Wow, Wuk Lamat is really single-handedly ruining the DT story...

I feel that they did not do a good job to balance "action" and "talking" in the first part of the expansion. That's how it feels for me anyway.

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Originally Posted by Grimno

I love the approach people are taking lol

"I don't like this one song. I will disable all songs now."
"I don't like this one voice. I will change all voices to another language now."
"I don't like the shading. I want to revert all the shading back."
"I don't like the story. The entire game sucks now."

Like man it must suck for all these people to be constantly miserable. I'm enjoying the expansion so far.
Music in the main city too jazzy? Don't care I'm still dancing to it cause that beat is fresh!
They don't like the story? Well sorry we ain't killing GOD again but I'm more then fine with being a helping adventurer.
They don't like the mounts tilting? Well sorry but I'm making vroom noises in my little airplane while I zip around because I'm not allergic to fun.

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Dude if I could ONLY change Wuk Lamat to JP, I would. The rest of the English cast is fine or serviceable.

I'm at level 95 right now and I feel like Urianger and Thancred got a more interesting expansion than I did. They really should've made it a choice on who you support since you have to go through all the trials in the same way anyways. I bet that if they made it a choice Wuk would've been in last place in popularity. I still don't even know why we're supporting her. 14 hours in and the character is just as annoying and juvenile as she was when we met her.

Wuk Lamat is a more interesting character in half an expansion than most of the scions have ever been

The EN voice is good, too, in my opinion

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Originally Posted by Karious

Dude if I could ONLY change Wuk Lamat to JP, I would. The rest of the English cast is fine or serviceable.

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What's a little silly of SE is they had feedback on the voice behind the character in January. They could have recast her and redid all her lines with time to spare.

Wuk Lamat is a (highly prevalent) symptom of a greater writing problem.

She is a stupid, annoying character, which would be fine on it's own ... but the brilliant dawntrail storyline has decided that we, the players, must unapologetically and fiercely support her bid to become the ruler of an entire continent for basically nothing. Are we nuts? I wouldn't trust her to run literally anything. She's a child.

She can't be that stupid if she's convinced the strongest people alive to sail across the world and kingmake her. So the only conclusion is that, actually, the WoL and our posse of soulless positivity bots are the true idiots. Cool!

Sidenote: I really don't think the VA is that bad compared to other performances. I think a lot of it has to do with how undeniably awful the lines are.

I discovered why it’s been a boring start with DT. We got stuck with the unfun promise. Learning to grow, power of friendship, smiling and nodding is boring. I was enjoying the scheming and fighting between the other characters. Why did we get the lame character? Why couldn’t we help the first promise?

change to JP voices it's much better

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Originally Posted by Elodie_Einsbern

I could get behind this

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I'm Wuk Lamat. Megassa Dawnservant.

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Originally Posted by Sayo_

Starting off bad intentionally isn't really a good thing to do. It makes getting to the "good" parts that may or may not exist down the line a slog. A story should start out good. Also that comparison isn't great since Tidus is a stranger in a strange land and he's trying his best to get acclimated to this new world. Wuk is surprisingly uneducated about the land she wants to rule over.

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I don't know how much I'm allowed to spoil here in the forum but there's a part where you interact with her father and he explains why she isn't truly educated on their people, ie knowing OF their cultures but not KNOWING. He explains the nature of the contest, if you've gotten that far.

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Originally Posted by Priddy

Wuk Lamat is a more interesting character in half an expansion than most of the scions have ever been

The EN voice is good, too

Cope and seethe

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Based take.

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Originally Posted by seolhyun

change to JP voices it's much better

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JP voices might help with the bad english VA but it doesn't change just how annoying the character is.

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Originally Posted by EdwinChucklenuts

I don't know how much I'm allowed to spoil here in the forum but there's a part where you interact with her father and he explains why she isn't truly educated on their people, ie knowing OF their cultures but not KNOWING. He explains the nature of the contest, if you've gotten that far.

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Haven't gotten there yet but I'll have to see if the explanation is good enough. Although I doubt it will be enough to excuse her instantly doing what Erenville told her not to do.

I support Zoraal Ja. Make Tuliyallol great again!

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Originally Posted by Sayo_

JP voices might help with the bad English VA but it doesn't change just how annoying the character is.

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The thing is, it would if you understood Japanese.

I'm far from one who believes that scripts should be literally translated. That's usually just awkward, but there are very big differences in tone and in the way characters interact with each other between the Japanese script and the English one, and IMHO the Japanese version is clearly superior. I won't pretend I know why the localization team decided to go for such a big departure from the Japanese version. I'm sure they had their reasons, but while I normally expect some editing, many of the differences I'm seeing simply struggle to fit my "ok, this makes sense" bucket this time around.

