Dawntrail and The 10 Year Problem | A Rant 

Several people have pointed out that the Mamool Ja's reasoning was well explained in the story and after consideration I agree. That was a mistake on my part. I still maintain that it was poor storytelling because it was introduced and resolved far too quickly, and it resulted in Bakool Ja Ja becoming a good guy with zero consequences for his previous actions. It could have been set up and executed better. I hope my error in using it as an example can be forgiven and I stand by my critique of CBU3's storytelling overall.

My favorite cutscene is Urianger saying he's going to knock alisae on her ass and I'm disappointed we never got see it

Ishikawa didn't write 7.0 personally and it shows.

I've written a blog in 4 parts on the Lodestone with regards to the issues I have with Dawntrail, and as someone who is a hobbyist writer, I've found that MOST of my gripes boil down to execution - the writing both for the story and for the characters. I said that Dawntrail has interesting things to say, but the execution is very lackluster.

I think beyond just the story writing, the character writing really suffered this expansion. The returning characters were barely given screentime and when they did get some their dialogue was fairly interchangeable (aside from a couple of instances like the campfire scene with the 'rival' Scions), and then the new characters were so one note that committed the biggest crime of all: being boring. A low stakes "beach episode" (as some people said they expected this to be) is when character writing should shine the most. We've seen how the Scions are when the stakes are high, but now that the world is no longer resting on our shoulders (up to a certain point) how do they act when their hair is down?

About the Scions being wasted: Does anyone else feel like the post-credit scene in the story/gameplay trailer that dropped right before the start was false advertising? Showing all the scions and then us, and talking about inevitable sacrefice?

The thing that bothered me the most is how they handle the player's character. The savior of the world, god killer, the warrior of light, just stands there doing nothing. I would even be happier if they gave me tacos to eat while I just standing there watching people die. They did a really great job with the fighting scenes. I mean, really, we have never seen characters move this smoothly in cutscenes. Which also means they had the ability and the resorce to easily put 5 to 10 other NPCs to stop the player from helping or give an easy reason (like there are people who need to be saved and Wuk Lamat tells the player to trust her and go or something). Instead, they just put the player aside like a freaking idiot watching things loseing control.

If I remember correctly. SE stated they want to focus on the strength of FF14, explicitly pointing out story and worldbuilding. Yet they completely remove the 'grit' of the world and it's people. Diminishing the worlds overall believability right from the start. Where's the nasty folks, duing nasty things, apart from the main focus? For me that was always a strong point of FF's believability, and it feels like they completely scratched that. It also seems like they lost their sense of coherency. Stuff seemingly happens at random. And while that happened in older expansions on multiple occasions, the writers at least made an efford to address discrepancies to our expectation. Its a mentor ark. I get it. But it didn''t feel like one to me when I'm the one being told - not taught - the same lesson over, and over, and over. And then once more, just in case.

This MSQ was handled like a DnD group where the DM invites a new player to the table, hands them a lvl 10 Character sheet to catch up with everyone else, and proceeds to protect and shield them from every meaningful development flaw while they demand to dip their hand into every single scenario, be it their business or not, and try to peace-solve every single battle, and the DM goes along with it, and when there's a threat of losing that character in combat, give them god-bending powers and outshine everybody else. And the worst part is that the DM insists that every player already present say nothing but nice things, or say nothing at all in 'stunned silence'. That's what this was. This expansion's MSQ reminded me too much of what WoW Twitter was at Shadowlands and it struck a nerve. What a way to air the laundry.

Risk averse is probably a really good way to describe Dawntrail. Starts out great being a return to ARR-ish world exploration and learning, but halfway through we're back to a world threat. Plots were built up, but not entirely paid off. 1. Succession: This is the most enjoyable part for me. It was a chance to sit back and relax; a vacation of sorts since we've just come from the last two expansions where we had to save literal existence. Getting to see and learn of new, interesting, and different cultures was nice; though it did suffer the FFXIV minimum quest checkmark. As well as the "silent" part of our protagonist having actual reason to not act instead of plot demanding we don't(Shadowbringers suffered from this a few times). On top of getting to introduce us to the next few allies that can aid our journey since the Scions at this point have run their course. We are supposed to be disbanded after all, at least twice over. Krile should have had a bit more to play in this part, but Erenville I think was done just enough for this portion. I can see the issues with having the Twin's with us. They didn't add much to the group dynamic and as I heard elsewhere feel tacked on so we have members for the Duty Support. Adding to the Mamool Ja subplot; don't discount the level of Pride a fanatical group and leader can have. And played well into Bakool Ja Ja's story even if his flip to the good side was underdone(he was a bully, should have had a second bout that he loses interest in halfway or something). Then, It both ended when it should have an didn't end well as you say. More ceremony would have been better. Not much to really change here besides pacing and a few pay-offs. 2. Post-Succession: Prefacing, I like Solution 9, I didn't have issue with the the plot with Sphene and another reflection connecting to our world and having to help solve their problems. I did however find it's introduction rushed. Back to Shaaloni first though. I enjoyed this bit for what it was, a sort of stand alone section as a breather and "true" vacation as well as giving time for Zarool Ja to form an army at invade. We finished Wuk and now it's Erenville's turn. Didn't mind the Texan setting given Tural is supposed to be a western world stand-in. Looking forward to exploring more of Tural, but kind of on my own terms. However, surprise, surprise the dome happens and now we're back to having to save the world again, only this time as the back-seat and as a political storyline. How could they have made this a littel better? Opinion of course. Definitely think they should have held this part for much later, somewhere in the 98+ quest range instead of 96+. Giving us one more time of rest with at least a little time with Erenville's Mother so we could get a little more attachment with her and probably give the loss of her memory more weight. Even see a bit of Heritage Found before it was destroyed. At this point Zarool Ja backed by the red giants attack Tuliyollal. Spend a few quests attempting to resolving this, but in the middle of the conflict, enters Sphene and that plot. Zarool Ja seeing the superior fire-power runs off and we can keep him getting the power up and having to fight him in Everkeep. From here, we can easily drop the child with little difference, and gives Krile a much better spotlight and emphasis as the key at opening the gate to the Golden City. Making the dungeos fit more in-line without having to make new ones: Tender Valley would become the 97 dungeon and Vangaurd the 99. Moving Origenics to Expert as it kind of can be taken out of the MSQ without changing much, and moving the solo duty as the wind up to the trial. Outside the stroy, Dawntrail suffered from, as mentioned, repetitive beats. We have the split quest section at the start, constant running around, non-stop exposition/reading. Adding that there seems to be a 10 quest per level quota with dungeons only unlocking every other level the even level quests can start to feel sloggish(thinking this is also a big reason Shaaloni felt so slow). This was a perfect time to lean more into the combat aspect. Instead of having us run to a location to click or enter a circled area to spawn a singular mob, break up the monotony with a couple collection quests that required us to interact with the creatures of the overworld. Creatures that really are only there for set-dressing. Something the first couple quests in ARR did right, was have us fight X ladybugs.

