply being allowed to die and pass on is clearly against the wishes of many of the Endless we meet. They are essentially ghosts that come from an incapability to reconcile grief or loss, and as such, rob and are robbed of the closure people around them need, something Sphene can't understand. The trial was a neat 'save the world' moment we knew we needed... but again loops back into the previous 'Wuk is the key to all this' problem. Ultimately I think they are compiling the feedback very hard on Dawntrail and in some ways probably knew this MSQ would be a painful but necessary step to build out the new world for us to mess with. But they have a serious uphill battle on patch content and need to come out swinging to prove that the DT MSQ was more of a blip.

[@verar2247]

5:24 I think the problem is that his character, in fact, never felt like true antagonist? He was more like Gaius but without real crime rate, after all him having ambitions doesn't mean he going to pursue it and as far as I can tell many people thought that he will be different man by the end of msq, because that's how same character traits usually played in anime and manga and in Final Fantasy games, so to speak. But shift from warlord with principles who cared for his people in his own way to extremely genocidal warmonger, was rather, if not much, unexpected and very plane. It's either they have something more for him, like it was with Zenos, or that's just what it is now: waste of a good potential. His both designs and extreme trial were amazing, though.

[@Tsuba_Nick]

Your scripts and delivery are excellent! I am so glad I discovered your channel while looking for recent reviews! Instant subscribe. Not only you raise very important points but you analyse them so well. The writing failing to justify many things that happen in DT along with the poor character writing were my major gripes in an experience I overall enjoyed but couldn’t help thinking what it could have been. Lastly I will reiterate by saying that your voice work is stellar!

[@perisemiotics3204]

isn't that the _Heart of Thorns_ soundtrack though?

[@HandlesAreStupid2024]

edit: tl;dr SB , but worse. My analysis of the expansion is in the final trial I was just yelling "THIS IS THE COOLEST FIGHT EVER." then you know who shows up and I just exclaim, "WHAT?!? WHY ARE YOU HERE?!?". Midnight to 6 instantly. Wuk Lamat's NA VA was so ... not good. Like such lack of expression. She meets her dad and finds out he's alive and there's literally ZERO emotion or acknowledgement of it. I didn't skip any cutscene until that last zone and I couldn't take it anymore. I skipped all but 1 of the Otis cutscenes.

[@a40989d1]

The voice actors don't know our characters names. So voiced scenes would have to refer to us as "adventurer" or some such - our character's names we give them would never be spoken.

[@FornaxTheHerald]

Thanks for all the fascinating insights you have shared with me here. I love learning how others experience the story, and the ways we think about the world in differently. /many hugs to all

[@rtbear674]

I get if we get too powerful we just stand aside let others fight. because if we handle it on our own all the time, all the fight will be finished fast. So I don't mind the first half we're just there and not interfere with kid's fight. But then again in the last fight, I somehow need to be saved by someone. this part sidelined your character too much. Where is krile? graha? Either everyone come, or just you yourself. That's how much your power is. If you want that, should switch the role. Should make your character like Saitama. you got teleported out because you are the most dangerous one, the rest struggle to fight, until you come back and finally beat the boss. this part of the story is 100% a F U part for the main character. After the fight, even the boss don't even notice your existence. Way to shove wuk lamat save the day again at the last fight after we got NONE for the whole expansion. Utter trash.

[@sturmir15]

The amount of voice acting required to cover entire msq would soon turn this game into memory devouring villain

[@keitheyer9812]

Eh, not really. Look at visual novels. Even super long ones are completely voiced. In terms of mmo, look at gw2, the msq there is 90% voiced. Ffxiv being completely voice acted would trim a lot of the fat too because you gotta admit, there's a lot of bloat.

[@ScaricoOleoso]

Erenville: "Why didn't you tell me you were an Endless?!" Cahciua: "Why are you the only Turali with an Icelandic accent?! Even I don't have one!" Erenville: "I... shit..." Sorry, that just stuck out to me. 🤣

[@FornaxTheHerald]

@@ScaricoOleoso true

[@stephenmisener1659]

Ive played on and off since 2017. I dont pre order anything i always wait a few days/week after a game launch to see how its being received. Seeing all bad reviews for dawntrail really makes me not want to buy this. Especially since ff14 players are pretty nice and chill, so the fact an expansion has everyone universally upset tells me they REALLY messed up the expansion.

[@HandlesAreStupid2024]

unfortunately, you HAVE to play it to play anything in the future, unless the offer a skip buy.

[@happypanda1176]

I always found the second half of the expanision's MSQ intriguing. Though I had a different interpretation of who and what the endless were based on what they revealed about the nature of the soul all the way back in post shadowbringers. As we know the soul is comprised of the Memory, The Conscious/the Ego, and The Emotions based on Post-shadowbringer patches I believe. What sphene's civilization essentially achieved, was that they didn't exactly preserve the soul in it's entirety, what they did however do was preserve the memory while the remaining parts of the soul was used to act as soul cells that help resurrect citizens of alexandria whenever they are met with a unfortunate accident or death. These Endless are thus nothing but memory given form. They imitate the people they once were when they are alive, they express things in the way the person they were would, but in the end, they more like a arcane creation like the watcher or a simelcrum. Now as to why the endless need the Aether from souls to sustain themselves is probably becuase memory cannot exist without the other types of Aether that makes up a soul. The Aether that makes up souls is completly different from the Aether that you would use and channel in arcane arts or find naturally in the enviroment, hence there need for such a resource, living souls just possess the right type of aether necessary to sustain the memory and in term allows the endless to keep there systems operational. Without it, the endless would just fade away and be release into the ambient aether because they won't have enough aether to sustain the memories existence as a arcane entity. It's probably why machines aren't adequate for sustainability because Otis wasn't a Endless, Otis was a complete soul being kept alive in a machine while the Endless themselves are nothing more then memory given form. To me, the systems from which the endless run on, is rather sad and dark one, because it appears as nothing but a illusion being perpetuated by a system designed out of neccesity, grief, and survival. So us going there to confront and defeat Sphene just felt like turning of the lights in kingdom that was trap in a state of constant memory and was already long gone.

