Why are FFXIV Players Worried About Dawntrail's Story? 

If they never gave Natsuko Ishikawa a chance, we wouldn't have shadowblood. Square Enix understands more than most modern game dev companies that it's good to let new people take charge of projects.

I suspect that this story is gonna be more of an adventure thats gonna act more as a new beginning rather than a grand epic like ShB and EW wich I feel is gonna disapoint some people. But that to me seems like the most logical direction after the EW ending.

People are worried because a different person does thing but then no one noticed that shadowbringers and endwalker localisation was lead by Kate and not Koji untill Yoshida said so.

iirc Banri Oda and Ishikawa are supervising on this expansion. The lead writer was revealed during Las Vegas fan fest to be Daichi Hiroi. He wrote the Pandæmonium story among other things.

no real person is upset or worried about it. only twitter drama seekers.

Honestly I'm just excited for things to be a bit more "normal" per se. I know it isn't going to be a literal beach vacation but the focus steering back to regular people and their struggles excites me. FFXIV sold me on the people of Eorzea and their plights, then later the people of Orthard and Hingashi. I was very lukewarm to Shadowbringers and ESPECIALLY Endwalker, they weren't badly written but I didn't care for how the shift went from war and intrigue (which is fairly unique for an MMO) to ancient superpeople and world-ending stakes (which is fairly typical for an MMO). And just conceptually I hated how everything has been tied back to "the ancients did it", even the gods. Having answers is fine but having literally everything have the same answer is _boring._ Soul Crystals? Ancients. Our souls? Ancients. Crafting? Ancients. Our gods? Ancients. Garlemald? Ancients. Allag? Ancients. Ascians? Ancients. Hydaelyn? Ancients. Zodiark? Ancients. Behemoth? Ancients. The Final Days? Ancients. The Heart of Sabik? Ancients. It feels like I'm trying to talk to a fanatical preacher that tries to tie every possible discussion back into their god. I already know Dawntrail is going to have Ancients involved in some capacity because Solution 9 has the same glyphs we see in Elpis, but I dearly hope they're treated more as a background element rather than (one of) the focus yet again.

Person using Athena as the avatar and "Mommy of Elpis" should be a dead giveaway of their mental health state and credibility. :v

Can we really say that Werlyt was about Gaius facing the consequences of what he'd done when Valens was the one going around burning out the bad? That's like blaming Julius Ceasar for everything Caligula did.

I don't know much about who's been writing what in regards to FFXIV story and content, but to be honest, I'm ready for a change of pace. The whole ascian storyline was a bit interesting at first, but I feel like by shadowbringers, I was already kind of tired of it, and then the next expansion focused almost entirely on it. I'm tired of hearing about the pretty ancient people and their feelings. I want the story to focus on present events and people who are still alive rather than focusing on a bunch of dead ascians and their trauma. Also kind of tired of everything being an "end of the world" scenario. I am so ready to just being adventurers again and enjoying and learning more of the world we currently inhabit. I say bring on the change.

I can't wait for the Dawntrail story tbh, as much as i respect that Shadowbringers and Endwalker for their deep character storytelling, my favourite expacs are still Heavensward and Stormblood from both a Story and Gameplay side. So when people are speculating that Dawntrail is Stormblood 2 i literally couldn't be happier, i love the more dark and serious tones of the garlemald story from HW/StB and Endwalker and ESPECIALLY the sorrow of werlyt.

I am actually looking forward to the more lighthearted tone they are going for in Dawntrail. It would be boring if we got EW/SHB tone every expantion it would get taxing after a while. I like the idea of a more lighthearted beach episode to pace out the pathos a bit.

i think people worry because they don't know what to expect.... but that the start of a new arc, don't expect them to go full blow with this one, they need to install new antagonist and new story, i expect this expac to be filled with exposition and installation of the story. and i'm ok with this, the feeling to discover something totally new and such is what i want after all.

Have never heard of anyone dislike Werlyt quests on any media, but that might be because I refuse to use twitter lol.

That’s an awesome mount. How do I get one of those? I’m a fairly new player. At lvl 35 as a gladiator. Maybe I haven’t gotten to the story part for it yet but after watching this video, I can’t wait!! Truly excited about getting some kool mounts like this one.

My problem with FFXIV is that Endwalker felt like a step back. No gripping villain, nothing really pushing you forward or calamity to prevent. I didn’t feel compelled to finish it like the Shadowbringers’ story, Stormblood’s characters, or Heavensward’s zones.

