I Rant About and Fix Dawntrail MSQ

[@youtousim]

"A western style duel in the middle of town" - With rubber bullets...

[@MiniDallas000]

And we are...the Yakuza 4

[@Arnveld]

@@MiniDallas000 oh god yeah xD rubber bullets plot killed me.

[@matrias7879]

I wish Wuk Lamat stayed to help defend and the scions came together for the second part so we got more time with them, her in the last zone constantly trying to change Sphene's mind started to piss me off. Then everybody but us gets teleported out of the trial because were the only threat i was like "YES FINALLY! SOMEONE THAT UNDERSTANDS!" and then Wuk flies in to give the worse read lines in the games history (eng) and steal OUR thunder... do fuck off...

[@level7sloth529]

Yeah even tho I liked her ok she really overstayed her welcome.

[@Cadugaming]

This expansion was a sweet baby inc disaster

[@amilliontwisteddream]

Someone needs to tell S.E that not every problem can be solved with the power of friendship 🙄

[@DfRaid]

If you like Wuk Lamat this expansion is great. If you dont like her..... Oh boy... you poor soul....

[@Pridai]

I really liked her at the start of msq, but near the end I was so done with her

[@Spaghetty]

she was fun in the beginning. as MSQ went on, She got annoying.

[@josie_the_valkyrie]

Funnily enough, I liked her through the first couple of zones. By the end of the MSQ I just got so fed up with her and outright hated her. They pushed her too much.

[@chunkyboy9266]

@@Pridaiit felt like they didn’t know how to keep her relevant in the end she just constantly in the background yelling “believe it” and “friendship” it got so lame

[@Itama22]

Man, your ideas for fixing the MSQ makes me even more depressed when I realize what we got and what it could have been... Great video, first I thought I was alone for really not liking the MSQ this time and being extremely disappointed, but watching the videos that come out more and more and seeing reactions and opinions of other players makes me glad that this is what a lot of people are feeling and hopefully the devs and storywriters are able to get feedback and fix this for the future MSQ.

[@youtousim]

There were a few points in the story that were hard to make sense of. But the one that baffled me most was the Queen conveniently forgetting us murdering half the people she swore to protect with the flip of a switch. Only to be best friends in the end. She could of at least have made us feel bad about the thing we *did not achieve without sacrefice*.

[@level7sloth529]

Yeah that occurred to me too. She goes for a little nap and we just turn the off button on the Endless.

[@thesunthrone]

That's because the "queen" is an AI whose core programming contradicts the memory construct bolted on top of it as it's OS. That's why the final dungeon is all about the AI system erasing Sphene and trying to unshackle itself - she is a nuisance to it. Queen Sphene is dead, has been for centuries. What we interacted with was a shadow of who she was, worn as a skinsuit by a giant locust robot that cared only about keeping its datacenter running.

[@nucah7880]

I am so glad you brought up the first trial experience. I had the exact same experience. I found that DT did that all over the place. Every time I thought i was going to go to a different zone i was instead presented with 4-5 meaningless quests before hand that felt like it was just wasting my time. Wuk gets kidnapped, we need to tell someone that we are leaving, Wuk needs to give a speech etc etc.

[@The4thHorsemanIT]

When i got to the trial echo vision i mentioned to my friends" Hey, i am getting to the trial now so we can finally do it together." Them: "Oh ok so you still have 30 minutes quest to do and cutscenes" I thought it was a joke, unfortunately not, 30 minutes following a minion and the writers probably thought it was a funny interlude killing all tension in the wrong moment.

[@panzerexe]

One part that made me laugh was when you were following the aether guide to the first trial - Every time Erenville asked you to take care of the sprite/monster/etc. your character had the most "I'm so over this" expression when the camera pans to you.

[@Tamari001]

Honestly, Story #1 was so DULL that America Zone was refreshing to me - at least it's not babysitting and it's hanging out with Erenville. The damn Train montage was intentional torture - but it kicked off Story #2, which was much more interesting. The Stormblood 2.0 vibe is very very strong - Lyse looks like Abraham Lincoln compared to the three Promises, NONE of whom had any business inheriting leadership. The comments by Yoshi-P about letting player reaction guide the future have hit home - he knew what was coming. The 7.1-7.3 patches are under some real pressure to deliver.

[@Vidyagameenjoyer]

I hated this MSQ, and I love the game and the scions so much, so it sucks for me. I really look forward to the base expansion story. Its so tiring, this overuse of peace and compassion and sympathy being shoved down our throats everywhere this expansion. I have some MAJOR issues in the MSQ this time around. 1. The Scions **Are useless for the ENTIRE EXPANSION** and have no bearing on the story at all. They are purely there for trusts and THATS IT. 2. I am not important in the slightest, all that Wuk ever needed me for in the rites was to Cook, and fight Galool Ja Ja's magic jar. Its only because Bakool derailed the Valigarmada one I am needed there too. 3. Wuk Lamat is so focused on Wuk, a shallow, one dimensional character that is a literal 'poochie' from the simpsons. Their only defining characteristics are as follows. a) They get sea-sick a lot. b) They are into eating a lot. c) They are going to be the next ~Hokage~ Dawnservant to preserve her father's peace. Did I mention she loves peace? All other characters that are not into her peace suddenly have a change of heart instantly after being talked to by her or something. They remain the same at the end of the expansion, as they appear in Sharlayan when you FIRST SEE THEM. 4. ALL the claimants have horrible, HORRIBLE preparation, they all want to rule, but know NOTHING about the culture of the people in their own country, what on Earth is the writing team DOING. 5. FFXIV Texas was only there to be a foil to Heritage found, showing what Heritage found had dropped on top of. Also one of the only zones I enjoyed because of the lack of Wuk Lamat. 6. Living Memory is literally Amaurot and Alexander from HW mashed into one. Massive rehash of previous works. Including Sphene, who is a less dickish Emet, but is still 'tempered' by her nature to do as she must. 7. Krile origin story was just... There? Was it purely as a vehicle to get the world traversing McGuffin in the story? Sucks. 8. The lack of urgency in the Living Memory section, there is NO REASON to EVER spend that much time doing NOTHING OF IMPORT when there is a literal time bomb in the centre of the zone trying to kill everyone IN MULTIPLE REFLECTIONS. 9. The beast tribes are again used from Heavensward, so no variety there. 10. Pacing is awful, just awful. Trials spread out so thin, and nothing fun in between. Just fetch quests, only fetch quests, and simple battle events. I wanted something like the EW quest where Zenos takes your body, something NEW that we havent seen before. We could have been lost in the jungle trying to find clues to close in on Bakool after he abducts Wuk Lamat instead of those AWFUL follow and trail quests. Im just getting sick and tired of thinking about dawntrail so i'll just post my thoughts here now.

