I believe I finally understood why some people have issues with Dawntrail

ill say this.

with everything seemingly planned out FAR in advance, they could honestly do better with quest design and possibly even more, even area design in some cases could be better, like yes the area looks nice, but traveling through some of them is just an arduous annoying pain without flying, some maps i found myself hating just because of random cliffs i couldn't jump off because of invisible walls for really no reason?

like why would it matter if i jumped down from many fires to dock poga - it wouldn't, it shouldn't its an open world MMO.

but it does and is treated basically as two maps in one because of this divide even though you need currents and quests across both parts to get flying.

WoW does the same thing with some areas - some areas are really really nice to travel on the ground such as shaaloni where as others just feel like a pain.

but with this the devs also find issues where "all of our maps are just fields" which while theres tons of variations of fields and designs to do to keep things unique and interesting topography is added.

basically what im saying is for the devs even if they do have time and resources their likely taking the safe road to appease a majority of the playerbase, while still finding areas and ways to make the game enjoyable or fresh.

so yea corners get cut occasionally due to deadlines, old things get thrown in and re-used to save time.

but would you rather them experiment and try a new system every expansion which might cause FAR more dislike than necessary or keep to the same road thats been enjoyable.

just try to think of why you play XIV, what makes XIV enjoyable for you?

as for DTs writing - honestly some parts could have been better with a bit of a re-worded scene or something else entirely, i also found it a bit jarring going from primitive tech to sci-fi, seeing halo spartans pop in and start murking people was a little what the heck for me.

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Originally Posted by ravenfyhre

Sorry, I can't really comment for the entire MSQ right now since I'm still on the first 2 starting zones

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Making a thread with this title under those circumstances is pure genius.

I mean goid try on op part. We have various issues from quest, to how boring, to the mundane, to the voice direction, to the voice actors its just way too much. Just glad DT didnt get nominated for an award. It really doesn't deserve it. Even if you like it a vast majority don't so yes I'm glad it dodnt win.

The story would still be boring and infantile, which is still the main issue with Dawntrail.
XIV's quest design has been bad for multiple past expansions. The only reason the topic has been hot lately is because the MSQ is so bad more players are paying attention to gameplay flaws that were always there.
XIV's engine isn't fit for elaborate minigames. Even Gold Saucer minigames feel "off" because of how the game has to tightly script everything OR have this sluggish delay to it (fall guys).

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Originally Posted by Tethan

I see, I thought it was because of the awful amateurish writing, the horrible pacing, the insufferable Mary Sue being shoved in my face every five minutes or how old favorite characters have been completely lobotomized, but I see now that I was wrong and actually it's just because of fetch quests which comprise less than 5% of the time spent are mildly annoying.

Minigames would solve every problem, it is true.

Thanks for opening my eyes to this.

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I agree that the issues you present are the major glaring issues Dawntrail has, and that the fetch quests are a less important issue. But how you see things doesn't give you the right to respond to how others see things like that. Try opening your eyes to that.

I think, given how FFXVI turned out, it's pretty safe to say this team just doesn't have the chops anymore. Both games have the same problem with everything being so safe and formulaic.

As far as the story: I'm only guessing as to why, but I think Ishikawa's overall lack of influence shows. The lead writer for DT literally tried to do a lot of the same story beats she did, but seems to not understand what made them land so well. Instead of giving a reason, they'd much rather just tell you how you're supposed to feel. Over and over and over.

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Originally Posted by Tethan

I see, I thought it was because of the awful amateurish writing, the horrible pacing, the insufferable Mary Sue being shoved in my face every five minutes or how old favourite characters have been completely lobotomized

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This is the truth right here