[@paulmd7747]

Whats done is done. Hopefully Square Enix doesn't compound their horrible mistake with the Dawntrail MSQ by continuing to have Wuk Lamat take center stage. As long as she just stays in her little palace and plays no part in the stories of the upcoming patches, things will be much better.

[@colesmith3122]

Man Otis just made me think of the game SOMA That game was clearly existential horror as the last humans on earth tried to shove their consciousness into a server where they would live forever but left a few copies of themselves behind to launch said server into space to avoid the earths destruction and at the end you launch it and upload your copy into the server but the game ends with you in your robot body stuck on the doomed earth. (This is a quick summary that doesn't do the game justice its worth a play)

[@blueriku]

The reason there is two different Otis's is because the living memory Otis is his memories given form from 400 years prior and robo Otis is his soul give a vessel to use. By this explanation gives why living memory Otis didnt know wuk lamat, wol and friends.

[@FornaxTheHerald]

@@blueriku true, however what Im saying is, we could have placed the the living memories into machine shells, like Otis. Or at least offer this to the endless as an option. My goal being to avoid mass murder.

[@blueriku]

@@FornaxTheHerald Yeah, they wrote that detail very black and white and I saw no reason if they had the tech to just simply put the endless in machines. I would then bring up the question can they really be like living beings with a soul or are they just memories playing out what the original person would do without consciousness that the original person would have? and if that is the case then to what end does would it mean to put endless in machines if all they are is just memories that should of been remembered by their friends and family rather than artificially stored and used to "cheat" death. I think it makes sense what happened because its the natural order of things and the endless didn't really die because while they were memories that are apart of the original person, they where never really alive to begin with. One last unrelated note, one thing that really bothers me is the scene when Shene goes and check on a mother and her sick son. The WOL know we can cure that but doesn't say a word to help the boy...why?

[@insertname3977]

@@FornaxTheHerald It isn't mass murder though, at no point did the game even give the impression that they were anything more than vampiric non-entities.

[@andrewclear8905]

They most likely will never voice the whole MSQ. The cost would impact gameplay elements as they would have to cut content in order to fit it in the budget. Remember, they have to pay for voice actors for the English, French, German, and Japanese versions. That is a lot of money. Also, if they have to do rewrites of scenes, then that cost adds up. I know it is frustrating that the game isn’t fully voiced, but I would rather have more content than more voice work, but that is because I don’t only play it for the story, I do endgame stuff as well. If someone only plays it for the story, I can see how they wouldn’t care about losing some additional content, as long as they get a fully voiced story. But, I am sure Yoshi-P is hearing the feedback about the need for more voice acting (and Dawntrail has the most out of all the expansions) and he will add more next time. Will he go all out and do 100%? I highly doubt it. Though, it would be nice to see an interview question in regards to the issue. Most of Shadowbringers and Endwlaker were not voiced, and people still engaged with those stories. Hell, people love those stories.

[@elrilmoonweaver4723]

Dawntrail has interesting things to say, interesting lore to show, but the way these are all presented to us is very lackluster. You likened the events that happen in the last zone of DT to The Burning of Teldrassil and the attack which you take part of as a Horde player. I need to specify that, I was also very uncomfortable participating in the Burning of Teldrassil, but I will be honest, nothing in the MSQ gave me the same understanding and empathy for the Endless that I had for the Night Elves going into the pre-patch of BFA. A few lines of dialogue speaking with characters I cannot remember the name of outside of the major characters from each sub-zone, does not equate to years and years of knowing the Night Elves. All of this to say, that despite the MSQ's insistence that we are basically committing genocide, it fails in its mission to make some players care. The characters I cared about were actually Krile and Erenville. Especially Erenville, whose inner turmoil is just heart-wrenching to watch. I felt more bad for the characters rather than the nameless endless that we erased.

[@honest_psycho7237]

While I appreciate your honesty and giving legitimate critizism, I simply hard disagree that DT is "worthwhile". The writing alone has so many flaws, with WL overextended screentime as the biggest one, and so many un-used ideas etc, that I have to recommend skipping the story all together, until the robot-invasion, because verything with the rite was basically filler that doesnt have any interesting enough story seeds for future Expansions.

[@FornaxTheHerald]

Very fair.

[@Kuhazan]

I disagree on burning budget on voice acting. You are asking for more delay around actors scheduling. As we can see with the mistake that is too much voice acting in Guild Wars 2 certain characters just end up written out due to VA not being available and replacing would feel even worst than having some reading.

[@Chocoboy_James]

Thank you for the review! You have a lovely voice to listen to, first of all! about FFXIV's Dawntrail, I agree with you completely. I find it sad many people see it as an expansion that has to be 'better' or 'just as fantastic' as the other expansions they loved so dearly. And sadly, those two expansions mainly being Shadownbringers and Endwalker. To me it feels as if ARR/HW and SB have been forgotten and seem to hold no more candle towards 'the peak expansions.' Therefore, forgetting that before ShB and EW, there too was lorebuilding, there too was world building, character- etc. you name it. So overall, I see Dawntrail as just that, new world, new characters, new lore. etc. And we've just stepped into it with what we had. You've said it perfectly that, sure it has its flaws but the journey through it was well worth it. You've also opened my eyes a bit in understanding the Solution 9 part more deeply, and I thank you for that. Keep up the good work! Definitely got my sub!

[@danmarshall4812]

Good video, thanks. I enjoyed some of the story but Wuk Lamat really dragged things down for me. At least the combat is getting better it seems.

[@AniGaAG]

The writers seriously don't have a handle on how to make the player character a deuteragonist. HW managed that, DT fails miserably - you could remove the WoL so far and nothing would change. That is a *terrible* thing to do with the *player* character.

[@TheViper079]

Amazing video and great explanation, also you could read the most boring thing in the world and keep me interested with your voice.

