This story is really underwhelming - it's opened to mixed reviews.

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Originally Posted by RulerOfPotaoes

The main issue is that we are not the main character of this story. Us the players, in a rpg story.

The WoL is a side character that hangs in the back just silently nodding every now and then. Seriously even when you're walking with the other characters the WoL is in the back of the group.

And the only interaction the group has with the WoL or acknowledgement that we're even there as well. Is when we get asked an opinion on something.

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Agreed. And even the illusion of choice isn't a thing because there's always only one correct answer. If you pick the wrong one, someone just tells you that you're stupid for thinking that and forces you to go the way they want you to. It's Wuk's story. Like I said earlier in the thread: If this was FFX, we aren't Tidus. We aren't Yuna. We're Lulu or Kimahri. We're the experienced powerful adventurer who are along to help out the actual main characters.

Yeah, this story is irredeemably boring and frustratingly stupid. Getting through it is a complete slog and more often than not, when I load into yet ANOTHER useless cutscene, I'm instinctually alt+tabbing out.

I think the most egregious thing is the fact that we, the player, might as well not even be there. We are watching a story unfold around us, one that we more or less have no stake in, and occasionally acting as a guard dog for the ACTUAL main character, Wuk Lamat.

The issue is extremely not that the WoL isn't the 'main character'. This is how traditional MMO stories were told, and a lot of them are far more engaging than Dawntrail's. For most of FFXI, your character is just an adventurer helping the expansion's main character and it's great.

The issue is poor writing and poor pacing shinin a light on the fact that FFXIV is primarily a visual novel. If the story isn't good, there's nothing to have a good time with. In other games, you could at least shrug and enjoy the gameplay.

They should have told more about 7.0’s story during 6.1-6.5. It takes too much to explain the fundamental lore. I felt like playing ARR main story.

Sad to say it is a lot different that Stormblood or Endwalker. Seems a little lacking. I like it but it is pretty slow and plodding. Just one persons opinion though so don't lose your mind if you love it. XD

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The issue is extremely not that the WoL isn't the 'main character'. This is how traditional MMO stories were told, and a lot of them are far more engaging than Dawntrail's. For most of FFXI, your character is just an adventurer helping the expansion's main character and it's great.

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Totally agree. You can have plots where the player isn't the main character - it's not a requirement in other settings, and it shouldn't be a requirement here.

I think the biggest issue is just that they've done a horrible job getting the players invested in what is happening. The story is asking us to care about Wuk Lamat and the Succession Rite but they've completely failed to give us any reason to.

So far till lvl 95 dungeon it felt like a story was written by a random intern in the office. It just feels like not a proper MSQ, but rather one of post expansion patches.

It feels like Stormblood except they didnt have the buildup from Heavensward or the established Garlean threat so they had to speedrun a lot of shit

I am truly very disappointed. I was never one who would complain about the story. I went through stormblood and even ARR just fine. There are ups and down in every expansion which I understand. But this is just so bad I need to come all the way here to tell SE and the team that if they keep this pace going we are going to see pre ARR history replay itself again.

I know it’s suppose to be a relaxing expansion. Still, Relaxing is not boring. This is the first time I fell asleep couple of times in MSQ. I dislike the way they write Wuk lamak. I dislike how every character has no personality. I feel like I am chewing cardboard boxes. Pacing of the story is bad and I don’t feel any connection with the characters. And for the first time I am tempted to skip everything. It’s not fun and I feel sad and puzzled as to why Yoshi p even green lit this in the first place? The writing feel so sloppy.

Of course people can simply dismiss any of us who don’t enjoy the game’s plot. But I am not the npc that always claps for wuk lamak. I want to see this game continue. Then again I can see the clear signs that this game starts to have issues. Though we need to see how the sales data is going to be but I really have a bad feeling about this. If that’s the case I hope it’s a wake up call for SE. You need to take care of FF14 more and stop spreading yourself thin!

