Positive Dawntrail Narrative Feedback Thread

Disclaimer: I am aware that a lot of the reception for MSQ has been mixed to negative, and there is nothing wrong with that. The intent for this thread is to have a compilation of positive feedback so the dev team can have an idea of what 'worked' from English speaking players. Definitely kicking the hornet's nest a bit, but oh well.

What did you like about the story narrative in Dawntrail? Doesn't have to be MSQ, could be a side quest, FATE, dungeon storytelling design decision, etc!

For example, I really enjoyed the Botanist/Miner Wachumeqimeqi questline. It was interesting to see viera lore discussed so openly, especially between two male characters. The latter half of the questline felt like it was setting up some possible story threads as well for future content (MSQ or otherwise) that I think could be fascinating. I also thought the opening quest for the role quests was hilarious, the comedic timing on it personally hit for me!

I enjoyed the world building going on in Tural. The culture and history was very fleshed out, and refreshing for a fantasy setting, while also giving questions about the past. I enjoyed taking the slower pace of MSQ and learning about the world around us and how it differed so much from Eorzea. As someone that was raised around Texas oilfields, Shaaloani was fun to just run around in and giggle about while doing some vigilante type justice with Erenville.

Character wise--I wish Krile got a bit more focus in MSQ, but I think the groundwork laid out was really good. Her backstory ended up giving us a lot of questions on the full scale while giving some narrative satisfaction on a personal level. I'm hoping we can spend more time with her in MSQ patches, especially since it looks like it might be addressing Solution 9.

G'raha and Alisaie also had some strong writing moments this expac, G'raha on the gondola in the final zone and Alisaie telling Wuk Lamat to rest after the attack on Tuliyollal felt very in line with both of their characters but were also written in compelling ways I haven't seen in awhile. Whoever wrote these moments in MSQ did a very good job and really understands their characters, I feel like.

I also hope we see more of Bakool ja ja in the future! I was loving to hate him in the first half of the expac, but grew to love him by the end. While I don't think he's fully redeemed himself within the world of 14, I think he's on the right track, and I hope we do have some chances to go back to Mamook in MSQ to chat with him.

I guess a lot of what I liked about MSQ is the future potential and where it could go, but I did really enjoy just living in the moment for it. I know it didn't hit with everyone, but I really felt like my character was fulfilling Azem's legacy this expac.

What did you like? What got you excited narratively while playing Dawntrail?

I think the idea of letting the writers know what worked isn't a bad one at all. And I say that as someone who is very unhappy with the story.

From my side - there were a few really good and satisfying moments where the WoL was portrayed as the absolute godslaying OP monster they actually are. Especially the kidnapping part had a few, with the bandit running away screaming what a devil we are, and later in the cave with the WoL just walking at Bakool Ja Ja like there was no threat whatsoever. Because there wasn't. The duel with Gulool was also similar I suppose. I'll gladly take more of such moments because they aren't us going up against ridiculously high stakes, they are us being acknowledged to have gone up against them in the past and triumphed.

Every moment with Estinien was a highlight as always. Since Endwalker he remains a character who manages to entertain just by appearing on screen for a second. Doesn't even have to say anything. Wanted more of him, but oh well.

I kind of liked the side quests, especially the side quest lines that start with a blue quest. If I am right and the Landsguard one is setting up the future tome gear, then that is also a bonus. It certainly left me wanting to try out the gear myself, since I put an effort into helping make it and all. But in general, those "learn more about people and help out" quests work better when in the context of a low stakes MSQ where you are in a new location, learning about the people. Frankly, in my opinion, the side quests did a better job than the MSQ did in that regard.

Also cornservant quest. And a proper reward at the end?! More of that please.

Oh yes, and Skynote Cenote as a dungeon has great environmental storytelling. I almost wish we went there earlier in the story when we just learned of the whole sibling situation. Seeing the urns in the water is heartbreaking. And then the shift of environment as you go deeper? Beautiful.

