Dawntrails doesn’t feel like Final Fantasy

[aveyond-dreams]

I'm craving an adventure, a change of pace. I can agree with the sentiment of wanting some actual stakes though, I'd like some build up to it, maybe near the end of Dawntrail.

I'm waiting for the next trailer to get any further opinions on the actual trailers themselves, we didn't really get a whole lot in the teaser, which is to be expected.

The least they could have done is give us an adventure somewhere people actually wanted to go to but with how they let the writing bulldoze 90% of the setting in Endwalker all that's left is the thrilling city of lizards who need the scions to go topple their current regime. It's just so bland and uninspired. At this point I would rather they just completely steal 1:1 settings from other FF games like Besaid or Bevelle from FFX instead of what that trailer and keynote proceded to bore me with.

It's not as if there weren't other more relevant places we could have gone to like Corvos which they kept teasing all expansion only to pull this underwhelming surprise. DT is lacking in basically everything from the base plot they described which we know will have to be carried by the same stagnant characters they refuse to get rid of because of fanservice to the generic jungle.jpeg they copypasted into the New World. Thavnair was already soulless, but this looks even worse.

I've lived in tropical countries for a huge chunk of my life and to see them take all the worst aesthetics and aspects of that and make that into an entire expansion we have to sit through for 3 years before the game might actually go somewhere interesting isn't something that sits right with me. If there are people who really want to visit that as an expansion then I can only assume they've never had to deal with stuff like dengue, blackouts, and all the other wonders of the tropics and developing countries I spent most of my life trying to get out of. That weird bit about how the New World was "non-industrial" or something akin to that also struck me as odd pr speech. If the New World in FFXIV had some kind of Spanish or English colonial aspect maybe it would give those of us who aren't crazy about the city built entirely out of sticks something to be midly excited for, but nothing I've seen so far even comes close to lukewarm.

Japan is also leaning towards that more tropical/warm climate from what I understand so I guess from the JP perspective is similar to my own where we look at stuff like the DT jungles and go "this is boring and gross" and then if you show us something akin to Sanbreque or Ishgard we "wow lets go there" because that's what FF as an escape means to us. This isn't it.

[Zairava]

The least they could have done is give us an adventure somewhere people actually wanted to go to but with how they let the writing bulldoze 90% of the setting in Endwalker all that's left is the thrilling city of lizards who need the scions to go topple their current regime. It's just so bland and uninspired. At this point I would rather they just completely steal 1:1 settings from other FF games like Besaid or Bevelle from FFX instead of what that trailer and keynote proceded to bore me with.

It's not as if there weren't other more relevant places we could have gone to like Corvos which they kept teasing all expansion only to pull this underwhelming surprise. DT is lacking in basically everything from the base plot they described which we know will have to be carried by the same stagnant characters they refuse to get rid of because of fanservice to the generic jungle.jpeg they copypasted into the New World. Thavnair was already soulless, but this looks even worse.

I've lived in tropical countries for a huge chunk of my life and to see them take all the worst aesthetics and aspects of that and make that into an entire expansion we have to sit through for 3 years before the game might actually go somewhere interesting isn't something that sits right with me. If there are people who really want to visit that as an expansion then I can only assume they've never had to deal with stuff like dengue, blackouts, and all the other wonders of the tropics and developing countries I spent most of my life trying to get out of. That weird bit about how the New World was "non-industrial" or something akin to that also struck me as odd pr speech. If the New World in FFXIV had some kind of Spanish or English colonial aspect maybe it would give those of us who aren't crazy about the city built entirely out of sticks something to be midly excited for, but nothing I've seen so far even comes close to lukewarm.

FFX is likely number 1 for my favorite Final Fantasy in the series next to FF VIII, so tbh I wouldn't mind going to Spira for some reason. (forgive me I still have to go through the pixel remasters)

Dark fantasy settings is bar none my favorite kind of setting for games (I've sunk an insurmountable amount of hours into the Souls games and Bloodborne), and I do wish they'd tap into it more myself. Heavensward and Shadowbringers have been my favorite expansions by far story wise.

[Theodric]

I think there would be less criticism of Dawntrail if the game had properly explored all the aspects of the story that it build up over time. For example, I think Garlemald was such a large part of the setting that it really should have had its own expansion. I think it's very strange that it's considered fine for people to demand that the darker elements are removed from the game but raising an eyebrow at the slice of life and 'humour' is somehow a line in the sand never to be crossed.

