Dawntrail: Hopes, expectations and disappointments.

[Raikai]

Dawntrail: The start of a new adventure.

Expectations:
My main expectation is that this will not stay as a 'happy go lucky' expansion and things will take a turn at some point, possibly with an accidental death of one of the scions. After the high notes in SHB and EW, it feels weird going on a 'summer vacation' expansion.

I honestly feel that this will be the case, either midway, or as a cliffhanger leading to the patch storyline. The whole 'good vibes' seems almost as a smokescreen, and not just that, they really needed something more 'low stakes' to start a brand new arc, since they can't artificially just demote the WoL to the levels of a beginner nobody-adventurer anymore.

Disappointments:
Really have nothing to say here so far, since we have no real information other than the basics, I would say not mentioning an Exploratory Zone was a bit of a disappointment, along with the fact that we are STILL travelling with the Scions after they *cough* "DISBANDED", but there is always JP fanfest for that.

The interview the day after, YP hinted that field operations is something they're considering, so just because it wasn't announced right now doesn't mean it's not coming, there's hopes there as well. I'm also a bit bummed by seeing the Scions again, but I have a weird feeling that their presence might not be lasting, or part of the 'good vibes smokescreen. Also, Krile was stated to get a big role and yet she's nowhere to be seen.

Honestly, right now my biggest expectation is something that is probably content for the JP Fanfest, and it's about the combat system, job homogenization, 2min meta (or the chances they'll take a step back on it) and healer situation.

Second close would be a better overworld. FFXIV's world is just not interesting... The quests are often 'meh' and don't even give XP worth of your time. FATEs are repetitive. Give us secret things to look for, or rare enemies that aren't hunt trains. I think WoW, as flawed as it is, can be a good standard of how to build an interesting overworld.