[@FornaxTheHerald]

Thanks for the love

[@TheViper079]

Also with Dawntrail they have to restart an overarching story so lots of build up and maybe unknown links where to be expected and will maybe be explained in the years to come

[@titus17]

fully agree about the voice acting. This to me is the main reason why I have a love/hate relationship with this game. I first played it a few years ago and I was enthralled by how they handle the MMO aspects of the game, but I was never able to be immersed in the story due to the lack of voice acting. Even WoW which has a good amount of text-only quest dialogue to this day still has more. With how story-focused the game is, you would think it would be a no-brainer to VA the entire main quest at the very least. Oh and its not just that its not voice-acted , but many times the dialogue is very verbose. If the text was concise and more natural it wouldn’t be as painful to read for hours on end

[@FornaxTheHerald]

Honestly at times they have the best story but the delivery is so hit and miss... >.< Makes me sad. It could be epic

[@jslaughter95]

the thing that made me the most mad about the voice acting (or lack thereof) was the fact that when we finally meet Erenville's mother in person, IT'S NOT EVEN VOICED! SE, cmon... Erenville has so much emotion in his face in that scene and you couldn't bother giving it the emotional weight it deserved??? They make entirely too much money on this game for shit like that to happen

[@7Celestron]

Part of the reason they can't have voice acting for everything is because occasionally our character is addressed by the name you entered during character creation. They can't get every voice actor to pronounce every single word possible for a name. Our scion friends would naturally prefer to call us by name, but they can't do it all the time because voice acted scenes.

[@FornaxTheHerald]

@@7Celestron They can write round that. They can

[@titus17]

@@7Celestron for games like World of Warcraft they get around this by just calling your character “hero” or “champion”. I think it has more to do it not ever really being a requirement for JRPGs to voice act anything that isn’t in a cutscene but it would be nice to have at the very least the main story quest fully voiced. It’s entirely possible, they just need to allocate enough money towards it. Just look at a lot of Elder Scrolls Online.

[@lososthefish3]

I read all the quests, my friend skips everything unvoiced, so when we have our play sessions progressing the story together it is quite tilting, especially since like 10 of those unvoiced cutscenes were super important for the plot, including one with Zoralja and the gate. Why was this unvoiced? There is no logic behind this.

[@skaldi8347]

Great review and perspective! Subbed!

[@honest_psycho7237]

Oh boi, the paper-clip anaolgy makes this so much better to understand... And makes any kind of moral dilemma kinda... moot? Like, they're not real so its ok to delete them? So, we were rpoving Emet Selch right, after all?

[@FornaxTheHerald]

I think the writers were going for the paperclip problem, but they did not stick the landing.

[@lightfaster]

Brilliant review, subbed!

[@galadrielcatears8796]

I think one thing of note in regards to Otis alot of people over look is the point in which his memories got moved into living memory and the point at which he "died" in the MSQ. I think his Endless "death" and the discrepancy of his memories as another form of endless should solidify the player's opinion that endless are in fact an AI's interpretation of giving a simulated series of decisions based upon a "lifetime's" worth of experience. For had the old robotic knight version of Otis had truly inherited the soul while the Living memory version was cut off the moment the soul left the body existing simultaneously as an approximation.

[@Yisuuna]

Amazing video and listen 👍🏽 a lot of good points and insights

[@dilfappreciator2697]

I gotta disagree with the voice acting thing. I was fully engaged through the entire story even with a lack of voice acting in certain scenes. If you prefer the story to be told with voice acting I think that's fine but I don't think it's an "unforgivable sin"

[@NicholasMcdermottNick]

I did enjoy the story, I think the worlds we got where pretty neat, even the out of place syfy looking city.I liked the characters we got to meet and was so so happy to see three particular npcs. I do agree that Zarool Ja could have been explored more, same with his retainer or whatever he was to Zarool ja. I also agree that there should have been more voiced dialog. One more thing, I was so happy that Krile got to be on an adventure with us.

[@omensoffate]

So you turned brain off and just ate popcorn gotcha

[@omensoffate]

Just skip the story Wuk Lamat is terrible

[@markoosh]

Even your bunny got turned gothic at the end of all that lol

[@andrewclear8905]

Mouth rigging looked fine to me. One NPC model per race? I say a lot of variety in the NPC details (except maybe the Pelupelu).

[@storiesofindiana]

For me, Dawntrail is the worst story in FFXIV. I realize that enjoyment of the MSQ is subjective to the player, but it just didn't work for me. The graphics improvement is really nice, though.

[@ScribbleNuts]

August 20th I will be taking the boat for Janthir Wilds and leaving Wuk Lumat behind!

[@Anail_Mhin]

I love Dawntrail because I save so much time playing and watching cutscenes.

[@av2279]

Sad, but agreed. As a long-time ffxiv player that's played since ARR, the story of Dawntrail was disappointing, and felt like a step backward. Even if you do find Wuk Lamat to be an interesting and well-written character, it's just very slow and flat. I think it's actually fine to be unsettled with the outcome of the endless, because to me that means that it's a multi-faceted situation without a cookie-cutter solution. (That's far and away the only time the story presents a theme in a way that warrants actual discussion and engagement though, and by the time I got there I had already been disengaged by the previous story.) But it sounds like some people aren't just unsettled, they were unsatisfied. I wanted the story to dive a bit deeper into it, so that, even if you disagree with the outcome, you can still be satisfied with the events.

[@LIXEF06]

You know guys , There is one thing that makes Dawntrail REALLY wierd to me . In this story line the ENND OF DAYS was not that long ago, red skys , animals and citizen becoming malformed beast , DESPAIR was the name of the day . I has k you all gentlemens , does tural seems to have been exposed to blasphemies AT ALL ? Look at the Despaired lizard folks at the bottom of the jungle , THEY WOULD HAVE TURNED INT OA TIDE OF BLOOD THIRSTY FRENZIED BEAST ! This whole bloody setting can only make sence if you IGNORE THE LORE !

[@herebejamz]

No, the final days started specifically where the astral currents where weakest, over the Bounty, and barely got to Sharlayan by the time it ended. It hadn't made it to the other side of the ocean yet. They quite literally didn't experience blasphemies.

