Wow, Wuk Lamat is really single-handedly ruining the DT story...

[Dogempire]

Snip

To address your points:

1. This is a moot point when you realize that we're playing a video game, not watching a movie or TV series. We're not playing as Wuk Lamat, we're playing as the Warrior of Light, y'know, strongest warrior in the lands, savior of the star. Yes we're treated as a threat by some NPCs but the issue more arises that we're essentially a prop for most of the story, which by itself isn't a bad thing if MSQ wasn't 95% cutscene and 5% actual gameplay of varying quality.

You mention that we're supposed to be a mentor to Wuk Lamat but she just genuinely isn't curious about us or the scions who are almost as extraordinary, she just goes back to "Peace, Unity, Work Together, Understanding" when something she doesn't understand is mentioned.

Wuk Lamat is supposed to be curious about cultures and strive to understand others, why does this not extend to the scions and WoL around her that are helping her?

2. I'm not going to address this because honestly I didn't particularly notice the voice acting, I just know that it's probably not the VA's fault if she doesn't put the appropriate emotion into scenes since, like in the trial, the voice lines with no context can be interpreted in a more neutral tone instead of in the middle of a battle, and I think it's likely she was given the lines without being told the context

3. Wuk Lamat didn't develop as a character, nothing changed about her from the start of DT to the end except maybe her confidence level and how strong she is, but these two things are honestly not compelling in terms of writing a character. When you set up a character you need to give them some sort of struggle and a catalyst that causes them to grow or change in one way or another. Zarool Ja is a perfect example since he basically ended up slowly spiraling into becoming a villain because of his ruthless nature and boundless ambition. He had a great character arc and it's a shame Wuk Lamat didn't undergo something similar but in the opposite direction.

4. I'm okay with her being in the 2nd half of the story, but she should have been shoved out of the spotlight to give Krile, Erenville, the WoL, and the other such characters more time to shine. It makes sense for her to be in the spotlight in the first part because she's a trial participant and we're here to help her, but dealing with invading forces from another shard is kind of a scion job.

[CerusSerenade]

1. We are the playable character in an RPG. We shouldn't have dialogue how we only exist as "moral support". This is a video game at the end of the day.

2. I disagree she has QUITE the range, having been to her resume page. That said, she utterly failed in this role. Whether you like her as small bit npcs that she typically plays is irrelevant to how she performed here.

3. You can have character development without writing your character to be irritating to the reader/player.

4. I agree she should have some role, but once we veered into "world-threatening" and other shards, the actual ruler should have stayed put. What a terrible ruler to plunge into a portal at just the moment your country, which needs stability, is at it's greatest period of instability. She should have stayed home and her presence following us around after her coronation is illogical to me. To me this was the biggest example of how she did not grow at all. She went from impulsive simpleton to ... impulsive simpleton. (I mean, in the level 100 quests she couldn't even count.)

But I guess we need her along to tell us over and over again that talking to 3 people in the course of 15 minutes means we will understand and remember an entire culture.

1. That's not what I said and that's not what happened. You're being dishonest, or showing that you actually didn't pay attention to the story. There are plenty of times when we prove our strength, again, such as against Gulool Ja Ja, against Zoraal Ja, and the final boss, and that's not even listing all of it.

2. Then you're a poor judge of a person's voice acting skill, your bitter opinion is discounted. If she "failed" it's because of the voice direction she was given. This obsession you have against Wuk Lamat and their is becoming apparent. Transphobia is a gross character flaw.

3. True. You can also have character while writing your character be irritating to the reader. Again, I bring up Luke from Tales of the Abyss. Neither are mutually exclusive to good writing and character development. Again showing your complete lack of authority to be judging these qualities.

4. Wuk Lamat's whole theme is that she is compassionate and rule with empathy. Her empathy for Sphene, her foil allows the main cast to succeed where normally it shouldn't have. Once again, you have ignored that Koana, the logistically excelling co-ruler is heading the defense and management of the city while she's striking out. Your inability to understand why or how only shows that either you weren't paying attention, or you don't understand that morale driving figures don't always command from the back.

It really just seems that you didn't pay attention to the story at all that I have to tell you all this. Maybe just be honest going forward.