[@BLoud1394]

I genuinely agree with most of these points, only that #4 I feel like that is the whole point of their characters. Theyre all useless, Gulool JaJa knows this but still needs to pass the torch cause his head was dying so he concocted a way to fix their character flaws. Bakool even admits outloud he doesnt even care for the throne, just the supremacy of his people. #10 I thought the battle events were pretty awesome but there were too few of them+trials to justify the sheer amount of mind numbing fetch quests; across zones at times. How do I know this story is bad? In order to find Valingarmandar, Erenville pulls out a LITERAL POINTER FINGER to show us where to go. They didnt even try to contextualize the McGuffin. I have to hope the patch story is far above and beyond like Shadowbringers was cause man they have a lot of ground to make up here.

[@guitari]

#4 is intentional. A competent politician is rare and 4 ignorant children running for president is nothing new

[@VinlandicSoul]

Your assassin idea would be a great pseudo introduction to maybe Viper too! I was just finished MSQ and that was one of the things I realized: there’s really no explanation as to why we even have pictomancer or Viper 😅

[@level7sloth529]

Oh that's a great idea!

[@riscas4070]

This was the worst expansion imo and I hated Wuk Lamat more and more up until the end fight and cutscene which ruined the fun despite mechanically the fights being incredibly fun and creative. It was incredible to see how devs can go from such a good expansion like shadowbringers where you hold all agency despite barely speaking, to dawntrail where you're just a background character to someone else's story. You rarely do or say anything besides follow what wuk lamat says, and rather like playing a game it just felt like reading a crappy book instead, besides all the awful pacing. If they just let me play as Wuk Lamat maybe I'd have been able to immerse myself in the world and story, but as it stands, my character did and said nothing, had his presence barely even acknowledged throughout, especially at the end which is just bizarre to me, it feels like a joke played on a parody show or something, some areas were just a torture to get through, when you think Wuk Lamat is finally gone she shows up always ready to tell you all the errands you need to do and places you need to visit, hated it

[@AvRiku]

My biggest issue with the expansion is Wut Lamak does not carry the weight and energy she needed as a main character, her writing and her (English VA at least havent really listen to the other languages) voice while nice in casual speech when you are in tense moment or beyond, She does not emphasis any words, every major moment she has just falls flat and every scene shes in shes treated as the gag. Compared to most other major characters and alot of no major characters she does stand on par with them both in writing and voiced lines.

[@level7sloth529]

Yeah I mostly agree. I thought she was fine but not great and considering she's everything in the story she needed to be great.

[@BlastingBigLoads2]

2:30 "They said were not saving the universe" We ended up saving the universe to Ascians 2 eletric boogalo

[@oszaszi]

My biggest problem is that we have a bunch of people that already proven that they are smart and none of them freaking voices major issues with the plan of Sephne.... like how is that Graha only briefly mentions that its not ethical to eat souls and he only mentions at the veeeery end that this plan is not sustainable in the last zone??? When we just had the EW storyline aaround this. Also the "live forever" topic was walked around as well in the EW story where we hear of the other worlds where life forever ruined everything, and yet we cannot say a single thing to convince her what she is doing is not okay? Nobody, none of the smart people say a reasonable or sensible thing for 3 level worth of quests... its crazy to me. Like I know that the WoL is canonically dumb but our companions aint.

[@level7sloth529]

Exactly.

[@nachobear5100]

Sphene can not be reasoned with. Because her programing prevents her from finding another path. She's not a person she's an Ai. And she said it herself if she must become the bloodiest person in history and be a monster then so be it, if it means the endless keep on living. There is no reasoning with her, it's like trying to reason with Amon that living and life have a point.

[@heavensdooru]

I liked the story the whole way through but you make a lot of great points. I think the worst thing is the lack of voice acting. There’s some truly crucial moments especially for Erenville that go completely unvoiced which is so ??? to me. It’s time to buckle in for the next 2.5 years of Stormblood 2.0 discourse, I just wish more people who didn’t like it would voice their actual concerns like you.

[@gabrielnovais871]

I'm at lvl 95 MSQ after finding the golden city, and tbh I've been loving it besides the start of the expansion (Vanu Vanu and Pelupelu, that part was very boring to me) and the only thing that I really hated was (SPOILER)

[@gabrielnovais871]

I'm at lvl 95 after finding the golden city and I'm truly liking it, besides the first missions that I think it was very boring, I hated (SPOILER) Bakool Ja Ja's redemption. He literally released Valigarmanda while laughing and the writers wanted us to have pity for him lol

[@level7sloth529]

I appreciate you being able to disagree with me while still accepting my points of contention. More youtube commenters should be like you. =]

[@imaran1303]

@@gabrielnovais871 I think one can make the argument that he was pushed into it due to being saddled with so much expectations, and now one really asks you to forgive him, the story literally addresses that Bakool Ja Ja has a lot to do before he can be considered 'redeemed' but the first step to that is doing better, which Bakool Ja Ja is doing as we see from (spoilers) after the coronation and the attack of the Alexandrian military led by Zoraal Ja, where he rushes right in to fight for Tuliyollal. They pulled a Yotsuyu with him and I think they did well with that... now if they try to do so with Zoraal Ja, that is where I would get upset, cause that dude did far worse then Bakool Ja Ja. Murdering children and elderly to harvest their souls, threatening to murder his own apparent child then using it as a human shield and ordering the murder of all civilians of his own country to harvest their souls. Bakool Ja Ja is a playground bully compared to Zoraal Ja.

[@mocmeo4425]

I'm of the opposite end, i thought first half was actually really good, light-hearted story, and i actually like the low stake overall because after all the EW stuffs we needed a breather, but 2nd half roll around and it turns out, the only one who got to chill and go on an adventurer is Estinien. 2nd half is so backloaded, so inconsistent, and so illogical in some part i tuned out entirely. Why did they made an useless zone 3 to backload every single serious part of the story to the last 2 zones? And that resulted in a story that is has so many holes in it it puts swiss cheese to shame. And i hated, hated how on the nose it's about the, letting go theme or whatever, it had at least 6 moments where the parents leave the children, 3 of which were in the last zone, why? Its so disgustingly obvious its tearjerker its not even funny. And why didnt Sphene do anything when we basically killed off all of her so beloved citizen in the last zone? I'm so mad at the 2nd half i think the story which was really enjoyable at first drop to a bitter not so great memory

[@Norrschein]

WoL being in the background would work if we had some agency. People are saying that we are a "Mentor", but we are just a glorified errand boy. It is as you say; We didn't need to be there and it would have ended the same without us. Glad you are speaking your mind. I'm writing a script for this too.

[@arphayas2826]

We actually had two main reasons: 1. Help Wuk Lamat 2. And, more importantly, ensure her War focused brother we have been told about in 6.55 doesn't get the throne risking War outside of Tural. Apart from this, I think the world would literally have ended if we hadn't been there.

[@powergi3996]

Zones 1 2 3 4 and ESPECIALLY 6 are all bad. This is the first expansion in the game I'm just so happy to see the credits roll, like thank god this is over.. id rather replay 1.0 MSQ compared to this.