I think they went all in on Wuk Lamat (at least so far, 3 zones in), and the problem with that is, if you're not sold on her at all, or only a little, then you're in for a real bad time, because it's basically the Scions baby sitting two teenagers (mostly Wuk Lamat) for the majority of the time. There was a solo duty fight that just happened when my WoL was forced to just sit there and i had to play as someone else, and I thought to myself, "why am I even here?" Which isn't a great thought to have for what's supposed to be such a pivotal moment in a character's development.

I'm fortunate in that there's only been that one duty and a couple of eye rolling moments early that I really didn't like, and I've grown to like the characters enough so I'm enjoying my time for the most part.

I think it would be more enjoyable if there was no MSQ this time. Instead, we could just go from settlement to settlement doing the typical small quests at the settlements that give some lore on the zone, its inhabitants, and the new continent. No need for cutscenes. Just simple quests, fates, and fighting. The MSQ could instead start at max level so we could bypass all the trials Wuk Lamat has to go through. Maybe we could just get an idea about what's going on with the rite of succession as we quest through the zones, for example, by occasionally seeing Wuk Lamat and the other contenders, but not get directly involved.

yes...lvl 30 marauder with 0 JOBS ABOVE THAT is bored in Dawntrail. >_< i swear this player base just like to complain about everything and anything or falls into the easiest most blatantly obvious traps ever.

To me it wasn't till the fourth zone that I felt part of the story.

Yes, it's a cliche western trope. But after all those zones of being the side-character, it felt nice to be just traveling with Eren and solving some problems.

The first half of the zones are also way to formulaic. Arrive at the tribe, hear about their history, solve their task, then do this six times.

Also, this being a contest the parties have to solve on their own, has a force stop in the Master Chef: Tural Edition. As all parties need to be present before it can start, means that if any decided to take a different order, for the tribes or did something else entirely, the contest couldn't begin.

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Originally Posted by Boblawblah

I didn't really read any of the posts here due to possible spoilers, so apologies if this has already been covered, but I think the moment I decided to just let go and enjoy the story was with

the conversation/duel with Gulool Ja Ja, and when he asks us to help his daughter. He speaks to us as one legend to another, and it really solidified in my mind that the WoL has grown so much, that at this point, they're able to mentor other would be world leaders and help them grow. The WoL can shape entire country's futures now not just by killing everything, but by simply supporting someone at the right time in the right way.

I've just gotten flight in the 1st/2nd zone, so that's where I'm at now, but I'm enjoying it.

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I completely understand et accept that, no problem. I like the idea of being some sort of mentor to Wuk Lamat.

BUT.

As I said, it feels like nothing happened to us. WoL went throught some pretty heavy stuff, lost friends, saved the world. And it really, really feels like nothing happened. Like we're just some pawn in Wuk Lamat's story. Don't get me wrong, I don't hate Wuk Lamat, I think she's OK, but the fact that we're back to "being a good adventurer" in everyone's eyes is just plain absurd to me. It's like nothing we did had an impact.

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Originally Posted by DarkMasamune

I completely understand et accept that, no problem. I like the idea of being some sort of mentor to Wuk Lamat.

BUT.

As I said, it feels like nothing happened to us. WoL went throught some pretty heavy stuff, lost friends, saved the world. And it really, really feels like nothing happened. Like we're just some pawn in Wuk Lamat's story. Don't get me wrong, I don't hate Wuk Lamat, I think she's OK, but the fact that we're back to "being a good adventurer" in everyone's eyes is just plain absurd to me. It's like nothing we did had an impact.

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Following Wuk Lamat around like a lap dog instead of investigating things we are actually interested in as a extremely seasoned adventurer is the problem, Wuk Lamat can have her story, but it should never have been our focus as much as it has been, We should have only helped Wuk Lamat when we were needed and instead been making discoveries in each zone about all kinds of things a seasoned adventurer would do.