[Voidmage]

Most of people's complaints come down to:

1. "She stole he spotlight!" Well why the hell would we be more important to the people of the land than the literal royalty of the nation? What's more, the people who matter realize we're insanely strong at every turn. Zoraal Ja's advisor Sareel Ja notes that we're a genuine threat, Bakool Ja Ja concocts a whole hostage scheme to fight Wuk Lamat without us smashing their face in, Gulool Ja Ja recognizes that we're the only person to have matched them, and we later defeat his shade when he was at his prime. We were a mentor, the veteran, the explorer who was hired on in exchange for our free invitation to a foreign land. Wuk Lamat is the character experiencing development, but we're the reason any of it happens.

2. "Her voice acting is so bad!" If you've actually bothered to look up Sena Bryer's other works you'd see she actually has QUITE the range. Her voice was specifically requested and paid for by the dev team of FF14. I personally find it quite fitting. If you have a problem with it, you should probably list your credentials and provide an argument as to why, otherwise you just sound petty.

3. "She's so annoying!" Yes, she's a character undergoing significant development from a sheltered naive royal to a genuine warrior and ruler. That's what character development tends to look like. A good example to compare to this would be Luke Fon Fabre from Tales of the Abyss.

4. "Wuk Lamat shouldn't have been in the second half of the story!" You mean the fighter of the two rulers, the one who has a foil in Sphene shouldn't be confronting said foil, even though they have a tactical ruler already handling the defense of their capital? This is just daft.




Or, and hear me out, people who are enjoying the game don't spend much if any time on the forum because they're too busy playing the game.

A quick look on Twitter shows next to no complaints about Wuk Lamat, you're just a vocal minority with no real backing to your dislike for the character, their voice, or the writing.

I respect your opinion and that you actualy wrote things out.
This here is my opinion on the matter.

Number 1:
That all would have been fine if there were two things.
First, us actually mentoring her, like battle training, having her fail from time to time and us giving her directions.
Second, giving us more to do. The problem was not that we were not center focus but that we were invisible. The other characters noticing us is not enough to make it engaging.
She also overshadowed Krile completely.

Number 2:
I don't have a problem with her voice but people don't need credentials to critique.

Number 3:
Luke had good character development though. Even Lloyd had that. Wuk Lamat ends like she startet. Looking for peace and so on. Even her "weaknesses" are still the same. She said that she wouldn't try to mask her sea sicknes and fear anymore but still does that even in Solution 9.

Number 4:
Eh it could go either way. You could also go with the reasoning that Koana was better suited for the technical stuff and Wuk Lamat could have rallied the troops or go around and gathering warriors from all the tribes.
There could also have been the reasoning "this is a thread based on reflections and a danger to the world itself, let the experts handle it like the scions".

On your last point.
Like I said before there are far more places with criticism this time outside the forum, even places that are usually extremely positiv. Gaming Magazines are also tron in two between half positiv and half lukewarm.
Even Twitter has actually more negative opinions then normal but I'll be honest that I am probably a bit biased in what I look out for, probably just like you.
What I mean here is, that this is more then a vocal minority thing this time.

There have been points made that are quit neutral and complex, backing their points up.
Even people that were normaly happy with the MSQ complain this time.
It's not fair to belittle those complaints as it is not fair to give this expansion a 0/10. Many give it a 6/10 or even a 7/10. Even if the majority likes the direction it would be stupid to ignore another large portion of the players and yes, it is quite more then normal.

[ZephyrMenodora]

1. That's not what I said and that's not what happened. You're being dishonest, or showing that you actually didn't pay attention to the story. There are plenty of times when we prove our strength, again, such as against Gulool Ja Ja, against Zoraal Ja, and the final boss, and that's not even listing all of it.

2. Then you're a poor judge of a person's voice acting skill, your bitter opinion is discounted. If she "failed" it's because of the voice direction she was given. This obsession you have against Wuk Lamat and their is becoming apparent. Transphobia is a gross character flaw.

3. True. You can also have character while writing your character be irritating to the reader. Again, I bring up Luke from Tales of the Abyss. Neither are mutually exclusive to good writing and character development. Again showing your complete lack of authority to be judging these qualities.

4. Wuk Lamat's whole theme is that she is compassionate and rule with empathy. Her empathy for Sphene, her foil allows the main cast to succeed where normally it shouldn't have. Once again, you have ignored that Koana, the logistically excelling co-ruler is heading the defense and management of the city while she's striking out. Your inability to understand why or how only shows that either you weren't paying attention, or you don't understand that morale driving figures don't always command from the back.

