The Negative Impact of Poor Character Writing on the Quality of Dawntrail's MSQ

[duckorz]

Ishikawa didn't write the main scenario for Stormblood, 2.X or Heavensward did she?
Not to downplay how well she writes the characters, I just thought the last paragraph was reductive of the other writers' work. I don't think the problem is her absence so much as the supervision, mentoring and dare I say production's oversight towards the de facto scenario writers. Remember, everything goes through Yoshida to check and greenlight, he said so himself in numerous occasions. He read the scenario for this, and he thought it was good.

Ishikawa wrote the Coerthas section of ARR, the Estinien/Y'sayle arc of HW and 3.2 and 3.4, the Doman arc of Stormblood, ROG/DRK/ALC job quests, Omega and the 6.3 follow-up, and ShB/EW. This is what she's been credited for at least, not to say of anything else she might have worked on and not been credited for outright in liveletters. I think, in any case, while there have been other good writers that have worked on the story, her name is undoubtedly associated with some of the highest quality content in the game.

[ReynTime]

Ishikawa wrote the Coerthas section of ARR, the Estinien/Y'sayle arc of HW and 3.2 and 3.4, the Doman arc of Stormblood, ROG/DRK/ALC job quests, Omega and the 6.3 follow-up, and ShB/EW. This is what she's been credited for at least, not to say of anything else she might have worked on and not been credited for outright in liveletters. I think, in any case, while there have been other good writers that have worked on the story, her name is undoubtedly associated with some of the highest quality content in the game.

My point is mainly that DT didn't necessarily needed to be her level to be good. It already falls short of being on the level of the entirety of 2.X~4.55 and that's a problem. Even Stormblood's most dull moments were far more grounded in reality compared to Dawntrail's best moments.
Ishikawa is the best writer XIV had, but the game's story was praised since 2015.

[duckorz]

My point is mainly that DT didn't necessarily needed to be her level to be good. It already falls short of being on the level of the entirety of 2.X~4.55 and that's a problem. Even Stormblood's most dull moments were far more grounded in reality compared to Dawntrail's best moments.
Ishikawa is the best writer XIV had, but the game's story was praised since 2015.

For sure, I agree with that. I'll take literally anyone over the person currently writing the MSQ. Hire some random fan or someone off the street. Anyone. It literally cannot get worse than this.

I didn't express this in the body of the post originally, but I have to make my feelings clear - this level of writing could legitimately kill the game. It is not just *that* bad, it's that this game IS its narrative. This games main selling point, it's main point of reputation, how its marketed, how its reviewed so well, how its transmitted through word of mouth, its main point of consumer investment, is the quality of the world, its characters, and the narrative. What on earth do SE expect to happen if all of a sudden, all people can talk about is how horrible the narrative in FFXIV is? With WoW steadily improving, it might, somehow, have a better narrative in its new expansion than Dawntrail. That is catastrophic. CBU3 has been tirelessly fighting tooth and nail for this reputation for a decade. For that one crucial point of comparison to its main competitor in the market that lead to the WoW exodus in 2020. That cannot go away. This is SE's financial anchor. If people start unsubbing and buying cash shop stuff (which they will if they feel less emotionally and personally invested in the world and the story), it's a serious, serious issue for SE. FFXIV needs to be actually treated like the utmost #1 priority it is for the company. The writing in this expansion (thats not even to say anything about the nonexistent VA direction, some of the issues with the graphics update, and any of the gameplay problems the game still has, even if the encounter design is getting better) is worse than my worst nightmare. I never thought it could ever get this bad.

[Malthir]

For sure, I agree with that. I'll take literally anyone over the person currently writing the MSQ. Hire some random fan or someone off the street. Anyone. It literally cannot get worse than this.

Other than wuk being incredibly annoying for some people, I think the mistake the writers made is going for an Epic story for the MSQ as well as their constant resolving of very newly created plot threats. The plotlines are resolved so quickly the audience doesn't have time to sit in the emotions, which then removes any kind of emotional payoff at the end. I think if they make things like Wuk in future, her entire arc needs to be 1 or 2 zones, and don't resolve her trying to become the leader in 1 expac story it's far too short, doesn't give the character enough time to grow or develop so them gaining the position doesn't feel earned to the players.

Also stop for the love of god, over using cutscenes. It was a trend that really started in shadowbringer but was far subtler. In Endwalker was were they really started to heavy handedly use cutscenes instead of solo duties and gameplay to push the narrative. Endwalker kind of got a pass imo because it was trying to resolve so much story which the player was already invested in. However with DT you don't have that, you have no real attachment to anything in the story, so heavy use of cutscenes just makes the audience bored, especially when you have a divisive character, and if you are going to keep resolving things almost instantly as I mentioned before.

Basically they need to give the story time to breath, stop over using cutscenes and honestly don't be afraid to make the MSQ shorter, I don't think any of us were really expecting or even wanting a 30hour msq which was functionally just a 30 hour movie telling us to like Wuk. A series of smaller stories which end unresolved allowing for future development in post patch and future expac is the better way, that's my opinion anyway.