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Originally Posted by Kailea_Nagisa

I knew people where going to bitch...
its a new story, a new start
Some of you are never happy

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Imagine this comment for a single player game "dude it's a new game just wait for sequel in two years it'll all pay off in the sequel trust me" you can write interesting stories with it being brand a new not attached to a previous story from out the gate without as much fluff & fetch as DT has.

My character is almost 94, and I can honestly say this has been a huge disappointment. There are many things wrong with the game that it is lacking compared to previous expansions. Each expansion prior has had multiple story lines going on at the same time, with a lot of activity involved in them. This story seems to be one huge boring book, same story, maybe a different desert or raining location. But the story is consistent and, and it all revolves around Wuk Lamat and her quest for the throne. This adventure story is HER adventure story, and we just get to tag along and fetch this or that, or kill this or that for her. What happened to this being our adventure story, and why only one linear story in this expac?

In EW for instance, we got to go to two different locations and get acquainted with their cultures, in this game, I haven't got feelings for any of the people at the locations. We got to not only explore Thavnair and Sharlayan, but Garlemald, the moon and Ultima Thule. We also got to go back in time to meet Emett Selch and Venat before any of the crisis happened. For the last 4 levels, all I have been doing is following Wuk Lamat around, doing her chores for her while she is having the adventure. This is not fun. I can only hope that the story diverts into something else soon, cause man I don't want to be stuck with her until the end. As one person wrote earlier--Yes, yes I would rather be slaying gods and monsters than this uninspired story.

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Originally Posted by Rainydayz

This is not fun. I can only hope that the story diverts into something else soon, cause man I don't want to be stuck with her until the end.

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https://wompampsupport.azureedge.net...2.03.08_PM.jpg

Once you get halfway through zone 4 the story picks up RAPIDLY (and takes my vote as 2nd best expansion if you ignore the first half).

Thats all I will say.

I fell asleep during a cutscene at 5pm. It's like they took the boring fetch quests from ARR that people always complain about and turned them into an entire expansion.

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Originally Posted by Lady_Silvermoon

I fell asleep during a cutscene at 5pm. It's like they took the boring fetch quests from ARR that people always complain about and turned them into an entire expansion.

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it picks up at level 95 quests

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Originally Posted by ZodaSoda

Following Wuk Lamat around like a lap dog instead of investigating things we are actually interested in as a extremely seasoned adventurer is the problem, Wuk Lamat can have her story, but it should never have been our focus as much as it has been, We should have only helped Wuk Lamat when we were needed and instead been making discoveries in each zone about all kinds of things a seasoned adventurer would do.

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What broke me was when we actually went with her to tell the merchant his employee wouldn't work for them anymore. Did we really need to? Couldn't they have managed this on their own?

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Originally Posted by RhaesDaenys

it picks up at level 95 quests

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I mean that's nice, but that still makes half the expansion boring fetch quests. They are clearly able to make a story that hits the ground running - they did it with the Alisae route of Shadowbringers.

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Originally Posted by PercibelTheren

I mean that's nice, but that still makes half the expansion boring fetch quests. They are clearly able to make a story that hits the ground running - they did it with the Alisae route of Shadowbringers.

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The whole game is boring fetch quests. Its not unique to Dawntrail. I did the same old stuff in every expansion.

They gave me this option during role quest. I wish they extended the same courtesy during MSQ...

https://i.imgur.com/jEJtr12.png

I knew I wouldn't like the MSQ as much now that my BFF Zenos is gone (yes, he is my favorite character), but I did not expect it to be this boring. :c
I guess I'll focus on side content because I still enjoy those, lol. I'm having a blast leveling my gatherers atm!

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Originally Posted by RhaesDaenys

The whole game is boring fetch quests. Its not unique to Dawntrail. I did the same old stuff in every expansion.

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Sure there is a hella lot of fetching in FF14 and MMOs but DT is like the distilled 100% proof essence of fetch quests, for every single quest and scene. There's not even any actual gameplay to break it up, it is SO ... DULL, even by OCD MMO standards.