[@ornsteinthedragonslayer2092]

It feels like a tragedy, the things you're saying. Simply because we all know why the negatives happened. Because of Square Enix's financial irresponsibility. Apparently in Japan there's a "loud American" stereotype worker who is an American who will tell the boss what the workers won't due to societal norms. My question is, where is Square Enix's "loud American"

[@RobinHood421-qj3bg]

There are 4 thing that disappointed me about DT: 1. It about Wuk Lamat (not to mention VA in the very bad way so they are fine as they are to me becuz I don't hate the VA for my opinion) basically the story is about Wuk Lamat tale and not our character story becuz we being supportive to her and I agree that we can help her and believe she can win with everything she got but what she should've have done is let us fight with her expectantly fighting Bakool Ja Ja and Zoraal Ja during the the fight cutscenes or solo duty. 2. The story are somewhat complicated like we know about Electrope and everything but Sphene being endless and being the real final boss break my heart plus I dont like the fact about the soul collecting to become one with soul to gain power and erasing soul along with memories which make me very angry than seeing 120 dead children in Skydeep dungeon so what Im trying to say here is it just not right with the story. 3. The scions should have bigger role than short like Thancred, Urianger and Estinien if they can be more helpful like before and they could have included Raha and Y'shtola becuz they are part of the story too since the trailer of them appearance so that way we all can enjoy and laugh but in the end it was always short becuz like I said about the 1 part is always about Wuk Lamat, they should have let us play as Scion and heck even Koana becuz it would be so much better than Wuk Lamat. 4. Two dye slot and most of DT I would discuss: they did stated two dye slot but didnt say it would be limited becuz for starter I thought two dye slot meant for all current gear which I hoped to dye and understandable if they will make more room but a lot of ppl complain about it and say it would limited for only attire and gear of lvl 1 and DT which is upset but I don't mind waiting for future if they can make all current to have two dye slot happen. Anyway the attire of DT are fine but weird becuz the attire of Bard is like HW and some of them seem alright but weird, I dont know about the rest of classes but the bard and stuff are off

[@nicksugar253]

I'm only up to the half way point so for that reason I won't comment on parts of the review that are part 4:31 and I'll come back when i have reached that point. However so far I've been fine with it for the most part. I saw a comment talking about stormblood and i feel like that expansion had the push of heavenswards end and zeno to push pressure, but I to this day dont feel like Lyse had the time to cook up her rise to leader. So far if they didnt give me the time to see wuk lamat grow I wouldnt want her in the role. Is she nieve and the start, yes. To quote bakool ja ja she kinda is a house cat nervous about things and not experienced. But she grows to depend on people, continues on past her childish grumbles about alpacas and boats, learns her peoples culture, gets martially strong enough to beat bakool ja ja, and uses the benefits of her brother to help the mamoolja. Like they straight up show how all the other claimants fall and leave their people not as happy or safe. As far as vacation vs not as exciting... we knew we were coming for a fight for thrown and thats what we got. I personally will be wanting just a bunch of fun vacation and hunting in post content. Like i got monster hunter vibes and they pointed out giant beasts in endwalker post and where the heck are those. Also i think the player character would be having fun doing all this just cause it's a new adventure, like learning new peoples culture that's an adventurers jam. What's more vacation than walking around, punching stuff and eating tacos. Like i got the vibe after destroying the endsingers that are butts are just here for the ride. Then as far as side lining the others so far I'm only worried about that with two things. Krile not having a moment to shine and me really wanting to fight thancred and urianger. As far as the twins so far they came for garlemald can't really make a offer for them when we're just working on crowning someone. So their banner is all i really needed. But all this is just my opinion, ery body has their right top want a certain experience. And the snip of spoil i heard (my fault entirely i was to curious about the video) with the brother not having much reasoning is for sure a flaw that will anger me.

[@AKImeru]

Regarding the "so much for Tuliolyall diversity". Mammol Ja models are quite re-used, same with the other beast tribes, agreed. However, I couldn't disagree more with the player-based characters? The red poncho has a meaning in the lore. Its the textile production of the Xbr'aal people and a call to their presence in Yak T'el. Several npcs wear it with different colors. They all share a large city and culture. Is it a stretch that fashion works the same way as our own world? There were several scenes where the team went out of their way to give NPCs a wide array of attires, re-using assets even to expand what they wore. You see this more on zones where Yak T'el textiles aren't as present like in Xak Tural and even Solution 9.

[@FornaxTheHerald]

There are trends and vibes in attire, both regional and global, however no city or town on this planet has the monoculture we see on Tuliyollal.

[@MarcusMaybenot]

People are reaching so god damned hard to hate on Dawntrail it's very bizarre to me, there's valid criticism or preferences people can have but like 99% of what I see currently is petty whining or literally just making things up for the sole purpose of hating on the game.

[@FornaxTheHerald]

@@MarcusMaybenot I enjoyed the expansion. It’s made me want to play through the whole story again tbh.

[@Dor_Z]

@@MarcusMaybenot I personally LOVED the world and lore I got interduce to this expansion, I have issues with the story and how some characters over stayed their welcome in some parts in exchange of letting some other characters more screen time when the story was clearly about them. overall the expansion to me is 7/10 the fights are awesome and overall I had a good time.

[@ScribbleNuts]

@@MarcusMaybenot You're the prime example of the XIV fan who can't stand criticism lol. You have been seething in the comments something fierce. I am so glad I don't attach games to my personal identity.

[@AKImeru]

The Endless are souls stuck on an artificial afterlife in the most literal sense of those words, even the experiences there are akin to a theme park, simulated, controlled, and non-organic. Like, reunions are pushed by the system, not something that just happens. You pull the plug and now they are send to the actual, real after life. They are to have their aether added to the Aetherial Sea and from it, reborn. The metaphor is about how nostalgia often gets us stuck into distorted memories, not moving on. The comfort of past memories vs. the growing pains of reality. The game goes out of its way to tell you this directly. You are not killing a sentient being, you are not even killing a ghost, you are helping people move away from a line of perpetuity into a a natural cycle of rebirth. To consider this a 'murder' is to fundamentally ignore the lore as presented. Also "We commit what we were trying to prevent" - The people Sphene wanted to mass murder were living, breathing people. Not ghosts. In her system, those who die from unnatural cases (like being murdered by Sphene) do NOT become endless! Their aether is used to fuel the machine. THEY don't get the nostalgia fake afterlfie, they are stripped of their memories (!) and identity and harvest to have their soul fuel the dreams of others. A metaphor of colonianism. To try to compare the champions of those who are treated without humanity is a very harsh view wouldn't you say so?

