Dawntrail’s Narrative Missteps: Why Natsuko Ishikawa’s Touch Is Sorely Missed

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Daralii

He said that she should have been more confident, that she was an amazing character, and that he hoped the patch content would convince us of just how amazing she is. He also said that a lot of things that didn't work were the result of them "experimenting".

---

Ah, that makes sense now, thanks for reminding me. But saying it’s all part of "experimenting" feels like a bit of an excuse, especially when the end result was so underwhelming. As for the patch content, I hope it does help, but it shouldn’t be the patch’s job to fix what the expansion itself should have established... but that's only my opinion :(

Quote:

---

"However, it’s important to note that many people enjoyed the expansion, and I want to emphasize that it’s a matter of perspective. We’re learning from everything to be able to build on it for what’s coming next."

---

Wowzers, the absolute COPE of that line. It reads like, "Well, SOME people enjoyed the expansion, so it's a matter of perspective whether we did a good job or not." The reviews have been bad to mid at best, which can be seen all across the internet, and even most of the positive reviews focused on the battle content, not the story. People who genuinely enjoyed Dawntrail are a minority, but he's still pointing at them and being like "look, see, we still made a good product for these folks over here!" sheesh.

What happened to the Yoshi-P who insisted on playing thru all Shadowbringers (more than once iirc) to make sure it was good enough for release? Too busy making FFXVI and being a board executive now, I guess.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by ovIm

The last answer Yoshi-P gave about that was at the end of november during an event in Saudi Arabia called "Echoes of Eorzea", parts of the interview can be read on the r/ffxiv Discord translations channel. That was plenty time to get a general consensus, which was definitely not "Wuk Lamat was not confident enough" or "it was a new story", lol.

So the short answer you should have given is: not really, and he has not acknowledged the actual issues.

so, thank you {/thumbsup}

Edited to Add:
just reread that part of the interview, his last comment about it was:



so, it at least came down to "he understood some parts", but also right directly backpedals. Yoshi-PR at its finest.

---

What worries me about this most, is that he doesn't understand the core issue why people didn't like it. Sure pacing is apart of it, but the storytelling was just lazy and juvenile. THOUGH I feel like it's because he doesn't want to badmouth his own writers OR because he actually thinks the story was good.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Hallarem

What worries me about this most, is that he doesn't understand the core issue why people didn't like it. Sure pacing is apart of it, but the storytelling was just lazy and juvenile. THOUGH I feel like it's because he doesn't want to badmouth his own writers OR because he actually thinks the story was good.

---

Exactly, what I think the devs aren’t understanding is that this isn’t about Wuk Lamat having too much screen time or my character not getting enough spotlight. This goes much deeper—it’s about poor, bad, and even borderline childish writing. And it’s not just that, but also the constant "telling" instead of "showing." Good storytelling immerses you; it doesn’t just explain everything outright.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by CuteBucket

Wowzers, the absolute COPE of that line. It reads like, "Well, SOME people enjoyed the expansion, so it's a matter of perspective whether we did a good job or not." The reviews have been bad to mid at best, which can be seen all across the internet, and even most of the positive reviews focused on the battle content, not the story. People who genuinely enjoyed Dawntrail are a minority, but he's still pointing at them and being like "look, see, we still made a good product for these folks over here!" sheesh.

---

Though I don't put much stock in review scores as a metric, Dawntrail has a score of 79 on metacritic, rating it as generally favorable. These forums are an echo chamber of extreme negativity and only represent a tiny portion of the playerbase.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Exmo

Though I don't put much stock in review scores as a metric, Dawntrail has a score of 79 on metacritic, rating it as generally favorable. These forums are an echo chamber of extreme negativity and only represent a tiny portion of the playerbase.

---

That 79 is the critic score. Metacritic user reviews are at 5.9, and Steam Reviews are at an all time low (54% favorable) as well.
For reference, Shadowbringers had a Metacritic critic score of 90, a Metacritic user score of 9.1, and Steam reviews were Very Positive (86%)
And Endwalker was 92 for critics on Metacritic, 9.0 for users, with an 82% positive reviews on Steam.

