Revelations from Dawntrail (7.0)

[Iscah]

I was doing them and just the wind aether quests but I stopped because I was gaining too many levels. (I like to be usually at level in the quest.

It does feel like the EXP is quite generous. I've been wavering back and forth between playing RDM (my preferred class) and BLM (because I made the early choice of a BLM retainer for glamour reasons so now I'm stuck keeping that levelled up) and between MSQ, sidequests and doing FATEs for riding speed boosts, they're both comfy at level 93 so far and RDM is about to get another big chunk of EXP from the 93 dungeon.

Talking of the dungeon, I looked up the gear that drops from it and it turns out it's the NPC gear I was talking about last night, which is kind of good but disappointingly class-locked and dancer is not getting the dancer-pants.

[Turnintino]

Talking of the dungeon, I looked up the gear that drops from it and it turns out it's the NPC gear I was talking about last night, which is kind of good but disappointingly class-locked and dancer is not getting the dancer-pants.

We never do... u_u

[Vallavia]

[Overall Thoughts Here]

Spoilers for the whole shebang below:

I think I broadly enjoyed it more than you did, but you were right on the money on several points. The pacing from moment to moment was fine, but the bigger pieces of the story didn't really go together in a meaningful way. I was fine with the scale, too, but like you said, Ishikawa is capable of delivering deeply emotional highs and lows that we just didn't reach in this story. That said, the Krile and Erenville moments in the last zone really stuck the landing for me. I haven't gotten that emotional about the MSQ since Endwalker for sure. Ditto on Cahciua.

I'm willing to chalk up the overly apologetic dialogue to the team having newly consulted on cultural sensitivity combined with awkward translations, but it did cross over from 'noticeable' to 'distracting' a few times. The rubber bullets, of course, are the funniest example, as not only have we had an actually lethal pistol duel on camera where nobody died, we then get shots of defenseless civilians getting double tapped en masse in Tuliyollal 20 minutes later. (maybe it's because the mechs don't count for that kind of violence in ratings).

Overall, it feels like a return to form for the story. I've seen this as a common complaint about Dawntrail, but I'm actually glad that the Warrior of Light is playing second fiddle again as we did in Heavensward and Stormblood; after the heavy pathos of the Shadowbringers/Endwalker cycle it's kinda nice to just fight bosses and drink up worldbuilding again. I suppose, like with Lyse and Estinien/Alphinaud before her, this point depends a lot on how much you personally like Wuk Lamat (I quite enjoyed her) in how much it affects your appreciation of the story.

With all of that said, though, Tural is such a rich and well designed setting that I think it's going to be really fun getting to explore and get our hands dirty even more in the patches.

[Wyssahtyn]

96 MSQ - After Zone 4 - Krile

If Krile hails from another reflection, wouldn't someone have noticed that her soul aether is like thinner or w/e? pretty sure I remember that nu mou mentioning that source people were denser than reflection folks.

[ElysiumDragon]

96 MSQ - After Zone 4 - Krile

If Krile hails from another reflection, wouldn't someone have noticed that her soul aether is like thinner or w/e? pretty sure I remember that nu mou mentioning that source people were denser than reflection folks.

There's an explanation for that later on if you haven't reached that point.

[Alenore]

96 MSQ - After Zone 4 - Krile

If Krile hails from another reflection, wouldn't someone have noticed that her soul aether is like thinner or w/e? pretty sure I remember that nu mou mentioning that source people were denser than reflection folks.

Fun little fact

I had the same reaction, and I talked to Krile right after this cutscene. She says something along the line of "Wouldn't Y'shotla have noticed if my soul was thinner?".

[Elecrom]

There's an explanation for that later on if you haven't reached that point.

But even if the Milalla hail from the Source originally, the ones getting born on the Shard should have Souls originating on the Shard making them less dense.

ten words ten words ten words

[Ilenya]

But even if the Milalla hail from the Source originally, the ones getting born on the Shard should have Souls originating on the Shard making them less dense.

ten words ten words ten words

Idle train of thought:

Krile was in the Source before the 7th Calamity, so is it possible that she got her "soul" from the Source because she was living as opposed to in the Aetherial Sea?

[Iscah]

Currently in the first location in Yak T'el. The apostrophes in the names are feeling rather ignored. Weren't they pronouncing it Yak Ta-el in the Fan Fest presentation when they first introduced it?

There's a sequence of notes in the Yak T'el day theme that makes me go "that's the Tempest/Amaurot theme" every time I hear it.

How old is Koana supposed to be? Koana says he was working as a shopkeeper before he was adopted, so must have been young adult-ish, and that happened before Wuk Lamat was adopted as a baby?

It's nice to see characters' racial gear being used as actual cultural outfits for that race. Even if it does introduce this weirdness that player-characters get given an outfit that belongs to the Xbr'aal and (if they follow the generator) names that belong to the Bozjans.

(Which reminds me, I need to update my guide to Hrothgar name options.)

[Vallavia]

Currently in the first location in Yak T'el. The apostrophes in the names are feeling rather ignored. Weren't they pronouncing it Yak Ta-el in the Fan Fest presentation when they first introduced it?

There's a sequence of notes in the Yak T'el day theme that makes me go "that's the Tempest/Amaurot theme" every time I hear it.

How old is Koana supposed to be? Koana says he was working as a shopkeeper before he was adopted, so must have been young adult-ish, and that happened before Wuk Lamat was adopted as a baby?

It's nice to see characters' racial gear being used as actual cultural outfits for that race. Even if it does introduce this weirdness that player-characters get given an outfit that belongs to the Xbr'aal and (if they follow the generator) names that belong to the Bozjans.

(Which reminds me, I need to update my guide to Hrothgar name options.)

I don't recall it, but they have been pretty consistent with the foreign pronunciations otherwise.

I assumed Koana was working as a shopkeep as a child, like 10-13, for somebody else's shop.
I think the Hrothgar gear design could actually work for both cultures, given that the male version is just strips of fabric and the female version also has some similarities to what we've seen of Gunnhildr depicted in art and in her Roegadyn primal form.
Speaking of name options, do you have any plans to write on the naming conventions of the new Turali cultures? I was thinking of looking into it myself.