I love the antics Bakool Ja Ja gets into. I wish he was the star for the 2nd half of DT instead of Wuk, mostly by how much he steals the show(Wuk's good nontheless, though Bakool had quite a performance������).

I liked when Bakool Ja Ja bullied Wuk Lamat

I had... a lot of issues with the msq, but unlike many, I actually liked the first half of the story. As much as it was dragging its feet at places, took away too much time from the 2nd half (it needed a lot more to explore certain concepts and themes we cruised by), and relegated the Scions to babysitting duty, it was an ok journey. I didn't even hate Wuk Lamat that much. Could've used a bit more politics and character growth though and wee bit less power of friendship. Especially given how the story ended.

1. I really, really enjoyed the world building and easy-going pace in the first part of the story.

2. The lore implications provided by some of the second half are brilliant (even if it is subtle and somewhat drowned out by Wuk Lamat)

The premises of the story are exciting and fun.

The Succession tournament IDEA is fun but they without tension or friction, it fell flat on its face. I was actually looking forward to a solo duty where I'm pit against Thancred, Uri, but uuh that didnt happen so. They told us it will divide the scions, it didnt so.

The search for the golden city IDEA sounds exciting but again, writing fell flat on its face. We found the gate, YEY then we left it. Dafuck?

The conundrum of the existence of the Endless IDEA sounds like it can be a very compelling and heartwrenching but again the execution fell flat because it ended up with alot of forced tear jerkers that are not deserved.

The IDEAS are fun but they didnt execute it very well. If it was written with more nuance I would be on my knees begging for more but its not so now I'm regrettingn spending my 40 dollans instead.

The sidequest narratives are probably one of the best we had till now and better then the MSQ.
For example, the first extreme dungeon (cactus-dungeon) gives an interesting piece of lore with the question, why cultures between shards and source can be so close (Keeper of Whispers).
The sidequests in living memory after the shutdown were also quite somber written.

Bagool JaJa was an interesting character. i didn't expect his reason and liked his story even though it was rushed.

Galool JaJa testing us was written good. It respected our strength without downplaying his own. In this regard I also think the solo dutie against his shade was written good.

I liked the initial stuff with Zoral Ja, his ambition and motivation and Krile's feeling about at first. Wish he had more of a reason then he did.

Otis had an interesting story and narrative but was sidelined too quick. I liked how he was written, a mix of stupid but also chivalric. Over the top but not too much.

I think in my opinion the biggest narrative strengths in DT were the parts when the game did not focus on the main cast but on normal NPC's like Otis, the Endless after the wipe and actually let us do adventuring like the aether current quests.
The giants and the role quests also did the mentoring thing quit good.

I like the overall story itself just fine even though it has plotholes. It was just executed wrong for me and had a wrong focus and we had not enough ourself.

The G'raha gondola scene was actually really well done, and I want more personal interactions with characters. Some of the side stuff with Erenville was also quite good. 1:1 moments are a treat!

I enjoyed the story quite a bit overall, I just really did not care for Wuk Lamat and unfortunately she almost never leaves your side.

Really enjoyed the worldbuilding and detail brought into the world! I felt you could feel the narrative pulls strongly in the symbolic incorporations brought forward in the zones too, they were really great! Personally I loved the difficulty jumps of the last few dungeons and I found the trials super fun.

I liked the G'raha gondola scene and when we were together alone with Erenville. Also the tiny bits with Cahciua and Krile's parents.

But that's about it. The story is very badly written and the story itself made me hate Wuk Lamat, but instead made me care more for the mamool ja and Bakool Ja Ja who was like the Team Rocket from Pokemon, he is an asshole but he has a heart inside that was neglected by his own father and people, unlike the stupid Zoral Ja, who had all the love in the world, and even so he went bad in the world. So for that, I'm grateful too. But that's it?

They don't even touched the theme of ff9 how it should be, they didn't use well the graphics and ambient of that game, not even the music fitted Sphene. We are suppose to see Dagger (Garnet) reference in her, but they failed completely. They don't even use the Vivi existencial crisis, they just did an awful experience with the endless farse. It's a shame because ff9 is such a good game... I hope they can bring something about it in the post game. But I hope for something more adventurous than babysitting the stupid Wuk Lamat. I want her away, very very far away. Let this be the end of her character please.