Part of my concern is that during the patch content the character dialogue felt more generic than it did up through 6.0. People felt, for lack of a better word, flanderised versions of themselves. I'm hoping it's just because patch cycle development is tight and fast, but I'm still concerned that recurring characters are going to lose their unique voice. At that point they might as well introduce new characters instead of bringing old ones back.

A lot of people misread Emet-Selch in the Elpis scene. He's never once been repentant for what he did. You have to look at it from his perspective. His people have been ripped to shreds, it's his sworn duty to protect his people. What horrifies him from our story is he correctly reads his actions in Amaurot as a suicide attempt. The Emet-Selch of Elpis can't imagine the weight of carrying the restoration of his people on his back for 12k years, but we just told him he breaks under it. It's a horrible thing to learn about yourself, "when your people need you the most, you literally /gquit." We'd like to think we'd fight and keep fighting until the job is done. So he's not upset we told him he killed a bunch of people because from his perspective they aren't people, they are pieces of people, he's upset we told him when his people needed him the most, he gave up.

I'm actually looking forward to Dawntrial. The Endwalker story hit on a lot of things that made it hard for me to deal with. I'm hoping it'll be a bit lighter while still having heart, and I know Oda-san can do that.

Hey. I'm fairly new in ff. Started in November. And I wanted to thank you for your comment about new players in this manner. (around 8 minutes) I had a bit of a hard time in this game getting through arr. because, I had a lot of fun. I loved the story and the worldbuilding. arr was just fantastic for me. But everyone and their mum tried to smear under my nose how bad this game is I am having fun with. That I just have to wait for fckn hw, some people even said I should skip everything in arr because it would be so bad. And in the end of the day I was sitting there and was like: "But I am enjoying arr? Is this bad? Or not allowed in this community? should I act like I dislike it? Be ashamed of liking it?" So I can't say anything about the current arc or anything, as I just finished Stormblood (favorite expansion so far) But due to your comment about new players I kind of thought the topic is familiar / similar and worth to mention. I think if there is a story of the writer which is not liked a lot, it's valid to be concerned. But this leading into this oneway-downwards-toxic-spiral is bad and unhealthy for basically everything involving it. Especially if you tell everyone that we are basically doomed. Like, I think, people who do this, should actually use the time until DT to try out another mmo for a lil reality check, where we stand in ff14 in terms of quality of the story/storys. Everything else you said already, just felt it could be nice to give a lil pov from a 'new player' in this regard. :D have a nice weekend/time - Was a good video!

I honestly don't think this will be as good as Shb or EW, but it doesn't need to be.....this is gonna be an introduction into a new saga. As long as they can provide some interesting setups and deliver good raids and ultimates, I'm perfectly fine in settling for a minor climax at the end of the expansion that gives us a bit of an idea about the nature of this new saga. Idk about others, but as long as it looks good, plays well and throws some characters I like at me......I don't need anything more than a bit of setup from that story to be very happy.

people like drama and they jump on the drama train when it passes. i dont expect a "conclusion/wrap up" type of story from Dawntrail as its a new beginning, a.k.a. it will be the "a realm reborn" of another serie. so i will just take the story as a "we are going on a field trip with the scions all over the place and meeting people who will matter a lot, later".

I’m glad it’s new , fresh and up in the air in a sense. A clean slate to start something fun and different.

*Sits down* if you don’t have money, you don’t have an expansion. FF14 has made a LOT of money on Shadow and Endwalker. A lot. More than any other expansions prior to it. Dawntrail has more funding than previous expansions. If you think they’re going to pull punches on this because the primary arc is done, you’re not paying attention.

My only concern is that some of their story-telling vehicles seem fragmented. For example, what made shadowbringers great was that its exploration/relic content (bozja), raids (eden) and trials (weylt) all were expanding the world and making it feel more dynamic and alive while still being cohesive. So when I hear things like cosmic exploration, I worry they are going back to each gameplay element being its own thing, with separate stories which I did not enjoy as much. Also, I am not super into the idea of a 2 arc launch story because Stormblood suffered because of it. But it's more like things I hope they are aware of and have prepared for, rather than a doomsday prediction that it will suck. I am sure that at the very worse it will be still be a competently told story. I also have 0 issues with having a new writer come in. These long-term stories benefit from fresh eyes, and at the end of the day the supervising team is the same so no worries there.

