Dawntrail MSQ: Where Do We Go From Here?

Me and my gf are almost finished and it seems we've enjoyed it more than most players we talk to. That being said, I'd like to articulate some of our gripes in hopes of future improvement and discussion:

First and foremost, I often wonder if SE or CBIII have a common understanding or goal as to what audience they are attempting to appeal to. The game has shown itself to be at it's best when a balance is struck between serious/relatable themes and an accessible/joyous Fantasy aesthetic. So why does it seem that a significant amount of the dialogue is being written with a pre-teen audience in mind? It's not only irritating to have every emotion, thought, and lesson spelled out for us with all the nuance of a 9 year old who just learned what empathy is, it is unimmersive and frankly jarring when juxtaposed with the recurring atrocities or disasters we face every expansion. This game is 10 years old and requires a monthly subscription so I'd say it's pretty safe to assume most players are at least old enough to have their own debit card. I'm not asking for an existential dilemma at the level of the Ea with every expansion, just a general awareness from the writing team that a ven diagram of this fanbase and Bluey's would not be a perfect circle.

Secondly, coming off Endwalker's 6.0 MSQ, I think many of us were under the impression that Main Story Quests would feature more active participation from the player. We were shown CB3's potential for creating interesting gameplay scenarios within the confines of an MMO with Metal Gear Thancred, Freaky Friday Zenos, and numerous instanced battles to break up the monotonous "talk to _____" objectives. Yet, for some reason, we've taken a BIG step back here in terms of player input. No longer feeling like the culmination of long built up plot threads or rewards for our efforts, XIV cutscenes now suffer from Kingdom Hearts Syndrome, where each fade to black becomes a repetitive obstacle to our enjoyment. With no previous lore to build on this time around, a more streamlined story that paved way for novel gameplay opportunities would've done a better job of putting us in the shoes of the "adventurer" Yoshi P & Co. clearly want us to feel like post-Endwalker.

Finally, we are officially stuck in the past, folks. We have a highly marketable cast of characters in the Scions, and SE clearly doesn't want to do away with them. There is, in my opinion, an unfulfilled promise in the disbandment of the Scions of the Seventh Dawn. What are they doing here? What exactly has changed since their supposed separation? How are we adding to our relationships with them? I can't think of a single bit of exposition any of them contributed to Dawntrail that I wouldn't rather have heard from Wuk Lamat, Erenville, or any of the plethora of characters who have an actual attachment to the places, people, and history of this new land we've set foot in. Why cheapen these characters with continued purposeless presence?

Don't wanna be overly negative or anything. I enjoyed many parts of the expansion. The Zones are probably the best they've ever been. The graphics update takes everything to a new level visually. The more engaging gameplay in normal difficulty dungeons and Trials was much needed. And I actually feel rather positively about where the game is headed. The technical foundation of FFXIV is better than ever and an approach in writing can always be altered/improved upon with time.

I also want to elaborate in regards to my point about the Scions. I'd still like to see them every once in a while, but I think the dynamic should be massively different. For example, I would've loved to run into Estinien during Dawntrail and have him join us. It fits his character, plays to his strengths, and would give us an opportunity to learn a little more about this stoic fan favorite. I also think it'd be lovely if we got an expansion where we set out on that big adventure we promised Graha Tia in Ultima Thule! I just don't see the point in having the whole gang get back together as if nothing had ever changed when they don't really have any personal investment in the story's conflict like they used to.

The majority of the Scions need to be retired. We should be collecting a new group of characters to travel with for the next 10 years of expansions.

There is no more character arc to be had with them and they do not offer anything to the story. The only Scion I think should stick around at this point is Krile. She is still severely underdeveloped after a full expansion with her as a travelling companion lol.

Moreover, the player base WANTS new characters in the mix. Erenville is a shining example of how the player base is VERY receptive to new companions.

I'd love to see Krile being the only one moving forward, there's so much blank space to develop her, also being so young. It would be nice to see Krile learning and enjoying to be less serious "scholarly" for example. Erenville there too, of course.

I don't mind the old cast appearing here and there, or spearheading side content.

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Originally Posted by Raikai

I'd love to see Krile being the only one moving forward, there's so much blank space to develop her, also being so young. It would be nice to see Krile learning and enjoying to be less serious "scholarly" for example. Erenville there too, of course.

I don't mind the old cast appearing here and there, or spearheading side content.

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I'd be fine with Estinien hanging around too, but I wish the rest(especially G'raha) would go away unless they have an actual reason to become plot relevant again.