As a player not that young anymore and also as a player since 1.0 and the very beginning of ARR I really appreciated your video. It makes me see even more things of this expansions that i did not notice in the plot structure or better say lack of structure. As you mentioned this is a puzzle of things not connected together, a lack of new elements with an horrible pacing. This story has indeed made me both angry and apathetic that while other expansions gave me feelling this one left me with nothing more than the difficulty to end it to finally access the game contents. The feeling is first of all the lack of interactivity, like reading a visual novel just to reach the videogame instead of playing a videogame. We always followed a linear path without any real decision but this time there are so many forced choices that make no sense the biggest example is when reaching the door of the golden city we just leave so that the bad guy could do what he had to do. While this can still work on level 50-60 cannot work on level 100 where not only the player is aware of what is going to happen but also the character is too well experienced not to expect that. We also witness the death of Gulool Ja Ja, doing nothing except for noticing the hear gear is responsible for the turn of events, and once we reach Yasulani, obviusly instead of investigating what is this thing all have on their head we go to see how the crops are cultivated. As you mentioned Gulool Ja Ja ruled for 80 years and placed no guards to the entrance nor set up protection measures on the key. This also leads me to the mess on the timelines of this story, Ketenramm according to the story was with Gulool Ja Ja 80 years ago in his Tural unification quest, so he is approximately 100 years old and he is left as the only guardian of the door? Wuk Lamat, starts her quest to become ruler and in her supposed 20 years of life showed no interest in learning about her people at all, even if she is living in the palace of the power even though she reached level 90 to battle together with us. To get there we had to go through world thretening events so it is expected that to gain that level you should experience a bit of life. One more detail is the invincible spaceships and robotic army wiped in 5 minutes, in Stormblood the story gives the sense of long lasting war in the Gymlith Dark here Zoral ja give the attack order and the army is wiper by dragons and some heroes around while our character is still there in front of Zoral Ja, same scene standing in the middle of nowhere. Then where the kid comes from? Where is the mother? Is he just a broken condom accident? How is it possible to have the father abandon him, try to kill him and then have him say I did all this to give you a legacy, nonsense. The mother of Erenville that speaks with no scandinavian accent, and we know in Sharlaya they do not speak scandinavian so how Erenville got his Icelandic accent, just after a fashion? Why Tural had not even a single documented case of Final Days, is it not on the same planet? As a person that was trained to be a mentor for his new colleagues for several years i can definitely say that the WoL is not there to be the mentor of Wuk Lamat, it is just an excuse to make this summer time job be presentes as something cool while it is nothing more than babysitting the kids of the neighbour. Compare ARR to DT as a new starts is also a flawed assumption. I was there after the failure of the 1.0 and they had to rebuild a game not to have the SE go bankrupt, they had nothing to start with and no money, so they had to slow the pace of the players while creating contents. Now after 10 years of code written and 3d models and events and most of all money and programmers, all we got is a ton of fetch quests, a fake trading game and huge quantity of important cutscenes unvoiced while some filler ones are voiced. So knowing the backgorund of ARR and having been there, DT is totally uncomparable to A Real Reborn. At the end of my too long post, my apologies for that, I want to ask you as a content writer about one moment that upset me becasue I felt they broke the tension for no reason after building it, one case of several but probably the most blatant, and wanted your opinion. The quest between the giants dungeon and the trial of Valigarmanda. I felt ready for the fight, and then I was sent for like 30 minutes following a minion attacking random mobs and once I reached the trial I lost the hype. Why do you think they had to add that filler, kind of comedic quest shattering the dramatic tension?

If I have a chance to improve DT. 1. I would bring Sphene in at the first map as an unknown traveller who wants to know more about Trural, Joing Wuklamat's party. There will be Wuk, WoL, Krile, Ellenvile for the entire throne arc. cut Alphy and Alise, they're useless here. Knowing Sphene more will make the second half story much better. 2. Once Wuklamat is a king I will cut her out from the main role. She will be a city protector and leave everything to WoL. From now on it will be WoL and Sphene's story. 3. I would add some mini quests to the last map, and give WoL a reason why we must talk to Endless. Maybe finding a password to shut down the system. Add a dramatic or climax scene before the last boss fight is must. Anyway. I think the DT's plot is good but it's underdelivered.

My main two issues are that Dawntrail's writing felt especially bad compared to anything else in the game, and that it really didn't need to be as long as it was. By the writing quality, I don't mean the overall plot or the lore, I mean the moment-to-moment conversations felt so stupid. Like "Why would they ask that? Isn't there more obvious things to be asking?" The last several levels would have been totally different if they had interrogated Sphene or Erenville's mom from the beginning. The most interesting part of the entire expansion for me was when the final boss of Vanguard looked exactly like Galuf Baldesion... So I thought maybe the Golden City was capturing the souls of the people that entered... But apparently that wasn't real? I dont remember anyone ever mentioning it again. Also a lot of cutscenes had me wishing you could set it to 2x speed because everything that happens is exactly what you expect to happen just drawn out into a 10 minute cutscene.

Expectation: vacation Reality: baby sitting a overgrown cringy cat

WoL should act like a mentor to Wuk Lamat in this story, since she went to literally another continent to recruit us as a helper, but instead we’re nobody

I loved Dawntrail, although I agree with most of the critiques regarding stagnating themes and awkward transitions between acts (Texas was really just a filler arc so we could be there to see the dome pop up) and do think Krile and Erenville could have had a little more focus. Living Memory hit different for me than Amaurot or Ultima Thule despite being a similar concept on paper, though. While it is still about loss and letting go, the zone story we go through with our main characters (up until it's time to fight Sphene) specifically deals with the loss of a parent or parental figure. It was beautiful and harrowing and hit really close to home as someone who lost a parent relatively young, on a personal level it resonated with me more than Shadowbringers or Endwalker. I liked how Wuk/Krile/Erenville all responded in different ways to the passing of their parents, with Wuk taking the opportunity to tell Namikka how much she loved her and how grateful she was for the time they were together while still readily accepting her passing, Krile just being happy to finally meet her birth parents (and they her, in a sense) when she thought she'd never get that chance at all, and Erenville having a more difficult time accepting the loss of Cahciua and feeling a sense of bitterness and abandonment before finally resolving to carry on in her stead and do all the things she couldn't do while she was alive.

4:05 POST-WHAT NOW?!

FFXIV is the only MMORPG where people feel the need to give these long opening explanations of how they actually really love the game and don't mean to just be negative about it, despite their criticisms. Other MMOs, if people say anything similar, it's a brief one or two sentences. Otherwise, they just give their opinions and let others agree or disagree as they will. Sad thing is, I know why. It's because a notable portion of the FFXIV community act like opinion police, ready to pounce on anyone for even the slightest criticism. It's happened to me a several times already for DT. It's what happens when people attach their identity to a video game - they take any critical opinion of it as a personal attack. Thing is, that's a them problem. Not a you problem. The opposite of love isn't hate. It's apathy. That you paid that much attention and thought about the story and such so deeply, enough to come to these conclusions, and then make this video speaks well enough that you love XIV. You shouldn't have to spell it out for people who can't comprehend that. Alas... FFXIV has some "special" people playing it. Just say your thoughts. No need to reassure the hyper-sensitive folks that you're not a hater. They're probably going to think so anyway. DT's story is weak and scattered. The writing is weak. The pacing is bad. They're still stuck on this thing about "trying to make people cry". The questing structure is old and outdated. We're talking 20+ years old. Look at ESO, or Secret World Legends for other, more interesting ways questing can be done. It's the Wuk Lamat Show, and we're just her background posse following her around, as she does the same skits over and over.

Gulool Ja really needed to be introduced elsewhere for the desired impact. Perhaps before the bubble, and we met him again 30 years older and confused him for Zoraal Ja? IDK, I'm not a writer for CBU3 lol. The NPC's explicitly state Zarool Ja was the only Mamool Ja in Alexandria and yet somehow he sired a child and Otis' robotic body resembles a mamool ja even though he would of acquired that hundreds of years before Zoraal Ja's arrival. I've heard people say there's dialogue about Zarool Ja's obsession being he's weaker because he isn't a Blessed Sibling? I don't think I've seen this myself, but it could mean Gulool Ja was an attempt at cloning for the sake of a second soul to become his "brother". Either way, the last 3rd of the plot feels like a combination of rushed, chopped up, and poorly written regardless.

The part that made the biggest emotional impact on me was the scene in which Krile's mother leaves her with Galuf. Something about the moment when she turns around and gets hit with the reality that this is goodbye forever to her baby cuts deeper than Excalibur 2.

I just found myself bored for most of it. I didn't care about the tribes. I didn't want to go on a tour of fake Mexico. I just wanted to have an adventure with my homies and all my homies turned into cardboard cutouts that stood in the background while an annoyingly naive catgirl spit kumbaya bs at me. Let my vacation be in Ishgard next time.

I swear they explained why the Mamool Ja wouldn't leave pretty adequately. First, don't they call the Mamool Ja who move to Tuliyollal traitors or weak? They don't like Gulool Ja Ja, and they never accepted his help because they saw him as weak. Mamool Ja, in their eyes, are supposed to be the ruling class, but Gulool Ja Ja saw to it that every race was equal. And second, the whole point of us being able to solve their problems is to illustrate the idea of cultural collaboration. The Mamool Ja were stuck in their ways and unable to see alternative solutions because they were insular.

I understand abstractly that people who haven't had personal experience with things (e.g., loss of a loved one, infant loss, miscarriage, moving/relocation/rehoming, etc.) may find it difficult to emotionally connect with stories that get into these topics. It still makes me extremely sad that the story line and introduction of the Blessed Siblings and abandonment/genocide of hundreds or thousands of Mamool Ja babies has no impact (nearly) on so many people. Perhaps it's my own experiences with infertility and multiple miscarriages/infant losses, but that part was very difficult for me to get through. I'm glad they didn't drag on that storyline or I may have had a hard time progressing further through the MSQ.