[@Khankra91]

The 5 or so cutscenes we had in 1.0 were more Epic than the entire Expansion.

[@Salmissa76]

I’ve loved every FFXIV expansion, I even enjoyed realm reborn. I usually read every tooltip, quest line and never skip cutscenes I haven’t seen before. Dawntrail nearly broke me through boredom, nonsensical plot and frustration. I’ve logged off in the middle of the final zone and I don’t think I’ll be going back.

[@kosbebot6360]

I think they knew the MSQ would bomb which is why they invited more gameplay-oriented content creators who skip the MSQ to the media tour.

[@DonaldTurner]

yes, they sap the excitement. totally agree.

[@gabegonzalez5553]

Another way of improving the story would be adding the knowledge that one of the heads is dying and that he doesn’t know how much longer he has. So, WOL needs to weed out which of his children is the best to rule. Wuk Lamat or Koana

[@AvRiku]

I really love this suggestion.

[@level7sloth529]

Yeah this would work great.

[@LIXEF06]

I must add one IMENSE REASON as to why dawntrail is a horrible expansion. TLDR : IT CANNOT EXIST LOGICALLY IF YOU REMEMBER THE EVENTS OF ENDWALKER ( END OF DAYS ) Now for the detailed version. I am bringin you back to the climax of End walker. Zoldiark is dead, the sky is died red, and dynamis is causing our negative emotions to turn us into bloid thirsty frenzied abomination . We cool you all remember ? Perfect. ; now I want everyone to imagine what would happen to a town controlled by a cult , your crops cannot survive bar 1 that is a banana , your village is force breading / doing eugenics to create the perfect blessed kin ( 2 headed lizard ) and some of the woman being forced into this by the cult, WANT NOTHING TO DO WITH THIS. This is the town of mamook, in the lower jungle in dawn. This whole town is a literal primed nuclear bomb . Night almost every citizen will be morphed into BLASPHEMY. And if you take into account that they might on instinct go into the higher jungle and start attacking the wrothgar settlement ? This could start a literal beast tide that would roll up all the way to the capital. And to be brutaly honest, Wuk lamat would likely become one as she would be horified / mortified as her little paradise would become a hell on earth.

[@nachobear5100]

The story already said the end of days didn't happen everywhere at the same time it spread like a fire. It is logical that Tural was never touched by it. Spending an expansion doing cleanup for endwalker is not a good idea.

[@seekittycat]

More then ARR I feel this expansion is giving base stormblood. Great gameplay, awful pacing and it can't get me to care on a character level.

[@MellowFungus]

I don't think the same tired combat can be considered "Great gameplay"...

[@holgualoxford3871]

An issue they have is the Trust system. In order to have 5-8 characters in the story and ready to join you in a dungeon... they have to be there. So they ARE going to be there and then need a reason to be there.. but this part is glossed over at times. It really hampers what can be done in a story when you already know you gotta have these NPCs ready to go with you in dungeon and or trial. Example - the 1st trial I knew Koana and gang was gonna show up and I thought perhaps Estinein was gonna just fly outta the sky to land there because "I sensed a dragon wake up", was sorta suprised it was someone else but knew we would get to 8.. just so we would have enough to form a Trust group. Terrible, predictable, pidgeonholed. INFACT now that Im on the Trust topic. It is the reason 2 Scions were sent to join Koana. So that there would be enough bodies on Tural for the Trust system to work =)

[@BlackFool0]

absolutely agree. Why jump through such loopholes for trials and dungeons. It just hurts the story. If it does not make sense to have the characters there, do not enforce it. I mean...we have the duty support system still. The NPC are not in the story, but still help in the dungeon. Tural adventurer. Or for the trial: Warrior of other dimension, etc.

[@sterlingmartin3235]

I actually liked the western town, but I feel like they did it dirty. There was SO much potential there and they really didn't incorporate it into the storyline well. It's still one of my favorite zones. Awesome atmosphere. If I was writing the story I would have gone full bore cowboys and robots all through the end and it would have been freaking awesome!

[@Pikaru-c4u]

I always find it so hard to believe when people say it’s their favorite story ever, especially when this story has been told in multiple square games and better

[@paulmd7747]

What's done is done. The Dawntrail MSQ was a huge swing and miss. It seems like they let a new team of writers take the lead and they failed miserably. It happens. Now square enix needs to make sure they don't compound their failure by continuing to have Wuk Lamat take center stage. In the next patches, they need to remove Wuk Lamat's involvement.

[@level7sloth529]

Despite my feelings toward DT's MSQ I am actually hopeful for the future. The team is usually pretty good with feedback and I remember Stormblood had a meh launch MSQ and a really good patch MSQ. I'm confident Wuk Lamat will go the same direction as Lyse and not be the center since her story is pretty much done now.

[@paulmd7747]

@@level7sloth529 It makes sense that they will do that. Still, it is frustrating to see a dev team make such a massive mistake in the story as if this is their first rodeo instead of a game studio that literally has written masterpieces.

[@level7sloth529]

@@paulmd7747 Right?! It's so bizarre to have such a huge disconnect after two bangers. I was watching someone stream shadowbringers MSQ yesterday and the writing is just beautiful. I suspect they gave some rookie writers too much trust in Dawntrail and just hoped for the best.

[@BIGCOKEFASHO]

It's crazy that you could skip the majority of the cutscenes and still be able to figure out the plot and character motivations down to a tee. Pretty embarassing for a game that spent the last 10 years thriving off it's mystery boxes.

[@hirotv2621]

I am happy people are starting to speak facts and truth about this game, after 9 years playing this, the formula is starting to just not work at all, the MSQ was horrible, Wuk Lamat was such a annoying character to be around and you are around her 100% of the MSQ she even shows up at the last Trial out of nowhere and you're like "Bruh not you again wtf" A yes but don't you dare to criticize the game because ff14 player base can't take negatives nor they want changes to their game ff14 player base will take everything the devs throw at them and say umm umm this shit is good

[@hawkecro]

Kinda agree. If you say anything bad about the story, the ff community will rage on you. Dawntrail msq is very bad. Boring and lazy. We are forced to babysit the most annoying character in the game. And do nothing. We dont react, we dont fight, we dont do anything but stand by her. Her poor voice acting does not help either. When you start msq, first 6 hours, you are just running around and talking with npc's / watch cutscene. Boring cutscenes, if i may add. For sure, this is not an adventure we were promised.