A couple of very obvious spoiler-free examples: one of the most grating aspects of Wuk Lamat in English is that she calls Gulool Ja Ja "papa" like some spoiled heiress thanking her billionaire daddy for the new private jet. In Japanese, this doesn't exist. She calls him "Oyaji", which is a bit of a rough and pretty tomboyish way to call your dad, and is perfect to represent the fact that Wuk is rough around the edges.

I have no idea where they got the "promise" thing. That's just spurious fancy-zation of the dialogue. In Japanese Wuk's simply the "third princess," which makes sense, since she came third in Gulool Ja Ja's family.

This is just the tip of a massive iceberg, but can't really say more to avoid spoilers. My point is that (while I don't dislike her nearly as much as some do in English. She is pretty fun and in any case, I've seen sooo much worse in both games and anime) Wuk is a much better and more coherent character in her Japanese representation, and it's sad that most in the west are missing it.

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Originally Posted by Tsurayu

but every time her character has to yell or just speak beyond a normal six-inch voice it sounds absolutely horrendous and forced. Completely takes you out of the experience.

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this is the one that frustrates me, anytime she's yelling it comes out feeling flat and empty, scarcely more than a raised talking voice.... it feels lacking in any real emotion, like when someone tries to sound angry but doesn't want to put effort in. it tends to undermine any sort of emotional impact the scene would have had.

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Originally Posted by Nitelancer

I support Zoraal Ja. Make Tuliyallol great again!

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Actually if they kept the general “make your candidate a better leader” plot they are going for, Zoraal would be vastly more interesting to work with as the WoL than Wuk, who pretty much has the same temperament as half the cast already.

I am usually a super FF14 booster, I loved the entirety of ARR, I never found it a slog, I didn't mind Lyse, I loved ALL the expansions in their entirety, I really like Zero, she made sense to me.

That said, Dawntrail's early section is TERRIBLE and incredibly BORING, the Hanuhanu section is just such a charmless illogical slog and Wuk Lamat is an imbecile with fairly much no depth or other interesting traits. Also to be clear I actually have no issues with the VA, there are so many voices in FF14 and she's just one more, in fact at least she DOESN'T sound like a Sharlayan scholar which in and of itself is realistic.

I've read every single line of every single quest in the game, I obsessively read all the books littering the dungeons and have never skipped a single cutscene yet for the first time EVER in my FF14 history last night I found myself clicking through the quests as fast as I could. I still read it but I was just thinking "please lord just let me get through this". The sidequests are no better than the MSQ, 20 sidequests all about delivering reeds from one side of the zone to the other is not fun.

I like the setting, Tural is (in theory) a great setting, I love the technical aspects of the expansion, I like everything, I even like the BGM in the city. But holy moly the story is NOT good so far and that is kind of a problem in THE vaunted story MMO. It is also not a positive that the delivery of said story has become "The Wuk Lamat and her 5 spear-carriers Show". This was meant to be the holiday expansion but I didn't think holiday meant "not actually show up until next season".

I am gonna be fair and withhold judgement because its so early, I'll assume the people who brought us Emet-Selch and the Walk of Tears won't drop the ball but if there isn't some point where the plot and its delivery style redeem themselves then it's gonna be rough.

Recently SE has been into making characters with a lot of weaknesses at the start then they will grow over the story. Which is fine, I get it you want to have character development. But its getting a bit boring. We had Zero like that and now Wuk Lamat as well.

If Wuk Lamat started in the same way as the first promise but had that twin headed annoying hybrid lizzer playing dirty tricks to win the throne, I feel like the story would be more interesting. Its about time we get a character whos a badass from the start.

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Originally Posted by Abriael

The thing is, it would if you understood Japanese.

I'm far from one who believes that scripts should be literally translated. That's usually just awkward, but there are very big differences in tone and in the way characters interact with each other between the Japanese script and the English one, and IMHO the Japanese version is clearly superior.

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I must say, since flipping to the JP original text, the story is a bit - but not a lot - better.

I wana tell wuk lamak to..

GIT GUD!

In her face very badly.

Anyway, enough of my lament. Two posts too many for my 2 cents. The rest depends on SE.