While I do think most of this is internet hate, if I am being fair about it as well I think the patch story/content was such a whiplash for people that it’s put them in constant doomer mode, for me personally while I also thought it had its share of flaws I tended to lean more towards a “this is just a bump in the road” mentality

I think it's rather simple. Shadow/walker was the climax/conclusion of a 8+ year saga. Dawntrail is the introduction to a new saga, so of course we're not gonna see an epic, multi layered story line tying together years of plot threads in a masterful way. It doesn't mean DT story will suck, it will likely be a slow burn to layout the ground work for future expansions to potentially be as epic as Shadow/walker. I expect DT to be a better paced, and constructed ARR. Setting up the conflicts, adversaries, and plot threads that will be resolved in future expansions. The XIV crew is very deliberate in their story planning, and aside from a few missteps(StB) they are usually able to execute competently on what they develop.

something I've learned from this down time between endwalker and dawntrail is that there are a lot of ff14 players that will complain about literally anything without even remotely thinking it through and are way too eager to be a doomer about the game because they're just bored and need new content

Ok but that thumbnail, the idea that anyone would take Athena's words on face value is hilarious, and it feels exactly like something she would do to gaslight us.

Great, now I expect Solution 9 to involve some more Gundam Battles. Will make the wait even worse ; )

My hot take: The story is cool and I’m a fan of it, but in the long run, the story doesn’t matter. A lot of people say Stormblood was bad and they’re still playing. In any expansion, including the post patches, you have maybe a combined total of 2 weeks worth of playtime for the story. The expansion goes on for another 2 years. If the story is bad and the content is good then people will continue to play. That being said, I’m sure SE is well aware of how Stormblood was received and will be trying to not approach it the same exact way again. However, even if the story is absolutely abysmal, the people that like playing the game will still be playing well after the story is done.

I bawled my eyes out at the werlict story. I can't wait!

Dayum Werlyt was one of the best stories in FFXIV BECAUSE it was dark. Heck of a lot more interesting than "power of friendship" stuff. This up and down that the FF community does about hating and loving things is par for the course. Highly worth ignoring.

people are quick to forget a realm reborn REALLY had a lot of split storyline weaved into its story. if you guy replay the story form the beginning knowing what will happen, you will notice a lot ofmforeshadowing of different future parts . so the argument of the story splitting paths being a problem is very weird to me .

I am FF14 player and I am not worried. Any speculation is just stupid, nothing is out yet, no-one has even seen or tried anything. Not to mention that they've got a team which has done all existing content, which is great, so they will create a good story. Rest we will see when it's out. Some people have too much time at hand and waste it on pointless things.

They removed aspects of the setting that were foundational: The threat of primal tempering, and primal's aetheric draw on the land. There are plenty of stories to tell with nothing to do with primals, but "fixing" those aspects in such a slapdash, and frankly rushed way was stupid. ESPECIALLY the primal aetheric draw issue.

they were right lol

Kinda related, I feel like there’s an unhealthy tendency to knee jerk react poorly when certain arcs are brought up. Namely Stormblood but it’s hardly the only one. If you say the words “kinda like Stormblood” people will automatically go “eew no, never like Stormblood.” It has its issues particularly in character writing and pacing, but those were mostly in execution, not in concept. It’s still like a 7/10 story and hardly the worst thing we’ve seen in this game. But people treat it like a 4/10 and groan anytime you consider that they could attempt something similar again and do it better this time around. The split stories being a good example. Bottom line, people worry too much. Expansion looks neat, let’s see what they’ve got for us.

As a weirdo who considers Endwalker to be the least good part of FF14's Story and considers ARR & Stormblood to be the best two (yes, *that* much of a weirdo), learning that Dawntrail is spearheaded (at least in part?) by the dude who did Werlyt is *very* exciting news.

people will always find something to hate

Dawntrail CANNOT be an epic adventure story like Shadowbringers and Endwalker were. This is an introduction, a beginning of a new big arc. We are back to the ARR part of the story, but hopefully with much better story telling. Is this going to disappoint many? Yes, but it's their problem of not understanding how the story telling in FFXIV works.

" Why are FFXIV Players Worried About Dawntrail's Story? " Maybe cause the storyline after 6.0 been pretty meh?

