90% of Dawntrail MSQ could be a side quest

[Kaurhz]

I would actually put this below ARR personally. The pacing is pretty much as bad as ARR but at least the content and character dev is there in ARR, this has none of that. When it comes to world building ARR is better, dungeon designs, ARR is better. We got more twice as many dungeons with interesting layouts and self contained stories in ARR. This expac has shiny new graphics which are a meh for most people, the tiny tiny little bits of foliage that slightly bend as you run past at 80mph so can't even really notice them, but you mount wobbles so woooooo I guess.

Personally, going to have to disagree on the dungeons there. There were more varied layouts but the number of times people actually elected to engage with these layouts was very miniscule. Most people had always been more concerned with pulling from wall-to-wall to actually bother engaging with the layouts. Literally the entire dungeon layout is as a result of how people interacted with those dungeons. Even with the appeal of getting Manor Varnish, which would effectively be near 80K Gil if you looted it, even though it meant killing 2-3 extra mobs. Same thing for a lot of the other dungeon loot which required engaging with optional rooms.

Dungeon boss design is at an all time high compared to previous expansions, at least they are in my opinion anyway.

Post-ARR was one of the most drab experiences humanly imaginable, both before and after the pruning of a good 70 quests associated with it. ARR is literally a wall for a lot of people, with many people actually either quitting the game or deciding to spend money to skip the stories. How we got there I understand, but it wasn't exactly a pretty experience by any stretch of the imagination. But if I am speaking to my experience at the time of doing it, I quit the game 2-3 times, and then slowly whittling away at the post-story quests just ended up putting me to sleep to the degree where skipping all of the cutscenes was an appealing decision

Still inclined to put it above ARR, both in the past and of the present (Neither of them are good, frankly. But ARR is just a different kind of torment. But hey, opinions and all..