Unpopular Opnion: Dawntrail MSQ one of the best yet! [Spoilers]

[Zolvolt]

I get liking dawntrail, what I don't get is thinking it's the best expansion.

fair enough, but some people still think 1.x is the best version of ffxiv. Sometimes you just gotta say "well my favorite is y"

[adamisapsycho]

This is why people call people like you shill and zealots. The critical feedback of this expac has been great for the most part, people have been very concise with the issues and gave examples. The die hard stan response is literally, nuh uh you just didn't read it/didn't get the genius, no examples refuting the points brought up.

Also There are literally 2 NPC's that have a negative dialogue on Wuk in the entire expac, even though she is incredibly childish and behaves irrationally and impulsive everything just works out for her. The Scions have known her for maybe a month at this point and you get a constant stream of dialogue stating, "wow Wuk was so impressive." "I'm so impressed with how Wuk handled that." "Wuk is doing so well." She is instantly loved in the dialogue by almost every major character for no reason. She's given the highest position of authority in the land without actually doing anything to earn it, no plans for how to run a country nothing just, here you deserve it because you are amazing. She fights her childhood bully and immediately kicks his ass, from no where just huge power spike and smashes his and his troops faces in.

Final point, all things have standards. Art is no different, that's why you can have judges, and while to a small degree the judgements are personal, a judge of a piece of art is looking at the technical aspect of what was done. Critique of art is not just opinion, you can like something and understand while understanding that at a technical level it's not a well done piece.

I think you're just blinded by hate and can't seem to comprehend that someone is disagreeing with your assessments. It's basically like saying "How dare you like things that I don't like". Grow up, and google the word "opinion" next.

[Turtledeluxe]

1. Learning cultures

The problem with the story isn't so much we don't learn cultures, it's that when we learn them they are derivative of stories already in the game, or sometimes don't even make sense. The quest involving fixing the float is one example, where the NPC explains to you willingly that they simply didn't bother to fix it despite knowing it was necessary for their survival. Being successful at learning cultures does not automatically make the story good, that's where your logic here fails. Also, your accusation that every character tends to handwave away cultures and histories is unfounded. It's just not true, at all. I am not sure why you even said it. I'd also note that being open to learning cultures like Wuk Lamat is, loses all of its flavor when it's so widely open and permissive in nature, even to the detriment of Wuk Lamat herself. It's certainly a unique personality, but it's bad for storytelling.

2. The right of succession

All of the claimants are pretty one dimensional for a significant portion of the story. I don't think anyone would say Koana never changes, it just that his change is so slow and understated. He goes from talking about Sharlayan ever other minute (one dimensional) to be a Wuk Lamat simp (also one dimensional). It's not engaging or satisfying just because a transition occurs. As far as Zoraal Ja, that's a problem of telling vs showing and pacing. You seem overly focused on lore, but how that lore is delivered in a GAME is paramount. I've already covered Wuk Lamat's total openness and how bland it feels. Bakool ja ja is the best of the claimants in character development but it's so cliche and hamfisted, it's hard to care.

The right of succession doesn't mean anything beyond the prize. It's just 4 poorly written characters wandering around at random, then intermingling when the writers needed to generate some kind of movement in the plot.

3. Wuk Lamat

Wuk Lamat is totally an open book from beginning to end, so the real problem is that if she's fit to lead due to her nature by the end, she was always fit to lead anyway. That's bad storytelling. What makes Wuk Lamat "fit to lead" ultimately according to this narrative is simply going outside. She finally went outside and traveled and applied her pre existing personality. Wuk Lamat gets from point A to be point B by literally walking there, and nothing else about her changes. And I like Wuk Lamat btw.

4. Story is a retread

Yes, this is silly, but I don't think many people actually feel this way. It's a thoughtless and superficial reaction. The idea that Sphene is superior to Ascians because it was all out of her control is very weak to me. I'm pretty sure Ascians weren't exactly in control when Hermes did what he did to them and subsequently when they ended up being defeated by Venat.

5. Bakool Ja ja

It is quite abrupt since he has already been involved in pretty bad behavior including unleashing a deadly beast onto innocent people. Let's be honest-- the writers could not think of a good way to start up that trial so they USED Bakool for it and then hoped you forgot. Why? Because short while later you will need to be forgiving him/ feeling sorry for him. Your excuse for it being abrupt is basically that he had a rough time growing up. That doesn't make any sense, to be honest. It could be true, but it doesn't excuse the bad storytelling.

6. No combat

Dawntrail spends too much time telling and not showing, resulting in long periods of feeling like there's no dungeon/trials, even though there's just as many as EW. In EW you didn't notice really, because so much of the narrative was SHOWING YOU character interactions and flashbacks. Or, in the case of Elpis, had you literally play history.