I'm glad other people feel this way. I've been playing with EN dub ever since I started back in 3.1 and this is first time I've ever considered switching to JP. I'm hoping a better voice makes the character a little more bearable because right now her writing combined with her horrible audio quality and line delivery is just too much for me.

wuk lamat is horrible and she keeps being horrible for the entirety of the msq from her incessant rambling on "FRIENDSHIP MAGIC UNDERSTANDING" to her voice.

**SPOILERS AHEAD**

Was so jarring towards the end when we meet the memories of krilles parents and we were about to get more insight into it just for wuk worthlessmat to barge in and be like "oh LETS GET SOME FOOD" good job killing all the suspane to do yet another mential worthless quest at the behest of wuk lamat

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Originally Posted by Lieri

If Wuk Lamat started in the same way as the first promise but had that twin headed annoying hybrid lizzer playing dirty tricks to win the throne, I feel like the story would be more interesting. Its about time we get a character whos a badass from the start.

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Yeah that's the thing. In history of gaming, most of the well-known tittles start with very strong but still flawed characters. And it's not like they haven't done it with FF14 before, we had Estenien in HW, and that's probably why it's generally considered the best story expansion. I don't know why ever since we get stuck with playing babysitting to juvenile characters? Like, I actually don't mind that kind of story in itself but it's just so repetitive now. That's why I think the OP is actually correct when saying it drag the overall story down. As I said for me personally it has this knock on effect on other NPC, especially the twins. Because they're kept being forced into company of insecure characters, they basically have to repeat the same advise over and over and over ... I know it's not intended but sometime it almost feel like condescending at this point.

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Originally Posted by Lieri

Recently SE has been into making characters with a lot of weaknesses at the start then they will grow over the story. Which is fine, I get it you want to have character development. But its getting a bit boring. We had Zero like that and now Wuk Lamat as well.

If Wuk Lamat started in the same way as the first promise but had that twin headed annoying hybrid lizzer playing dirty tricks to win the throne, I feel like the story would be more interesting. Its about time we get a character whos a badass from the start.

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Oh hell no. Forspoken was so terrible why did they even make the game in the first place. They should just stop and just audit their writing team in general.

I just finished the story, and the really just shove her down your throat EVERY CHANCE they get to. Lyse was no where near this bad.

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Originally Posted by Neon231

I just finished the story, and the really just shove her down your throat EVERY CHANCE they get to. Lyse was no where near this bad.

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This really is the Wuk Lamat expansion. It's actually ridiculous. At least half the quests involve going and speaking to her. The other quests usually involve talking about her in some way. She's not a compelling character. Lyse's rise to power might have been poorly written, but the entire expansion didn't revolve around everyone fawning over her and she was at least fun to be around. Sure, she could be airheaded, but she wasn't falling into holes or crying for the sake of "comedy" and espousing lines like "peace good, war bad". Wuk Lamat is a black hole for interesting writing in an otherwise decent expansion.

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Originally Posted by SirShady

This really is the Wuk Lamat expansion. It's actually ridiculous. At least half the quests involve going and speaking to her. The other quests usually involve talking about her in some way. She's not a compelling character. Lyse's rise to power might have been poorly written, but the entire expansion didn't revolve around everyone fawning over her and she was at least fun to be around. Sure, she could be airheaded, but she wasn't falling into holes or crying for the sake of "comedy" and espousing lines like "peace good, war bad". Wuk Lamat is a black hole for interesting writing in an otherwise decent expansion.

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I need to replay Stormblood tbh, but I don't remember disliking Lyse as a character, I remember disliking the story because it started to just repeat itself at the half way point.

I'm just going to say that during the final trial, I decided to skip every cutscene after because of what happens in the trial because I was just over it at that point.

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Originally Posted by Neon231

I need to replay Stormblood tbh, but I don't remember disliking Lyse as a character, I remember disliking the story because it started to just repeat itself at the half way point.

I'm just going to say that during the final trial, I decided to skip every cutscene after because of what happens in the trial because I was just over it at that point.

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I was in the same boat and didn't mind Lyse as much. I think what helped was the excellent prelude into Stormblood. I will never forget how good the Baelsar's Wall soliloquy was right before the Shinryu reveal. That is to say I do agree with some of the points on why Lyse was so hated. To be fair, Lyse was also funny and gave us the Namazu kick.


Now for DT, we've had like 2 rushed quests, and on the boat we go?

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Originally Posted by HighlanderClone

Not gonna spoil anything but my god. It's actually difficult to do the MSQ with such an obnoxious character.

Maybe I'll change my mind at the end... maybe... but it doesn't seem that way anymore...