[@FornaxTheHerald]

I lean on the side of compassion, and do not want to enact collective punishment upon a civilian population. The Endless have no agency, and I would not punish them for the crimes of their leadership. That's literally a war crime. I also do not think we had the right to decide the fate of thousands, on the say so of three individuals. I'm against taking away a persons right to choose. Their existence their choice. This is one of the fundamental flaws of the system which governs the Endless. Also, people respond in different ways to stories, and have different ideas. Disagree by all means, I welcome that; Your delivery however leaves much to be desired.

[@AngryTenko]

The souls are not even "stuck" there. They are gone. They have been consumed by the living Alexandrians through their regulators. That is the crux of the problem, and Sphene's greatest evil. She excluded her people from the lifestream and from the cycle of rebirth. None of them ever reach the Aetherial Sea. Whenever someone dies with a regulator on, their soul is instantly sent to recycling in Origenics. Whenever someone uses up a soul to ressurrect, this soul is consumed and gone forever. Sphene even mentions that they're having birth rate issues because they are essentially cannibalizing themselves. Living Memory is just a simulation made out of the memories of the dead. There are no souls there anymore. None of them is returning to the Aetherial Sea. They've been fully gone all along.

[@sinniiarmzendlegz7100]

While you have a point that collective punishment of people for the crimes of their leadership is morally reprehensible, can the Endless even be considered people? Can a collection of memories alone have agency? And would these entities truly have a right to choose when their existence necessitates the deaths of actual living people? I understand leaning on the side of compassion and not punishing a people for the system they exist in, but it seems pretty clear that within the confines of Dawntrail's narrative, the Endless are not actual people but reflections of the deceased.

[@arturius9715]

Yeah, but who cares when it's not really a good storyline and nearly zero connection to anyone? They definitely try to build a few connections, but they fall flat. Otto being a great example

[@skaldi8347]

@@sinniiarmzendlegz7100 I think they can be considered people with agency because Erenville's mom (sorry I forgot how to spell her name) started a whole rebellion as one of the Endless. She had her own thoughts and desires and interacted with the real world to see them through, that tells me the Endless ARE actually still people.

[@somnbody]

I really enjoy your review style among a sea of loud screaming and click baiting reviews. Thank you for your thoughts! Coincidentally, we had very similar impressions of the expac. I diverge on the topic of voice acting, though. I find that, subjectively and personally, am way more engaged by reading than by watching longwinded Va'd cutscenes. I know I am likely the minority here, but the biggest gripe I have with this expansion is how much it talks at us rather than letting us engage. But in any case, I think where it can benefit everyone is sort of 'choose a lane'. Either VA the whole thing ( and you can cut 50% of the cutscenes OUT ) or not at all. It is very taxing to switch back and forth.

[@heyjoshplays]

It's the GW girl! I love you!!!

[@Dotoku14]

The writer was either incompetent or had no passion. Maybe even both. I think if you played through DT again you would have an even more negative opinion.

[@FutayuriShironeko]

Wuk Lamat in English is something else... Story is way too slow for what it tries to do and achieve. Wuk Lamat's dialog in general could easily cut in half without losing any character building. Game's structure doesn't work at all for "mentor" arc of story telling. Can't wait for JP voice mod port for english voiceover, would fix some of the annoyance with Wuk Lamat. Msq's structure remaining identical to every other expac when story telling shift is so major is a god damn crime. Other post msq content is good, so expac as a whole is fine. However I would be lying if I didn't say that I was looking forward to hitting skip on every Wuk Lamat's dialog on my alt. Lastly. Wuk Lamat and Sphene are strangers since, yet she still comes in Gaia style when it makes zero sense and takes all the glory and steals your final conversation with Sphene away from you... I get that DT is about her, but that moment made me straight angry at writers.

[@annapaw6614]

When you mention that "you are a better person for it," it makes me think you don't separate yourself from the narrative and the game, which was already a significant drawback, but you proved me somewhat wrong. I wish you had addressed the logical issue of how they simply bridged the gap of an "age-long war" with just a dinner. Have they never seen war? Do they really think all the maiming, hate, and worse can be forgiven so easily? I'm happy you mentioned how Zoraal Ja is nonsensical, the reason for being so "evil" is simply because "Daddy didn't give me everything for free."??? I'm also very happy you highlighted the problems with the Endless and how we are force-fed the writers' agenda and point of view on them. They literally "hear, feel, and think." Not to mention, the reason Emet-Selch said it's okay to kill is because "we are so thin of Aether." So, Endless don't have Aether in them makes it ok to kill them? I don't think Shadowlands is much worse than Dawntrail story-wise; they both have the same issues with pushing the writer's view of death down the reader's throat. Bottom line, stop accepting the dragon-tyrant. Regarding Sins: As far as unforgivable sins go, dude, I am with you. ESO has it all voiced, so why doesn't Square Enix? They're just becoming lazier and lazier. This isn't a money issue; it's a "greedy issue." The NPCs all having the same model? Honestly, I'm so used to it that I can spot all skeletons and animations on any race or monster. It's really sad at this point.

[@jrey8722]

I am not done with the MSQ but I have skipped more in this Expac than all off the game combine and yes that also includes ARR lol it's very sad because I really wanted to enjoy it but sadly I just can't I am going to play the parts of the Expac that I like which so far are the classes and dungeons and raids but the MSQ I am sadly going to skip because I just really feel not motivated to go through and read/watch.

[@danielbongiorno9270]

THE KRYTAN HERALD🥰🤗🥰…AWSOME VIDEO AS ALWAYS😊👍🏻👍🏻… I know it’s not GW2… But any type of Fantasy is Good Fantasy😊… Keep it up👍🏻… Can’t wait to see your next video on GW2😉

[@FornaxTheHerald]

Thanks for the love

[@bolladragon]

I’m genuinely really upset by how the Endless were handled. The peoples made from Dynamis in Ultima Thule are also created from the memories of the dead, so why do they get a nice new planet to inhabit and we broker peace between their unique cultures despite not fitting the Etherys type of aether based life, but we literally cause the Endless’ genocide and Wuk Lamat and her nephew now rule Alexandria. The whole thing is terrible!! It goes against every lesson the game exposed til this point!!!

[@FornaxTheHerald]

@@bolladragon it was a jarring u-turn.