Hi! Professional linguist and fellow storyteller here. Really appreciate this video, so I'm gonna go ahead and suscribe. Wanted to share an anecdote. My friend had been trying to get me to join xiv for years, and I finally joined around Shadowbringers, and when he asked what made me finally join, I said " i watched the shb cinematic (didn't realize the game would show me spoilers when I just started) and the early modern english [urianger] uses is (90% of the time) historically and grammatically accurate so here I am." And a lot of what kept me going through the ARR pre-quest deletion pacing was just soaking in a really linguistically creative and fun environment. Knowing that the localization was so interwoven with the Japanese team and even linguistically influenced language in Japanese was so much fun for me. Any time there were mistakes I'd be a little sad but fine, because to me it was the only story that even tried to have fun with language. And then something happened after Endwalker. There was a whole cutscene of Urianger and Zero talking in a room, exchanging pleasantries, and nothing else was happening, and I was like... why is this cutscene here. Because the whole cutscene was just to show everyone being happy with zero tension. And I guess the patience from enjoying the localization was over, and all that was left was my writer brain, and suddenly I was getting really frustrated how many times voice actors were paid to say " Hi, how fare you" "I am well, thank you" "How about you, champion? *dialogue option to say good thx* "Full glad am I to hear that" "I too am glad we are all so happy". I kind of just accepted that it's an MMO so it's less of a story they're telling and more of a world we're living in. But watching your video I'm thinking, yeah, why can't we have better pacing and all? Why can't the Scions get new misbeliefs to make them have an arc again (although I'm fine with focusing on new characters that we now have to influence)? But like you said, there are so many interesting concepts, and I think part of what gets me through it now is rewriting the story in my head using all the extra pieces they provide. Anyway, thanks for the video!

I think your assessment is solid over all. I absolutely adore the ARR - Endwalker story. The world and all of its detail, and the previous methods of tackling ideas, plot points, characters and concepts, all amazing. The Dawntrail story, to me, was shockingly poorly written from a conceptual standpoint, a character standpoint both in motivation and presentation, a pacing standpoint, and a standpoint of, for lack of a better term, narrative weight. The story flow was extremely slow. The expansion begins with what amounted to a three hour cutscene that led to traveling to two separate zones to talk to people and solve ridiculously contrived "problems". That is, at least in the case of the Hanu. The Pelupelu task was not bad. You are, depending on your pace and number of side quests you do along the way, approximately 6 hours in before you fight anything. Then after the first dungeon, yet another ridiculously contrived situation. They spent the story up to this point making sure to regularly mention the giants and talk up their importance and then when it's time to go see them, nope, Wuk Lamat gets kidnapped for a 2 hour sidetrack. I found the entire first half's pacing to be the most boredom inducing slog I have experienced. It is the "go to place, talk to three people" loop repeated over and over. It was repeatedly telling and not showing, then stopping for a character to stare into the camera and remind us of what we just did 3 quests ago. The "smartness" of the story and writing was insulting to the audience. The story problems I have are too numerous to go into here, this is already a ramble. What I will say is the entire story is based on the current Dawnservant basically being a warrior of light and having unified two entire continents worth of people in an unprecedented unity and collective move toward progress while keeping cultures intact. Wuk Lamat's entire drive is to give people something they already have and have had for 80 years. This place had already had its problems solved so there was really not much for us to do in our line of work. Many other issues but this is already a book that no one will probably read so I'll stop. I give the DT story a 4/10 with the next higher being ARR at 6/10. The combat content is incredible but story wise I was very disappointed and I hope this gets a very sharp correction very soon (though because of content development times, there isn't much chance before 7.4

Basically completely agree with your comments here. Even the parts that did hype me or hit my emotions - Erenville's was sad, and I wanted more intensity despite relating and empathising alot - Entry to Tulliyolal - Oh cool it's the trailer moment! (but that's literally the only reason why) - Defense of Tulliyolal - Hold up, it's cool we had our boi Vritra back for a moment but I THOUGHT WE WERE MOVING ON FROM ENDWALKER, WHY IS A THIRD OF THIS EXPANSION USING IT'S MUSIC? XD at the end of the day, Bakool Ja Ja's character growth was my favourite cause he had the best fleshing out of pain, history and unity/self awareness

I hated Wuk Lamat. I’m sorry. They could’ve easily twisted this into something that proved her ability to be a leader like being our rival or even letting our character decide between her and the others vying for the throne as to who was the best fit and that choice having consequences. There also should’ve been a rivalry between all the scions. I would’ve loved for all of the Scions, including the WOL, to get into some sort of fight and then spent the the remaining expansion either driving the rift further apart (which would open the door for a new group) OR we eventually get back together.

The Kid exists because they needed an Eiko, the little kid summoner with a horn on her head from FF9. I do like when FF does their references but sometimes they feel kinda outta place. Feels like they think they need to have everything in it instead of cutting some of it out.

They always hold back on the story , they did this when zenos possessed the player character’s body and didn’t kill anyone

Hot Take: I don't think we needed to do more with the Scions. That's not where the story went wrong. I think we needed to have less to do with the Scions. You're right Alphinaud and Alisae were kinda just in the background. They shouldn't be here. They should still be freezing there butts off in Garlemald. I love the twins but it fits their character to remain in Garlemald and fix a broken nation. Just because I love characters doesn't mean they need to be around me all the time. I said it in what was it 6.4 and I think I was right. After 10 years of development let the twins and the scions be their own characters else where. For a story to end and let other new ones begin. That way they can show up only when they really really are necessary. Graha being sidelined until things were at their worst was stupid since he should have been going on this "Next Great Adventure with us" If it was Graha and Krile traveling with us that would have been interesting. (Plus Graha is an All-Rounder he can play any role, Krile is a healer and a dps, Wuk could be tank/dps) I believe the story dedicated enough time for Krile also. I think she asked questions to the right people at the right moments. Krile is a grown mature Woman. You're not gonna see her in a weeping mess unraveling the mystery earing her Grand father gave her. It is a shame there wasn't more direct contest between us.

I think you might be missing that the overaching story isn't about leadership, but rather about the importance of family, and standing by your family, and taking accountability for the actions of your family, whether that family is blood or not. When you asses the plot and subplot from this angle... every sing subplot folds into the main story...

I had a good time but I went into the story with low expectations. I think a lot of people went into this expansion with ew sb expectations. I think everyone will appreciate this expansion more after future expansions because new stories have to start low in order to raise stakes and tension. Also, rethinking the impression of an entertainment experience will almost always lower the experience, especially if you start comparing to other stories. Since comparisons are the thief of joy.

I could think of a few reasons why they would not leave family, community, they being poor they didn’t have a whole lot of money. It takes a lot of money to move to a new location and it can be very very scary. I am personally facing the maybe of doing this sometimein the future, but I really don’t want to all my family is where I’m at

Wuk Lamat going from mostly confident in the leadup to "uwu smol bean scawed of alpaca" was the worst.

I think they really missed an opportunity here to drop the Scions entirely. We traveled half a world away to begin a completely new chapter, and most of adventure involved us dragging around an entourage of people who weren't needed 90% of the time, and then trivialised any potential road block because "No problems too tough for the Scions!". The Scions officially disbanded and have really all kind of had their major character arcs. There is no useful ground to tread with them anymore, and for the sake of fresh story they should be relegated to rare cameos we can get excited about when they occasionally happen. The " I know a guy" pop up characters for when we need to seem awesome for knowing some exceptional people. We should have taken only Krile to the new world, and she should have gotten a proper full character Arc, rather than the sad paper thin thing she got, and we should have gotten a whole cast of new characters to make friends with. At this stage the scions feel like unnecessary tagalongs for the sole purpose of filling out single player dungeons. And story and character screen time should never be sacrificed on the altar of making a multiplayer experience soloable.

11:05 - "And he looked like TinTin, and I couldn't stop seeing it the entire time" Me either, but I was all about TinTin being in FFXIV, so that was a plus for me.

I thought it was pretty good overall. I liked all the Turali characters and their stories.But there were several times when I figured out what was going on long before my character did (and the characters they were with, who are mostly supposed to be very smart people). I don't like that, it makes me think the WoL and the Scions are just morons and that takes me out of things. They need to shake something up, they need kill a Scion or three and give us a reason to hate a bad guy. Speaking of bad guys I'm surprised you didn't notice the hints they gave- though never shown on screen, the real villain was name-dropped a few times. The organization that built Sphene and living memory, and probably murdered Krile's parents: Preservation.

