Feedback: Feeling disappointed by 6.55's narrative, and thus unsure about Dawntrail

[Iscah]

She's still a stranger.

I'm interfering in the politics of something I don't understand for a complete stranger.

What the hell?

I'm more on board because the not-a-stranger guy I worked with previously says that it's important for us to get involved to stop something bad from happening.

[Syln]

They made the very debatable choice to have a whole filler arc instead of fleshing out the introduction to the next expansion and that's what we ended up with : A quick, swept under the rug prologue.

[Iscah]

They made the very debatable choice to have a whole filler arc instead of fleshing out the introduction to the next expansion and that's what we ended up with : A quick, swept under the rug prologue.

I wouldn't have expected any more than this, regardless of what story they chose to tell in the Endwalker patches. Spending multiple patches "fleshing out Dawntrail" months before we get there seems unnecessary.

Female Hrothgar would have been at least part of the hold-up, but they also did have hints at the incoming plot all throughout the patches. If they wanted to provide us with more background information than this, they had every opportunity to do so.

Like it or not, this is the story they want to tell us, and I want to hear the whole thing before judging it.

[Jeeqbit]

The main improvement would probably be to not rush the build-up to a new expansion in the second half of the final patch. Somehow and some way it may have been better to try and make one or two of the trials into a dungeon boss so that we could face Zeromus earlier, then spend more of the patches building up to the situation in the New World like we have every other expansion.

Issue 1: Backing a political candidate that we know nothing about

Easy to withdraw our support if we find they are a problem. The point of backing them is to prevent a rival winning who plans to conquer Eorzea the same way the Garleans did with Gyr Abania, Castrum Meridianum and Doma.

nothing about the 3 other contenders for the throne

We know one of them plans to wage war with us. We know one of them involves a bird called Valigarmanda.

Issue 2: Forced to agree?

Well obviously, or the expansion wouldn't happen.

Which was disheartening, because after going through so much together, it felt like these two were supposed to be our friends. And that's not how you treat friends.

I agree. It's also crazy that after going through so much, Thancred thinks he can win against the Warrior of Light in the contest. SE must be well aware of this, so they will most likely explain it to us in Dawntrail, because it obviously doesn't seem logical right now.

Especially considering recent events in the previous expansion. One of my favorite parts of Endwalker was the heart-to-heart that we had with Urianger on the moon, where he reflects with regret on his history of subterfuge.

And now here he is, choosing to keep new secrets from the friend he had that conversation with, instead of being open about it.

I was thinking that too. I don't really care that much that he continues subterfuge, but y'know, to still do it again after being caught is amazing.

It's silly that nobody knows anything about Tural

Well they do know things about Tural. The Great Gubal Library had a book about the city of gold. The library in Old Sharlayan had books about it that we looked at in the MSQ.

Especially when you've got folks like Erinville going to and from there.

Wasn't it implied he was from there as well because of how long he's known Wuk Lamat?

[Kalaam]

Do people actually expect to have the whole plot explained to them like they are 3yo, in advance on top of it or something ?
Yes there is a problem in going to involve ourselves in a succession war, especially of a nation we know next to nothing about. And that's why the WoL can confesse their doubts about it. But consider this:

1- We are told that within this competition there is at least one side that might become a threat to our own country. Makes sense to at least go and check out how true that is and be the judge of that.

2- Litteraly nothing stops the WoL or the Scions to back away and leave if they so chose, if things aren't what they were told to be. (ie: Wuk Lamat deceiving them for any reason)

3- What we know of Tural, from books wrote by explorers like Galuf, so far aligns with what Wuk Lamat says: the current king unified the different clans and created an era of peace that, apparently, was quite good given the reports we found in the library.
So, based on available informations, the WoL has no reason not to help Wuk Lamat or at least go in person see what this is all about.

Obviously there is going to be twists and revelations, maybe Wuk Lamat has had her reputation as one of the heirs soiled in some way and her claim is a childish way to regain honor or some perception of parental acceptance while another candidate is more fit to become king.
Maybe the war mongering candidate isn't as bad as we are told and another one is much more dangerous. We don't know, that's why we're going there.

If you don't think the WoL should go well then, just don't buy dawntrail then, or just play old content with the new jobs

[Naoki34]

I would have preferred to be on the side of Urianger and Thancred with Y'shtola as a bonus. And Graha'Tia the fanboy, that's fine.