[@insertname3977]

The memories of Ultima Thule will eventually disappear into nothingness once enough aether floods into the place once more, they're on borrowed time, though to point this out the souls of these memories still exist, Depression Bird didn't destroy their aether. The Endless on the other hand have no souls, they're AI that aren't even sapient, they're badly coded memories of people who's souls have been utterly destroyed in every shape and form. The actual people are gone, unlike those in Ultima Thule.

[@Lone-Wanderer28]

Square enix is a awful company. Creative unit 3 doesn't get as much resources as needed, otherwise, I'd be in favor of your suggestions towards the end.

[@lathamtk]

Creative Business Unit 3 is actively getting robbed, not just underfunded. They make all that money for SE, and SE goes and funds failing projects with those very funds. They get to keep maybe a bucket from the whole sea of money they earn for the company. Creative Business Unit 3 is carrying SE (yes the whole fucking company) squarely on its shoulders.

[@ocram3333]

I don't think enough people are questioning the ethics of what we did at the end of the MSQ. It really did make me feel like a genocidal maniac. It's also jarring how the many characters who you meet in the various zones learn of their fate and are weirdly fine with it. The endless show that they have their own thoughts, feelings, and aspirations for the future. They are most definitely sentient beings. I understand that introducing immortality at will in the story would definitely be a bad move, so the solution cannot be easy or just "immortality is now a thing and everyone has access to it". However I have two main problems with the solution we arrive at in the end: 1. I don't think the need for the aether to sustain the endless to be "living" aether was ever properly justified. I recall it being mentioned in ONE line, no reason given. With 99% of the universe now being empty as per EW, there's plenty of unused aether to go around. If they are just basically computer simulations, why would you need souls to power the computer?. Now, assuming they really do need living aether in the form of souls, this only lends more credence to the endless being living sentient people, which brings me to my second point: 2. There is a HUGE difference between letting someone die because the alternative is worse, and outright MURDERING them. Disregarding your solution with the robot bodies (which I hadn't thought about, great solution), yes, the system must stop but WHY TF DO YOU PUSH A BUTTON THAT KILLS MILLIONS? You can just stop the supply of souls and defeat Sphene and they will eventually fade away, let them live out the rest of their (un)natural lifes. The only reason it is written this way is so you can cheaply and artificially make sad farewells for some characters. Speaking of these sad farewells... If I was forced to do this, and truly, really, there was absolutely no other choice, I would be absolutely DEVASTATED and looking at what I've just done with abject horror. Instead the characters are mildly sad and still completely sure of their moral high ground.

[@heyjoshplays]

Can you elaborate on why you think you're a better person for playing FFXIV? o.o

[@FornaxTheHerald]

I've always found it hard ethically to weigh the need for reconciliation vs justice, in civil conflicts. From South Africa, to Northern Ireland, there is/was pressure to move forward (past old hatreds), set against the need for recompense for the victims of those conflicts/historic injustices. Playing 14 from Stormblood onwards, has helped me find moral clarity in this area.

[@heyjoshplays]

@@FornaxTheHerald That's fantastic! Thank you for sharing. :) I too feel like FF14 has made me a better person in that life isn't always just black and white and that most everyone in the world, and even the whole universe, is redeemable. That's one of my favorite attributes of FF14's story and has always encouraged me to be kind to others because you never know anyone's situation or why they are the way they are and can't just just write people off based on a few interactions because deep down, I believe everyone is inherently good and I think our Warrior of Light believes the same! :)

[@Spyrit2011]

The overall feeling of hear, feel, think, weighed heavily. Azem's crystal front and center, then the big question about why we do what we do, which way did you answer? Truth be told we are not done with Zodiark, as he is a sundered being still in pieces on every moon currently in existence. This is the base to the saga, and Dawntrail is a better starting point than ARR was. Obviously they will have to raise the bar for the next expansion.

[@JackThor1]

I thought the problem with the Endless wasn't storage it was energy consumption. Putting the endless in robots just moves where the energy needs to go not the elimination of the need. A total AI allegory.

[@FornaxTheHerald]

@@JackThor1 you’re likely correct

[@VampireNoblesse]

stop wasting money on DEI / ESG consulting companies, use that money on more voice acting

[@violetbliss4399]

It was really up and down for me, also I didn't like some of the themes while I loved some others. I have to say though what's up with the voice direction in it? I think they got some really good VAs (we know Wuk Lamat already) but sometimes, they just got the flat out wrong direction. For me, the initial mentor position was actually cool to me - I prefer being the advisor or support, so I actually didn't mind that, and yet like you say I really think they just didn't get a grasp on how to deliver some elements. Also, I have to say, there is one scene that might have been the largest implausible turn-based cutscene I have ever seen, where it was frustrating to see the inactivity of the characters. I really liked the battle content though, some of the best for sure. I am quite curious about what the patch content will bring.

[@JeremyJ5040]

On Zoraal Ja not receiving any growth in the thirty year bubble- I can actually believe that. He created an enemy in his mind, and then isolated himself from that “enemy” and created for himself an echo chamber of mechanical soldiers to allow that hatred to fester. Even if he no longer cared about his father specifically, he was forced to brood on his expansion via conquest mentality for thirty years while his civilization could do nothing but try to escape the barrier and he had nothing but ambition left when he finally did.

[@frosthound_8594]

The problem with voicing the entire MSQ would make the file size potentially go over 300GB (some people will have to wait at least a week to download the entire game.) Aside from the monetary costs, this should be taken into consideration because you don't want your playerbase that paid for a sub to be able to download the game to miss out on their money spent in days waiting for a patch to download. That aside model diversity would be nice, but I believe FF needs an engine revamp before introducing more ingame models. Hopefully they won't make the same mistake in this regard with development as WoW devs with their spaghetti code

[@keitheyer9812]

@frosthound_8594 I dunno, look at visual novels and they're completely voice acted and some are super long like clannad and steins gate. Look at GW2, their msq is mostly voiced.

[@Lorkynn]

There's a lot of read between the lines for this story, which I finding a good chunk of the player base missing or choosing not to see. It definitely remind me a lot of ARR and its need to set up the world and story, granted which quite a bit less need on world building. I know for a fact that this was the first expansion they were able to to increase their Dev Team, they've been short staffed for a while despite in making money for SqEx. They sad as much in one live letter for DT's reveal. They also repeatedly told us to keep our expectations in check, now that the Ascian Saga has been wrapped up. The voice acting issue felt off, and I honestly believe there were cutscenes that were supposed to be voiced, and weren't because of an back end issue, though I do believe the MSQ needs to be completely voiced, it just does make sense any more for it to not.