Vtra is so endearing, Zero is cliché and I don't like her character, but I still liked her better. Why can't they writte female characters well like how they did with Ysaile, Y'shtola and Alisaie? I don't know who is the guy this time but please, fire him or put him behind in side quests. Don't let the main writter of DT touch the MSQ never again.

I think Vivi didn't make it in because he was already used as part of a Manderville storyline.

What I liked about Dawntrail:

• Zone Design was outstanding throughout
• Trials and dungeons are fun
• The NPCs tell the WoL to go take a break and that's your cue to TAKE A BREAK
• The heavy themes of life death and the afterlife and the beliefs of other people were all treated fairly respectfully
• Wuk Lamat got to grow up
• Koana being a siscon was funny
• Bakool Ja Redemption Arc (I wanted more and so did everyone else)
• Baby Gulool Ja
• Not wholly recycling FF9 story but definitely taking large chunks of it
• Obvious clues that this was a shard early on before even Y'shtola confirmed it

I've enjoyed the role-quests, crafting quests and pictomancer quests a lot. Wish they were voiced.

Spoilers for the end:

Felt bad to introduce a new shard but then immediately resolve the story the way they did, because I honestly liked some of the introduced concepts. I hope they explore both the aftermath of the endless and what may be left of that shard (if anything else survived the storm surge).

Currently around lvl 97-98 MSQ:

While it's severely lacking in execution, the overall plot is really interesting. I also thought the WoL taking on more of a mentor role was pretty cute.

Erenville is even more endearing than before, I'm so glad we got to hang out with him for a while. Definitely headcanoning him and my WoL as besties post-DT. On that same note, I really loved the whole goofy spaghetti western adventure. Thought it was super funny and makes the best use of the NPC accompanying mechanic so far.

95+ spoilers:

The train railgun cutscene made me lose my mind laughing, I loved it. I'm always excited to get more lore on the other shards and their relation to the Source so I'm looking forward to learning about Alexandria.

Koana has some of the best voice work in the entirety of FFXIV and that alone has made him one of my new favorite characters. Whatever his VA is getting paid, it's not enough.

Bakool Ja Ja is a very interesting character and I'm glad he was treated seriously by the story instead of permanently being reduced to a blundering comic relief antagonist. His and Mamook's problems were solved a little too easily, but that's not a huge deal.

Gulool Ja Ja is him. Such a cool character.

Looking at all the parts I did enjoy, I feel like it was a dire mistake to give Wuk Lamat more dialogue than pretty much everyone else combined, as DT's writing only really gets to shine when the focus is on fleshing out individual characters and their stories rather than the main narrative and the Wuk Lamat Show. I don't even dislike her, but after a while it gets very, very noticeable that they're forcing her into every possible cutscene, dialogue, and story beat regardless of the negative impacts.

Didn't like most of the MSQ, but I did enjoy Mamook, Bakool Ja Ja's redemption (althought a cliché, I enjoyed it, the story was touching), the dungeons were really nice and the mechanics were original and fun.

The scenery is quite nice and I enjoyed the little callbacks to FFIX (the Yan in neons in Solution 9, I thought they were absolutely adorables, and I'm sure there are more that I missed).

Also props to lil Gulool Ja. He's cute.

Edit : Oh and Koana got to be a bro by the end and I loved that. He didn't stand out that much in the beginning but I really liked him by the end.

Overall I found the writing of the MSQ to be poor, but it wasn't universally bad.

I found myself pleasantly surprised when Gulool Ja Ja talked with us about none of the contenders for the throne being ready for it. I needed that, because it felt so wrong trying to put any of these chuckleheads into a position of power. So at that point, instead of feeling like I was being forced to win the throne for Wuk Lamat, I was able to view it as trying to be a mentor for her. And I enjoyed watching her grow, all the way up until she was made queen, when that growth was replaced with regression and her ideas were never challenged again.