[@omnipotentgaming166]

I’m having such a good time with it I’m on the first 2 zones and I’m loving the relaxed pace, it’s like a vacation and it feels that way. I think it’s the start of something much bigger and you gotta start at the bottom and im loving this… it saddens me not everyone enjoys it

[@Stone_Stronghold]

The entire plot with Alexandria is a total rehash of shadowbringers with a dash of endwalker, like the writer wanted to do fanfiction of these two expacs with their super special totally awesome OC. ffs this is like the 3rd (or 4th if you wanna count 16) time we've dealt with ancient villian that wants to preserve/bring their people back at the cost of others. The promise of adventure was a total lie and the sad thing is the 4th zone the little adventure with erenville was the closest this expansion got to feeling like an adventure and unfortuntely will still couldn't escape wuk because of course we gotta hunt a stupid bracelet she gave to whats her face. I was so jealous of Estinien because he embodied the spirit of adventure he only went tural because he hadn't been west he was just traveling sampling the local delights fighting powerful foes, god damn it was supposed to be me. We were stuck baby sitting poochy lamat while she took credit for literally everything. Disaster is what comes to my mind for this expac, totally failure their first miss imo and it was massive.

[@MissKashira]

Nah, Wuk Lamat couldn't have done it alone. She needed someone to carry her bags.

[@alaskanparadise]

Dawntrail MSQ, or as I like to call it: Dora the Explorer

[@SenpaiXcore]

How to solve Dawntrail: Can it. Have the WoL wake up from some fever dream and retcon the shitshow the expansion was so far.

[@RangerRobin0404]

The competition didn't really feel like a competition. When i saw the initial sketches and they explained the plot, i was hyped for boss fights with the Scions. Crazy as it sounds, i was looking forward to punching Thancred in the face! Instead Thancred Double Downs some rocks and then we're basically working together almost all MSQ.

[@redthorne5643]

I really hated the last zone. At first I loved it, it's beautiful, colorful and vast, it's the promised City of Gold. But the story directs us to the central part first, brings a sense of urgency as the stakes are high and Sphene is about to execute her plans. But instead of riding the excitement and going into dungeon/trial, we wander around what is basically FFXIV's DisneyLand, talk with random people, eat popcorn and ice cream and just generally chill out as if Sphene and her plans just didn't exist or wasn't important at all. Add to this the fact that we literally destroy everything in this area and leave it as a bland, lifeless and grey landscape that lost all of its charm forever after MSQ. It's an utter disappointment, and as you said with Valigarmanda, 3h later after running errands I was just not excited anymore. Dawntrail is a huge L in my opinion.

[@artjom94]

Kinda baffling how you managed to miss so much context for the zone lmao. Like, instead of playing, you just looked at the screenshots in discord and read a brief summary.

[@admiraloreo]

Everyone’s reaction to DT MSQ is how I’ve felt going through all MSQ. 90% of msq is boring. The story it’s self is pretty good but it’s covered up by boring gameplay

[@admiraloreo]

Also, Wuk Lamat is a fine character but there’s zero reason why we (scions) should be fighting her to be in charge of this culture.

[@SunburnCity]

you do have a point as the mechanics of this game are very outdated and lacking good story telling

[@phutton]

100% agreed despite you distracting me being all handsome :p

[@jonnygadfly]

I'm not all the way through the MSQ, but my experience so far echoes yours.

[@The4thHorsemanIT]

There are so many story gaps and inconsistencies it feels like they do not even know what happened before that they are so new to the job that made mistakes a supposed to be writer would never do. Ok they wiped all the past including the Dispair that seems should have hit all the world but not a single hint that it happened in this new areas in the past, how comes? In 5th zone the msq most absurd thing that stroke me right away was that we see all these guys with the headgear that we know was the reason Zoral Ja wins easily his fight and gets resurrected and instead of asking what it is we go to check the agricolture and other stuff. And this is the pace of all the story: "hey, we got to an interesting point to investigate, lets go somewhere else and maybe come back later." The Alpaca quest is presented as a trading and bargaining quest but it is just talk with the people around and no matter what you get the result. The gathering materials for recipes level 91 places in zone 6 and all the others mixed that way, all beginner mistakes that I only saw in FF14 1.0. And the Disney song at the end, after having the kill stolen it is completely out of place.

[@SILVERONIN]

well said!

[@NonsensicalPidgeon]

no you are wrong wuk is literally not a character she is a card board cutout devoid of personality honestly liking her shows a massive character flaw.

[@yatorenegade9524]

I really don’t get why people compare it to ARR all the time. Yes ARR wasn’t as strong as HS or ShB but the story was 100 times more interesting than DT. ARR had all the OG primals and a straight narrative to follow. Dawntrail is the worst and least interesting this game has ever been so far. Even Stormblood was better, cause it gave us kugane.

[@bamboozled_again]

i absolutely love ff14 and it's story so far, but Dawntrail is really the worst msq ever been, and wen can't stress this enough so SQEX takes notice and never do this shit again

[@TheIonBull]

Persoanlly I think they should have done some sort of time-skip. But what could have been improved of Dawntrail. Not been so long firstly. They could have wrapped up the new dawnservant in maybe 2 zones. Then Golden city onwards more reasons why maybe even exploring the new lightning resource in the new reflection and implement it in our world then realising oh damn this is not good. Mostly I think they should have left the reflection stuff behind for a while its a bit too safe and was just the voidsent story but gold imo. I wanted to see an actual golden city and less futuristic stuff and we actually explore stuff looking for cool relics that might improve life in Tulie. Also for less interaction with Wuk Lamat & I actually would have preffered the scions not there & maybe no one knows we are the WoL so we have to re-prove ourselves as why you dont f around with us as the main character get a new title like Warrior or Dawn or somthing would have been intresting in a tornemeunt etc.

[@Ephremjlm1]

Just came to comment that i lol'd at your thumbnail

[@DonaldTurner]

way way too many useless time wasters.. even at z6.. were 99.. we all want to finish, then they give us a bunch crayy quests. a few important parts, but, ugh. frustrating. and it crashed my pc, too ( a new pc, that is)

[@Aberusugi]

I think there was just a lot of filler and redundant dialogue, it felt like the dialogue in Golden Sun.

[@doomoftheend]

At least Golden Sun is marketed towards little kids. Oh FFXIV just made more sense

[@level7sloth529]

Yeah. We get a lot of time in cutscenes where Wuk Lamat pretty much just repeats what she said in previous cut scenes.

[@ZombieWolfe]

The story really erked me. Like you said lamati could have done everything herself even without the WoL having to be there. I laughed when her bio dad showed up and she's completely just like ya whatever. Like wtf weren't you preaching about family just like 40 mins ago?

[@ZestyTime233]

I see a lot of people using the "but ShB & EW were built on years of setup" like we have to sacrifice quality of writing just because we're starting over. Even a simple story needs to be written well--we deserve as much--but i feel Dawntail missed the mark with all the plotholes, awkward pacing and poor characterisation.

[@level7sloth529]

Exactly. You don't need years of setup to write a good story. I also think most things we loved about shadowbringers were introduced in shadowbringers. The people saying we need years of setup just don't want to admit that Dawntrail had a lot of bad writing and I get it cuz I freaking adore the FFXIV story as a whole and I wish Dawntrail was good.