Of course, while only seeing review scores as a metric can't give you the full story, when looking at how the review scores changed over time, you cannot deny that this expansion so far has not had the best impact on the player base. Thats not just "this forum being an echo chamber of extreme negativity", that is "this game has actual objective issues that people are talking about".

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by ovIm

That 79 is the critic score. Metacritic user reviews are at 5.9, and Steam Reviews are at an all time low (54% favorable) as well.
For reference, Shadowbringers had a Metacritic critic score of 90, a Metacritic user score of 9.1, and Steam reviews were Very Positive (86%)
And Endwalker was 92 for critics on Metacritic, 9.0 for users, with an 82% positive reviews on Steam.

Of course, while only seeing review scores as a metric can't give you the full story, when looking at how the review scores changed over time, you cannot deny that this expansion so far has not had the best impact on the player base. Thats not just "this forum being an echo chamber of extreme negativity", that is "this game has actual objective issues that people are talking about".

---

User reviews for Dawntrail in particular are a well that has been thoroughly poisoned.

Nobody's claiming DT is perfect. At worst, it's divisive. That's what Yoshi-P was reflecting on in my interpretation.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Exmo

User reviews for Dawntrail in particular are a well that has been thoroughly poisoned.

---

The moment someone starts talking about user reviews as a barometer for the true quality of a thing, I just fully stop listening to that person. Especially when it's about a product, like Dawntrail, that has very clearly had people with large followings online wield those followings like a mob of trained monkeys to manipulate said score. And I say this as someone who has a lot of gripes with Dawntrail myself. User reviews in general are hot ass.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by CuteBucket

What happened to the Yoshi-P who insisted on playing thru all Shadowbringers (more than once iirc) to make sure it was good enough for release? Too busy making FFXVI and being a board executive now, I guess.

---

This seems to be so true, especially since lots of good ppl are pulled away...

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by ScartPearl

The only thing I remember him addressing was that Wuk Lamat was maybe too naive (I think that’s what he said, though I don’t remember the exact expression he used). But honestly, that doesn’t really tackle the bigger issues with the expansion. It feels like they’re completely avoiding the deeper problems entirely.

---

I one interview if I recall Yoshi-P said they should've made Wuk Lamat more "confident" in herself when presenting her. At PAX Aus in October [The interview where he talked about the Death Threats and hatred and whatnot Sena and the localization team was getting] Yoshi-P said this about Wuk Lamat-

"She’s a very complex character, and she even has a bit of a complex about herself. Unfortunately, we didn’t delve very far into the background of why she had those feelings, so it appeared as if she left a negative impression. We accept that feedback. I feel a little sorry that we weren’t able to properly depict her. We may have been able to make her more straightforward, so we’re pushing her in the forefront as this character. But again, we’re going to be reflecting that learning into [content patch 7.1] and onward, we’re hoping that we can show more of what makes Wuk Lamat so great, and I’m hoping that we can regain from there."

That was from October though, and when Yoshi-P when to Saudi Arabia for an event there was another interview where he said this-

"...With all of this in mind, we will build upon what’s already there. Upcoming updates will introduce more mystery and events that bring the Warrior of Light back to the forefront, returning as the hero of this world. We ask players to look forward to what’s coming in updates 7.2 and 7.3."

The above is just a snippit from the little bit of the interview that was translated on the FFXIV Discord of course, however in October they said they were gonna push Wuk Lamat to the front more in 7.1 and onward to really try and show everyone what makes her great, and now just barely a month or so after 7.1 actually launches [Saudi interview was in Late November/Early December I think] he is saying that the WOL will be right back in the forefront in 7.2/7.3. I wouldn't be surprised if they saw that 7.1 didn't really do much to change people's opinions on Wuk Lamat like they were maybe hoping it would and now they might be on the verge of just genuinely having no idea what to do with her. Whether Wuk Lamat gets pushed/pulled back, people WILL complain. At this point they might just try to keep any talks about Wuk Lamat brief or straight to the point as they can and just ultimately deal with any blows they might get as they drag themselves towards 8.0.