Well, I am writing here during 6th zone cutscene. We already have an objective we can do but waste some time because Wuk Lamat wants to learn and "there is still time" before villain does its thing. Yay.

I love the story, the world and the characters (and ofc Alpacas because how could you not.) After having saved the world itself two times and the universe as a whole and defeated Despair incarnate, I am glad the devs didn't try to top this even more, because there is little space (haha) left for this. The characters don't diminuish or invalidate our efforts. The whole reason the current Dawnservant challenged us was because of our achievements. We have the role of the mentor, sharing our wisdom and experience with others like Wuk Lamat and help them grow instead of being another "hurr durr I want another hero title to the hundreds I have" kind of person and I'm all here for it. This would be boring and repetetive.
We are still the main character, but more than any time before we are most of all a living breathing part of this world, together with everyone else. We are a hero among them and on many levels, even metaphysical ones (having merged with the First's shard) a lot more powerful than others, but we are still a part of Etheirys' people, their societies, and it makes the whole FFXIV universe feel truly alive.

Fighting Valigarmanda might not be the usual thing they do on a vacation, but on a greater scheme of things, it is a really much needed breather after having a roller coaster after roller coaster with Shadowbringers, and Endwalker doubling down on that. I loved these two expansions a ton, but dear gods, do I needed a break!

Well done, CBU3!

Now please go fix Hrothgals because half the gear looks bad at them due to questionable rigging and their hair situation is a slap in each Hrothgar enthusiast's face.

I also expected more from the story. All the time talking to Wuk Lamat here, talking to Wuk Lamat there. It's such an annoying character that I skipped all the scenes where you can see it.

Those quest sections where you have to talk to all 50 yalms over and over again.

No offense. The story is supposed to be 1.2 times bigger than the one in Endwalker. If you take out this "filler" then you're probably only at 0.8.

The story in general is rather... mediocre at most. You yourself are the ramp sow who makes sure that an incompetent cat lady is allowed to ascend the throne. I think I could have done better with my time without having to deal with this political topic.

I had already set the bar relatively low after the conclusion of a 10-year-old story, but this one... näh sorry. I'm glad to have finished the story and now the 0815 everyday life returns.

Finished the MSQ. It picks up at the latter half Lv97 but seriously... that's not good writing when your story only gets interesting in the last 20%-ish.

Bizarrely the pacing is only decent in the fifth zone. The last zone is a slog in the first half....

This expansion should've only focused on Krile and Erenville imo. Wuk Lamat shouldn't have been the protag. It should've been Krile and Erenville.

You'll see why when you do the last half of the sixth zone.

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Originally Posted by HighlanderClone

Finished the MSQ. It picks up at the latter half Lv97 but seriously... that's not good writing when your story only gets interesting in the last 20%-ish.

Bizarrely the pacing is only decent in the fifth zone. The last zone is a slog in the first half....

This expansion should've only focused on Krile and Erenville imo. Wuk Lamat shouldn't have been the protag. It should've been Krile and Erenville.

You'll see why when you do the last half of the sixth zone.

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I mean I hope it picks up later on, but if you come to me and say I gotta watch 10 episodes of a show to enjoy it afterwards, it's not very encouraging.

I'll be doing it nonetheless, because I enjoy the scenery, the music is nice and the dungeons/trials are enjoyable up to where I'm at. It's just a shame that the story itself is uninteresting for now.

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Originally Posted by DarkMasamune

I like the idea of being some sort of mentor to Wuk Lamat.

BUT.

As I said, it feels like nothing happened to us. WoL went throught some pretty heavy stuff, lost friends, saved the world. And it really, really feels like nothing happened. Like we're just some pawn in Wuk Lamat's story. Don't get me wrong, I don't hate Wuk Lamat, I think she's OK, but the fact that we're back to "being a good adventurer" in everyone's eyes is just plain absurd to me. It's like nothing we did had an impact.

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I really agree.
It would be so cool if they actually wrote us to be a mentor.
I rather like Wuk Lamat as a character, at least in the Japanese version, but the way they utilise her as a narrative tool is really detrimental to the story.