7. Last zone padding

Despite the story creating a logical reason why we would take our time, it still doesn't feel good. Stories don't always have to be urgent, but players typically desire that for at least the final encounter. Basically we're told "hold on the villain needs to do some math homework before executing their problematic plan". Then we literally undermine her efforts, to no effect whatsoever, but that's another topic.

The last zone feels like padding because all of that lore and those character experiences (aside from the deaths) could and should have been presented earlier in the story or in entirely other areas. Unfortunately because the team feels they *need* to show us the final map at a certain time, we couldn't access Living Memory earlier in the story. I personally think Sphene should've brought us there sometime around when we met her, but again the team felt the need to tell tell tell. By the time players are an inch away from the final boss, they're so exhausted by all the telling that the showing loses some to all of its impact. This is a pacing issue.

8. skipping, meh

9. Story treats us like children

I wouldn't say that. It does treat you like you're stupid sometimes though, by asking you to suspend sense of disbelief. I already cited one for you with the float quest.

10. Conclusion

Don't confuse effort with results.

[adamisapsycho]

Wuk Lamat is kidnapped by NORMAL BANDITS then just a few levels later defeats not only a rare breed of a race known SPECIFICALLY for being extremely powerful but half an army of the bandits who kidnapped her earlier and four experienced fighters. There is zero explanation for why. No training arc, no mystical explanation, she just can.

This isn't Bleach, there are no power levels here, and power of emotions letting you transcend your limits have been established last expansion.

[ThorneDynasty]

This isn't Bleach, there are no power levels here, and power of emotions letting you transcend your limits have been established last expansion.

That's vapid.

[Dogempire]

Wuk Lamat is kidnapped by NORMAL BANDITS.

Correction, she's kidnapped by normal bandits in plain sight of everyone, because for some reason every single person who was waiting on her turned and looked the other way for her entire walk to the town

You can literally see the entire road with no obstructions, and if Wuk Lamat tried to fight the bandits off she would also have CLEARLY been spotted doing so

[CuteBucket]

You know, if they wanted Wuk Lamat to be unusually skilled in, say, using Dynamis, that force of emotions we learned all about in Endwalker, they could have done that anywhere at any point in the story. But they don't. I don't even recall a single character saying the word "dynamis," it's like the writers forgot it exists. It wouldn't even be a good explanation for how Wuk Lamat does some stuff, but it at least it would be an explanation at all, instead of the zero explanation we got.

[adamisapsycho]

You know, if they wanted Wuk Lamat to be unusually skilled in, say, using Dynamis, that force of emotions we learned all about in Endwalker, they could have done that anywhere at any point in the story. But they don't. I don't even recall a single character saying the word "dynamis," it's like the writers forgot it exists. It wouldn't even be a good explanation for how Wuk Lamat does some stuff, but it at least it would be an explanation at all, instead of the zero explanation we got.

Perhaps writers assumed that their audience are not morons who need to have every single thing directly explained to them, and who payed attention to that bit in Endwalker where it was revealed the entire point of sundering the world was to allow people in it to use dynamis, you know, the stuff limit breaks are made of, that every rando can use with enough of an emotional push.

[ThorneDynasty]

Okay Mr. Thinker, why isn't Zoraal Ja dunking on us with dynamis too? Why isn't everyone? Why doesn't every fight between anyone just turn into dynamis super attack and block duels?

You literally said anyone can do it with enough emotion, and surely enough any life and death fight will be pretty emotional.

EDIT:
Okay, let's accept your premise for a moment, though personally I think it opens a can of worms writing wise. It's just pure emotion, nothing else matters: Why does it make sense it's Wuk Lamat of all the characters Limit Breaking there with dynamis?

In the scene there are:

1. WoL, someone we know who has an innate ability to use dynamis who is actually the one fighting desperately for their life and the world.

2. G'raha Tia, a man who traveled through time and space and lived a hundred years his only wish to have one adventure with WoL, who is now on brink of death about to be taken away from him.

3. Krile, who has the most connection to the entirety of the golden city chapter. Just met and said goodbye to the ghosts of her dead parents.

4. Wuk Lamat who is totally samesies with Sphene because they are like both queens and love their people (they met a few days ago), so she's pretty upset they can't be friends.

Why is it Wuk Lamat who feels the most strongly here?

[adamisapsycho]

Okay Mr. Thinker, why isn't Zoraal Ja dunking on us with dynamis too? Why isn't everyone? Why doesn't every fight between anyone just turn into dynamis super attack and block duels?

You literally said anyone can do it with enough emotion, and surely enough any life and death fight will be pretty emotional.

Why do you think we need seven other people to deal with bosses? We've seen quite a few npc's use limit breaks, like Sadu, Hien or Yugiri, your adventurer squadron can use one. Zenos used it in the final fight, Rhitahtyn used it, Heavensward knights used them, Omega figures out how to use it, Elidibus uses it. It's not that much of a stretch to think that maybe some bosses big attacks are using dynamis in a different form. Hell, we didn't even know about dynamis before Endwalker and still used it. Engage your imagination once in a while.