I have a tonne of different thoughts about Dawntrail and in general I think I'm way more positive about it than average. I legitimately really, really like it, and would group it with the three great expansions - that being Heavensward, Shadowbringers and Endwalker - more than with the two mediocre ones - ARR and Stormblood. Even if I think it's the weakest of the good expansions, I'm pretty sure that puts me in a minority. That said, there is one aspect of Dawntrail that I'm incredibly disappointed in, and that's its place as the start of a new "saga". It is decisively not that. It doesn't feel as much as a bold step into a new story as it does a momentary distraction. Other than the vague concept of "travelling to other reflections might be possible" - which Y'shtola has wanted to do since the Shadowbringers patches and thus we've expected it was going to happen anyway - I don't feel like we're left with anything new. I really expected a hint at an overarching big bad for the new saga along the lines of what the Ascians and Garlemald were, or a core conflict we can build around for the next 10 years, anything. I think a big part of why I'm more positive on Dawntrail than a lot of people is that I came in with lowered expectations, since I wanted it to do the ARR thing and be a little duller and less interesting in exchange for being a new ground on which to build a new long-running story. It feels like they kicked the can down the road, and while I think that let them do Tural way more justice than I expected it feels like they've written themselves into the same corner they were in post Endwalker. The biggest thing symbolic of this for me is the Scions. Don't get me wrong, I love them, they're incredibly dear to me, Alphinaud is my precious poindexter son and I would jump on a grenade for him, but the Scions are over. We've been around them for 10 years and each of them (barring maybe Y'shtola) has had a great arc and a great story that's done. They're relics of the past saga, and it's time to cut them loose and replace them with a new core cast for us to fall in love with. I don't want the Scions gone - we can still have them show up every now and again - but they've had more than enough time in the spotlight and we've squeezed about as much out of them as is reasonable. All that's left is to just have them be eternal around at the end of their arcs, unchanging and unmoving, like characters in the 10th season of a TV show that only had 6 seasons in it. Endwalker correctly identified this and made a big deal of disbanding them and scattering them across the world, and I was incredibly excited. The message was clear: We'd meet up with the Scions now and again, have little hype moments where like, Estinien shows up to save the day, or we'd bring in Y'shtola when we need aetherological expertise and she can hang out with us for a few levels and we'd all be very excited, but we're clearing the way for new characters to take the spotlight, a new central cast for a new overarching story. And then it just... didn't happen. Sure, Wuk Lamat has a massive role, but she's clearly a one-expansion central character just like Ysayle, Lyse or Ryne, she's not a new "party member". Meanwhile, the Scions' presence is basically as fumbled as it could possibly be. The twins are around for the entire expansion as basically just simulacra of their usual characters. There's like a couple bits where Alisaie comes across as firey and reckless and they're fun if vapid, but Alphinaud shows off nothing that makes him who he is - I think the only lines he has this whole expansion that couldn't have just been given to some other person are a couple jokes about collecting firewood and when he's excited to see Estinien. Estinien is... around, for some reason, he doesn't DO anything. Y'shtola and G'raha just arbitrarily show up near the end of the expansion just because they're the most logical people to have spout exposition about inter-reflection travel. Basically the only Scions who feel like there's a point to their presence are Thancred and Urianger, who have a few really good scenes with Koana but feel incredibly underused, mostly because Koana doesn't get enough screentime. Other than Thancred and Urianger, they all feel like cardboard cutouts of the characters we know and love. There's this bit where you're standing in front of Everkeep with all the Scions preparing to confront Zoraal Ja (including the ones who were meant to stay in Tuliyollal who just randomly pop out of an elevator at one point because we need a full party for the Trust) and I remember thinking "No one here other than the Twins has any emotional attachment to any of this". Half of them haven't even been in Tural for a week. It doesn't feel like we're confronting the villain with our crew who we've been through thick and thin through and it's this big thing everyone here is ready for, it feels like you're confronting the villain with Wuk Lamat and also a bunch of randos you called in for help. Compare it with the Hydaelyn trial where it feels wrong to not do it with the NPCs for the first time because the NPCs feel like they belong in that plot beat. This IS the worst case scenario that I thought the big Scion dissolution was meant to combat, where the Scions are just AROUND, because they're the FFXIV people and this is FFXIV and you need the FFXIV people in FFXIV, just baggage that the game is obligated to carry around because it just arbitrarily has to. I really loved Dawntrail, I'm not lying. I feel like I like it more than just about anyone else I've seen on the Internet, where the reception seems to vary from a tepid "it's alright" to vitriolic hatred. Wuk Lamat worked incredibly well for me, I loved the first half a lot, Tural is one of my favourite locations in the game, the Alexandrian plot was heart-wrenching and I genuinely think Sphene is the best villain the game has had other than Emet-Selch. But it's really, really left me worried for the future of the story, because everything that ISN'T just Dawntrail-specific feels neglected and cast aside, and it's ultimately those connecting elements that make FFXIV truly great. The Hydaelyn and Zodiark saga was so good because it was greater than the sum of its parts, and Dawntrail's approach makes that impossible. Jesus Christ, I got really wrapped up in writing this and didn't realize how massive it got. I'm probably going to end up writing a big thing about Dawntrail because I have so many thoughts about it.

I also had low expectations going into dawntrail and the story fell very short of even those, particularly in terms of not just the writing and storytelling but also production values. If I hear Machinations in another msq cutscene I am just skipping it. This was a 3/10 story and for the first time got me to skip main story cutscenes, including the post credits one. By that point I just did not care at all. Battle content is great, but I need a strong story underpinning the attachment I’ve built to my character over thousands of hours of play.

Mmhm, I agree with the retelling over and over again part. During Endwalker this started to be evident, and in Dawntrail it got a little tired. Because of this, I kind of liked Zoraal Ja because he wasn't a villain you could feel sympathetic of. He was more like Thanos, and I kinda wish his story stuck to that. I really really thought he was going to be the last boss and I was ok with this really obvious conclusion. Zoraal Ja's kid also bothered me, because they didn't bother introducing his mother and backstory for the kid. Like knowing Zoraal Ja actually had a family might have been good way to flesh out his story and actually make me more motivated to fight him. I initially thought Zoraal Ja's kid was a clone and there was a plot twist behind it. It would've been an interesting way to show the Alexandrians control over souls if they split Zoraal Ja's soul into two. Then the 2nd half talked to us without us knowing it, and through Gulool Ja's side of things we learn more about Zoraal Ja. This would make Zoraal Ja not as weird with his motivations of inflicting pain to teach his people, which is on the surface like Venat's, but obviously dangerous since he's taking a proactive part instead of simply letting people deal with their own struggle. I'm kind of upset that Thancred and Urianger weren't utilised more too. I wasn't too concerned with the twins not doing anything, though I agree they could've, but Urianger and Thancred was the disappointing one. I was so hyped to fight them or have them just whizz past us with their brilliance. We'd get snarked at and Alisaie would be annoyed/shake a fist and Alphinaud would get knocked over and look gobsmacked by their tricks, while Urianger and Thancred shot us shit-eating grins. WoL would just be like "We'll get them back for that!" while punching their hand and we'd chase after them... oh I wish we had that. I think the part where we had to find the banana leaves for xibruq pabil would've been good for this, had Koana been paired with another contestant. It's also a lot more exciting if the fight also included an actual tussle over the ingredients, like if a mad beast ran loose over the area and we had to fight to get to it, or we end up fighting Zoraal Ja/Bakool Ja Ja who is our teammate to get the ingredient. Yeah I knew DT wasn't going to be high key either, I too went in with very tempered expectations. I think this whole plot is going to be more enjoyable if we ran with the trust system lvl100 glam through all the MSQ cutscenes lol

Really agree with your insights and opinions on the story and direction. I really hope the staff watch this. You were very respectful and tactful in the delivery of your criticism.