Right now we are really just a minion that follows her around. At no point have we taken any initiative or have been the driving force in the story. We are literally just there to subtly emote in the background as a reaction when other characters do or say something. We are the "like" on their twitter post.

The story (up to the point where I am, which is after the first dungeon) is mostly driven my Wuk or ironically Alphinaud (and a little bit by Erenville but he is more of a commentator).

It would be so much more refreshing if Wuk Lamat actually relied on us as her mentor. We have all that knowledge. We have overcome battles, been in the middle of political turmoil more than once, we could clearly show her a lot.
We could also have some instanced sparring/training sessions like the one we had with Venat.

But the story makes absolutely no use of that.
No character approaches us with the intent to really ask for our expertise, we just tag along to fetch crystals and deliver stuff and nod encouragingly here and there.

Somebody else said it before but it's as if the last expansions haven't really happened. There is some alibi lip service in the form of "this is a great Eorzean hero" platitudes but they don't lead anywhere.

Perhaps it'll change later down the line, but right now the story feels like an observer mode on legs.

If i lean into my cynico-realist side, i would say that the whole expansion is an advertisement for a certain remake and the anime linked to it to release soon... x)

But at this point it's a bit like saying water is wet, ementhal cheese has holes, and balloons are spherical.

I mean, we saved the universe so now we are kind of a mentor to her. We peaked basically so like any good parent we are passing on our expertise and wisdom to her. Her inexperience is on purpose. I'm sure Venat felt the same way about Azem when we were bright eyed and bushy tailed

Underwhelming is an understatement, I'd qualify as unbearable and a bad joke. I don't think I've ever been so disengaged with a game after No Mans' Sky release.

Sure, the scenarios look pretty and all of that but it's the same old content with a story so boring it got me playing videos on the background and this comes from someone who loves slice of life anime.

I think when they meant giving us some vacations, they meant giving themselves some vacations instead, the screenwriters must have enjoyed their caipirinhas in Cancún. I wish they stopped letting the interns write the main story for the patches.

The other content is gonna be the same as the last 15 years, so I hope at least the fights are fun even if the the jobs are all the same, so I don't lose my 40€ + sub money. But regardless, it looks I'll leave this game soon enough, it's disappointment after disappointment.

The expansion is well executed although the story and the flow are in my opinion badly planned. YoshiP stated this is the base for the next 10 years, while it's just a templated expansion that doesn't solve anything the game should try to solve and improve.

- way too much text, and way too little voiceover. And it doesn't have to be human-made (WoW vanilla fan-made AI voiceover addon). It's 2024 not ARR.
- the storyline shifts a few times very rapidly (who is good/bad, what is the bigger goal) while previous expansions were more stable on the overall goal.
- way too many style shifts - yes the graphics team wants to flex, but do we really need suddenly a futuristic environment? This is FF but still unsure.
- the initial part is way too naive, idyll. It's good for a family theater but for a MMO we want badass moments, like the cutscene with flying things... Then we have rapid shifts, that become comic from how slapstick, expected they are.
- the is also a big pacing issue - from directly forwarding the current goal to going heavily into side stories, world-building (just to switch to another area that needs its own world-building)
- ilvl 666 should be the limit for this patch... missed opportunity.

Dungeons seem to require more healing and more attention to mechanics, but it also may be a result of leveling gear. The second trial has IMHO similar problems to Golbez trial where you really want to disable all particle effects to see what's going on and then try to resolve mechanics by looking all around you (ultrawide displays anyone? :D). The base MSQ is extreme snoozefest while dungeons and especially trials explicitly try to raise the bar higher than previous expansion/s. I'm unsure, the mechanics are very "mathematic" where you have to see how they execute to then understand how to solve them - so they are surprising and hard on the first try but may drop off the cliff when everyone gets the Mizteq guide and stronger gear.