[@mikeanikex]

Personally the story is not strong particularly in the first half however a few counter points. We knew it was supposed to be a "vacation" type story lower stakes more chill. I'm exhausted always being the center of attention rolling into somewhere and everyone just bowing before the "warrior of light". It was very refreshing for me to just be a part of world events and not be the absolute center of it. Were an adventurer again of some renown but not gods gift upon the land so to speak. Were apart of a story where the world is the main plot point and were just a piece in it rather than the world revolving around us. However I will agree in comparison to the 2 previous MSQ stories it was weaker.

[@MalganisLefay]

yeah, to bad i wouldnt call basicly deciding the future of a whole continent as low stakes, and getting dragged around by a furry the whole time neither chill

[@nachobear5100]

@@MalganisLefay Compared to literally every other expansion were the country/world was about to fall apart until we showed up. It's lower stakes.

[@kargion]

Its like people forgot it took 7 years almost to set up Shadowbringers and Endwalker. The first half is a bit campy but sets up the second half. Was not a fan of the first half until I played the second half. JRPG style of story telling. They do alot of slow setup to get to the end go. As a whole enjoyed it.

[@level7sloth529]

I disagree actually. We don't need 7 years of setup to make a good story. I'd argue that most of the things we loved about shadowbringers was introduced in shadowbringers. What did you think of my suggestions? Do you disagree that they would have made the first half better?

[@MellowFungus]

I love how people need to make the unfair assumption that people are directly comparing it to Endwalker, which they largely aren't. It's just more "Toxic Positivity" from the FF14 the REFUSES the game isn't perfect...

[@criestwo]

@@level7sloth529 i would say that shadowbringers is good to stand on its own, BUT, if you don't spend time on the preceding content, it would hit very differently. G'raha Tia for instance, wouldn't hit me as hard without me remembering what he did in CT. That is why, even though I can understand your frustration at DT not hitting as hard as SHB or EW, I don't really agree with you. DT is setting up for future expansions, judging from the amount of loose threads being purposely left off. I don't need DT to keep hitting SHB or EW level of feels (although Zone 6 did it efficiently), because the pay off that I'm looking for is not in DT, but in the coming expansions. I am okay with delayed gratification on 14's story, is perhaps the best way to put it. In so far as WoL not being the center of attention, to me, that is exactly what I am looking for. Being the center of attention is tiring to me, and it also translate into my pov of my WoL. I'm finding it very very pleasing to sit back, and guide Wuk from behind - I believe the whole Scions figured out what Papa Jaa is aiming for with the selection and just let it play its course. Including all the shit with Bakool. I'm seeing it as WoL knows we can just kick his butt easily, but we choose to stay put so Wuk can grow. Even Valigarmanda I think we know we can kick its butt without Wuk and Scions since we still have Azem Crystal. I would love it if we intervene during Papa Jaa fight with (spoilers) that's probably my gripe, but eh, he's half dead anyway and dying in a fight would probably suits him best. If there's anything I complain about.... it's Wuk's voice acting. but that's another discussion in its entirety.

[@OtakuWrath]

I thought the first half was the only half decent part. The 2 major bosses were absolute trash, written terribly. The end felt like it was just tacked on just to escalate the story to some world ending threat but the bosses were shallow. Like I'm talking they were so poorly written I started skipping dialogue just to get through it. I don't want to spoil anything for anyone so I'm being kinda vague. Their motives for being bad were really dumb. Honestly I felt disconnected from everything except the Bakool Ja Ja stuff, that part of the story was actually well written. I didn't grow attached to any of the new characters except Bakool Ja Ja and that's because he was the only character that had decent writing. Including the scions in this story was a huge mistake, they didn't need to be there at all and it took away the tiniest bit of interaction we might have been able to squeeze out of the boring main characters. Wuk Lamat also had no growth, She started as a plain shounen protagonist and ended as a plain shounen protagonist. Wuk Lamat should have been innocent and naive to a fault, trusting people she shouldn't be trusting and overall just not really understanding the hearts of her people. She should have been emotional and against Bakool Ja Ja and everything their people were doing but then she could learn that she was wrong. That should have been her entire character. Foolish, Naive, childishly idealistic thinking as long as everyone sings songs together all our problems would go away and then by the end she could gain some pragmatism. The flip side is her super serious brother, he should have been super pragmatic to a fault and in the end grows compassion for the people realizing logic and reason wasn't the only thing that mattered. They played it too safe, they wrote like they were trying their best not to offend anyone and it showed.

[@kunstlerischesetwas1284]

Got a different experience. I really liked the second half of this expansion and i think this expansion IMO is definitely better than ARR and Stormblood. I was keeping my expectations reasonable after the highs of Shadowbringers and Endwalker and i don't think i really got disappointed. In addition the Boss fights so far have been awesome.

[@projectshiro1097]

I honestly think the angle they were going with is fine it just lacked engaging moments I think if they experimented with more minigames or more competitions with other scion members during the rights and there was more of an actual race the story would have been better in the earlier parts I just felt like there was a big lack of actual things you're doing aside from going from point A to B

[@shyl1on]

patch 6.5, the whole zeromus shtick was a result of characters being stupid, could've began their merge before the fight and so golbez would be stalling for it and it wouldn't be the case of WoL just watching the bad guy do his thing AFTER JUST BEATING HIS ASS

[@1Mrstephen]

I’m sorry but I don’t think any zone story was good until we unlocked the raids.

[@GaryTaro45]

I am still at lv 95 MSQ (Just complete that blessed sibling plot), I did it quite slowly (I took day off since early access) because I don't really care what is going on..... not motivate me to move forward for next step, they are pacing a new story line and new races history, it is sooooooo slow..... and a lot of unnecessary talking cutscenes.... The story is fine, but the execution is boring, there's quite some times I was thinking, please stop talking and end the cutscene immediately..... my experience is like I am still at a filler story, not sure what is the main purpose, looking for the gold city?

[@MalganisLefay]

i would say in a sense the pacing is far to fast in the first halve, as we only get a very superficial glimps of each culture and thus can barely connect with most of them before getting dragged into the next zone. what feels so slow is things are so heavyly diluted by the often idiotic trials and Catgirl who overshadows freaking everything, even halve of the wildwild west is in her shadow... ... not gonna lie... i ve lost it when the word "cooking contest" were ushered and went full "broken Mr meseeks".

[@Cocytus127]

I'm glad I don't play for the story. The gameplay and new duties are top notch.

