By far the most boring and disappointing expansion trailer this game has had

[Silver-Strider]

For the most part, I give the trailer about a 5/10

The Scion being there at all kind of brought it down for me. I get it, their our friends and all that but I really, REALLY wanted to break away from them for an expansion but even going to a new continent doesn't seem to be far enough to escape them. If they're just there for a side quest or 2 and don't play a big part in the story, I'll be fine with that but if they're there to be expositional center pieces to the next big thing, I'll be more than a little upset.

The music, which I know is only a demo piece of the actual theme, feels a bit....out of place with the vibe I got from the trailer. It seemed like a relaxing summer vacation to Mesoamerica, complete with Mayan themed structures and all but the music didn't really sell that to me. I won't say the music was bad, just that it didn't match the trailer.

I am going to criticize that one of the new jobs might be yet another Sword Class though. I don't care if he has a gun or whatever as a secondary weapon but can we please move away from swords. There are other weapons for a melee job to have. Where's the Bo-staff, Mace, Spear/Shield? I know WAR is seen as the Unga Bunga job but can I get a nice thick club that I can bash someone's face in?

[Shurrikhan]

People have been asking for a low-stakes adventure for fun. Lo and behold, a low-stakes adventure for fun. We're on a new continent with new characters to meet, new places to explore, and new mysteries to uncover. The trailer is teasing plenty enough to sink my teeth into.

I've seen people ask for "Less prior story weight and world/reality/universe-destroying stakes," but I don't think I've seen anyone ask for an outright zero stakes tropical vacation? Do they meet in secret and have the numbers necessary to stifle leaks?

You can really tell who wasn't around for the Stormblood teaser trailer, huh?

To be fair, I was considerably more hyped for the Stormblood teaser trailer. Wasn't any Shadowbringers teaser, but the setting, vibe, the preparation for war below (the context and stakes of which were already laid out by the time the teaser dropped), etc., easily rivaled or surpassed Heavensward's for me.

"Hey, guys, we're finally going to take on the Garlean Empire, starting from that final citystate of Eorzea that we'd been itching to see" just had a lot more on-the-nose promise to me than "We're going to that one Gleamer's home island for a vacation and Estinien has upped his dad vibe."

If we follow the plot pyramid, Endwalker was the Climax, Dawntrail is the start of the Falling Action. It's not impossible for there to be a second Rising Action but we have to suffer through the falling action first to get there.

...What the heck were these post-launch patches then? Unless we're to say that some Voidsent and plated cyclops man are more climactic than the End of Days?

I would hope 6.x would already include its resolution in itself rather than the game taking a literal expansion-long break from any story height.

7.0's story should be 7.0's story, not just a braking zone for 6.x.

I am going to criticize that one of the new jobs might be yet another Sword Class though. I don't care if he has a gun or whatever as a secondary weapon but can we please move away from swords.

Would it be salvageable to you if that were somehow just the retracted form of an articulated whip-blade? (Yeah, that's unlikely, but hey, one could hope.)

More importantly, though, that blade may be a holdover from the simple fact that he was a Paladin last expansion (the lack of shield itself perhaps symbolic), with him again transitioning to the new job during the trailer (see also HW's, ShB's, and possibly StB's trailers). It may be that the first glimpse we get of that new job... is that basically no glimpse at all on that ship.

[Rolder50]

This is actually true. The community has been wanting low-stakes slice of life adventure for a long time and it grew even more widespread as of patch 6.1 with Newfound Adventures. Which didn't deliver the way people had hoped it would.

If we follow the plot pyramid, Endwalker was the Climax, Dawntrail is the start of the Falling Action. It's not impossible for there to be a second Rising Action but we have to suffer through the falling action first to get there.

I'm not sure about that. I'd say defeating the Endsinger was the Climax, and anything after that was the falling action. Golbez is a filler arc, you could say he has his own pyramid, but overall isn't impactful.

The trailer would be the Exposition for the new arc, not the Falling Action.

[elioaiko]

I'm going to give 7.0 a chance story-wise. I've been wanting low-stakes adventure as well. The OG story was a chore to keep up at times, it's about time we just have fun, or go explore undiscovered mysteries.

Ik they're going to start a new multi-expansion storyline. We're exploring some ruins and the new world, so that's interesting at the very least.

What I annoyed about is the samey content cycle.

- I feel like the amount of content we've lost doesn't match the content we've been given.

- I miss having many than 2 dungeons in expert to do. Though it is a hallway simulator, I would like to see more than just story dungeons.

- Every expansion so far has had problematic job design choices, I have zero expectations for DT.

I might be in the minority (or not) but I actually enjoyed Eureka/Bozja. Tomestone grind is so lazy IMO, at least HW kept it interesting.

[Lieri]

SE really knows how to get casual players excited. All they need to do is show Graha eating taco and the players squeal, calling it a good trailer already.

Which is why Im not surprised the game has catered more to casuals. Im not hardcore my any means but I do want to struggle in my mmos and expect badass cinematics. Maybe it will happen during the full reveal, who knows.

[TaleraRistain]

That's not the expansion trailer. That's just a teaser. Of course it's going to come up short compared to the full trailers for other expansions.

[Zanarkand-Ronso]

SE really knows how to get casual players excited. All they need to do is show Graha eating taco and the players squeal,

Dam Straight, that Taco looked Delicious!
SE Delivers and makes me want food, and to see G'raha live the Happy life he couldnt back on the 1st.
He paid his Dues, let our boy LIVE.

[Batbrat]

GRAHA TACO xDDDDDDDDDDDD !!!!!!!!! OMG!!!!!!!!! Did you SEE?? O.o ?? The way GRAHA BIT THE TACO xDDD LMAOOOOOOOO omg EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE graha TACOOO!!! They did it. They beat the burger!!! GRAHA BURGER??? NO. GRAHA TACO!!!!!! MMMMMMMM. EEEEEEE!!!! BIIIGG BITE! :3 xD !!! GRAHA CAN HAS....TACO?? KYAAAAAAAAA~!!!

That aside, it was clearly a fan servicey version and not the real full trailer as that is how it usually goes. It's unfortunate that the characters are so locked into these predictable set patterns of eyeroll worthy behavior that nothing about them really feels cool anymore. I remember thinking Graha was interesting, back when he wore the cloak. Now he takes a bite of something and thats his entire personality with 300 fanarts of it to back it up. Even Estinien is slowly being stripped of his coolness, with his now constant wandering around looking confused and overpaying gimmick. Hopefully the full version of the trailer will be way more intense. More action, more tension, more heart racing moments please!! It's ok to have cutesy moments, but lets not let the cutesy things be all the story has! Its bad enough every patch has forced Hildebrand content now...

[Absurdity]

Shadowbringers and Endwalker both had great trailers and what did they actually give us?
If the gameplay and content in Dawntrail are good they could show us scrubbing toilets in the trailer for all I care.

[Reap00]

I can't be the only one thinking this. What happened to this game after Shadowbringers?

I don't agree. I think the trailer is perfect for what it is trying to portray. We are moving to a new story and things are more pleasant/light hearted. We need this. Enough of all the doom and gloom of shadowbringers and endwalker. I guarantee we will still have our evil antagonists but at least we can go back to being adventurers while that happens. Also keep in mind you have seen half the trailer.