Side quests still are useless to level up anything, have fun leveling DPS jobs through long queues, and what not. Fates weren't touched either. This expansion could have been fun vacations with mini-game-like fates that actually matter and actually are fun to do, yet they had to add Sith Empire from the future and do nothing with the game systems.

I'm really exhausted/annoyed by the MSQ, I can't see why I would now work on my DoH/DoL, do the quests for them, do the level 100 dungeons, get tome gear, and start doing class quests... My omnicrafting will be useless anyway as I don't do 24/7 omnicrafting endgame/day-1 crafting for savage/whatever. I know it will be an obnoxious grind as exactly the same content was in Endwalker or Shadowbringers. The difference was the emotional value of pushing to see more, to know more, and to experience more - I did EX2 in Endwalker ASAP just because of Hydaelyn. Not sure how Dawntrail will prepare the game for the next 10 years... Same feeling as in WoW Shadowlands at the tipping point. Feeling like waiting for 7.5 for the final gear and content if at all to avoid all temporary and quickly obsoleted grinds.

I've never seen the MSQ THIS bad before. Nowhere close. I'm honestly thinking about dropping the game till 8.0. I can't take 6 patches of Dawntrail if it has the same characters.

If this was an isolated first time story and not a next step in the mmo I'd say it was pretty good overall, however I have a lot of issues with it as the next instalment.
I didn't go into this with expectations of it doing better or equalling shadowbringer or endwalker, I thought, chill kinda new adventure with new things.
new things we didn't get.

• The beginning was painfully slow and drawn out, first expansion I took more breaks and was less interested in the excitement of pushing forward.
  
• Wuk Lamat I actually disliked so much and by the end she was ok or tolerable
  
• A huge amount of quests on "my DawnTrail holiday/break" adventure was spent doing boring fetch quests for way to long, where was the big hunt and feast from the trailer? I thought this would be a quest somewhere but no.
  
• Zones way to big, too few aetherytes
  
• Cities consisted of super long corridors and windy stairs which was boring, painful and tedious to traverse
  
• Repeated story mechanics, I will avoid spoilers but it felt like a lot of shadowbringers/endwalker was literally copy pasted over this with new characters.
  I knw the previous story was popular, but reusing it feels so safe that its boring, I was expecting something new.
  
• Lots of left unanswered parts throughout the story that should have been if even lightly answered. I know somethings wont be answered so they can be built up later.
  
• Characters are what you spend most of your time interacting with throughout the game, your skills, combat etc and it feels like absolutely no thought went into this, especially on my run with summoner, lux bahutmut makes no sense in any capacity, it didnt even tie into the story and its skills are basically bahutmut but we get a heal, why as a dps role am i given a heal? searing flash, a upsale of my dmg buff on a 120s cd. nectrotize, upgrade potency of just the single target stack skill and naming makes it feel closer to old summoner which they wanted to move away from, all in all, it makes no sense, it wasnt fun and for something you spending a lot of time on I would love to see more innovation or effort spent on this front. Unimaginably disappointed in character development.
  
• Graphics (max setting) still feels flat. Noticeable on some things like armor close up but when running around zones, levels look super dated. Also I think because ffxiv uses low variance, washed out aesthetic, zones alike, nothing feels unique. We get forest A,B,C, Desert A, B, C. I feel like im burning out on zone design, nothing has a wow factor, new or unique anymore. Dawntrail has the most boring zone and level design.

Overall story ok, it wasnt bad, wasnt great. I'm left hoping the team can internally make better decisions and take more creative risks, feels too safe and directionless atm

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Originally Posted by HighlanderClone

Finished the MSQ. It picks up at the latter half Lv97 but seriously... that's not good writing when your story only gets interesting in the last 20%-ish.

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Even the last 20% isn't good writing. It's just copy-pasting old characters and events AGAIN, mixed in with tons of filler, incoherent motivations, characters you barely know or care about, and an expansion theme that could be identified by an elementary school child identifying their first main idea in a text. How did this pass through any level of QA?