I usually like Alphinaud and Alisae when everyone's around. But in Garlemald, I wanted to strangle them...

But then, Krile waited until the end of Endwalker 6.55 to pull out a style she knew, in addition to arriving late to the fight that by the scenarium, she "saves" us?

In previous expansions, we were treated to a long preview of the new jobs, but here it's just a last-minute arrival, which is a shame. I wasn't expecting the second part of MSQ to be long, but here it's the bare minimum.

[vexis58]

Issue 1: Backing a political candidate that we know nothing about

This was my primary reaction to this story. Wuk Lamat feels very impulsive and immature, all she cared about when I "got to know her" was killing wild animals so she could eat them. Not at any point did I get the impression that she'd make a good leader, but it feels like the story is heading down a railroad of us watching her grow as a person so she becomes a good leader by the time we succeed at putting her there. My character though should have no reason to believe that's going to happen, no reason to support her over the others.

My primary issue is that she straight up tells us that there are FOUR contenders to the throne, and while I totally get wanting to stop the warmongering one from winning, it bothers me that we're not even given the option of asking about the other two in order to have any idea why we should pick her over them. If it were only two options, a matter of Wuk Lamat over war, okay sign me up, but it's not.

None of the other scions can give a good reason for supporting her specifically either! None of them appear to even be in it for the contest. Krile wants to find the city of gold and the twins want to go on vacation to research Tuliyollal's society. But in order to do that, they pledge their support to Wuk Lamat? Why?

Fingers crossed something crazy happens and the story goes off these rails almost immediately. Because the layout as presented has me worried.

[Jatoi]

Do people actually expect to have the whole plot explained to them like they are 3yo, in advance on top of it or something ?
Yes there is a problem in going to involve ourselves in a succession war, especially of a nation we know next to nothing about. And that's why the WoL can confesse their doubts about it. But consider this:

1- We are told that within this competition there is at least one side that might become a threat to our own country. Makes sense to at least go and check out how true that is and be the judge of that.

2- Litteraly nothing stops the WoL or the Scions to back away and leave if they so chose, if things aren't what they were told to be. (ie: Wuk Lamat deceiving them for any reason)

3- What we know of Tural, from books wrote by explorers like Galuf, so far aligns with what Wuk Lamat says: the current king unified the different clans and created an era of peace that, apparently, was quite good given the reports we found in the library.
So, based on available informations, the WoL has no reason not to help Wuk Lamat or at least go in person see what this is all about.

Obviously there is going to be twists and revelations, maybe Wuk Lamat has had her reputation as one of the heirs soiled in some way and her claim is a childish way to regain honor or some perception of parental acceptance while another candidate is more fit to become king.
Maybe the war mongering candidate isn't as bad as we are told and another one is much more dangerous. We don't know, that's why we're going there.

If you don't think the WoL should go well then, just don't buy dawntrail then, or just play old content with the new jobs

The issue is the priority that the Void story had taken over this, and given that the patches are spread further apart than previous expacs I don't think it's out-of-line of people to have the desire to familiarize their character with one so important as Wuk Lamat or get more tidbits on what they will be getting into. One or two patches ago would have been decent. This doesn't mean that people want the plot entirely explained to them, just to reassure you because that didn't feel like a rational thing to say. There is an interesting premise with this prologue, just the execution is the thing that is making people wary. After all, Summer is five months away and Endwalker released in 2021.

[Tehmon]

I definitely have a different read on this than a lot of other people it seems. For me, it is made pretty clear that

1) We didn't promise to support Wuk Lamat, we merely mentioned that we'll go with her to Tural for adventuring purposes. Perhaps there was a '' nod '' to backing her up politically that I don't recall, but the dialogue with G'raha and the choices for Wuk Lamat's request seems to imply that we are doing this only for adventure's sake, politics be damned.
2) The ending with Emet-Selch's speech definitely definitely seem to imply that we are Team Erenville, as in let's go seek that Golden City.
3) Even if we agreed to back up Wuk Lamat, there is nothing that says that there can't be shifts regarding who the WoL actually will end up supporting, same with the other scions who are joining the competition, as the story progresses.

I feel like the story is as open as it can be right now, and nothing is definite, perhaps for the first time in a long long while. I'm curious to see where this leads, personally.

[Kalaam]

I aggree having more than one patch of setup would have been very welcome. But people are over-reacting, there is other stuff that deserve more complaints I think.