Thats what people keep telling streamers, shut off your brain... if you have to do that in order to enjoy the story, then what your experiencing is a bad story. People keep comparing wuk lamat to lyse, and that isnt who she reminds me of, she remind me of alphinaud when he was building his alliance, which collapsed due to exactly what wuk lamat is doing. He was betrayed due to his overly trusting nature, and it ultimately ended with the death of a scion. Ff14 is not a happy place, which is why i dont like wuk lamat as a character or leader. Sooner or later her savior complex is going to result in a catastrophic event for her and her people. I dont like sphene as a character because i dont think they adequately explained to the player that she is no longer a real person but instead an AI construct. She is based on a real individual true, but she is just a copy of the memories of that person. A governing program then changed her and installed the directives that led to her ultimately trying to commit genocide on the living. Overall as a story it was not a good one.

I was disappointed because I was expecting a shadowbringers quality story but instead I'm told WoL is going on a vacation but instead I'm just following around a kid. What makes it worse is that I feel like the story can just happen with out the WoL

here's hoping they pull a post-stormblood and make the story patches for DT ramp up the hype. i will never quite understand why they decided to follow up endwalker, one of the biggest mmo releases ever, with something so safe. i get that they need to start from the bottom and work up with a new arc but.. i think they could have skipped this part for sure lmao

A big problem i had with the endless and living memory is that after spending so long to humanize sphene and otis and learning that the endless have memories, live lives, and have feelings. For some reason when erenville's mom says "dont worry you have to kill them all because it will make sphene weaker and we should be dead anyway" we dont try to find a way to save them or put them into temporary bodies like otis. Instead we just go "sure killing every endless and deleting all their memories forever without their consent seems like a great idea" which seems like a *crazy* thing to do. I spent the whole time in living memory thinking "why are we the good guys when were genociding all these people" and then when we fight sphene she doesnt even seem to know they're dead until after we defeat her. It was all a very lackluster finish do a decent expansion.

22:30 I remember around the time there was a boom in RU-vid videos of DnD sessions, Critical Role, etc, something akin to this saying went around: "the world building / lore is NOT the story". Most players focus more on the personal story with the problems and challenges their player character / protagonist faces and will not go out of their way to dive deep into the lore aspects. Ex. most people watch or read the Lord of the Rings Trilogy, but only a few go out of their way to read the Silmarillion. This leaves some writers / DMs frustrated that all their hard work world building would go to waste, so they force sit players down and give them an exposition dump, which doesn't make the players happy because instead of being conversed with (since a game's story is an exercise of collaborative storytelling between the player and the DM), they are being talked at, which is both boring and demeaning. And since the players aren't happy and aren't praising and glorifying the DM, the DM becomes even more frustrated and starts to think that their players are too dumb to appreciate the effort, when the reality is, the players need to see how some obscure historical lore fact relates to them in the now. TLDR: the lore should serve the story being told, not the other way around. 30:00 If I remember correctly, Yoshida used following a TV series as an analogy for FF14's story - "would I be interested in returning to see the next season?" he said. Hence, I think his philosophy reflects as CBU3's attitude in turning the player into a passive audience member. Now I know it's an MMO, so the collaborative storytelling won't have a lot of degrees of freedom on the player's end, but because of that, the onus is now thrown back to CBU3's writing team. And when they have to write so much volume - from MSQ to yellow side quests to role quests, etc. - they're gonna get stretched. So maybe - because only CBU3 writing team knows the reality - they need to lean on their lore heavily to make up the filler and interstitial parts of the story they just don't have the time or mental energy left in their workday to stitch the story together properly. Because even if we know they should be prioritizing the quality of the crown jewel, the MSQ, that doesn't change the fact that SqEnix is a company and will still have strict deadlines on the writers for deliverables such as side quests. And story deadlines need to be hit early in the project's life cycle: before the artist rendering, the programming / coding, play testing etc. down the pipeline. Just like writing for the movies (checkout William Goldman's book 'Adventures in the Screen Trade', it's a classic). TLDR 2: CBU3 writing team might be using lore as a main content crutch because they're stretched thin with the amount of side story they need to churn out, all to add volume to total content delivered. Sometimes the lack of technical skill demonstration is not due to the writers being bad writers, but may also be influenced by poor project management.

You’re a genius, thank you so much for making this video! I saw voices with either less analysis, more hate, or pulling punches, and you’re the first one to hit bullseye. Your point about themes is perfect - every good design is sum of its parts supporting the larger whole. It was present in SHB, in EW, but this principle seems to be forgotten here. And your point about self-referentiality is something that I almost felt guilty of noticing too… recycled enemy models, recycled visuals, recycled other FF plot points, but now even recycled themes and structure from previous expansions? This level of recursiveness was a bit scary to see… I love this game and to play this expansion you have to clear equivalent of four RPGs in a row with the same character, it’s not just a random title you can give a shot, it’s a subscription game with paid content, there is time, money, emotional investment. For Dawntrail to feel this “cheap” in its key areas, is worrying especially in terms of the 10 year plan. Commented, liked, subscribed, love your content 💖

Main theme is family, community and culture. All of these three are the heart and blood from this expansion. It is not about leadership. It is about the way all of these three things make us more knowledgeable and how lives are valuable because of this reason. Leadership with the rite of succession is the literary device for all of this. Yes, there is a pacing issue, but boiling all of this expansion on a "well, this is about leadership" is kinda reducing everything to a basic story about kings and successions.

Was nodding my head in agreement for this entire video. Still enjoyed my time with DT, but I feel like there was so much left on the table

I think we all know exactly where you're coming from. I love everything from ARR to Endwalker. I don't love Yawntrail. It disappointed and saddened me. It bored me. It sometimes angered me. I started out mildly positive about Wuk, but she just doesn't want to go away and CLINGS to me for the entire game and by the end I loathed her and wished she's die in a plot twist. I had physical reactions of disgust and displeasure When I saw her show up or I heard her voice. After dragging myself through the MSQ I've been on a FFXIV vacation. I no longer miss the game when I'm away from it and I think I need to go away to get that feeling back.

Great video, it's first that I've seen of yours. Not only do I totally agree with your analysis, but you have also taught me a lot about effective story writing! Ty

Shaaloani should have been the first map. Dawntrail is a slow burn of an expansion. We go into Shaaloani for no real narrative reason WHATSOEVER, so this slow burn comes to an entire halt. To make matters worse, we enter it after we have the cutscene with Zooral Ja at the Golden Gate... Moving the Shaaloani map to the beginning, we have our "fun" little Western romp before reaching Tuliyollal and the real story begins works better. Yes, we have the whole thing with Wuk's nannie's bracelet, but literally we could have a cutscene where we see Wuk say goodbye and give her the bracelet before she sets off to take the train to Yyasulani. Follow this with a coronation scene or a banquet before all hell breaks loose with the attack from the Alexandrians. We return to Shaaloani to fix the train and head into Heritage Found.

Landscape/environment was MVP IMO in this expansion.

I was agreeing until you said we got the theme of “Letting go” 3 times in a row. Shadowbringers was definitely about letting go of the past. And while that’s a pretty big topic toward the end of Dawntrail, it’s still mostly about leadership. Sphene was just Wuk Lamat’s philosophy taken to the extreme. But you’re right. The theme of letting go of the past is definitely there (Living Memory being the most obvious case) However, the main issue I take with this statement is that Endwalker had absolutely *nothing* to do with “letting go” of anything. Except maybe depression? Lol Endwalker’s theme was finding a reason to live and that there is no single answer as to what the reason is. It was more about overcoming depression than it was about letting go of anything

I agree with most of you points. I think your video helped sum up some issues I had with this expansion.

Damn, nothing but excellent points here. I also had the thing where I enjoyed it as I was going through, even if I thought some of the dialogue was a bit childish, but the more I thought about it the worse it got. I hope they take the constructive criticism to heart and blow our minds with 8.0. After all, we got Shadowbringers after Stormblood!

Unfortunately trying to get that balance is overshadowed by the investors bottom line

Finally a critique that isn't just wuk lamat bad she ruined the game. I agree with most of what you said but I feel as though the themes do tie together especially after I learned that the jp name translates to legacy which I think family death and leadership fit into. Definitely could have made it more clear how they tie together and I have no idea what the western part was about it feels so disconnected from everything else my only though might be about the legacy the wol has left in other reflections which might be the next chapter of the story

omh... that mention of mamook story problem blows everything. Tural was literal DEAD WORLD that not existed until DT mentions in late patches of EW. It just "appeared" it was never living, breathing world.