I liked getting to know Koana, especially in terms of his love for his sister and how that was clearly more important to him than anything. That was well done.

With the exception of every interaction with the Scions, I generally liked being able to learn about the various villages and their people during the competition arc. The cooking challenge village was particularly well-written in that regard, as it seemed clear just how much fun the villagers were having with it and how they were struggling not to let their strict facade slip. I have to note that I disliked the Hanuhanu one, though, because it was unfortunate to paint the Hanuhanu as if they had forgotten their own history and needed outsiders to remember it for them.

I liked the way they sold Alisaie being frustrated that she couldn't go to Living Memory in that scene; for a brief moment, she got to be an individual, and it was done well.

G'raha's gondola ride was kind of nice, but it felt at odds with nearly every other action he and the Scions took in Living Memory.

So far I have loved the Role Quests. The partners you get paired with have been well-written, a nice balance of being capable but also having areas where they could use help. And the villains are absolute camp, and I love them for it.

I liked all of the story chains in the Pelupelu/Giant area.

The Cornservant rules.

There's plenty to love in Dawntrail, you just generally have to go outside of the MSQ to find it.

1. Wuk Lamat is okay. At some point I had to switch her VA to Japanese because her English ‘accent’ gets too much. She redeems herself second half, less talking and more action.
2. Story is a bit linear but I guess it is expected to set the ground work for future more expansions. I believe the story arc will involve a lot more endless and merging reflections. Overall I like the story actually. It is supposedly to be lighthearted, characters development are plenty, we see scion members again, old friends and new friends, what’s not not to like?
3. $50 well spent especially just for graphics update alone. Compare to the games coming out lately, FFXIV is miles ahead still.

I enjoyed the pictomancer quests more than I thought I would. I also really liked Koana, if only he was the promise we followed. Oh and the role quests have been good so far.

Honorary mention to our lord and saviour the cornservent.

The dialogue in this expansion was so much more natural and flowed great. I really enjoyed the first half of the msq with the lower stakes, as it let me get invested in the story since the outcome didn't seem as certain. All of the focus on the new characters was fantastic as well, was nice to see the scions have a bit of a back seat we've seen plenty of them.

Oh, and of course Bakool JaJa was fantastic.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by DarkMasamune

Didn't like most of the MSQ, but I did enjoy Mamook, Bakool Ja Ja's redemption (althought a cliché, I enjoyed it, the story was touching), the dungeons were really nice and the mechanics were original and fun.

The scenery is quite nice and I enjoyed the little callbacks to FFIX (the Yan in neons in Solution 9, I thought they were absolutely adorables, and I'm sure there are more that I missed).

Also props to lil Gulool Ja. He's cute.

Edit : Oh and Koana got to be a bro by the end and I loved that. He didn't stand out that much in the beginning but I really liked him by the end.

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Completely agree with you, especially on the Bakool Ja Ja part. Cliché's can work when used correctly, though I would have enjoyed a bit more emotional development from the point he ran away crying.

Some speeches from the antagonists were also quite gripping, such as Zoraal Ja stating "You ask a lost man for the way", or Sphene deciding to no longer be an overprotective queen and take action instead.
Though looking back their writing may have seemed better because of the drivel Wuk Lamat spouted 24/7 about peace and food and friendship.

The parts I did like about Dawntrail were when things focused off Wuk Lamat and we got time to spend with the other NPCs or were alone. Like our moments with G’raha, Erenville, Gulool Ja Ja etc. This also includes the side quest, the ones in the cities/towns, the job quests, and the crafter/gatherer delivery quests.

Almost all of those quests, or moments in the story, did what the MSQ was trying to do but 100x better. Especially with the sidequest, where we got more lore and learned about Tural cultures in a more interesting way and didn’t completely seem one note or treat the WoL like they’re just window dressing in the setting.