[@ReptilianR06]

That first line I agree completely. It sometimes feels like we haven't had the same experience, as some key point in the story just don't seem to stick. It has its problems, points that are very subjective, but when it comes to story elements, shouldn't we all have been subjected to the same content? Maybe it's just boredom that blinds them to these elements when they're presented, and if that's the case, I can't blame them as I have thought some segments to be tiresome.

[@Steinerman333]

FF14 has been able to jump the shark over and over again with its story because they intentionally dud the story in between the high points. ARR was dull, HSW was immaculate, Stormblood was awful, SHB was immaculate, END was well kind of like a SW:RotJ game. It merely exists to close off that story and it had good and bad. DAWN is merely filler laced with story seeds for the future. It’s not meant to be good, it’s meant to make the next game the new Heavensward.

[@zeromatsuri]

look like it was a good call to stop playing it at endwalker only downsde is that i should've stopped at the end of stormblood, when the war arc gets thrown to the recycle bin and comes out has an isekai fanfic for me that was the point where the story was really bad :/

[@dragonfangalexander]

If Narut--- Wuk Lamat had stayed in Tuliyollal after the attack, and the story had moved onto Erenville and Krile, this could have been just on par with Stormblood or Heavensward, specially with the Final Fantasy IX themes. But no, Luff- Wuk Lamat had to return. Seriously Japanese writters sometimes just stick to a theme/character and over do it, and this was one of those times. At least i am very tired of anime narratives and specially 25 year old shonen anime narratives.

[@outlawloner09]

Dawntrail systems enhanced the game. Fate's, dungeons and trails really improved from Endwalker. The MSQ is one of the worst mmo experiences I played through. I did not find Wuk lamat compelling and found myself left clicking through chat screens as quickly as possible so i could avoid being "lectured" too on ethics. Please course correct Square asap for the sake of the community.

[@AngryTenko]

Your proposed solution does not work. Otis was a soul on a machine body. The Endless have no souls, as their souls have been cleaned up in Origenics and packed for consumption. The Endless are merely simulations made from the memories of the deceased, more akin to a chatbot trained on datasets made from a person's memories than any living being. There is no soul anymore to put in the machine bodies, their souls have been used already. That's the actual horror of the Alexandrian Living Memory. They are forever barred from the lifestream and from the cycle of reincarnation that we explored over the previous expansions, because they cannibalized their own souls. This is why the Living Memory has to be destroyed. Comparing it to the burning of Teldrassil, which was an actual genocide of living people who were already once displaced from their native home, is completely erroneous.

[@mattstansbeary3068]

Lets give Final Fantasy 14 $5 Billion Dollars you do realize that is not only going to Final Fantasy 14 but other Games in Square Enix. Yes that is why they don't voice every scene or change every Model because it's not going all to 1 Game. Sorry how Square Enix, Amazon or other big Companies run their Game Company like they don't have brains and sadly don't fully back their Games.

[@skillet_head]

I half liked Dawntrail Msq. I did enjoy the rite of succession arc though Wuk Lamat at times felt odd, though I did enjoy her character at times. The second half was jarring for me and it dragged on and on. The brief respite in the fourth zone refreshed me but I noticed when Wuk Lamat came back...and acted as if she never grew at all from the Rite of succession, it felt odd. Combat excellent, Dungeons Excellent, but quest design is severely aging. Also the over abundance and dependence on walking escort quests was lazy and made it boring. They are way too in love with this quest design and it needs to stop. Music is great yet at certain story beats was jarring and odd with certain story beats. For example the ascension to dawnservant, did they really need to play the loud super overly cheerful music over her speech and drown the crowds cheering?? It felt like a clumsy cheesy Lion King Disney scene at that beat. I feel like Post EW should have been an entire expansion...its a missed opportunity, I feel like we should of stayed the main hero and started saving other shards. Exploring new areas and people. With this expansion, we now knocked out two more shards with a blink of an eye...could had been two possible expansions. I dont know, this feel rushed and that is my interpretation.

[@alexninten8818]

The devs did say that after ending the 10 year long story that the next expansion wanted to be a fun adventurous feel. A very light tou he and cheek a yet charming tone. It to be like the Mario sun shine or vacation from being the savior of everything. In that perspective they succeeded in what they were going for. Instead of you being the hero you’re taking a break and teaching someone to become the new hero of their land.

[@FornaxTheHerald]

@@alexninten8818 It was actually a lovely idea, but they did not stick the landing. It’s hard to feel light hearted when the story includes hundreds of dead children and a genocidal AI.

[@alexninten8818]

@@FornaxTheHerald don’t think they could of redeem Bakol JaJa after everything he did without going hard with his back story. The Ai was just a Parallel to Yu Yevon from FF10 technically was doing the same thing wiping out city’s to keep his long dead fake city alive. You can find two Yevon references in the final area. The Yu Yevon Symbol in one of the gift shops and a whale while a stretch could a Symbolic to Sin.

[@alexninten8818]

@@FornaxTheHerald as for Wut Lamat after her introduction in Endwalker could tell they were going to the direction they said they wanted to take the game just by the not too serious cheeky tone. That stayed that way most of the expansion. She started to grew on me as the story progressed. Being a Axe member to the team was great. She had pretty good character growth. It wasn’t till the level 96 dungeon I stumbled on a news article talking how she was a trans person voice actor. I never knew that till then and now and I still think she did a good job.

[@alexninten8818]

@@FornaxTheHerald taking the back seat and being the mentor/ watcher to the new hero or main character has already been done before in FF12 with Vaan just tagging along with the main characters and just watching from his perspective. And same can be with Ser Aymeric de Borel and Lyse. Tho I’m a way they already were heroes and made names for themselves. With Wut Lamat you see her go from no one recognizing her and not being able to fight on her Own. To everyone knows her name and she knows there names after learning what it means to be a hero.