I'm super mixed on dawntrail. For the whole dawnservant arc I was almost calling what characters would say and I didnt need to theory craft...at all. Quite a few scenes where I was questioning out loud.."Why isn't this voiced? this seems important" Some parts feel a bit rushed and others feel like they drag on too long. Then there's other moments like in living memory I genuinely hovered over that "Are you sure" button for like a minute before breaking down and crying over Erenville's Mom and pressing "Ok"...soo yeah...mixed. There's a lot of dangling threads they can pull and the combat being in such a good state has me happy still- we'll see what happens next and I'm super excited for exploratory content!!!!

Even if we leave little Galool's identity as a mystery for a later patch, the fact nothing about it is even hinted (aside from Zoraal Ja himself stating he's NOT his father) makes him feel more like a plot device than a character. A cheap tactic to give you the feels. Who's the mom? where is she? we know Sphene can't be the mom, why is "the prince" wandering the city like he's homeless? why does nobody recognize him? none of that matters, apparently.

I agree with your point on mamook overall, but i was kinds thinking that the people mamook didn't want to leave cus those that remained are traditionalist and RACIST!!!!!! (Which the writers didnt commit to either with bakool and the people) i felt like it was supposed to be one of the biggest foils of the story up to that point. Wuk Lamat interacting with people who arent open to being understood by outsiders could have been a lot more interesting.

You got a subscribe from me just for mentioning Watership Down! Excellent analysis and exactly how I felt after this expansion.

Thank you for beautifully articulating the biggest issue with Dawntrail, storytelling. (No Ishikawa). I especially agree that they just want to shove in lore without tying in it which was a huge problem for me. Nothing revealed in this expansion felt like it built upon or respected existing lore. On a tangent, I want to make clear that the story/progression in the Shaaloani ("Texas") is unanimously hated, not just in NA but all regions, this including those who are critical of the expansion and even those who say they enjoyed it. Shaaloani is deserving of hate because it is the most egregious example of all the issues this expansion has that miraculously displeased every type of players. What intrigues me is that this expansion wasn't positioned to be a risk taker. It was set to be akin to those "slice-of-life, vacation, rest in-between battles" episodes. I feel that the main theme was just going to be about discovery, but they decided that it was too risky to do that, so they did a sudden change and made Sphene an antagonist, then recycled Zoraal Ja because they didn't want the player to really hate Sphene (which removes depth and risk). I am convinced of this since Zoraal Ja's attacks are elaborately displayed while we never see Sphene partake in any destruction at all, acting victim. Even the last fight, she transforms into this machina that holds her hostage, which again seems like a way to try deflect that Sphene is not the antagonist. At this point, they needed to double-down on the "make you sympathize with the enemy"-formula, therefore adding in that random lizard child (who steals Krile's moments a few times). Another big issue with the storytelling -- There haven't been any impactful losses that the player couldn't/shouldn't digest, like Papalymo, Moenbryda, Haurchefant, or Ysayle (to same a few). Dawntrail falls flat because it tries to follow the formula of loss and sacrifice when there are little to no repercussions or consequences. (Daddy and Mommy passed away, but they weren't characters we spent a very long time building up a relationship with. We also are reminded time after time that the people we see in Living Memory are exactly that, living memories, that must be erased. This significantly dampens the emotional impact on the player because the choice is made for them.) I also want to point out that Wuk shows no real character development. She learned to adapt to different situations, though there was nothing about her that changed. She did not incur any losses because she took no risks. Therefore, she didn't learn a lesson, so she didn't grow/change. Instead of that lazy, "Let's be kings together bro", what if Wuk actually lost and did the whole Zoraal Ja bit herself, unleashing Sphene (who acts like she is innocent when confronted) onto Tuliyollal? Wuk goes into HF/SN, trying to redeem herself (or not, regardless Tural is doomed if she doesn't take action) but symphonizes with Sphene (since Wuk is still a softie who doesn't know real consequences or accept them) and fights us instead of Zoraal? (Removing Shaaloni, enemy Zoraal, and Lizard Child while at it.) Whoever stops and convinces Wuk after the fight to reconsider would have gotten so much love from the players as well. (This also would have been a great point to have some of the Scions disagree with the WoL's decision and join alongside Wuk to fight. A point of actual meaningful choice where the players chooses who is going to the be the "enemy" in dialogue before or even earlier in the expansion.) The only part I disagree and was surprised is that you liked all the FF9 inclusions as a fan. I haven't felt more disgusted. Until now, homages have either been an easter egg, or the main highlight of the content. How they used FF9 in this expansion was "copy my homework but change it a bit" aside from the obvious placement that those just familiar with FF9 would notice. Anything revolving around Sphene including the plot, Solution Nine, and Living Memory, are all pulled from FF9 in one way or another. So add this with copying FF9 and from their own essay they got a C- on, you get the mess that we experienced. Its like they deliberately botched FF9's homages to distract us from the bad storytelling.

I don't like how the entire expansion was about Wuk Lamat. Like who even is this character? It was bearable in the previous expansions, all the characters they focused on were already established characters that people wanted to learn more about. I'd have been fine if Krile was the focus of this expansion. Personally, I want a whole expac for Y'shtola, but that's just me. Honestly speaking though, we've never had a whole expac dedicated to a single character. There were close ones, (Alphinaud, Lyse) but they were never there the entire time. They did shit on their own and grew because of it too while WoL was off doing WoL things. People are right, this expac was basically babysitting Wuk Lamat.

It is very obvious allied tribe quest story writers wrote this main story......... I don't know what yoshiP was thinking "Let's assume everyone knows the story and NPC............" result: Alphinaud and alisaie are invisible and quiet. I wonder if first time Urianger and Thancred , Alisaie and Alphinaud VA think "What happened to my character......"

Still working my way through MSQ (just hit the level 97 zone) but I'm definitely bookmarking for later.

i think they did introduce a big bad "Preservation" i think Zoraal Ja is likely a clone the reason the story is the way it is,is likely because it was written by 2 writters that normally write side content. 1st half was written by person that did pixie and dwarf beast tribes. 2nd half by person who wrote pandemonium and myths of the realm. also think people are being EXTREMELY reductive of the final zone and sphene.

your point about the lack of use of the scions has me questioning it even more. I questioned why they made the statement that they disbanded the scions back in endwalker. Then they continued to band together. If they had just left the twins and p much all the scions aside from Krile and MAYBE G'raha (Because he was pointing out the similarities of alexandria to the first so at least he's useful to the plot) then the plot point of them disbanded and this being "a new beginning" would actually hit harder And maybe we could have had a new band of characters that aren't white haired.

Oh shit your definitely one of my favorite FF14 story reviewer and analyzer

Great video and constructive criticism. I hope CBU3 gets a chance to check it out. Well done

I don’t necessarily think there is a problem here. We have to come to the realization that the WoL‘s arc as the main character pretty much ended with Endwalker, and they have assumed a mentor role now, with other NPCs taking on the actual MC role (Zero, Wuk Lamat). I think the real issue here is that many people consider Wuk Lamat‘s writing to be bad. I would like to think that if she actually were a character that most people would agree was well-written, a lot of these concerns would automatically go away.

