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

[Xieldras]

I want to add as well that I believe there is a distinct lack of asshole or cynical characters within our merry band (Papalymo, bud, please come back...). And it's the main reason why Erenville is the best NPC to me.

Everyone is some shade of "friendly and smart character" with a different backstory and one different attribute. There are no group disagreements, no punches, not one calling out some absurdities (like the Rites - seriously tacos ended a centuries-old blood feud?). The good guys are morally righteous and the villains are not; clear black-and-white or protagonist-centered morality at play. We have no shades of grey within the characters.

How about an asshole character that's actually correct about something where you are wrong?
How about giving the player the option to call out Wuk's failings instead of patting her on the back?
How about allowing the Warrior of Light to be a mentor instead of a cheerleader. We don't even get the pom-poms as a glamour option for this.

It's all too clear-cut. It makes for boring storytelling.

[Tsumdere]

Doesn't alot of east asia have abit of a thing for food streams etc, maybe it's just a cultural thing that the western playerbase doesn't mesh with?

Food streams are somewhat popular in the West as well. I'll watch some food streams occasionally myself.
Food is a staple part of everyone's' lives so it's totally fine to bring it up even in games without food. Western games do it too occasionally. But it feels like it has been excessive through EW-DT.

I can't think of any other Japanese games I've played that mention food so much.

[Malthir]

Food streams are somewhat popular in the West as well. I'll watch some food streams occasionally myself.
Food is a staple part of everyone's' lives so it's totally fine to bring it up even in games without food. Western games do it too occasionally. But it feels like it has been excessive through EW-DT.

I can't think of any other Japanese games I've played that mention food so much.

Fair enough, I just feel like in anime and Jrpgs food scenes are pretty common but maybe that's just my imagination.

[Remilia_Nightfall]

Fair enough, I just feel like in anime and Jrpgs food scenes are pretty common but maybe that's just my imagination.

No you are right, it is. Especially in shonen stuff, there are almost always characters who are obsessed with food, usually the good / protagonist ones.

I think it's because having a healthy appetite is a positive trait typical of young people (the main audience of those products), and it denotes the ability to appreciate the little, mundane pleasures in life that make those characters relatable, simple and easy to understand - while making them "quirky".

It's definitely a stale trope in 2024.

[jameseoakes]

Fair enough, I just feel like in anime and Jrpgs food scenes are pretty common but maybe that's just my imagination.

Honestly the whole pacing mostly felt more anime than anything to me I don't think of many games where food scenes cut into the main narritive like 14 now does

[Tsumdere]

Fair enough, I just feel like in anime and Jrpgs food scenes are pretty common but maybe that's just my imagination.

I don't watch anime (except Dungeon Meshi but that doesn't count in this convo LOL) so I'm unfamiliar with anime tropes and can't speak on that.

I still can't think of many Japanese games that do food scenes as much though.

[Eyrilona]

Honestly the whole pacing mostly felt more anime than anything to me I don't think of many games where food scenes cut into the main narritive like 14 now does

Is it? I thought the meme about anime pacing was that it was the fight scenes that get drawn out to last a full episode or more. If anything, DT writing seems to draw out the long shallow cutscenes of between the sparse moments of action.

[Larom]

Here comes another two years of everyone being upset and bringing themselves down about the MSQ until the next thread titled '8.0 is the most atrocious writing of the series' comes out and everyone can flock there instead.

So we're just dismissing what about 50% of the playerbase feels now?

[DarkCobalt]

I agree with a lot of these points. In regards to the last zone's generic theming its pacing, I feel they had to structure it this way because of the fact that 70% of the expansion was dedicated to Tural, and only 30% was dedicated to Sphene and Alexandria. I liked the overall idea of Living Memory basically being their version of "heaven" with how people are stored as memories, it plays VERY well into their religion and cultural beliefs and has much more concrete fantasy world building than Tural did. I think they just had no budget nor time left to adequately flesh it out and develop it, so it comes across as just Amaurot 2.0 with Alexandrians instead of Ascians. If the expansion was split more 50:50 and an extra map dedicated to Alexandria, we'd have a much better exploration of the themes regarding soul and personal agency and the morality of such system, which is a huge theme in Cyberpunk-related media when stuff like uploading one's consciousness to the cloud is brought into question. There was a lot of potential here, it's a shame that the 2nd half was so barebones and basically a re-hash of the Ancients.

[LittleArrow]

I highly doubt that there is a proper 50/50 split on this issue, and I imagine a majority of the playerbase still enjoys Dawntrail even with criticisms attached. A vocal majority though, sure.

I understand the purpose and respect the critique, but unfortunately most of these threads just end up in a negativity circlejerk where everybody's brought down and fails to enjoy themselves.

Honestly I felt better after seeing I wasn't crazy. The game is what brought me down, the story. Walking away from a paralyzed kid I could cure, seeing my warrior of light nod to things that were so incredibly stupid like letting an old man keep his honor in death while his opponent clearly cheated with a reraise spell... gah the list goes on. I understand just wallowing in misery, and sure, to a degree I am - but it wasn't a few angry threads that started that or should hold the blame for it. It's the writing of this game. It's like watching a classic racecar that used to be last, finishing first over and over again then not only just lose the race but crash, roll over and go up in flames.

That's what brought me down. Not other people's opinions. Not other people's experiences. Reading the mess that is the XIV Dawntrail story - and EVEN then I wouldn't so much as stick around these forums after giving my critique if I wasn't honestly terrified that this the new direction of the game.