Quote Originally Posted by Eloah View Post
People just want to complain for the "thrill" it seems. The story was good, disjointed in some instances, but what story isn't. I mean, as cute as the Loporrits are most people would say that part dragged in Endwalker, yet no one hates them. Plus, this was all new information, being given to us, to lay the groundwork for the next 10 years. Of course some of it might feel boring.

I think what most people are butt-hurt over, is that they are no longer the star of the show. Which is something we knew going into the expansion. I'm not going to say I loved every moment, but the way you see others talk, you'd think this expansion gave them cancer or something.
The story was objectively poorly written. Endwalker and Shadowbringers, the two expansions with the most lauded story, aren't perfect and have some pacing issues, but their reception was positive because the story was good and fulfilling despite that. Dawntrail's was an audiobook version of a 5th grade textbook chapter about Peru stretched for about 20 hours, then a remix of Shadowbringers pulled out of its butt at the last minute. Every single part of it fell flat.

I'm firmly in the camp that your character shouldn't be the main character in an MMO, it's something I've criticized about modern MMOs including XIV for a long time. It really shrinks the scope of the world, which should actually be the focus. We were just some adventurer for huge swathes of XI, and people love it. But Dawntrail is like if we arrived in Aht Urgan and Naja Salaheem, instead of having a (still very cheesy, very anime, like the criticisms of Wuk) personality, just took us on a tour of Aht Urgan White Gate for about 20 hours of cutscenes and then out of nowhere we fight Luzaf.