Once more, fantastic video! You didn't sound "overly" negative at all to me! You listed what you enjoyed and what you didn't and your hesitations about the future of the game. I've mostly seen super generic (negative or positive) takes about this expansion so far, so this was such a breath of fresh air to watch! The negativity in particular has sometimes come across as so fiercely vitriolic that it's kind of uncomfortable, especially with a portion of it absolutely being dedicated to any of the PoC actors/actresses and the "different" nature of the cast (which is also really jarring to me considering how well-meaning this story is thematically, I'd rather take something somewhat clumsy and well-meaning than hateful and perfectly-made). It's great to see someone just focus on the story as it is. And I actually really agree with it, too. I've long listed "pacing" as the biggest issue with this game's narrative and you just hit the nail on the head in terms of elaborating on that issue. A lot of the time "wasted" ends up mattering in the end, but it doesn't end up "mattering". I personally think about the Moogle quest or the quest involving actually getting to Azys Lla in Heavensward or even the entirety of the Ruby Sea in Stormblood because they matter "on the surface", as in, getting from one point to the next. In comparison, at the very least in Dawntrail, all of the varying peoples have the uniting idea of having a perspective for Wuk Lamat to learn to understand that is distinct. Understanding a culture's individual customs, understanding the work of artists and value of good working conditions, identifying and healing a broken system, understanding trade and understanding the importance of historical events (and maybe how it is shaped in unexpected way, like through cuisine). My big issue with Stromblood was that the driving issue for almost all of the Stormblood societies was convincing them to fight with you. All of them. Which is why getting to the Azim Steppe was so refreshing: it had several different clashing perspectives that weren't just related to people suffering under Garlemald, Ala Mhigo and Yanxia felt really indistinct from each other in that sense to me. So as time went on, they've at least learned to make less generic connective material. And then I very much enjoyed what I think is peak of this evolution in Endwalker. All of the societies explored in Ultima Thule were thematically relevant, character relevant, most of all. Before StB, even if I had mild interest in like the Vath/Gnath or Sylphs, they sort of just felt like generic vehicles to get to the next dungeon or fight. Even as much as I loved the Gabu subplot in the HW patches and the fun sillyness of Alexander, it was kind of a stand-out among pretty generic stuff. And all of the subplots evolved sort of like this. They at least evolved a bunch beyond "meet generic grunt". And in that sense I'd actually push back on the thematic asides of Dawntrail, which all are at least different aspects of knowledge for leadership being highlighted. But, again, as you say, whether or not they all have a "strong" reason to exist is another question. And the moment I finished the MSQ, I felt the problem of thematic repetition would become one that could fly under the radar and I'm happy you just straight-up went into this issue and someone spoke about it. I agree with you on the fact that at this point I do not think it is yet a debilitating issue and in execution, I think the final zone is incredibly strong (wept through a bunch of it), but as you said, I think they can't do that again for an eternity. (Or maybe even a 4th time. Let 3 be the magic number.) In the lead up to Dawntrail Yoshi-P talked a lot about making the dungeon content more engaging and perhaps shaking it up and there has been hints of bigger job changes are slated for 8.0 (and of course, we have the graphics update that was covered extensively for big promises), and the narrative also isn't immune to this stagnation issue. I think they absolutely delivered on the key elements they promised: the dungeon and trial design shakeup is incredibly refreshing. The graphics update breathes new life into the visuals of the game and even the cultures themselves at play in the story sidestep aspects that could have been seen as problematic in the previous expansions. All of this is separate from narrative structure and thematic focus as it is, though. This expansion is an awesome time "as a game", as they promised. And I think as long as they continue to do that, it is never going to truly die. Much like you, I enjoyed the whole thing a bunch as a story, even; it's a 7/8 to me. But they have to do the same shakeup in terms of narrative at some point or people will lose interest. I agree that we need another "Bloody Banquet" (that also isn't a retread). And I kind of get the sense they know about the this issue, too because there are a lot of little threads they planted they could pull from and they even said that where they go depends on the reaction to Dawntrail; that they are basically back to where it started with A Realm Reborn and testing the waters on where they want to go. In that sense, if you are testing new ground, having a familiar foundation can also be a good springboard. And, well, the details people seem to be negative about regarding Dawntrail are the less interesting elements of the story. Looking in from my bubble, people seem to love the content, love the zones themselves, the graphics update and be frustrated by how simple the characters are and how the story isn't "as good as Endwalker" (which can't really be forced and will in fact take time yet again to build towards). It really is incredibly similar to the issues with job and encounter design they had in Endwalker. Discard everything that is a source of friction because it might bring about a negative reception. In fact, I even get the sense this safeness might be intentional when thinking about the similarity with A Realm Reborn and its placement. It's an almost eerily similar situation of stagnation that lead them here, just not with catastrophic consequences in terms of the game's actual development. One of the big reasons why the disaster with 1.0 happened was stagnation and the team not looking outside of themselves. I will only start seeing it as a true issue when Dawntrail's patch content is done and we're still at the same place; a stagnant 8.0 will, however, ring some true alarm bells to me. This game has built up a lot of goodwill on my part and has taught me the developers do think very strongly in the bigger picture, so I'm going in as such. Just like I'm not buying the 6.x series is just filler, I'm also not buying they are not aware of a possibly stagnating narrative; even the big turning point of this expansion tells me this. I'm sus in all aspects. And that is both uneasy and incredibly exciting.

I think I'm fine with flying in the face of conventional story telling with an mmo. Like many commmenters, its the execution that gets me. One moment this really struck me was after we returned after killing Zoraal Ja. Wuk Lamat caught Koana up with Galool Ja for some reason. And not only that, but we had to come with, wandering the streets and recapping things that literally just happened. Normally, this would be a silent cutscene as the characters gesture like they are talking, and then we move on to new info. Not so here. Instead, they explain everything and not in a complete cutscene. Oh no. We have to walk to several different points to continue the story. And then, when we finish, we just return right to the palace. That whole thing should have been cut. I do even like certain things in theory, like Galool Ja. I really feel like Zoraal Ja was a missed opportunity. I've heard over and over stories where a biological child gets a nasty sense of entitlement or refuses to accept adopted siblings. Then add in his full story. He's a miracle. Most two headed Mamool Ja never sire children, yet here he is. He should be all his father wanted, but I could easily see him feeling hurt that his father went and found two children to adopt. Like he isn't enough. They aren't even Mamool Ja. And then, to add to that even more, he isn't even promised to rule the nation. I think there was some real potential in him. So much more than what we got. I had assumed Sareel Ja was either one of the remaining ascians or he was working for the next big bad. Corrupting Zoraal Ja by feeding his insecurities. This version of him would sire Galool Ja to be his successor, and really push his son. If you've seen My Hero Academia, I'd like to have seen Zoraal Ja as Endeavor and Galool Ja his son Todoroki. Pushing him to surpass both his father and grandfather so hard it smothers him. This version of the tale would have a lot of family strife, with Galool Ja coming to resent his father. I'd also age Galool Ja up. Maybe show some flashbacks with him young and have him teenage.

Just a nitpick on your take of what each zone represents... At first I also thought Yok Tural was meant to represent Spain, but the fact that the Tural region is called "the west" (which I guess could also refer to Europe since it is west of Japan), Tuliyollal's staple food being tacos, and the architechure, I think it's meant to more of a represention of Mexico. My theory of it being Mexico was more solidified when we went to Xak Tural and it was an American western theme. So together, those two regions fit the southern NA vibe. On another note, Xak Tural made me think of Arizona, not Texas. But that's probably a detail that's more up to interpretation.

I agree so hard on the comparison to Final Fantasy 16. Absolute hype moments followed by the most tedious filler fetch and go talk to this person here quest chains. These games obviously shouldn't only be hype moments one after the other, but CB3 really needs to change the way they aproach world building and character moments in their narratives. A good comparison is the way the Trails series games deal with quieter slower moments in between big narrative climaxes within the story.

Just to add to your 3 act structure issue, Japanese use a different structure entirely. It's called kishotenketsu (4 act structure) which is different from western storytelling's 3 act structure. We do agree with your criticism though.

Not even half voice acteed. Sometimes, one scene have voice, then we made two steps to other npc, same characters and yet no voice. Big immersion breaking.

Yeah Golool Ja's existence was just fucking odd. Not ONLY did Zarool Ja have a kid.... WHO THE FUCK WAS THE MOTHER?

I hope we are done with Wuk.

there's so much that could have been done better, especially after the midway point. I was ok with the things that happened during the Rite Of Succession, because it was Wuk's time to learn things about Tural. But then it quickly became this wishy washy nonsense, where apparently Wuk now has all the knowledge inside her to deal with any situation with a power of friendship. Like, after the half way point it would have been great if we saw all of what she had learned be actually tested and in cases beaten to the ground, but instead she keeps repeating the same stuff about who we are as people and how we are remembered as if she's the authority of that. To a greater degree she literally enforces her own beliefs into the Alexandrian beliefs, these people who have lived a very specific lifestyle for hundreds of years. and no-one actually challenges what Wuk is doing, everyone just kinda falls flat to the ground as if they know what they are doing is wrong, even if it's more on the grey side of things. And it annoyed me that a lot of the characters shared this resolved attitude that whatever was going on in Alexandria--- that it was wrong. People didn't even try to find alternative solutions to the problems they were facing, they were just going along with whatever Wuk believed as if she's the main character, which she is not. Let's not forget this. A much better way of handling this would have been to let Wuk's beliefs be shattered to literal pieces, so that we actually start caring about what's going on and so that our own character has a moment where the WoL needs to intervene in a big way. And the game even knows that the WoL is someone who could literally end this entire conflict all on their own, but there is no payoff to that at all and it hurts even more than it used to-- because they clearly showcase moments where the WoL casually walks into danger like it's not a problem at all to solve all of this in a heart beat. But no, it's Wuk freaking Lamat who's there to save the day because it's her expansion. It's also really sad that they can't seemingly find any good ways to utilize the characters in the story, I was so pissed when half of the party just stayed at the gate to the city of gold because "reasons". They just couldn't find a way and brushed it off as "guarding the gate", which was never a necessity at all since this freaking gate's existence is only known by a handful of people. I understood Y'shotla's reasoning of needing aether and magic to keep the gate open or whatever, but at this point Zoraal Ja was dead, there was no immediate threat from Sphene either so it just felt like we were contantly pushing the scions to the side when they were already in the thick of things. Estinien defending some small ass town instead of riding on the dragons like a badass would have given more gravitas to the side characters triumphs as well in their smaller locations and showed us that people can defend themselves without the need of a scion next to them all the time. I dunno, there's alot of just unexplained things and the ending specifically feeling rushed as heck.