It really just seems that you didn't pay attention to the story at all that I have to tell you all this. Maybe just be honest going forward.

LOL okay champ. *pats on head*

I'm sorry you just have a hard time accepting many people dislike this character and story.

And about Twitter - take a longer look, past all the people screaming "PHOBE!!!" as a distraction to the poor quality we received here as consumers.

[CerusSerenade]

-snip

1. So it all comes down to you not liking the presentation than Wuk Lamat herself, that's your opinion to have. Doesn't make my point moot though.

3.What...? Yes she did. She starts to overcome her imposter syndrome, she goes from not being confident in fighting someone like Bakool Ja Ja to fighting him 1v1 along with his goons. She realizes that while she thought she understood her people's cultures, she has much more to learn, and that she can't do everything herself, the whole point of which is why Koana is appointed as co-ruler. This just reads as you not having paid attention at all.

4.Again... what...? She WAS shoved out of the way during the 3rd and 4th sections of the final zone. Also, why wouldn't contending with INVADING FORCES TO HER PEOPLE AND NATION be a ruler's concern and responsibility? This just reads as grossly asinine or uninformed. That she got a bit at the end contending with the final boss after we did most of the work is only natural for the cinematic nature of final boss fights for this game.

LOL okay champ. *pats on head*

I'm sorry you just have a hard time accepting many people dislike this character and story.

And about Twitter - take a longer look, past all the people screaming "PHOBE!!!" as a distraction to the poor quality we received here as consumers.

Hey, if the response to being told you're factually incorrect is "lol pats u on head" then by all means pretend you won that argument, I'm sure everyone else will agree.

[OdinelStarrei]

"Hey, I have several concerns, not just with the writing, but also the voice direction, moral implications, and lack of agency my player character seems to have this expansion. Not only did I not really get a vacation, but the stakes were raised to a world-ending threat that I don't get to leverage my experience as the Warrior of Light to help resolve outside of hit big thing with weapon."

"So you're illiterate and transphobic then?"

???????????????????????????

[ZephyrMenodora]

Hey, if the response to being told you're factually incorrect is "lol pats u on head" then by all means pretend you won that argument, I'm sure everyone else will agree.

I'm sorry, but nothing you wrote is a fact. It's all your opinion. An opinion few here seem to share.

Nothing you wrote was compelling, or even worth responding to. It was Wuk, not Koana, who won the contest. It felt to me Koana was added more as plot device so Wuk can just abandon her ruling duties minutes after ascending into the position to be a soldier. She's not even there with her own people - she's tagging along with the Scions doing Scion work for which she isn't even qualified.

Anyway, I'm glad you lack the critical thinking skills I have. I guess it's helpful to you so you can enjoy Wuk and her writing more than I can.

[CerusSerenade]

"Hey, I have several concerns, not just with the writing, but also the voice direction, moral implications, and lack of agency my player character seems to have this expansion. Not only did I not really get a vacation, but the stakes were raised to a world-ending threat that I don't get to leverage my experience as the Warrior of Light to help resolve outside of hit big thing with weapon."

"So you're illiterate and transphobic then?"

???????????????????????????

If that's what you got from what I said then you really are illiterate.

[jumps004]

I think the most telling thing is that so few defenders of the expansion actually defend the game or even engage the criticism, it's just immediate personal insults about "whiners" half the time.

Its a shame, on one side of the discussion you have RW grifters co-opting the discussion for their own personal gain to push an agenda and those on the other side saying that having any and all criticism must mean you are brain dead and lack media literacy. People with valid criticism stuck in the middle of it all with the volume of each side growing louder each day. Attacking each other and Square employees instead discussing the contents of the game, why they like things, why they hate the things they do.

The funny thing is, I think half of this could have been avoided if they just gave us more Krile and Erenville, or even more Koana, in the back half and didn't tie our character to the hip of Wuk Lamat.

[NiceNox]

2. Then you're a poor judge of a person's voice acting skill, your bitter opinion is discounted. If she "failed" it's because of the voice direction she was given. This obsession you have against Wuk Lamat and their is becoming apparent. Transphobia is a gross character flaw.

Oh, come on, stop it with Transphobia stuff. Why do many people think that saying Wuk Lamat is not a well-made character is a dog whistle for transphobe?? Is it because of the character's English VA is a trans person? What's next? If the female voiced character gets criticized, does that make the criticizers misogynist too?