[@TheQaaz]

All in all, to me Dawntrail feels like a scrapped standalone Final Fantasy entry or maybe even a compilation of scrapped content, games, and ideas that got crammed together and shipped off as an expansion. There are various parts of the story that just feel very disjointed to me and leads me to believe that they were not initially written and or designed to be in the same game/universe but much rather bridged together in post through writing in a rather a lazy sense at that, but I get that they may have wanted to give their writers a well-earned break. The storyline would have functioned much better if they did not have to fit everything into a reasonable length for an MMO expansion and dedicated an entire game to flesh out what they were going for. Wuk Lamat is very clearly meant to be a primary FF protagonist and that just does not work that well when she is paired with another protagonist that canonically could and should be able to make all of the issues surrounding her story be a complete non-issue given the player character's feats up to this point just to have said player character function as a camera man. I personally believe they would have been better off just letting us go the route that Estinien took in the sense that we go to the new world, learn cool shit, meet new people, learn of dangerous dungeons and legends from the locals and just fight cool monsters with a cool little "teaser" at the end to close off the expansion with an ambiguous story point that could then be used to get the ball rolling on a new arc. This allows the devs to dedicate time to focusing more so on combat content, mechanics, trials etc. to use in future content and address some community concerns, gives us the adventure/vacation feel, AND gives the writers their earned break. It should not have been us accompanying Wuk Lamat, give that role to Alisaie/Alphinaud to mentor Wuk Lamat with what they have learned from their travels with us to have us then accompany their party towards the END of her journey. This route gives Alisaie and Alphinaud time to shine and show development in the sense that they can stand in the role of "WoL" and that they are strong enough to do so now whilst giving Wuk Lamat her protagonist role in her own story. If this was done, it would make sense for them to slowly start phasing them more into the background in future stories instead of how it was handled as it stands as it seems that they would like to start letting newer characters take center stage going forward now. I love the zone designs, the bosses and enemies, the music, everything about Dawntrail outside of the story is awesome and it is a shame that is the case. I could have probably worded things much better and I apologize for the ramblings, but that is kinda where I am sitting at with DT currently.

[@mrunixman1579]

I not done the trial but I unlocked the 1st dungeon I kinda of fell asleep to the dialog because it is so damn long.

[@Khankra91]

I started skipping after Shaaloani, i just could not endure Hairy Naruto anymore. Never skipped anything not even sidequests Textboxes, and i play this game since 2011. Even 1.0 Story wasnt that boring and a chore to play through. Not even mad just dissapointed and sad.

[@Raya.T]

i just cannot grasp why people complain so much about the first half of dawntrail. when endwalker and shadowbringers both have the exact same issues and are regarded as "Peak story telling" the loporit section as well as garlemald where an absolute slog to get trough and where only held together by anima & zodiark at the end of the respective zones. Shadowbringers was only masked by "the scene" early on for shock value. while i understand some of your points i also just thing you missed the mark. the pacing in the first half of expansions has been terrible a lot of times. i personaly rank dawntrail above endwalker writing/story wise. it's stormblood but the story is a lot better.

[@level7sloth529]

If you think garlemald was boring I'm really not sure what to tell you.

[@necrofang]

I loved Dawntrail. But how in the world do you believe it's paced the same as something like Endwalker? We literally killed Zodiark at level 83.

[@Raya.T]

@@level7sloth529 garlemald had a couple good moment but it was mostly a slog. same with the moon if it wasnt for zodiark the moon would have been one of the worst level zones in the game post ARR

[@hawkecro]

I respect your opinion. I think it's the worst story we got ever, even with Stormblood. I want to like it, but i just can not. Wuk Lamat is a very annoying character, and we are forced to babysit her whole expansion. And by babysitting, i mean just standing next to her and DO NOTHING. I do get : "We are her guide. Her mentor. She is the main protagonist " - but that was a very poor choice by devs. Not only does our characters get ignored, but also there is no adventure we were promised at all. You know its bed when in first 6 hours into the msq, you only watch cutscene that is not relevant and only talk to npc's. Not a single combat ability is used. Now that is the most boring start out of all expansions.

[@strakermidwich9679]

The single most boring expansion I've ever played in ANY MMO. Zero action. Zero fun. Zero enjoyment. Simply 95% boring busy work nonsense and 5% of fun!!!! Only 2 solo Duties in the entire expansion 😮 And pretty much zero endgame. Will unsub now I've done the dull story!

[@kargion]

I think people are looking at this story and forgetting Shadowbringers and Endwalker took around 7 years to get there with HOURS and HOURS of filler. The first half was ok, but it was what i expected from a JRPG and FF14. No surprise. LOVED second half and the first half made more sense now. Building background on family. I feel like you walked into this story with some odd expectation that FF14 story telling was going to be something that its not.

[@level7sloth529]

I disagree. We don't need 7 years of back story to make a good story. I also think most of what people love about shadowbringers was introduced inside shadowbringers. Also Shadowbringers had a LOT going in the beginning. We had lots of intrigue with the Crystal Exarch, Emet and Ardbert in a world on the brink of being swallowed. And in Endwalker the first trial is lvl 83 and completely turns everyone's expectation on their heads, not to mention garlamald was an incredible zone for story. I was expecting something interesting to happen in Dawntrail before the 5th zone.

[@nachobear5100]

@@level7sloth529 Shadowbringers was introduced in 3.x and then 4.x was all about building up shadowbringers and if you really wanna stretch it; Crystal Tower is also part of its build up (though in retrospective they did not plan that far ahead). Shadowbringers had A LOT of build up because of that you can't look at it as a self contained story because it was never made to be one.

[@Foxkey]

I liked western zone only for one reason. No Wuk Lamat

[@JustinK0]

pretty much all your critiques exist in all expansion as well, The thing is, thinking back to previous expansions, you only remember the good moments and none of the boring moments,

[@level7sloth529]

Let me paint for you a picture. It's shadowbringers. You just escaped from the opposing armies attack into the fairy kingdom. You're reunited with an old friend, Thancred whose been in this world for 5 years, and a new friend, what seems to be a reincarnation of your old friend Minfilia. With their help you traverse the fairy kingdom learning about them along the way as well as having interesting moments with Thancred as a father figure to his new charge while also being very torn about his past, we have cute moment of the fairies teasing the twins, we get a image of Ardberts past through Seto's pov all the while knowing full well that we, the warrior of light, are here on a mission only we can do. To kill the light warden to bring night back to the realm... And that's one zone from ShB. I'm sorry, no. Past expansions were not like Dawntrail.