Dungeons/Trials/Raids? Pretty good. Main story? meh, if they focused the story around Krile and Erenville, it could be better. The story on the Arcadion with just a few quests is already more compelling Wuk is a Discount Naruto that have none of what people actually liked about the show and everything people hate, she got an even stronger talk no jutsu Also one big letdown: - When they announced the game "scions will be divided and forced to compete" - During cutscenes Urianger says hes curious to fight against us and Thancred also says he's in to compete and win even if he needs to fight us... - Reality: one scene on the first dungeon where Thancred cuts the path we are... just that, no solo duty against them, no fight, not even competition going forward Also also, lets talk about Gulool Ja? Where the heck did that little lizard came from? Was he a clone of Zoraal in pursuit to form a new army or just one made by Sphene to overthrow him? Did Zoraal actually did the did with another Mamool to get that? I mean, there's a 30 year gap inside the barrier, we did not see any other Mamool on Solution9/Living Memory and I dont remember if there is any on Erenville's village

I really enjoyed your video. It all made sense to me. I agree that this one did feel disjointed in areas, and transitions were definitely one of the biggest problems. I watched Console & Control Gaming's "12 Details Hidden in Plain Sight - FF14 Dawntrail" video and found a greater appreciation for the content as a whole. I don't think we should require a lore analysis to come to our own individual conclusions about whether we like something or not, but that video certainly helped me see it differently. I think the pacing would have made Wuk Lamat's development quest feel more connected to the Solution Nine events, as in his video, he points out how each lesson she learns is directly implemented in the level 97+ portion of the expansion. That overall does fall back to your point though- they told us lore, vs showing us a story. Once I understood the lore, I liked the story more- however me having to go outside of the game and research in order to find that appreciation is a symptom of poor story telling.

24:00 Interesting that you see the lore as good, as I had the opposite impression. Little consistency and many contradictions with previously established lore, especially when it comes to the small things. For example our WoL never telling anyone that they saw Sphene during the attack on Tural. The sick kid in Solution 9, that Alisaie can absolutely heal, the new flavour of the week material Electrope, that is so rare that it started a world war, yet is given out as kindling to make fire, or used as liner in cups to keep drinks warm. But overall I agree that premise of the story is solid, but the execution is flawed.

I honestly believe the actual gameplay or flow of the story should've followed the theme of adventure and discovery a lot more. It just felt so SAFE, I wanted them to do something a bit more risky or take it in a new direction, maybe add some freedom to Tural, you know? One of my favourite things about ARR is that despite it having a linear story, things like choosing your starter city and being able to just get lost in the world, do your hunt logs, find an optional dungeon or go where you're not "supposed to" added at lot the "role playing element", there was no discovery, it just felt so guided, and more of the same, the fact that the story was very lame compared to previous installments also didn't help', and I don't mean "oh, it has low stakes, it sucks" no, I just mean the writing and the characters were terrible for the most part, like, why are the scions even here? They barely added anything and we didn't really interact with them at all.

I feel like everything that was wrong with the story can be summed up by the writing team probably being fresh out of internship, since the senior members have been promoted. The story just screams amateurish to me and it has soured the way I view this game, my favorite game of all time.

I pretty much agree with everything you said. The story is not bad, but it doesn’t live up to the standards set by the last two expansions. It’s feels like Ishikawa is probably writing FF17’s story right now and they let other staff step it up to write Dawntrail’s MSQ. She has that magic touch with character writing that felt absent here.

a risk they can do is introduce the light again invading a new reality (like they found a way to leave the first)

It's not a "ten year problem," we just hit a crescendo of a 10 year story arch. DT is very my a -B just like SB was for me or even an ARR. It will likely have good looking fights and raids, but it's very much building towards better.

The actual PVE content and mechanics are great and the devs behind that should be rewarded. I want to see those responsible for the story sacked and The guy who makes the music is usually outstanding but after that Disney trash he should be told he is on his last chance. First and final warning. Toxic positivity WILL ruin this game so people need to say it how it is and it's not good.

Part of me wants most of the Scions to "disappear". By this I mean them making cameos when we need their expertise, but it would be nice to join a new group with entirely new NPCs that can drive a new story. But that is risky and might as well make a new game.

what anoyed me the most was them stalling erenvilles reunion so far back and filled the time with boring stuff to do.

I’ve think the worst part is the story pacing. There are some part in the middle of the story where the pace is unbearably slow that it makes me skip some of the cutscenes because a lot of them feel like a ‘filler’ story.

I would love another bloody banquet moment... i personally really want a prison expansion. I wanna see them gut our characters temporarily because i know that the power scaling we've built up is going to consistently be a problem. So many people complained about being so strong but not taking action enough in dawntrail and i think this will continue to be a problem when we are involved in lower stake stories. I think dawntrail was close to giving decent stakes without being purely about power, but i want more of that. I feel like i would have been more invested in the wild west zone had they introduced Zekowa earlier and built up his story with his team going to prison. Would also like to really see a new cast of characters for an expansion. 1 scion being there MAX. I dont like when they try ro do both at the samw time

The title should be ''DT is trash but these are nn number of reasons why I like it'' xD

I really wish they set up the void as the overarching antagonist. For me in ARR amd Heavensward, the alliance raid series dealing with the void and voidsent was so intriguing and the whole allegan empire. I wish the 10 year plan shifted to that rather than what they're doing now. Granted, as a one of I liked Wuk and her development and certain story beats but it felt isolated and just out of left field.

There is no timeline regarding the forced breeding of the double headed mamool ja it could be hundreds of years it could be 1000’s it could be within 50 years. Also I think the point was that they were to proud to ask for help outside of their community and that’s why they weren’t able to thrive like the rest of the communities.

dawntrail 'felt' like it was an intermission to the next major story arc. I hope this story picks up, cause I was snoring through some of these story beats

This is every Dawntrail cutscene in a nutshell: "Oh no! Wuk Lamat Wuk Lamat'd! How could Wuk Lamat Wuk Lamat this! We are in a very Wuk Lamat Wuk Lamat. Only Wuk Lamat can Wuk Lamat us now! *clench fist*" This is the next 10 years of the hit MMO Wuk Lamat: Wuk Lamat 14 - Wuk Lamat trail

I agree with alot of what you said. i feel like the abruptness between the two halves was jarring.I think Bakool Ja Ja being turned into a good guy was annoying and felt rushd for how bad he was. kind of tired of the heres abad guy but actually he is bad for a good reason kind of thing. In a vacuum I did enjoy the mamool Ja story though like if all that stuff didnt happen before. Like Bakool Ja Ja let out a terrible beast that could destroy the continent but we are just gonna forgive him like that? idk the 95 dungeon was just great to me and I feel like the baby story adds weight to it. I also agree that Zoraal Ja having a son just didnt fit to me. I mean it wasnt terrible but it was like what? the Krile parents scene did make me feel things and i loved that scene. And actually when Vrtra came in and helped fight and take down the airships, I loved that. I had the biggest smile on my face and it was awesome seeing him fight. Also I liked the final zone but it kind of just felt bad that it looked like crap when we were done. Also it felt alot like Endwalkers last zone in structure. same with the Final fight. it felt just like endsinger and when Wuk Lamat came in I literally started singing the phase 2 song of endsinger cause it was like "havent we done something like this before?" lol. (thats a small gripe i actually didnt care much). Idk i enjoyed it, Its easy to point out the flaws more than the good things. Im not mad at it though. Glad I played it. plus im loving pictomancer. also, Liked and Subbed