To paraphrase a questionably wise man, how can I miss you if you never go away? Striking out on your own while the twins see to Garlemald, Urianger hangs out on the moon, Y'shtola and Thancred seeing to the First etc would be a refreshing change, but I think it's to do with our place in the narrative. A lot of it would go over the head of the WoL with political intrigue, cutting edge multiversal science and threats to reality itself, when narratively our place in the team is to beat down the biggest enemies. They need to give the main character more impact on the direction of the narrative for that to happen.

Some thoughts come to mind:

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This game is 10 years old and requires a monthly subscription so I'd say it's pretty safe to assume most players are at least old enough to have their own debit card.

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Hard to say. Just because the game has been around for 10 years doesn't mean its players will have been around for that long. There are a significant number of new people that have joined since ShB, for example. The primary demographic for MMO's today has definitely shifted from the teenager/college kid/young adult that it was 20 years ago to those same "people" today who are now adults with families and full-time careers. But I wouldn't be surprised if we started seeing an increasing number of younger players getting involved - namely the kids of those adults in the primary demographic (I remember being part of a guild in WoW back in the day that had several entire families involved). This is one of those places where I kinda just acknowledge that SE will have far more information on it than any of us will, and given that at their core they are a corporation relying on this game to make money, if they're pursuing a certain direction, they likely have data to back it up.

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There is, in my opinion, an unfulfilled promise in the disbandment of the Scions of the Seventh Dawn. What are they doing here? What exactly has changed since their supposed separation?

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This is the one part that still boggles my mind when I hear it, because after mentioning "disbanding", the very next sentence in the same cutscene straight up and explicitly says the "disbanding" is not for real, and then goes on to explain exactly why. In practical terms, the Scions did not in any way, shape, or form disband or change at all. The entire reason for "officially disbanding" is just to get the nations of Eorzea off the Scions' backs so Eorzea stops relying on them, precisely so the Scions can go back to doing their own thing (as a group - together) in peace.

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The majority of the Scions need to be retired. We should be collecting a new group of characters to travel with for the next 10 years of expansions.

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This I think goes back to the OP's remark about who the primary audience is that SE is appealing to. That target audience loves the Scions. They're not going anywhere. Period.

What I dread is that they'll go from expansion to expansion, with little to connect them into a cohesive narrative like ARR - EW did. I was hoping DT would be a reset, but what it looks like it's a one off story instead with a bit of a connection to something more.

If they do want to keep the scions around they have to at least commit to giving them meaningful story arcs. I wouldn't mind having a future story setting with Y'shtola and Estinien getting some good character development, but with how they kinda botched their attempt at doing that for Krile, I'm a bit uncertain how it will work out.

Until we see where they take post-MSQ I guess we won't know how the writing is looking as a whole. Not many hints for future story points other than "this child does not want to be king of a nation (his dad murdered people and they don't like him)" and "Erenville tries to find out why the animals in Texas are so angry (they hate trains)." Oh, and not forgetting "what's the deal with this funky hourglass?" but that could be the story for the next god knows how many expansions.

We don't even know if those will be MSQ or side story content. Will they even have a trials storyline this time? Or will they put it in MSQ again like post-EW? I wanna be excited but the amount of issues the MSQ had writing wise is not helping...

It's hard to say where we go from here. Issues need to be addressed before we end up with another WoW Shadowlands situation on our hands.

For those of you unaware of what I mean. WoW Shadowlands was horrible, but it was just the Exposed tip serious of unaddressed bad decisions and designs that never got properly addressed and corrected internally. So they kept the same people on, making the same bad decisions, also pushing the blame else where and never correcting design decisions. Or when they did address it, it's usually just the one thing that had massive outcry against it, and never the smaller things that are just overshadowed by the bigger more massive problem. These small problems, added up. Things like inconsistent writing (which we're getting right now), retcons that make no sense, characters not acting like themselves in order to justify the story (again starting to see this), lack of engaging gameplay (starting to see some of this too), to much focus on the top 10% M+ raiders or bottom 10% degens and completely disregarding anyone in between. These were all issues WoW has that eventually lead to their worst Expansion because they were never addressed, and we're starting to see some of these issues beginning to show their signs here.

Where we go though. Well ideally I would like an actual vacation expansion, not "Wuk's Magical Friendship Adventures", or move to a new world. Not like the 1st where all we got was Norvrandt, but like a full world that can be added to across multiple expansions as we see the difference between it and our own. I mean there's like 6 or 7 worlds remaining, counting the void. We know what the source is like, along with the 1st and 13th. So we still got 3 to 4 more FULLY intact worlds we could explore.