Most of EW concerns are actually caused by SE themselves, for example: Instead of describing DT as a new exciting adventure its "The WoL goes on a vacation" which stinks of anime filler sprinkled with HW's politics 2.0 specially combined with the fact that there gonna be obviously lower stakes They are gonna split the story in two sides. Last time they did it in SB it was a disaster with Doma having the lion's share of the story and Ala Migho reduced to a nominal part despite its earlier implied relevance in the story. Even certain Doma parts were a bit rushed because they had to save space for the scarce Ala Mighan parts They wasted almost all of the numbered patches with low quality content Void related instead of leaving more room to introduce the new expansion instead of doing an introductory speedrun on the last moment that feels between ankward and forced instead of fluid and natural. They went hardcore homogenizing jobs from ShB to the point that the gameplay starts to feel the samey, which also remarked how boring alliance raids/dungeons/non hardcore content is when now your character ceiling has dropped sustantially. The pacing of EW was hideous with the Sharlayan early part being such a lore vomit dump that you could get 2 levels before even hitting a mob, Also EW having some really nice parts just to get hit with a super low part that made infamous ShB troley part look good in comparison Almost no midcore content which means either faceroll content or play savage and similar with statics, no middle ground. Bigger time between patches with no extra content to make for it, and before someone tells me that the devs need rest, SE should actually hire more devs a while ago, this is not recent issue Hrotghar and Viera issues to be fixed "soon" New jobs even some people might like them they are kinda of a "letdown" and didnt create as much hype as usual where people usually was drooling at the shiny new jobs at any chance they get. Pictomancer specially with its visual style feeling odd at best and a Fall Guys/Splatoon assets reuse at worst forcefully glued to the setting (some people even mention that it looks FAR BETTER in the CG trailer) So the ball is on their roof they gotta work hard to prove people wrong because this time they dont have a 10 year old narrative saga conclusion to fall back if they fuck it up

Because people have nothing better to do, creator one says it’s going to suck, creator two copies then repeat until everyone is sick of hearing from content creators. Like how many times have you seen from one creator who has an opinion but spreads it as if it’s a fact…. Another reacts, then another then it snowballs into an incredibly boring topic…

I think its gonna suck cause theyre focusing in unlikeable characters. Krile and Erenville arent main characters material and Wuk Lamat got a very poor VA that gave her a bad first impression. So i think at least the Contest part of the story will be rubbish and im thinking on skipping it.

I hated Sorrows of Werlyt because it was a milquetoast approach to a serious topic (militarization of youth) ultimately built on contrivances and uplifting a monster by making the antagonist a sadistic pedophile. Ultimately a collection of cowardous narrative hooks that failed to convey any sort of magnitude because it refused to commit. The horrendous Tataru quest didn't help things either. A mediocre end to a mediocre character. Meanwhile Emet-Selch was always portrayed as a horrible, irredeemable character but one we could ultimately sympathize with from the magnitude presented. The narrative isn't about atonement for him it's about putting him out of his misery (notice that the more chaotic Amon/Fandaniel is presented as a product of Emet-Selch in the Allagan Era). He just so happened to be an incredibly well-written and likeable character who we grew to understand. The only hope I have for Dawntrail's narrative is because of the quality of Pandaemonium. A well-written storyline about confronting one's past and how you can't always escape it. Lahabrea is ultimately presented as morally questionable and pragmatic to a fault on a good day, Athena is used not to uplift Lahabrea but instead explore the darker sides of his character and the Ancients as a whole. Post-Endwalker, already an average storyline, being as mediocre as it was gives me little hope for the storyline to come. 6.55's storyline was wonderful but .55's are never a good sign of quality to come.

theres people who dont like sorrow wyrelt lmao for me it was a nice fresh breath that I thought I would never see since ARR

I wouldn’t care what cheese fingers think. I’m excited for the new expansion!

I'm more worried that it's the same damn treadmill Materia and substats won't matter No builds or variety Fake-ass illusion of choice garbage. I love the story but for an MMORPG FFXIV is a theme-park and hardly anything more Forbidden Land: Eureka and Bozja was the best content FFXIV had

twitter bad. stop. its not representative of anything

Sorry i got to 4 minutes... and just disagreed. People should care whos working on things. Always. Period. As they want their moneys worth for their sub, and for the expansion THEIR paying for to be GOOD not bad. They didnt like someones writing for Giaus? That person probably shouldnt work on the main villains again they didnt do a good job oh well for them. I also personally hated Giaus.... Being in the story at all past ARR. He should have been done and dusted and moved on just like Zenos in Stormblood. Unlikable BADLY written characters. Like as badly written as you can get in everything else being well made. I understand your points. But. I decline them in logical sense.

Twitter drama scum is not human. There is no point trying to figure out the reasoning of krill and plankton.

I have a feeling Dawntrail will surpass most expansions' stories.

Gaius did nothing wrong. Hes right THE WHOLE TIME