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

[bitterhorn]

but to think that we wouldn't have considered other options and went straight to 'this is an abomination' and 'they aren't actually people' is far too close to genocide and the mindset of Emet-Selch then I'm comfortable with. Granted, I was sick to my stomach from the MSQ before that point and was largely skipping all dialogue and cutscenes but even still, it did not sit well with me.

exactly; this could've been a powerful story beat, the moment our YEARS of experience [LIVING THE CONSEQUENCES OF] & [LITERALLY FIGHTING AGAINST PEOPLE WITH] THIS EXACT SAME ENDS-JUSTIFY-THE-MEANS MENTALITY actually proved relevant and we finally stepped forward & were given some agency in how this on-rails narrative ACTUALLY RESOLVED. But of course not. of COURSE not.

It's like the cumulative themes and tone of this entire saga until this point (up to and including EW patch content, even) are reduced to irrelevant set dressing in someone's FFXIV fanfic.

[lolnotacat]

It's like the cumulative themes and tone of this entire saga until this point (up to and including EW patch content, even) are reduced to irrelevant set dressing in someone's FFXIV fanfic.

You're saying the Wuk can't hear, feel, and think her way to becoming the hokage?

[bitterhorn]

You're saying the Wuk can't hear, feel, and think her way to becoming the hokage?

ORIGINAL HOKAGE DO NOT STEAL

well, that and i'm saying "I feel like this lazy storytelling is disrespectful to the previous work whose strength it draws its audience from, and cheapens the emotional connection w/said work that paved its way in advance"

Hell, I'll amend my last comment about throwing "previous" thematic lodestars in the trash, because we don't even have to go back to EW patch content, come to think of it, we just have to jump around a few hours IN THIS SAME EXPANSION to reach that level of internal inconsistency - like what was the point of the lvl 98-99 MSQ emphasizing comforting civilians and what a big monster Zoraal Ja was for being willing to sacrifice "his own people" and then turning around a couple of hours later and being like "just kidding they're not real people, let's make an executive decision to end their collective existence".

And by the "us" in that "let's" I mean the writers, not US, obviously. We're just here to watch this anime filler arc and occasionally press the Netflix "did you fall asleep or are you still watching" button.

[Splorch]

There are 2 main points that killed this expansion for me already-

1- I didn't connect to Wuk Lamat as a character. I didn't feel like I really mentored her. I didn't feel like I helped her become better. To be honest, I felt like I needed to see her fall. She needed some point of true failure, so that I, as a side character, could help to build her back up, but her failings were so minor and were immediately resolved, often with a single line of dialog that she just felt like a one dimensional main hero.

2- We became the Ascians. To the Ascians, who were near god-like in ability, we mere mortals are fragments of their friends and families souls. To the Ascians, we were not truly alive, but were instead shadows and ghosts of their world. Their Reality. We spent hundred of hours fighting against their machinations and design to save our homes, our people, our very world. We tried to reason with them, and honestly to some degree we made headway with Emet. Though we did kill him in the end there was connection. We understood his point of view, but we couldn't find a way to reconcile without the final conflict. He was determined until the end to either bring back his people or ensure that the world he would leave behind would be lead by people worthy of taking up the torch.

In a few hours of game play, I traveled to a reality, and while the game tries to push that this reality is artificial and fake, who the hell am I to make that determination in a few hours. I committed genocide the same as the Ascians did before on the justification that the characters did not see this reality as life. I became a villain in the final act, and every time I travel to that cold dead zone that I destroyed, I feel I have betrayed my entire story up to this point. I have become Death, Destroyer of Worlds. My character has failed to learn from the mistakes of the Ascians.

[EusisLandale]

In a few hours of game play, I traveled to a reality, and while the game tries to push that this reality is artificial and fake, who the hell am I to make that determination in a few hours. I committed genocide the same as the Ascians did before on the justification that the characters did not see this reality as life. I became a villain in the final act, and every time I travel to that cold dead zone that I destroyed, I feel I have betrayed my entire story up to this point. I have become Death, Destroyer of Worlds. My character has failed to learn from the mistakes of the Ascians.

Now we just need Job Quests to come back so Dark Knights can have Fray come back and just be like "Holy shit... What the actual fuck is wrong with you?"