I've had the realization that while they will probably never phase out the scions, they really could benefit from taking a look back at previous expacs like HW and StB and give some needed screentime and character development to ones who haven't had much so far. The "all the scions are here" aspect of ShB, and later EW, felt impactful because it was the first time since ARR that they were all around, and in ShB it provided an interesting hook and follow up to the story of the StB patches. But Alphinaud and Lyse (sorry, I'm not a Lyse hater!) were given their real shining moments in HW and StB where they were able to be larger characters due to the smaller casts. Taking that approach would also give us a moment of breathing room, and a chance to cycle back to thinking "huh, I miss the twins, I wonder what they're up to!" while getting some more character work for someone like Y'shtola, for example.

I was really hoping that DT would be like that for Krile, and I'm sorely disappointed with the route they chose instead. The scions can still be really fun...when they are well written and have their personalities intact. It did not feel that way this time around.

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Originally Posted by Alchemii

It's hard to say where we go from here. Issues need to be addressed before we end up with another WoW Shadowlands situation on our hands.

For those of you unaware of what I mean. WoW Shadowlands was horrible, but it was just the Exposed tip serious of unaddressed bad decisions and designs that never got properly addressed and corrected internally. So they kept the same people on, making the same bad decisions, also pushing the blame else where and never correcting design decisions. Or when they did address it, it's usually just the one thing that had massive outcry against it, and never the smaller things that are just overshadowed by the bigger more massive problem. These small problems, added up. Things like inconsistent writing (which we're getting right now), retcons that make no sense, characters not acting like themselves in order to justify the story (again starting to see this), lack of engaging gameplay (starting to see some of this too), to much focus on the top 10% M+ raiders or bottom 10% degens and completely disregarding anyone in between. These were all issues WoW has that eventually lead to their worst Expansion because they were never addressed, and we're starting to see some of these issues beginning to show their signs here.

Where we go though. Well ideally I would like an actual vacation expansion, not "Wuk's Magical Friendship Adventures", or move to a new world. Not like the 1st where all we got was Norvrandt, but like a full world that can be added to across multiple expansions as we see the difference between it and our own. I mean there's like 6 or 7 worlds remaining, counting the void. We know what the source is like, along with the 1st and 13th. So we still got 3 to 4 more FULLY intact worlds we could explore.

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They have yet to really defile the past with retcons like what happened with the Jailer manipulating every antagonist in the series while also being manipulated by his own creations, and Wuk hasn't committed genocide against a playable race, so it's not quite in Shadowlands territory yet. The hourglass potentially opens the door to a lot of shard hopping, and if they remember the time distortion between the Source and shards we could see a rejuvenated First, but it's hard to get excited about the idea when what we've seen of the new writers' worldbuilding is so poor.

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Originally Posted by Daralii

They have yet to really defile the past with retcons like what happened with the Jailer manipulating every antagonist in the series while also being manipulated by his own creations, and Wuk hasn't committed genocide against a playable race, so it's not quite in Shadowlands territory yet. The hourglass potentially opens the door to a lot of shard hopping, and if they remember the time distortion between the Source and shards we could see a rejuvenated First, but it's hard to get excited about the idea when what we've seen of the new writers' worldbuilding is so poor.

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My point was that the writers felt emboldened to do something like the jailor, because nobody ever stopped them from doing the smaller issues that lead up to that point. All the unaddressed little issues lead up to one big problem. As for the time distortion, we've been to the 1st a few times now since ShB, and they have not addressed it even once. Would be nice if they did.

It doesn't even have to be an either/or situation, you can still have the Scions in the game but in a very contained, focused fashion as references rather than characters. They only appear 20% of the time (and not all together), enough for the fans to get their happy time but then with the 80% majority of the space given to a new cast to breathe and grow. They appear when it is very specifically their area of expertise or have them only deal with particular areas in the world, ex: Thancred with the First, Alphinaud with Sharlayan, Estinien with Ishgard or Meracydia. Of the pre-existing Scions I think Krile and maaaybe Alisaie still have stories to tell so could ongoing companions but the rest have had their characters arcs as people and filled out their narrative purpose as world props.

Still you don't need to delete them, just be very sparing, so you can have your cake and eat it as well.

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Originally Posted by Boblawblah

What I dread is that they'll go from expansion to expansion, with little to connect them into a cohesive narrative like ARR - EW did. I was hoping DT would be a reset, but what it looks like it's a one off story instead with a bit of a connection to something more.