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She's clearly intended as a comic relief character, yeah.
We'll see if she gets some proper development during the story but in early game it's a bit .. cringe at times.

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Originally Posted by Neon231

I need to replay Stormblood tbh, but I don't remember disliking Lyse as a character, I remember disliking the story because it started to just repeat itself at the half way point.

I'm just going to say that during the final trial, I decided to skip every cutscene after because of what happens in the trial because I was just over it at that point.

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I'm level 98 and probably nearing the end of the MSQ. I should be excited. The stakes should be raised. I should be hooked at this point. I'm bored. I'm typing on here in between dialogue because I'm so bored. I'm burnt out of hanging out with Wuk Lamat. I'm going to bed and trying again tomorrow.

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Originally Posted by SirShady

I'm level 98 and probably nearing the end of the MSQ. I should be excited. The stakes should be raised. I should be hooked at this point. I'm bored. I'm typing on here in between dialogue because I'm so bored. I'm burnt out of hanging out with Wuk Lamat. I'm going to bed and trying again tomorrow.

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Man, I' m 95 and I thought I'm off the hook and gotta hang out with the cooler NPC ... guess not heh?

https://i.postimg.cc/kXmWmg8D/wukplanet.png

I finished a replay of Stormblood about 20 days before Dawntrail, up until then I remembered Stormblood as the weakest expansion (Still OK, just weaker than all the others). Honestly, after playing it, very surprised at the difference between how poorly I had remembered it versus how much I actually liked playing it. Loved Gosetsu. The plot was a tad weak, but still stronger than Dawntrail (At least up to level 94 quests), and the characters were malms better.

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Originally Posted by SirShady

I'm level 98 and probably nearing the end of the MSQ. I should be excited. The stakes should be raised. I should be hooked at this point. I'm bored. I'm typing on here in between dialogue because I'm so bored. I'm burnt out of hanging out with Wuk Lamat. I'm going to bed and trying again tomorrow.

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Edit: Saw this, and wanted to mention I wrote this post during a cutscene too, haha.

>Talk to Wuk Lamat
>Follow Wuk Lamat
>Help Wuk Lamat
>Walk with Wuk Lamat
>Ask about Wuk Lamat
>Carry items for Wuk Lamat
>Give your favorable opinion about Wuk Lamat
>Cheer on Wuk Lamat
>Do chores for Wuk Lamat
>Advise Wuk Lamat
>Get saved by Wuk Lamat
>Dance for Wuk Lamat
>Grovel before Wuk Lamat
>Die for Wuk Lamat
>Wuk Lamat
>Wuk
>Lamat

Boy I love these quest objectives!

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Originally Posted by Karious

>Talk to Wuk Lamat
>Follow Wuk Lamat
>Help Wuk Lamat
>Walk with Wuk Lamat
>Ask about Wuk Lamat
>Carry items for Wuk Lamat
>Give your favorable opinion about Wuk Lamat
>Cheer on Wuk Lamat
>Do chores for Wuk Lamat
>Advise Wuk Lamat
>Get saved by Wuk Lamat
>Dance for Wuk Lamat
>Grovel before Wuk Lamat
>Die for Wuk Lamat
>Wuk Lamat
>Wuk
>Lamat

Boy I love these quest objectives!

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Have I died and gone to hell?

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Originally Posted by SirShady

I'm level 98 and probably nearing the end of the MSQ. I should be excited. The stakes should be raised. I should be hooked at this point. I'm bored. I'm typing on here in between dialogue because I'm so bored. I'm burnt out of hanging out with Wuk Lamat. I'm going to bed and trying again tomorrow.

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Level is a very bad indicator of how much you have left in the MSQ. The MSQ itself gives way too much xp. A better indication is how many areas you have left to explore, which you can see in the Aether Currents menu.

I'm almost 98 and I'm not even done with the third area of 6.

I hit level 100 after the fifth dungeon from doing almost strictly blue quests and MSQ. The only excess came from like...six random FATEs I cleared and hunt bills.

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Originally Posted by Abriael

Level is a very bad indicator of how much you have left in the MSQ. The MSQ itself gives way too much xp. A better indication is how many areas you have left to explore, which you can see in the Aether Currents menu.

I'm almost 98 and I'm not even done with the third area of 6.

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It's a decent indicator if you do nothing but MSQ, which I have been. I'm in the second to last zone.

https://i.imgur.com/0TLSmq3.jpeg

"Hi-Lo! Mee-sa name is Wuk Lamat. You-sa save-ed me. You-sa my new palo. Mee-sa going to become Hokage. Mee-sa the main character."