Dawntrail's MSQ story is a disaster and waste of potential. [full spoilers]

[Dulcia]

For Zarool Ja i felt there is a lot of unexplained stuff , Like when the Vilagarmanda broke loose, He actually assisted the fight sort of showing that he is not just a cold fighting machine, if they wanted him to be the main antagonist it could have been better written like he could have been the 1 to strike a bargain with Bakool Jaja to free the Vilagarmanda and when he claims to be Dawnservant he will give promises. *Noticed the respond he given to the random citizen which beg for better lands*

Bakool Jaja has potential with a better redemption arc at a later stage.

Wuk Lamat is too overwhelming dont need to explain much.

The whole 7 feat contest felt a bit out of placed and could have been better paced

When facing Vilagarmanda, honestly i felt nothing.

The dungeon which have the 4 teams racing to the top could maybe have a time limit with some mechanics to catch up from being slowed down by the other participants.

The scions are like celebrities you invite just to show their faces on a red carpet event.

There was definitely no stakes with Vilagarmanda. This monster did nothing after being released and felt like a non-issue, it didn't even kill the guard over the prison.

[Larirawiel]

I've found more confusing how bad Vilagarmanda's prison was. One of the most dangerous entities of the zone and you can free it with only two fireballs? And later, it had a random mob feeling. You just kill it in a raid and no more Vilagarmanda. -.-





Cheers

[HighlanderClone]

Second: the principle how the Golden City works. They steal souls from the living and use them to recreate a materialized version of the Eternals. Buuuut, it is WAY too complicated and risky to achieve it and clearly violates the principle of parsimony. Because since the memories of the Eternals are saved in a computer, they could easily create a completely virtual world in the computer itself. And the funny thing is, it happens in the last dungeon of the expansion. We upload our memories/soul into the computer to overcome the protection systems of this computer system to shut it down. So the creation of a fully virtualized world for the Eternal's memories is possible and the soul theft makes no sense.

This is a good insight.

I've found more confusing how bad Vilagarmanda's prison was. One of the most dangerous entities of the zone and you can free it with only two fireballs? And later, it had a random mob feeling. You just kill it in a raid and no more Vilagarmanda. -.-





Cheers

And this too.

I honestly really liked the 4th zone. Just you and Erenville (no Wuk thank god..) there in a down to earth wild west themed area getting up to no good. It was a much needed break from the first half of the expansion, but I could be biased.

To be honest I think the fourth zone would be far better suited as a first zone. With how robust the servers are now there's also really no point in splitting the MSQ anymore.

In a vacuum I would've liked the fourth zone but after the tedium that is the first three zones by the time I got to the fourth zone I was just bored out of my mind.

To be honest we should've been introduced to Erenville's family at Lv90, so that Cahucia's eventual death feels more resonant for us. This should've been Krile and Erenville's expansion. IMO the main arc should be us trying to investigate what Galuf did at the Golden City, piecing together clues from the places we visit, while the battle for the throne was in the background that we interact with once in a while. This way we get exposed to Wuk Lamat, Koana, and Zoraal Ja in equal measure, and more importantly flesh out Koana and Zoraal Ja more. Putting it in the background would honestly make Wuk Lamat much more bearable. I honestly would've rather focused on Krile and Erenville.

[jameseoakes]

I've found more confusing how bad Vilagarmanda's prison was. One of the most dangerous entities of the zone and you can free it with only two fireballs? And later, it had a random mob feeling. You just kill it in a raid and no more Vilagarmanda. -.-





Cheers

Glad I was the only person who thought that, after the amount they hyped it up it kinda ammounted to nothing

[Puremallace]

I've found more confusing how bad Vilagarmanda's prison was. One of the most dangerous entities of the zone and you can free it with only two fireballs? And later, it had a random mob feeling. You just kill it in a raid and no more Vilagarmanda. -.-





Cheers

How about the Golden City had literally had noone watching it and Galool Ja turned it into a game to pick a successor?

[CosmoBabylonia]

The best line I've heard so far in this MSQ is "But we don't sell Sabotender here". That's how low the bar is so far holy shit.

[HighlanderClone]

JP forums are also apparently not very happy about the story.

https://forum.square-enix.com/ffxiv/...81%9F%E3%80%82

(28 likes)


[Golden Legacy] I fell asleep halfway through the story.

Just my opinion.

It might be just me, but there was almost no battle until the first instanced dungeon, and I just watched cut scenes. Then I got sleepy and fell asleep. (lol)

Coach Anzai! I want to play the game.

--------------------------------------------

There are positive threads too: https://forum.square-enix.com/ffxiv/...82%B7%E3%83%BC

But it's like 3 or 4 likes lol...

[Singularity]

Just to add my own frustration regarding the last zone in particular. I have never at any point in the story all the way back to ARR disagreed more with the actions the game makes my character take. You arrive in the Golden City, and within five minutes you're approached by Cahciua, requesting that you erase all of the Endless because she thinks their existence is "wrong".

Internally, my response was "Who the hell are you to decide that for everyone here?", and if you tell her no (or to be more specific "There has to be another way!"), the game hand-waves your objection away with one or two lines of dialogue and then puts you back at the "What will you say?" screen with the "no" option removed. At that point I just skipped the rest of the cutscene, because I'm not going to give the writer the satisfaction of saying "I will do as you ask" like I'm OK with this plan in the slightest. That felt patronising as hell.

The game spends 90% of the story pushing a point of understanding and acceptance and preservation of other cultures, and then when the time comes to test that principle regarding a culture that is outside the relatively "normal" ones you've met earlier, railroads you into siding with the argument that you should wipe out all of these people because they're "not natural".



Side note: I'm aware that these people will most likely die after we stop Sphene anyway, and I do agree that she should be stopped. That doesn't mean I'm willing to execute them all here and now without even trying to find an alternative solution (and considering Cahciua's opinion of the Endless I doubt she tried very hard when she says there isn't one). Isn't killing one people to save another exactly what Sphene wants to do?

[MoonPhaseAlpha]

I'm disappointed with how the last zone looks after the MSQ is done... I get the reasoning behind it with the story and all, but it's so desolate looking and depressing. I really don't enjoy going into that zone.

[Shaedhen]

Great summary of everything wrong with the MSQ in this x-pac.

To me, it feels like the new writer(s) were given a huge toolbox with lots of characters and lore already established but they decided to just put them aside in a very arrogant way and went like : "Look, this is my character (Wuk), you're gonna love her because she's the main now, and she's better than everyone else that came before her. As for the story ? Creating something new ? No thanks, I'm gonna show you a speed run of 2.0 -> 6.0, and do it better than it was done the first time."

Except they failed miserably.