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honestly i am the opposite we know the next expansion is the void since it was set up post EW, and it seems they want to go the route of azems legacy we are going to be finding out about azem in the next few expansions. unless they throw a curve ball in this post patches and change the story up a lot next expansion i know what to expect and am excited.

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Originally Posted by Musashidon

honestly i am the opposite we know the next expansion is the void since it was set up post EW, and it seems they want to go the route of azems legacy we are going to be finding out about azem in the next few expansions. unless they throw a curve ball in this post patches and change the story up a lot next expansion i know what to expect and am excited.

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The last thing on the list Emet gave to us in Ultima Thule is Meracydia. They managed to waste everything but that and the New World/Tural in EW's patch cycle, primarily as self-contained sidequests.

Right now we are following what Emet told us, so next stop should be Meracydia. Personally, I hope for a time travel story where we go back to when the Allagan where at their best. I think only Raha and Alisae should come along. The rest of the cast should be new characters.

Dawntrail is just continuing with the intrigue of reflections, which is a mistake. It's not like reflections are a bad thing. But not telling interesting stories with them is. If all we are doing is little quarter expansion length narratives like with the 13th and Alexandria, that's disappointing. It's not enough time to pull off what any previous expansion did.

Following exactly what Emet said is equally boring.

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Originally Posted by Daralii

The last thing on the list Emet gave to us in Ultima Thule is Meracydia. They managed to waste everything but that and the New World/Tural in EW's patch cycle, primarily as self-contained sidequests.

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God, I'll fucking hate if we just keep going down Emet-Selch bullet point list like it's some divine commandment.

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Originally Posted by Daralii

The last thing on the list Emet gave to us in Ultima Thule is Meracydia. They managed to waste everything but that and the New World/Tural in EW's patch cycle, primarily as self-contained sidequests.

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oh you misinterpreted what i meant. we are azems legacy, and we know nothing of azem. this storyline is going to be about learning who azem truely was.

I'm not really a fan of how quickly they've been burning through regions recently. Consider the number of expansions we got out of Aldenard alone. We don't need to do an entire continent in one expansion.

They've left themselves a significant amount of unexplored landmass left in both Yok and Xak Tural, but I wonder if they'll go for a second part right now given the reception of this expansion. Aerslaent is another possibility for a detour, if they draw a link through Ketenramm, although it's hard to tell what other areas they would include. I think Meracydia probably deserves a separate arc altogether, involving the South Sea Isles and perhaps culminating in the Void.

Corvos is the other really big location waiting in the wings along with central Ilsabard, but a lot of the regional lore ties to Ivalice, so a limiting factor may be getting Matsuno to provide input the worldbuilding. That could also have a Void connection given the Garleans, and moreso if they ever draw a definite link to the Lucavi forms that we've seen. I think an expansion in the region would be really high impact, so I'd expect they're saving that up for when they need the hype.

There's a very limited amount that they can do with the shards, given that there were only four intact shards at the start of the expansion (4, 8, 9, 11), and Hiroi just squandered one of them to tell his epilogue. While it's probably more convenient to write mostly destroyed worlds, I think they should leave themselves more room to build out if they ever need more expansion landmass.

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Originally Posted by Musashidon

oh you misinterpreted what i meant. we are azems legacy, and we know nothing of azem. this storyline is going to be about learning who azem truely was.

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I think it would be cool if they did this but I no longer trust them to do something interesting with it. It will be something on the nose and emotionally driven. I would much rather them use Azem to totally subvert our expectations and introduce an entirely new story element.

have to hard agree our adventures need new travel companions its okay to see the scions once in awhile like in cameo's like how uriager did in a seasonal event or thancred being apart of the eden raids etc thats fine but there is no more need for them to follow us around everywhere we go from here on out and sure they can also incorporate them in other ways since they are our contacts it would be fine we need to call upon them to solve a difficult problem but they shouldn't be the main focus and honestly thats one of the good things i can say about Dawntrail is that for the most parts the scions took a backseat an let us do our own thing with characters that needed the spotlight most in this expansion story.

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Originally Posted by Lyth

I'm not really a fan of how quickly they've been burning through regions recently. Consider the number of expansions we got out of Aldenard alone. We don't need to do an entire continent in one expansion.

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Yeah I kinda agree. These are massive continents and they are finished far too quickly.
There is no real breathing room for them to actually grow.