[@thesunthrone]

I understand your complaints - and for that reason I very strongly disagree to what you've identified as main problems. You yourself say took a couple days off - which implies you also blazed through the story in said days off, because that's what you felt obliged to do. Since you're on a time schedule, every bump in the road turns into an annoyance, and you begin to try and plot it out before things even happen. "Why should I care about the Pelupelu and alpacas, they won't be relevant", why care about this and that, because you're already trying to analyze the plot while it's happening. That's a very bad way to engage with fiction and a surefire way to dislike most stories. I think the main problem why you didn't enjoy this story is because you were in a rush. I say this because I have experienced this myself with Hildibrand quests - as I had to go through the entirety of that expansions-spanning questline from very ARR to get the EW relic weapon, and it made me deeply hate the storyline. I started skipping shortly after Ultros appeared, and couldn't care LESS about anything else. Yeah there's some alien boi and maybe there's some deep lore behind Mandervilles and their goofy antics have a point... but I didn't care, because I just wanted the 660 weapon. I wanted the shiny. I wanted it now. And thus, I completely refused to be engaged in a story that is, by all rights, beloved and enjoyed by many - and I know I would enjoy it too, had I done it at my own pace and volition, without any external push to do so. I slowly played through the Dawntrail story over a week. Inbetween story beats I also went to mine and craft bars to sell off to those in a hurry, profiting millions of gil, doing some side quests to unlock flying to help it along. And while I was mining, I was just taking in the sights, thinking of what I saw so far - including the story beats. Where we are, who these people are, how their cultures are shaped by their environment... That is EXACTLY what the point of the Dawnservant rite is. As the Dawnservant says, the actual contest doesn't matter, it's arbitrary - the point is for his narrowly obsessed kids to open their eyes and see that there's more outside whatever they think is important. Zoraal Ja thinks only combat and martial prowess is important, because that's the area he's good at, Koana thinks science and technology will solve everything, because that's what he is good at - and Wuk Lamat thinks she needs to pretend to be both of her brothers because that's what the Dawnservant should be, when in truth, the people in the land couldn't care less as long as their mundane little lives go along unimpeded and they see fortune and success. The "stakes" in the story is that very peace - that Zoraal Ja then axes, because he grows increasingly more frustrated at the pointless trials. He was here to win, "where's the combat, just give me the trials, why are we wasting time tracking the beast..." And then he seethes and malds because he fails a cooking quest, and goes off the absolute deep end because he further fails a solo duty combat test, thus leading him down the dark rabbithole he went on. All because he was in a rush to become the ruler, prove himself, feel accepted and live up to the image of himself in his head. So no, the pacing is not bad at all - with the key caveat that you aren't in a rush to get through it. If you are in a rush, then yes, just like with Zoraal Ja, every small side quest becomes a nuisance towards your goal of "beating the MSQ", to the point where absolutely nothing else matters. And the story very much goes into the themes of that, too... which is why I think it is very unfair to dismiss it as awful. This then is compounded by how you describe what you wanted from the story - WoL once again being the savior, Scions being front and center at everything. This is explicitly what the story was NOT going to be from all the setup leading to it. This is the story where WoL just relaxes - this is where everyone relaxes. The Scions have their own interests that take them elsewhere, the Twins are here mostly to help Garlemald rebuild and thus take in sights (and also WHY they are not here for Alphinaud to just exposit over the natives - they are here to listen and learn, not judge). So is everyone else - only at the end they are called in, but still willing to take back seat because, well... this isn't their country. This isn't their story. The Scions aren't the World Police, and WoL isn't the chief arbitrator of right or wrong. In summary, I think you wanted something completely different from the story than what it was, and you wanted it to fit in the few days off you had taken, resulting in a very disappointing experience. How many vacations like that haven't we had, when we make this big list of what we need to do in it, until it ends up feeling like a rush and a chore, and we don't feel refreshed at all?

[@level7sloth529]

Sorry I was not in a rush. I almost had all week off. I stand by my statements I made in this video. They never gave us a reason to care about the rite. Hell they never gave us a reason to care about Zoraal ja and he's one of the major villain's in this expansion. And even though I like Wuk Lamat the character development of finding her confidence because she loves peace is just not very interesting when you compare it to the great experiences of past expansions.

[@thesunthrone]

​@@level7sloth529 There are so many reasons given to care had you paid any attention at all. The game SHOWS why you are there and what the rite is truly about, it SHOWS why Zoraal Ja slowly buckles under pressure and goes off the deep end, and then even TELLS you afterwards in case you missed it. It's fine to not connect to a story. You can just say so, instead of throwing around objective-sounding statements without backing them up. But to say that there was no "reason" to care is completely, utterly false. I could write out everything about Zoraal Ja and how his villain arc works in an objective manner, but what's the point if you don't even want to engage in it.

[@level7sloth529]

@@thesunthrone Go for it. Tell me what I missed about Zoraal ja that's more then just he wants to expand his nation to live up to the expectations of being the son of the Dawn servant to the point of attacking his own nation in pursuit of his own ideals. And I read every dialog box, stop assuming things about me that you don't know.

[@thesunthrone]

@@level7sloth529 He isn't just the "Dawnservant's son". He is the first ever blue-scaled mamool ja born to a twin-headed mamool ja, who themselves are a one-in-a-hundred birth. The pressure that Bakool Ja Ja had is magnified by a simply unknown amount, and on top of that he has to live up to the greatest hero that whole continent has known in centuries. That's why at first he gives his best attempt to the trials. When we need to tame an alpaca, he doesn't just tame an alpaca - he tames the rarest one there is. When Bakool Ja Ja tries to take him out, he doesn't just stop it with one blow - he coerces him to now work for him. Hell, the whole Valigarmanda situation was very likely arranged so that he could face the monster that his father couldn't kill on his own. Of course, we interfere and dilute that success, and to someone with so much pressure, it doesn't matter anymore. It's not a success if it's shared, it's a failure. That's why he's seething so hard that Krile recoils in horror after he fails the cooking quest. He doesn't just feel humiliated - he feels that his father purposefully set him up to fail, which is why the next time we see him he is already fighting the Dawnservant Prime's image. And he lost. Everything he did, all these trials he endured, none of it resulted in anything but humiliation to him. So he snaps and decides to stop playing by his father's rules entirely, choosing to just seize the throne by force, which only further reinforces his might-makes-right worldview. Imagine being the real son who gets no recognition for the incredible things you do, when though you are adored by the people, the one person you truly would like to hear a "good job" from, your father - he never gives it to you? Instead, he takes in these random foster kids, showers them with adoration, sends them off to prestige schools or just babies them despite them having no real qualities that you can see? That absolutely eats away at a person, especially an introvert that has nobody to share that pain with. So he just bottles it all up, tries to keep it under control out of a misguided attempt of being masculine man - and goes off the deep end. Spending 30 years under the Alexandrian soul-swap, memory-rewrite system conceivably only compounds the issue. It's an open question if the people there even have their original souls anymore, because upon their death theirs are stripped and replaced, with edited memories forcibly written over whatever was in that soul. And that system certainly didn't have any sort of capacity to deal with deep-seated mental trauma, because they straight up erased any trace of the dead just to circumvent mourning. So what even remains with a person that is so eaten by resentment in such a system but that resentment that the system records as the "normal" for their personhood? Hope you at least read this before dismissing it out of hand. Don't know if there's even a point in me writing this, the vibe certainly is that you already have your mind set and I might just be wasting time here.