Also, I loved the dungeons and trial design. It feels like it has been the most engaging it has been for awhile. I hope even when our gear is better the engagement doesn’t drop too much either. At minimum that one post MSQ dungeon will keep ppl on their toes, but that first boss needs an adjustment cuz there’s something unfair about how the debuffs happen also it’s a caster nightmare even for casters who can be more mobile.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Luca_

Looking at all the parts I did enjoy, I feel like it was a dire mistake to give Wuk Lamat more dialogue than pretty much everyone else combined, as DT's writing only really gets to shine when the focus is on fleshing out individual characters and their stories rather than the main narrative and the Wuk Lamat Show. I don't even dislike her, but after a while it gets very, very noticeable that they're forcing her into every possible cutscene, dialogue, and story beat regardless of the negative impacts.

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Coming in a bit late (and drunk) to say that of all the critiques of Wuk Lamat as a character, I think this is the most fair. We love XIV for its ensemble cast and it leaned too heavily on a single character this particular expansion. It wouldn't have mattered which character it was, we needed more of everyone else to balance it out. This is an overarching narrative flaw that likely was the result of cutting scope and story in other places.

Please take this into consideration for the future story. We like BALANCE.

Wanted to add onto this thread once the normal raids story was released, and now here we are!
I think Dawntrail isn't perfect, but it has a lot of merits that I feel like are going overlooked by the playerbase at large. (To be clear, I really liked the expansion. Yes, even Wuk Lamat.)

• I liked the fact that we had an expansion with really strong messaging that drove the story. It helped that the themes of diversity and legacy are themes that I generally enjoy in a narrative, but I appreciated that it felt like the writing team set out with this story with a purpose in mind.
• As mentioned by a lot of people in the thread, the individual character writing has been really strong. The game's story is not and has never been particularly subtle (and this is not a bad thing), but it felt like a lot of thought was put into the dialogue and I liked that you weren't necessarily being spoon-fed the inner thoughts of each character. Zoraal Ja is probably the most prominent example, but each character's development arcs were enjoyable to track.
• The way the tone was controlled was pretty nice! Sometimes the story has tonal issues but this expansion I felt had the least of them all. The tonal transition from generally lighthearted succession competition arc to more serious Heritage Found onward arc was handled pretty well, and the similar transition in the raid story has me optimistic that this will continue going forward.
• On that note, I actually enjoyed the pacing. I liked taking the chance to talk to the peoples and understand their values and what makes them tick. It did make me feel like I was learning about and experiencing something new and unfamiliar.
• In line with that, I loved the cultural stuff and real-world parallels! I've enjoyed seeing people resonate with parts of the story in ways that I didn't even imagine.

I think they succeeded with telling a story that has a lot to build upon. I do look forward to what the team has to offer going forward.

I liked that the new raids not having Woke lmao in it:)

Good fights and story.

The self contained adventure of Shaaloani was fun and I want more adventures like that. Just put it in a better place in the plot rather than right after a big dramatic moment.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Luca_

Currently around lvl 97-98 MSQ:

While it's severely lacking in execution, the overall plot is really interesting. I also thought the WoL taking on more of a mentor role was pretty cute.

Erenville is even more endearing than before, I'm so glad we got to hang out with him for a while. Definitely headcanoning him and my WoL as besties post-DT. On that same note, I really loved the whole goofy spaghetti western adventure. Thought it was super funny and makes the best use of the NPC accompanying mechanic so far.

95+ spoilers:

The train railgun cutscene made me lose my mind laughing, I loved it. I'm always excited to get more lore on the other shards and their relation to the Source so I'm looking forward to learning about Alexandria.

Koana has some of the best voice work in the entirety of FFXIV and that alone has made him one of my new favorite characters. Whatever his VA is getting paid, it's not enough.

Bakool Ja Ja is a very interesting character and I'm glad he was treated seriously by the story instead of permanently being reduced to a blundering comic relief antagonist. His and Mamook's problems were solved a little too easily, but that's not a huge deal.

Gulool Ja Ja is him. Such a cool character.