That's also why the ARR zones are so full of things. They were explored slowlyy over many quests. Ishgard probably wouldn't have been that good if we didn't learned and saw it in ARR already.
It's sometimes like a checklist they want to get over with. Higher and faster every time.
On the other hand I never did get the hype around Corvos. For me it has no real significance.

On topic:
Tbh the story can go anywhere from here.
My guess is that the key will be used to allow shard shinengans. It may be used to connect the first and the thirteen and give us more of the void in it's more original state.
One thing the void questline was great was showing that a flooded but otherwise not rejoined shard can still have it's architecture.
The first also could get a new zone in that regard if only for some sidequests.

Other then that. Yoshida said in an interview that just because a shard was rejoined doesn't mean some off it's people can't flee to another shard.
Maybe there is a shard out there acting like some kind of refugee camp or library to not forget the different cultures.
Not forgetting civilizations has been a big theme for some time now and what I personally think will be a focus from now on onward.

We may find such a shard or some space inbetween and actually learn what cultures were lost in the rejoinings.
One thing I thought DT wanted to tell was how important different cultures are and I think that would be a good way to tackle that.

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Originally Posted by ShadowyZero

have to hard agree our adventures need new travel companions its okay to see the scions once in awhile like in cameo's like how uriager did in a seasonal event or thancred being apart of the eden raids etc thats fine but there is no more need for them to follow us around everywhere we go from here on out and sure they can also incorporate them in other ways since they are our contacts it would be fine we need to call upon them to solve a difficult problem but they shouldn't be the main focus and honestly thats one of the good things i can say about Dawntrail is that for the most parts the scions took a backseat an let us do our own thing with characters that needed the spotlight most in this expansion story.

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I'm okay with the Scions getting back together if it's an "Oh crap, the entire planet is in danger" situation like with Endsinger, kind of just have them be the professionals who step in to help when the fate of the world is on the line.

Dawntrail definitely was not one of those situations, and they should really just make sure to introduce new characters who can fill out the trusts in the future, especially since having fresh new party members would add to the novelty of a new expansion.

I'd like to see an expansion only have a focus on 1 or 2 scions based on the content and their connection to/experience with the topic, then the others are people you can call on briefly for assistance if something falls into their area of expertise(can also call on non-scion friends and connections as well if it's in their wheelhouse, like cid). And cycle them around, and add some new people to meet.

Just don't make the new character follow me around the whole damn expansion.

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I often wonder if SE or CBIII have a common understanding or goal as to what audience they are attempting to appeal to.

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A diverse variety. Therefore, it's hard to please everyone.

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why does it seem that a significant amount of the dialogue is being written with a pre-teen audience in mind?

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Companies are eager to appeal to "younger people" nowadays. It's quite clear because Yoshi-P has talked about this a lot.

But the truth is, it's not a problem - there are places where I see people mention their age and it's a wide variety ranging from 18 to even 50. But there are plenty of young people getting into this game and always have been. It doesn't seem to be the issue they are portraying it as. Yes, lots of older people play MMORPGs but younger people get into them too... or at least this one due to its relation to the other FF games, frequent recommendation among content creators and word of mouth (which is a big factor for this game honestly).

Unfortunately, it's just a surface level thing companies seem to worry about, seemingly without sufficient evidence of it being a problem.

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This game is 10 years old and requires a monthly subscription so I'd say it's pretty safe to assume most players are at least old enough to have their own debit card.

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Technically, the game can be played by people younger than that, but in practice I don't think the game appeals to people that young and the debit card thing and how expensive it is makes it difficult for them as well, when they don't have an income yet.

However, since the Free Trial was expanded from level 35 to level 60 and then 70, this has likely been changing somewhat. Because going to level 35 was useless and virtually prevented people playing below 18, whereas now you can actually play up to 70 endlessly without having a debit card, and that gives you access to actual content unlike 35.

But what of Dawntrail? A free trial player cannot even play Dawntrail so that isn't a very useful reason to target it to them unless they are thinking extremely long-term, to the day when the free trial includes Dawntrail.

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I think many of us were under the impression that Main Story Quests would feature more active participation from the player.

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I wasn't expecting this. This is just how the game is... lots of cutscenes. I did think we should have been able to do an instanced duty where we fire with the train cannons, but they did it as a cutscene instead.

I do appreciate the RPG elements they've added though, such as having NPCs follow you, riding with NPCs, being required to follow an NPC and keep up with them or follow them in secret, optional dialogue, being able to climb ladders. I like these little things and I believe they used these elements to replace what would have otherwise been instanced duties in the past.