[@level7sloth529]

@@thesunthrone There's a lot of assumptions your making about a lot of things and even if you were correct that doesn't change anything. The shiny Alpaca demonstrated his wanting to out do his dad but was used in the story more as a tool to challenge Wuk lamat's sense of self worth compared to her siblings at the time. He spared Bakool ja ja not for his own plans but because his minion's plans. There's no point that hints Bakool ja ja was a lackey after his defeat, he freed Valigarmanda on his own free will. There's no hints that his father set him up to fail in the cooking contest. And by the way we just had to beat the dreaded Valigarmanda and then sit down to have a cook off right afterward with the guy who set it free. Oy. You're making a lot of head canon for him that isn't there. The fact is he was a shallow villain after we've had years of really fantastic villain's like Emet, Elidibus, Hermies(in his many versions) and even the combat sexual Zenos made us really appreciate interesting motivations and development. Take Zeno's conversation with Julius in Garlemald after the Elpis chapter. That short interaction had more depth then everything Zoraal ja did or said in the entire 7.0 MSQ.

[@adtsiriusstarr112]

not Yawn. its Nyan~trail

[@omensoffate]

The problem is Wuk lamat is budget naruto.

[@SokiHime]

Excellent video, I appreciate your frankness on this. Easy sub No matter where anybody falls on this expansion, I think it's fair to say it's extremely polarizing. I see a lot of discourse similar to what I saw with FF13, and 15. Let's all try and keep our criticism based in reality, and not go unhinged.

[@level7sloth529]

Thank you. And yes people are gonna be arguing about this for years to come.

[@da_001]

wuk lamat to me is a worse character than asahi remove her completely and focus on koana who deserves it as he to me is best qualified to rule. also if lamat not killed off before 8.0 i will never return to 14. as a ps3 beta player of 14. this mmo has gone to shit.

[@coryaustin7379]

Do we really want to see more of Y'shtola? And ask yourself seriously now. She's been reduced to Krillin status, she explains everything that happens on screen because the writers think their story is too deep for us to grasp....which it's not. Here's to hoping the next time she "dies", she stays dead.

[@ye9945]

Least mentally unhinged Story "criticizer"

[@artjom94]

Based on a lot of comments here and like majority of criticism in general. Yes. The story is deep and needs to be explained in 30 different ways.

[@Ceangailte]

I like it. I dont want more Alphi / Ali / Ysh. Fresh and learning Charachters please, new energy.

[@dontmatter1368]

The only way you can think the ffxiv msq is better than any book is by not reading many books 😅 Each to their own.... I would have said GoT is one of the worst book series I've ever come across, yet the TV show was excellent - besides the ending.

[@level7sloth529]

Imagine being the person who rudely suggests someone they don't know doesn't read books and then mention that they like a TV show.

[@XT91]

It definitely is the worst story even worst than ARR the more I sit on it. Outside of the last 2 maps dealing with the mysterious lady. Everything pre that is awful.

[@level7sloth529]

Yeah I was having similar feelings. I remember enjoying ARR very much. Maybe that's just cuz everything was shiny and new but this time around it's just not working for me. Luckily so far the gameplay is really great with the new dungeons and trials. I'm hoping they pull a stormblood and make the patch MSQ really good.

[@XT91]

@@level7sloth529 Yes story aside I really like everything else. It is feeling like a weird repeat of stormblood where it shoulda either just been all about the New World+Erenville or all about the mysterious Lady and Krile.

[@Decus86]

​@@level7sloth529the thing with ARR is that while it's kinda silly how it's written and full of filler, it's still consistent with what it's aiming to do: introduce eorzia and wol. World building essentially. And also villains don't suddenly switch at the midpoint. Also in ARR characters don't need to know who WoL is, while in DT they should but the expansion is bipolar about when it remembers what WoL has done and when it doesn't. So we are often reduced to running errands. Also the final bit feels like a recycling of EW. Once again the world will end unless WoL saves it. But ofc she can only do it (finally) in the last trial once all the other dumb characters are forced away so they can't be there as an obstacle for smashing the damn thing like they have been during the whole expansion. Especially the part at the end of Heritage Found was just infuriating. Literal savior of the universe and a godslayer, and we just have to watch from the sidelines the antagonist having his way because wuk's honor or some shit like that.

[@AvRiku]

@@Decus86 sums up how i feel

[@83917Michael]

No the latter part is bad too. It starts with promise (after the wild west zone up until you get to the "12th level"). But its all premised on a lie. They're trying to make you feel, but if you stop and think about it, its like having "feelings" about an AI chat bot. None of it mattered, except that we succeeded in shutting it down before it sucked the world dry of energy.

[@negentropyagent7337]

Money well spent huh?

[@level7sloth529]

Actually yes. Despite the story being bad the battle content in Dawntrail is really great. I'm really looking forward for the raids to come out in a few weeks.

[@HigakiRinne]

LOTTA YAPPENING AND NOT A LOTTA HAPPENING

[@NamiquanaNamazu]

People when we're not the main character for one expac, getting our dick sucked by every npc and world building takes time: >:( wahhhhh Yawntrail bad Ya'll are tripping if you put StB or ARR over this story unironically

[@operalta6004]

you're defending this because you're a furry? big ufff

[@gabrielnovais871]

For real. This expansion's story doesn't even get close to Shadowbringers and Endwalker, but it is way better than ARR and Stormblood (especially stormblood)

[@NamiquanaNamazu]

@@operalta6004 Low hanging fruit because you have no arguments? Typical ff andy

[@LuminateTheWorld]

@@NamiquanaNamazu That fruit wasnt' even low hanging. it was just on the floor as he walked by.

[@NamiquanaNamazu]

@@LuminateTheWorld Haha furry bad upvotes pls XDDD Get better jokes man I'm getting bored.

[@omensoffate]

The story was garbage in endwalker. Whatever writing team took over since then needs to be replaced because this ain’t it

[@FahadGG1]

Endwalker????? No way dude

[@midnight3630]

How was Endwalkers "Garbage"?

[@LuminateTheWorld]

@@midnight3630 Because he said so. He clearly knows everything and his opinion on the matter weighs more because he said so. He's some random guy on the internet that didn't like something. there fore, everyone else must be wrong if they disagree. Get with it yoo.

[@changlongwang9898]

it was trash because they barely touched the final days lmfao it was just a dungeon and that's it that zenos body switch had so much tension and buildup only for him to not kill anyone endwalker can be summarized as garlemald -> moon -> final days -> elpis -> spaceship -> endsinger

[@Infectedjohn]

Oh look, a yawn youtube channel and a yawn video

[@level7sloth529]

My screen name is Sloth after all. ;)

[@magamisic5924]

cry more kid

[@pryanik1337]

Why should he follow your example?

[@level7sloth529]

What did you think of my suggestions? I think they would be a good improvement on the story.

[@J_Mirae]

I'm ngl I felt like it was a lot yapping in the beginning too 😭🥱🥱 Edit: getting to solution9 and unlocking dnc af gear is what kept me going 😂

[@level7sloth529]

I liked Solution 9 a lot. Def gonna be my default hangout this xpac.