Dawntrail Review and possible caution going forward

SPOILERS AHEAD:

Firstly, I generally felt positively towards the DT MSQ and felt in terms of quality it fell around a 7/10 expansion. For me, this would place it above ST (6/10) and ARR (5.5/10) but below HW (8/10), Shb (9.5/10) and EW (8.5/10). My reasoning for this was the balance between character development and theming of each expansion.

Personally, I found Wuk Lamat (the main character) fine at the start and they got a little better with character development like opening up about their brave faced facade and being more honest with her allies. However, I agree with the sentiment that her place in the MSQ was stretched too far overshadowing other characters like the Scions, Krile, Erenville, ourselves, and even some of the villains like Zoraal Ja and Bakool Ja.

I think a way they could have handled her place in the MSQ better was give the other characters more cutscenes and allow Wuk Lamat to mess up in the 2nd half with Alexandria but have us (the WoL) help teach her what to do in a morally grey scenario with no obvious "happy" solution. Another problem I had with Wuk Lamat that others seem to agree with was the mostly flat delivery of her lines by the VA which otherwise might have heightened the emotional heights of her character (like during Gulool Ja Ja's death).

Personally, I felt that the ending of DT was morally ambiguous, and the writing team should have expanded more on it by including characters in Living Memory that DIDN'T want to be erased but justifying it with the theme that reality isn't always nice or simple and that at the end of the day it was us or them even if decisions in "another time" might have avoided this worst case scenario.

Finally, I would add a bit of caution to those advising friends who might be interested in playing FFXIV and DT either for the first time or returning from a break about a possible negative echo chamber affecting their initial perception.

For example, I started the DT MSQ but checked the forums halfway and one of the top posts was something like "Wuk Lamat is the worst character in FFXIV history" which I noticed impacted my perception of her while playing through the MSQ. Before the post I mostly enjoyed Wuk Lamat's character and was excited to see what came next but after the post I started becoming more critical of the character's actions and the VA's lines even though it is very likely I would never have noticed if not previously made conscious of it by the post.

All this to say, while it is too late to erase the memory and influence of others on our first-time run-through of the story, I think it would be for the better if we encourage others we know to avoid seeking out other's opinions on the game before attempting it themselves and giving them the time to form their own opinions. Otherwise, I fear we will be caught in an endless feedback loop that may result in changes we regret later on because they do not reflect our own opinions but rather everyone else's.