Looking at all the parts I did enjoy, I feel like it was a dire mistake to give Wuk Lamat more dialogue than pretty much everyone else combined, as DT's writing only really gets to shine when the focus is on fleshing out individual characters and their stories rather than the main narrative and the Wuk Lamat Show. I don't even dislike her, but after a while it gets very, very noticeable that they're forcing her into every possible cutscene, dialogue, and story beat regardless of the negative impacts.

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I'm in the same boat as you with Wuk Lamat. I loved her at the start of the story and was wanting to help her get far, but I definantly feel like she overstayed her welcome past the succession and while it would of been fine to have her with us post 95 dungeon, I genuinely feel like the plot would have hit harder if it was focused around another character instead of just mostly Wuk Lamat.

The handful MSQs without Wuk Lamat in the party were decent.

I enjoyed touring the setting of Tural, namely the new city and the first two zones, and the third zone kinda. I liked the Pelupelu, Moblins, and Mamooja. Story held my interest up through the Mamooja village/level 94. I preferred the succession tournament story to what came later.

The Moblins who kidnap craftsmen and then support and cheer them on to make beautiful art, with some people running away to the hidden camp nearby was interesting.

The sidequest in the waterfall zone where the Hanu gaslight the new guard was neat.

The story successfully hyped up Valigarmanda as a threat to fight against, if only it actually paid off on that. I would have been fine if the story had climaxed with fighting a big bad monster bird or Bakool Ja Ja rather than someone with "deep" motivations.

The moment in the cooking arc where Zooral Ja is told that he is not getting a keystone and then stares at Wuk Lamat as if he is contemplating harming his own sister (even if she isn't really) was sad, and scary.

For characters, I liked Gulool Ja Ja, Koana, Bakool Ja Ja as a villain, Zoraal Ja in the first half, and Wuk Evu. Sphene was pretty and sounded nice. Krile's father was a little funny.

Wuk Lamat had a couple funny moments.

Wuk Lamat tracking down Gulool Ja and being upfront that she is going to kill his father, but is also going to take care of him (the son) because if family won't, no one else will, was nice. Also bringing him back to Tuliyollal and the reaction of the guards.

DPS rolequestline was decent. Good idea about someone using shapeshifting magic to try to impersonate key individuals to try to cause war and strife. Funny joke with the Namazu almost being shot. Was nice to see Magnai again, though it's been how many years since Stormblood? And he's a king. He should have found his Nhaama by now. It's becoming a little sad.

I like how the new raid doesn't start with long winded exposition dumps or character introductions, and instead gets you into two fights almost immediately, and then only after the second boss does it take a moment for characters to talk. Prior raids had more appealing premises (saving the world with the Scions, more Ancients) but were hamstrung by slow pacing as you're hanging out with academics who talk talk talk and has loads of exposition.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by SeriousPan

The self contained adventure of Shaaloani was fun and I want more adventures like that. Just put it in a better place in the plot rather than right after a big dramatic moment.

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FYI, they intended for you to take a break after that big dramatic moment. The NPCs said as much. The pacing issues of the story are greatly mollified if you accept the NPCs saying, "You worked hard and just went through a lot, let's go take a break!" and go do something else like level an alt class or some crafting.

I loved everything from Vanguard onwards. For lasting all of half a zone, I loved Robo-Otis and got attached to him enough that I cried a bit at his death, which is more investment than I had in anything prior in Dawntrail, I think.

Dawntrail worked the Side Characters marvelously. People complain a lot about 'how everything is bad writing' (Trust me, you haven't seen bad writing and if you simp for the Ancients and Emet-Selch, you lie on a hypocritical value here).

I genuinely appreciated how the side characters had their time in the spotlight. Made them feel relevant, unlike in other expansions it was always 'Scions and WoL' talking, everyone else in the world became incompetent and just stared before they gave their one-text dialogue to thank the supreme overlords.

Worldbuilding has been very interesting too, it was the first time I felt compelled to actually read sidequests and information about the world, even doing the Brown Quests. I want to know more, and it is paying off quite well.