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We were shown CB3's potential for creating interesting gameplay scenarios within the confines of an MMO with Metal Gear Thancred, Freaky Friday Zenos, and numerous instanced battles to break up the monotonous "talk to _____" objectives.

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Or In From The Cold. Remember the backlash? Maybe that scared them away from doing them.

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There is, in my opinion, an unfulfilled promise in the disbandment of the Scions of the Seventh Dawn. What are they doing here?

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From what I saw Yoshi-P say prior to Dawntrail release, he is aware people are tired of them but there are also people attached to different scions, so it's hard to decide what to do. But he said something along the lines of he'd see what characters people wanted to spend more time with after the expansion is released.

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Why cheapen these characters with continued purposeless presence?

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Part of it is having enough people for certain duties to have Duty Support. There was a purpose though. It involves information that only Sharlayan experts had and they're all Sharlayan experts. It also involved people with knowledge of holding the portal open, which they are about the most trustworthy people we have for that.

If we went to the Thirteenth, we'd definitely find another portal back. We can't be quite so certain of this when going elsewhere. It would have probably been alright when it had been open this whole time for years, but it's hard to be absolutely certain you'll get back when it's not as common as portals to the void are.

Emergency glass break Meracydia with Krile, Erenville and Estinien

Honestly, I think it would be fine to keep the scions around if they're written well. Specifically they need to be something more than The Scions. IMO Heavensward had the best party dynamics because Alphinaud, Estinien, and Ysayle had different ideologies, opinions, and desires. That meant that scenarios involving them were interesting because you didn't know who was going to get their way. The problem with Dawntrail isn't that the scions are present but that they might as well not be. When five scions are on screen, well, you've got five duplicates of the same point of view. Alphinaud should be pushing Wuk early on to embrace tech like Koana (e.g. if Koana's Hanu Hanu solution had been not just simpler but more effective), and he should be cautioning Wuk to not be naive based on past experience with statecraft, and probably Wuk should get frustrated and blow up at him at some point and drive him to switch sides to Koana temporarily. Stuff like that. As it is there's no point for Alphinaud to be in the story.

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Originally Posted by Jeeqbit

A diverse variety. Therefore, it's hard to please everyone.
Companies are eager to appeal to "younger people" nowadays. It's quite clear because Yoshi-P has talked about this a lot.

But the truth is, it's not a problem - there are places where I see people mention their age and it's a wide variety ranging from 18 to even 50. But there are plenty of young people getting into this game and always have been. It doesn't seem to be the issue they are portraying it as. Yes, lots of older people play MMORPGs but younger people get into them too... or at least this one due to its relation to the other FF games, frequent recommendation among content creators and word of mouth (which is a big factor for this game honestly).

Unfortunately, it's just a surface level thing companies seem to worry about, seemingly without sufficient evidence of it being a problem.
Technically, the game can be played by people younger than that, but in practice I don't think the game appeals to people that young and the debit card thing and how expensive it is makes it difficult for them as well, when they don't have an income yet.

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This blows my mind tbh. I admit I'm on the older side these days but I remember when I was a teenager I was enthralled by complex darker story-lines in movies and books. Young people aren't imbeciles, they LIKE heavy stuff that they can think about. So dumbing the story down for "young people" is just as insulting for them as it is for us older types.

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Originally Posted by GutiGhost

First and foremost, I often wonder if SE or CBIII have a common understanding or goal as to what audience they are attempting to appeal to. The game has shown itself to be at it's best when a balance is struck between serious/relatable themes and an accessible/joyous Fantasy aesthetic. So why does it seem that a significant amount of the dialogue is being written with a pre-teen audience in mind? It's not only irritating to have every emotion, thought, and lesson spelled out for us with all the nuance of a 9 year old who just learned what empathy is, it is unimmersive and frankly jarring when juxtaposed with the recurring atrocities or disasters we face every expansion. This game is 10 years old and requires a monthly subscription so I'd say it's pretty safe to assume most players are at least old enough to have their own debit card. I'm not asking for an existential dilemma at the level of the Ea with every expansion, just a general awareness from the writing team that a ven diagram of this fanbase and Bluey's would not be a perfect circle.

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Yeah thats what I thought too, the story and dialogue is written for kids all of the sudden

I still have cringe when I recalled Wuk woke me up from sleep just to bring me to the rooftop and proclaim 'I like peas'. And proceeded to shout 'I like peas!!!'

What in the actual f- :confused: :confused:

To the library, in search of a better story.