[@alexninten8818]

@@FornaxTheHerald I feel like a lot of people went in expecting Shadow bringers or Endwalker type of story when that’s not what the devs have said many times what they wanted to do after end walker. And are all blaming Wuk Lamat from what I keep seeing every where only cause see it the face/mascot poster child of Dawntrail

[@Grebeny]

I personally disliked it at start. I got pelupelu as my first task and I hated every second of their quest line. This community never grown at me. After that the birds were cool, first dungeon was OK, but defenetely not as good as first dungeons in last two expansions. The characters were acting super cwrtoonish and annoying. But going deeper in the story the characters became more likeble and even early annoying behavior started to make more sense. And after I just got used to it, we reached the second part. I will not lie when I say, I almost turned off the game, with never coming back when I saw another empire with mythical modern technology coming for us. I am quite tired of this empire reuse. BUT, I recollected myself and gave it a chance. While I am not entirely sold on the girl that is copy paste from metrion and the shadowbringers reuse of "for us to survive, you must die", I loved it, totally. The story of the city, the entire idea of electricity and the crisis for resources, this was one of the best cyberpunk stories in years and it is not a cyberpunk game. It was so good that I forgive them for reusing metrion. Shutting down the city, that absolutely intentionally used most human NPCs for the entire expansion exactly to force you feeling worse doing it, adding multiple cool or important characters in the city we shut down to spice it up. And most importantly, the bold move of leaving the city dark, stony apocalyptic distopia for the player once you shut it down, totally loved it. I believe it is absolutely intentionally to make the players feel the weight of their actions better, totally hit the spot. They really need to voice the damn game.

[@pool842]

Personally, I really like the Obi-Wan Kenobi roll that we played in dawntrail. Story Wise it only makes sense after 10 plus years of battle-hardened Galaxy wide universal storytelling that we've been through.

[@Garyof11]

I definitely enjoyed it and I also enjoyed Wuk Lamat as a character and look forward to more future growth from her as a leader of a nation now. There were two things that I felt were done terribly though which were Zarool Ja as a character and which scions came along on the adventure this time around. Starting with the Resilient Son, with how much Wuk Lamat respected and adored her brothers there should have been no way he would turn into a genocidal maniac. Not to mention he basically was the favorite to win the throne so he definitely seemed to have a lot of off screen accomplishments that made him likeable to the people. I know he was favored by the 'expansionist' but judging from just how much support he had there was absolutely NO WAY military conquest was the only thing on the agenda. I had the highest hope for him as a character and was ultimately let down. His reasons made no sense and he was ultimately just the cartoon villain the ascians used to be during ARR. And I didn't even consider the 30 years for him that transpired which is more than enough time for people to change and self reflect. Now as for the scions. Other than Krile (because this is her moment) and Graha (I know that he is popular and loved and fleshed out, but I give him the benefit of the doubt just because of the sheer amount of tragedy he has lived through), the entire roster though have been the other scions that are basically scions in name alone. If I recall there were a number of notable individuals that were among the scions ranks that could definitely fill the gap needed to be other party members. Estinien gets a pass because he just happened to be on vacation. I am ready to see other characters now. I know they are scared of the potential backlash of people missing their favorite characters, but I guarantee if the character is hot enough or has enough depth, the replacements will be a success. Even though this expansion didn't reach the heights of heavensward, ShB, or Endwalker I still feel that it is a very solid foundation for content to come. For those WoLs with main character syndrome who can't stomach the idea of not being the center of attention for more than a few scenes, the next expansion might be for them. I have a feeling thanks to that new dimensional mcguffin there will eventually be a big bad from one of the other reflections to come pay us a visit to take it.

[@KanetsidohiKanotoush]

I can't comment on all you said because I haven't finished the MSQ, and I have no intention to do so in the future However, I completely disagree that it's worth the price I didn't care for Wuk Lamat in Sharlayan but I got to hate her. I was saddled with her without any mean of escape Because of that, and the weak story, I was so bored during the MSQ that I started skipping everything I could but in the end, I just stopped playing DT, and got back to old content because I still have about 70 days of sub Just this morning I just realized those are not the only bad things about DT for me, if the next expansion it's great, everybody praise it, and I decide to give it a try, aside for the sub, I still have to finish DT or spend money on a skip I'm not doing either so I guess I'm done with FF14 for the time being, although in some months for now, I may return to level a new character until Endwalker

[@anannoyedpanda]

Such little actual combat and gameplay during the msq has ruined the game. If the msq is going to be the big part of your game, you cant have it be a visual novel. Genuinely debating about demanding a refund due to such a crap experience.

[@VideoHostSite]

Notice that nobody ever says "a dishonest review?" BTW, did you even finish the story? If you had, you'd know that the Dawnservant didn't have two heads. He had one head and one mummified corpse-skull.

[@FornaxTheHerald]

@@VideoHostSite I did complete the story, and I referred to his other brother head, as his wiser aspect. This is my honest opinion of Dawntrail. Disagree all you like, but don’t accuse me of dishonesty. Thanks for feeding the algorithm.

[@kephalai]

a lot of the visual limitations like the character models and mouthflaps are probably attributed to the engine that was created for the ps3 era. kinda hoped that they would create a brand new mmo and move everything there instead, but seems like its too hard for them and while they make loads of money from ff14, what i heard is that ff14 funds the rest of square enix's random games that fail and are swept under the rug.. or something to that effect :D kinda sad but at least its not as bad as pokemon level bad

[@pool842]

Hitler and Stalin never had terrible childhoods. You don't need terrible childhoods to be extremely bad men. So I don't really understand your comment on his genocidal nature...

[@FornaxTheHerald]

In life we often do not know, until years after their crimes, what motivated the tyrants of history. However in a narrative, if the writers want their audience to be engaged with the characters, explaining motive is vital. I feel Zoraal Ja was not fleshed our enough, for me at least, to understand his extreme actions and reactions. Sorry I was not clear.

[@herebejamz]

@@FornaxTheHerald I think the disconnect is it's HARD to imagine people making entire expectations out of other people's perceptions of them and thinking they're never good enough, and it going badly. Some people just end up thinking really bad stuff and cranking it to 11 because they assume they're supposed to be a particular way, and then reality rejects their assumptions. Obviously, it didn't connect with you, and that is valid.