Zones are marvelously well done, the graphic update made them fantastic to be, and it is refreshing to see maps that genuinely have something visual to stare. I know it was a limitation, but until DT, the zones were incredibly bland and any other MMO had more interesting zones to stare at since they communicate so well visually for the narrative.

The last zone of this expansion beats my heart much more than Ultima Thule, the same as the last dungeon of the expansion (Not counting experts). And the second half really was interesting to see as scales grew, while the first half was a simple summer vacation. After Mamook, vacation is over, and I like that.

While some points could've been better written to avoid people making questions about character decisions, suspension of disbelief works better for some situations. It isn't perfect, but it is still a good story. Wuk Lamat wasn't an annoying character, but her appearance at the end didn't feel right and the VA did not deliver the necessary weight on that moment, but that's a forgettable moment.

All that being said, the thingamajig they got can lead to some very interesting build up for future expansions in the patches, and I am vastly curious to see where they plan to go from it.

There were sore points for me in DT but that's for another thread. I do want to say that despite that, I overall had a good time and here are the highlights (spoilers for whole story):
- Mamool Ja backstory, wish more time was spent learning about their history, pain and suffering to produce the two headed beings and implications going forward. Such a cool story but was resolved in few quests.
- Reveal of golden city at the end of the dungeon. And reveal of Krile being from different reflection and just lore regarding all of this. Just wish we did not have the full stop moment to redirect our efforts after we found the door, slowed down the story a lot in a bad way for me.
- I liked the invasion of city moment (minus the wol doing absolutely nothing part)
- Loved Vrtra!! and that entire cutscene.
- Loved Solution 9/ Alexandria and the idea of soul/memory extraction. Brought out questions like what makes one oneself? Soul? memory? If you lost your memories, would you be the same person? If your memories lived inside a machine, would that machine become you? I actually would love these questions explored.
- I loved the idea of being resurrected after sudden death by using purified souls and concept of merging with feral should. But would like more in depth discussion and ramifications of this. What is person has been resurrected MANY times using many souls? Is that still the same person as they were when they were born? Do the extra souls cause nasty side effects long term?
- Loved Living Memory, I lost someone very important to me recently and Namika/Wuk moment hit me hard.
- I LOVED OTIS both forms!!!
- Krile meeting her parents was awesome but rushed, wanted more time with them. They have a wealth of knowledge that I feel like we could have learned more. Like more about the organization that was doing soul extraction, their facilities, methods, tests, etc. So many questions that we could have asked and learned about.
- Loved all trials and dungeons, very good difficulty.
- Music, fantastic all the way.
- Raids are looking really good and love the arena wwe style.

I think overall there were actually decent amount of strong points in the MSQ. If they had focused on some of these strong points and elaborated on them, story would have been that much more enjoyable. I just wanted more depth. Especially when dealing with really interesting and important topics/information. Generally what they had to work with was really good, but how it was delt with was meh. I hope that this gets improved going into the future.

I liked the first half of the story. Bakool jaja was a fun bully antagonist, Zone 1-4 were great, and I enjoyed the HanuHanu and Pelupelu a lot.

I enjoyed Bakool Ja Ja. I thought he had a very good arc. Love the gameplay. Love the Wauchumeqimeqi side quests. The juice lady is positively adorable. The adventuring side quests are great. Love the role quests. Love the story and gameplay of the raids. And my IX loving heart is singing at all the references and the way they had echoes of IX and its themes without rehashing the story. I also enjoyed the world-building and introduction of different cultures. I don't get all the references and I look forward to the spoiler embargo lifting on social media so I can enjoy all the people explaining them. There are also interesting lore tidbits for the future that we've been given. I'm not entirely happy with the MSQ but I can see where things can improve.

My favorite part is when they foreshadowed Cahciua's fate RIGHT as you get to the outskirts town.

Erenvale asks the ppl there about his mom and they say they don't know her at all. Nothing odd at all for us at that point.... But then you learn about the regulators and see what happened to Namikka and when you have THAT context..... you can put together that she is dead already and the regulators wiped their memory of her.

Its SO GOOD, dude