JP Official Forums are also criticizing the Dawntrail MSQ.

[ThorneDynasty]

And it's not some insurmountable issue of "WoL is just too OP to work as a main character, just deal with the writing being weird because of that."

It's absolutely not. The hyper capable mentor figure is such standard adventure/fantasy fare it's cliche almost. They've done it multiple times in the series. And in FF14 specifically too. Hell, they do it in Dawntrail perfectly fine in the role quests. With WoL.

Why is it only in MSQ the writers are suddenly incapable of writing us as the Aragon of the story, not Frodo?

[Elkanah]

*WoL protagonist head nod* is about 90% of what we do, other than the occasional obvious choice of wording lol

[Vahlnir]

*WoL protagonist head nod* is about 90% of what we do, other than the occasional obvious choice of wording lol

*nods stoically*

[GartredZW]

It is really simple. Player Agency is needed in a video game story. Yes in FF14 no matter what the story always plays out the same way, always has, always will. But in previous expansions you would have moments where your character was clearly central to what was happening. You did something that saved the day when others were failing or maybe you showed up to support a friend in need? Sometimes you fought the villain on your own and won. You got dialog options where every line was not a different flavor of the exact same statement. Your character mattered and was important to the story, even when they weren't the most important person in the room.

This 100%.
I'd like to compare a few instances where we control other characters in previous expansions.
Stormblood, we take control of Y'shtola against Little Sun after our character fought Sadu. We've already beaten Magnai, so this is just meant to humiliate him more, and give Y'shtola a chance to prove how capable she is after two expansions being sidelined.
Again in Stormblood, we control Hien as he desperately holds his own against Elidibus to stall him enough for us to arrive and start doing some real damage.
Shadowbringers, we control Thancred as he fights an uphill battle against Ran'jit, and nearly dies in the process, only getting out of that alive because of his skills and quick thinking. Later on, we fight Ran'jit and win without any such tricks.
Dawntrail, we control Wuk Lamat as she fights against Bakool Ja Ja. Our character is standing there watching, and it's only level 93, so I thought she'd lose, and we'd have to step in to save her. Instead she gets a massive power boost out of nowhere (Dynamis I guess) and sends him running away crying.

All of the previous ones exist to show the massive gap in power between our characters and all other characters, while giving them some good moments that aren't in cutscenes.
We never even try to fight Bakool Ja Ja. We don't even know how much of a pushover he'd be.

[IvoryHawk]

Wuk Lmao is shoehorned so forcefully into everything, I am not sure if the writers genuinely thought all players will like her or they are just trolling us at this point

Worst part is Yoshida green lit this, and said it was going to be better than EW, craaaaaaazy

[Daralii]

Worst part is Yoshida green lit this, and said it was going to be better than EW, craaaaaaazy

It's called lying to sell a product the company depends on. I don't know how anyone above the writers cleared it, or how people that co-wrote Werlyt didn't reject it themselves, but SE's made so many boneheaded decisions over the last several years(last decade?) that they rely on the reputation CBU3 previously had to fund their multi-million dollar flops.

[ReynTime]

Can we stop pretending like this is somehow special or unique to DT?

Every. Single. Expansion. Had this. And did it better.

HW? You learn about Ishgard, their faith, their politics, their social issues. You learn about the Dravanians, how they differ from other races, the truth behind the Dragonsong War. You learn about the Vath, the Vanu, even the moogles get their lore expanded.

SB? You learn about Ala Mhigo, about how the people are tired from war, about their views on Rhalgr, about the Ananta. You learn about the factions of the Far East, pirates, undersea cities, cutthroat merchants, ninja turtles. You meet the Xaela tribes of the Azim Steppe, how they all have different beliefs and cultural traditions.

ShB? Hello? Whole new world? I don't even know where to start. I could go on. DT did exactly nothing new, nothing better and set up nothing but give us a random McGuffin we could have acquired in all sorts of other ways. My god what a waste of time.

Yeah the so called theme of Dawntrail has never been exclusive to the expansion. It's been part of XIV from the beginning. The MSQ was more than just a chosen champion saving the world, it was about getting different nations and races joining together as an alliance against coming threats.
Learning about each race, government, spiritualism, their problems, origins is part of world building 101. Dawntrail didn't invent that. It's funny how they want to sell Tural as this diverse nation when Eorzea already started off with at least 5 races co-existing, embracing even more different ones by the start of Endwalker. Did people forget Limsa Lominsa since 2.0 already accepted "beast tribes" walking in city grounds?

The whole "Tural is so much more diverse than Eorzea!!" is just another case of tell don't show from this terrible writing.

[HighlanderClone]

You did learn about each region's culture, its people, and the activities they engage in. The side quests further elaborate on it and many have cutscenes. The vistas now give historical backgrounds, so I am not entirely sure what you actually mean.

Bro we spent 2 hours learning that Pelupelu likes to barter and the only thing they do in the MSQ is barter barter barter.

Imagine if Assassin's Creed had a game set in France and everyone is just like "baguette baguette baguette". That's how shallow (and frankly insulting) the writing is.

If anything it's a NET NEGATIVE that we're learning about their culture because the writers didn't bother to think of any sophisticated culture at all. It's all tropes. My time was wasted learning about tropes more apt for a picture book you read to your little 4 year old toddler tucked in bed at night.

[Ozmandis]

Bro we spent 2 hours learning that Pelupelu likes to barter and the only thing they do in the MSQ is barter barter barter.

Imagine if Assassin's Creed had a game set in France and everyone is just like "baguette baguette baguette". That's how shallow (and frankly insulting) the writing is.

If anything it's a NET NEGATIVE that we're learning about their culture because the writers didn't bother to think of any sophisticated culture at all. It's all tropes. My time was wasted learning about tropes more apt for a picture book you read to your little 4 year old toddler tucked in bed at night.

I can't agree more. I'm tired of hearing this from people defending the MSQ. They had tens of hour to do some world building and ended up doing less than some amateur cartoons do in their 20m pilote episode. I don't care we have side quests that give more informations, I want the actual important content to be in the f**** mandatory MSQ so I don't feel robbed out of my time while doing it. It's asinine how low your standards have to be for you to be fine with the "world building".

[Rannie]

Hmm I would have said for the PeluPelu that it was more "Barter, barter, barter, barter... alpaca alpaca... "

Excuse me, now I have to go watch a certain video about badgers and mushrooms....