So is there anything good about Dawntrail at all?

[Ramiee]

Dancer makes me cry. Our 96 ability was just "When you Flourish, your Standard Step is now instant cast." That's it. It still has a GCD. Still does the same damage, has the same effect. It just is instant cast. Which takes away the only fun part of DNC, which is, you know, the ACTUAL DANCES.

Last dance was okay. everything else was just boring.

[Rikka_Chu]

Reading the forums, there seems to be nothing good about DT at all.
Maybe it's my fault reading before even completing DT. But the negativity starts to affect me, and I'm losing motivation. I just landed in Tural, and I immediately feel like logging off, because I've been hearing all bad things about Wuk Lamat.

So is there anything good to look forward to from DT?

It's literally the same over again. Just with mediocre story. If you dont care about story like me, then it should be about same experience than last few expansions.

[GGBBM]

There's your mistake, don't read the forums or any website really, just play the game and form your own opinion without anybody else influencing it.
I had a blast throughout the entire game and it might actually be my favorite expansion, only on the first day did I think the start was a bit slow.
Couldn't believe when I came here and read the negativity after I finished MSQ. That said, I also checked 3 other language ffxiv places and they were 9/10 positive about Dawntrail.
While here it's like 9/10 bad also if you read the metacritic user reviews more than half that I've seen are just transphobic lunatics, pardon me, "anti-woke activists".
Of course there's also legitimate criticism from normal people, who actually play the game.

Anyway, since you're interested in other people's opinions, here's some of mine:

The 2 new cities are the best in the game
So are most of the new zones
New dungeons and trials are better
Graphics update is perfect (graphics don't look different, just higher definition)
Story is fun, feels like you're going on a grand adventure, so Alphinaud wasn't lying in the trailer!

But again, just ignore all the internet forum bs and enjoy the game.

[Rhysati]

If you're happy with the way things have been through all of EW, then you'll be happy with Dawntrail. It takes absolutely no chances, doesn't update anything gameplay wise, and has the same tome stone grind the game has always had.

The story is horrendously bad. I think anyone denying this is just a fanboy of the game to an extent that doesn't allow for constructive criticism. The pacing is poor, the quality of the writing is poor, the scions are essentially just there and offer almost nothing to the story, and even your character is mostly pointless and doesn't need to be there. I'm all for a fun adventure filled romp with low stakes adventuring....but that's not what we got. Anyone saying it is, hasn't finished the story.

The dungeons are a little harder than we're used to but ilvl creep will probably change that overtime.

Overall, the expansion is more of the same. That's either good if you're happy with the way things are or bad if you believe the game has gotten stale.

[Tizzy_Tormentor]

Encounter design is so much better, its not even close, these have been the best dungeons and trials in years, much better than anything Endwalker had. Dungeons actually have some teeth to em, bosses are always doing something, rather than standing around doing nothing until its mechanics o'clock. The bosses have some fun mechanics you'd normally see in raids/trials, so its nice that they are being a little more experimental with dungeon design, they are also harder without being punishingly so, which is nice to see for story/casual content. I enjoyed every dungeon and I have high expectations for the upcoming raids.

I also really loved the locations this time around, very lush and vibrant, I enjoy the Mesoamerican inspired culture and architecture, as well as the high technology of Solution Nine/Living Memory. The music is also fantastic, Soken doesn't miss.

Job design has come under heavy scrutiny and rightly so, but overall, they mostly just expanded on how jobs played in EW so I'm still enjoying most jobs, in particular, Gunbreaker has never felt better and I'm really digging both Viper and Pictomancer, which feel a lot more experimental in their implementation.

[Batbrat]

This thread reeks of toxic positivity. Job design is at an all time low, and this alone makes it a pain to play. I don't want a visual novel or afk game.

I'm gonna be honest, by now surely you knew what FFXIV is? It's been like what, 5, 6 expansions now-it's always had a thousand cutscenes. So I don't know what the visual novel thing is about, but anyways. Like many others, I personally avoided the forums entirely because I did not want to be spoiled about anything. Not the story, not the mood, nothing. You'll find in life that if you don't listen to people telling you how they feel, you can actually form your own experiences and opinions!!

For ME I loved DawnTrail. I just finished it yesterday. That's not to say it was 100% perfect. Aside from me, nothing is.
Not a fan of wuk, couldnt tolerate the voice but that was no biggie, I just swapped to japanese. I dont care about anything in relation to who's behind the screens, I dont like scratchy harmonica sounding voices so I couldnt do it, I'm sorry everyone, I did try.

The story itself was boring in the first half but GOLLLLLLYYY!! It takes OFF!! I was firmly invested from the middle to the end. and once finished, I can say with ease, that was the most emotionally difficult expansion we've had yet. That actually had me so hurt and sad when I finished lol. So. Given how moving it was, and the characters we met later on, and the additional worlds...I'm sorry. but the only other expansion that competes for me personally is Shadowbringers. Those are my top two now. The story ended strong to me. I do have a lot of questions!! but I'm sure those will be answered in due time.

As for all the content..it's so much, I hardly know where to start. I'm working on my fates, crafters, gatherers, I got the new house, I'm working on getting the new housing items, then I gotta pvp, I gotta work on better gear, I gotta work on leveling other jobs, glam farming, maps-theres a lot. New zones are gorgeous. Extremely detailed, insanely massive. Jobs, I love pictomancer. 0 complaints. and I'm usually a whiner. Graphics update..bit laggy! but I cant pretend I wasnt wow'd this entire time so far looking at stuff. My character, I love him even more now.

Is it toxic positivity? No, I don't think so. Am I toxic, oh yes, every chance I get. But is me not hopping on the bandwagon around here and declaring how bad it is just because everyone else here is saying its bad toxic? I don't think so. It's like the dating pool. Online, there's nothing but incels crying about how hard it is to date. And then you go to walmart and even the weirdest people youve seen in your life have a spouse happily by their side. Places meant for complaining will have complaining. When you go out and actually experience with many others though, you'll usually find that the misery is actually few and far between. So go out and experience for yourself and form your own opinions!

[Karkarov]

Dancer makes me cry. Our 96 ability was just "When you Flourish, your Standard Step is now instant cast." That's it. It still has a GCD. Still does the same damage, has the same effect. It just is instant cast. Which takes away the only fun part of DNC, which is, you know, the ACTUAL DANCES.

Dark Knight here, are you sure it is all that bad? I got Enhanced Unmend from previous expansions. I am happy to trade you my "2 second reduction per cast of unmend on your gap closer that does no damage".

[Isala]

Dark Knight here, are you sure it is all that bad? I got Enhanced Unmend from previous expansions. I am happy to trade you my "2 second reduction per cast of unmend on your gap closer that does no damage".

I don't think I explained it well enough to actually tell you just how bad it is. It is literally a negative skill. It doesn't enhance the dance. It actually causes weird line-ups in our dance, because it screws with the normal timings. It's an actual detriment. Like, we would be better off NOT having this skill.

[Underscore]

It's good, just ignore those people and play it.

[KageTokage]

It's mostly the story and job design people are taking issue with (Which are admittedly rather significant).

Everything else I'd say met or exceeded expectations.