I have never really cared about the Scions. They're some of the most preachy and hypocritical protagonists that I've encountered in a game to date. Not to mention given that they're all scholars almost all of them come across as very dorky and socially awkward - many games will allow the player the agency to tell a character such as G'raha to back off.

I think the game needs to do more to account for a broader variety of personal tastes, particularly where characters with different opinions, beliefs and personality types are concerned.

[aveyond-dreams]

I think the game needs to do more to account for a broader variety of personal tastes, particularly where characters with different opinions, beliefs and personality types are concerned.

Instead of doing just that it seems that they just want to double down on everything that made Endwalker difficult to sit through and push those of us who aren't in favour of the Scions going around preaching from region to region to just go away. It's unbearably dull even moreso when the underlying design philosophy for FFXIV's world nowadays is oh look this irl region is here so lets make it look like that instead of trying to be creative like they used to.

[Aword3213]

Probably should have stayed on that hiatus to be honest. You don't seem welcome here XD.

People who tend to break their own promises don't get received well in any communities.

[Jeeqbit]

I've lived in tropical countries for a huge chunk of my life and to see them take all the worst aesthetics and aspects of that and make that into an entire expansion we have to sit through for 3 years before the game might actually go somewhere interesting isn't something that sits right with me. If there are people who really want to visit that as an expansion then I can only assume they've never had to deal with stuff like dengue, blackouts, and all the other wonders of the tropics and developing countries I spent most of my life trying to get out of.

To be fair, they stereotype all the cultures including their own. They stereotyped the UK as if the house of commons and house of lords made everything perfect, they stereotyped japanese culture with ninjas and samurai, they probably did some stereotyping with Thavnair, and so you can bet that with tropical countries being stereotyped as ideal holiday destinations that they will do that as well and ignore things like blackouts.

If they can stereotype their own country like they did with Kugane then I'm alright with it. If they hadn't been able to stereotype themselves then I would see it as rather unfair.

Still, there's not a lot of interest that I can imagine in a tropical location. Hullbreaker Isle for an expansion doesn't particularly excite me. So hopefully the extended trailers will show something more interesting.

[Snorky]

Didn't they also showcase a region akin to the SA andes Mts. With a smallish race rather like natives in SA or am I wrong? Or was it more like India? Omg did India change the name of their country yet?

[Zairava]

I think there would be less criticism of Dawntrail if the game had properly explored all the aspects of the story that it build up over time. For example, I think Garlemald was such a large part of the setting that it really should have had its own expansion. I think it's very strange that it's considered fine for people to demand that the darker elements are removed from the game but raising an eyebrow at the slice of life and 'humour' is somehow a line in the sand never to be crossed.

I have never really cared about the Scions. They're some of the most preachy and hypocritical protagonists that I've encountered in a game to date. Not to mention given that they're all scholars almost all of them come across as very dorky and socially awkward - many games will allow the player the agency to tell a character such as G'raha to back off.

I think the game needs to do more to account for a broader variety of personal tastes, particularly where characters with different opinions, beliefs and personality types are concerned.

Garlemald was definitely my favorite portion of Endwalker, but it was simultaneously one of the most disappointing. I expected so much more, but as soon as I remembered that it's just a zone, I kind of seen that my desire for a fully fleshed out garlemald expansion would never come to fruition.

They did have a chance with the patch story, but it didn't really do much, honestly. If nothing else I'd like to see something similar to ishgard restoration or Doman Restoration where we can all put in effort to rebuild it.

I'm of similar mind concerning the scions, I don't not care about them...but dear lord I really want some new faces to be around for a change.

[Tizzy_Tormentor]

What makes an FF game 'feel' like FF? The original FF game was literally just a DnD game by another name, some games feature contemporary settings, medieval settings, sci-fi settings, high fantasy settings, etc, with many of them sharing a few common threads that link them together, such chocobos, moogles, classes, etc.

One of the most consistent things about FF is how much it reinvents the wheel each iteration, from setting to combat to levelling. We've had games where we run around a medieval world looking for magic rocks to driving around the American Midwest in a luxury car that can fly to going to the moon in a mechanical space whale to beat up an alien who is actually the main villain.

A game 'not feeling like an FF' is an empty statement, I'm sure there were people who would have said the exact same thing about Final Fantasy VII when it first came out, now its what most people think of when they think Final Fantasy.

[Atelier-Bagur]

Theyve been teasing us lands and continents beyond Eorzea, Ilsabard and Othard so us finally visiting the New World is both refreshing and appropriate for me.

Im a fan of South American culture so Im personally interested in it. I honestly didnt want for us to have another Shadowbringers 2.0 already. Let us explore the entirety of Etheriys first