Unenthused About Dawntrail

[Boa-Noah]

Did I miss some datamine something or other that showed off the story? A lot of people in this thread mention that the story specifically isn't interesting to them but what even is the story?! As far as I know we're going to the 'new world' to look for a golden city and compete in some kind of competition to put someone on the throne or something but that's not the entire story, like, people know that right? Am I out of the loop or are people seriously going "Nah this expansion sucks" just from the rough plot thread we've been shown so far?

[Valkyrie_Lenneth]

Did I miss some datamine something or other that showed off the story? A lot of people in this thread mention that the story specifically isn't interesting to them but what even is the story?! As far as I know we're going to the 'new world' to look for a golden city and compete in some kind of competition to put someone on the throne or something but that's not the entire story, like, people know that right? Am I out of the loop or are people seriously going "Nah this expansion sucks" just from the rough plot thread we've been shown so far?

Welcome to the forums.

[FakeCirka]

A lot of people in this thread mention that the story specifically isn't interesting to them but what even is the story?!

Welcome to the forums.

I don't think people are trying to say the story sucks or anything (unless I missed something), just that the theme of it doesn't seem interesting off the bat. I also feel that way, but I am still interested in experiencing it, and who knows, maybe (let's be real, probably) I'll really enjoy it too. Going into EW from ShB the story's theme seemed really cool, because I had all the context of the previous Xpacs. This new story is not going to continue it, and because of that along with the unknowns of what's to come, it just doesn't seem too interesting to me yet.

I can't speak for everyone, but as someone who feels "w/e" about the new storyline from what I do know about it, I am not writing it off completely, I am just not excited for it as much as I was with the other xpacs. I'm sure it'll be good though.

Like I said, I am mostly hyped to want to log into the game every day again, because it's def my favorite MMO, just not hyped about anything specific in the new xpac yet, and that's okay, not all content is gonna make me super excited, but it will excite others and that's good.

[Rudje]

Did I miss some datamine something or other that showed off the story? A lot of people in this thread mention that the story specifically isn't interesting to them but what even is the story?! As far as I know we're going to the 'new world' to look for a golden city and compete in some kind of competition to put someone on the throne or something but that's not the entire story, like, people know that right? Am I out of the loop or are people seriously going "Nah this expansion sucks" just from the rough plot thread we've been shown so far?

Some of the locations previewed would need to be introduced carefully or they would end up landing in an extremely jarring way which can be very offputting, and some people (including me) just found 6.x to be such a disappointment that the threads presented in the minimal lead-up to 7.0 we have just aren't engaging because of it, and yet other people just aren't into the msq as a core reason to want to play further. I personally didn't really enjoy EW in the end since it ended up throwing out or rushing most of the plot threads I personally found actually engaging with any hope I had of them actually being addressed utterly crushed over the course of 6.x, and the DT trailer has an emphasis on characters that I have broadly not really been invested in, so I don't exactly have much to anticipate in DT in terms of story at this point.

[Jeeqbit]

Am I out of the loop or are people seriously going "Nah this expansion sucks" just from the rough plot thread we've been shown so far?

They are saying that based on the trailer, but if they looked at the information beyond that (such as videos, screenshots and art of the areas we're getting) and pickup on the FF9 references, it's actually going to be really good. Just a lot of people will only see the trailer. The launch trailer will most likely be the real trailer for this expansion that shows off what the expansion is really about, but people forget about the launch trailers usually.

Others are saying it'll not be good based on the content and mechanics rather than the story, but the content and mechanics are mostly going to be the same as the last 4 expansions so it's kinda just, if you're expecting a formula that's been the same since Heavensward/Stormblood to be different, it's expecting something that hasn't ever happened in the game's life, you know?

It seems our journey to the New World is driven solely by the Warrior of Light's aimlessness, prompted by a chance request from a stranger to aid in a competition whom we know nothing about.

We did learn more information, actually:

1. The New World was one of the places we were advised to explore in Ultima Thule.
2. The competition involves a competitor who intends to wage war with the eastern nations now that Garlemald is out of the picture. Getting this information out of Wuk made the situation far more urgent.
3. Galuf Baldesion was meant to handle something in the New World, but can't because he's no longer around due to the incident. Krile thought it a good opportunity to bring this letter she found up. Out of respect, we can sort it out in their stead.

I don't think it's surprising that some people aren't hyped considering that we've gotten basically zero story hooks to pull us in for DT.

I agree that these hooks being sudden and done at the tail end of the patch cycle made them feel rushed.

The devs even realized this and dropped the Solution 9 preview just to get people wondering WTF is going on.

To be fair, they usually show us most of the areas except the last one, spoil the early part of the plot (but not the end nor the last boss nor the setbacks) and they usually put a lot of contextless spoilers in the launch trailer. Always remember the Shadowbringers launch trailer spoiled the primals discussion from the Qitana Ravel though.

[TaleraRistain]

I agree that these hooks being sudden and done at the tail end of the patch cycle made them feel rushed.

I'm holding judgment on that one for now because I remember how utterly baffled we all were with the rather rushed leadup to Shadowbringers and why the heck we were going this route suddenly and then it all made perfect sense.