Even our content creators cannot pretend to like the trashy writings of Dawntrail.

[Magikazam]

Speaking of which, Werlyt also had a huge issue with unearned redemption for Gaius where the writer just retconned with abandon to make all his past actions actually be morally just rather than properly deal with the more interesting moral grayness.

Between Gaius, Zero and Wuk Lamat, he clearly has a huge flaw as a writer with tunnel-visioning on a single character and twisting the rest of the narrative around them.

TBH the issue about Gaius IMO is that his personality is all over the place, all the time, it not just a Werlyt issue. He sound way more like a resonable being in 1.0, then he just turn into a bland and basic villain in 2.0. I still facepalm whenever I do Prae and he roll a nat 1 on persuasion when trying to make Cid change side.

[GrizzlyTank]

TBH the issue about Gaius IMO is that his personality is all over the place, all the time, it not just a Werlyt issue. He sound way more like a resonable being in 1.0, then he just turn into a bland and basic villain in 2.0. I still facepalm whenever I do Prae and he roll a nat 1 on persuasion when trying to make Cid change side.

Though, least seen in SB Gaius was one of the more "benevolent" Legatuses in the empire. Still messed up by the empires propaganda, but not as fubar a some of the others. So his change of heart when he found about the truth of the empire didn't feel that off.

[Dyvid]

End of the day, SE really needed Dawntrail to be a homerun but it's looking like a 1st base hit.

But hey, at least the promotional site tourtural.com is fun...

[Isala]

End of the day, SE really needed Dawntrail to be a homerun but it's looking like a 1st base hit.

But hey, at least the promotional site tourtural.com is fun...

More like a strikeout, because they didn't have enough balls to even walk to first base. They didn't even try to bunt. They swung at nothing.

[Voidmage]

Though, least seen in SB Gaius was one of the more "benevolent" Legatuses in the empire. Still messed up by the empires propaganda, but not as fubar a some of the others. So his change of heart when he found about the truth of the empire didn't feel that off.

People really forgot best bro Regulus van Hydrus and I think the one who was tempered (I forgot his name) the one in the EW quest where we go to Garlemald in the single Duty was also implied to be rather down to earth.

On Gaius himself. Werlyt was kind weird written but too short to really fall apart. It is a nice short story and I think that's actually the strengh of the writer. Stories about established characters that are over before they can drag on.
Gaius was fine himself it was the forced sacrifices of the children I had a problem with. Didn't make any sense.

[fioravictorine]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K0DAeWWDfXY

hehe more cringe courtesy from Wuk Lamat, this time showcasing Zepla reacting to Preach

PEAS N HAHPINESS!

[CNitsah]

Ishikawa did the dark knight quest chains, not the current MSQ writer. The current one did The Sorrow of Werlyt Quests, Pandemonium, the EW patch quests and others. I agree though that they may not be used to writing long stories and that may be part of why this MSQ falls flat so often.

They did shadow of Werlyt? This was nice, compared to every other thing they did (Pandemonium was a snooze fest, not uninteresting, but not good either).

[Gortys]

I think Pandemonium started okay, but then seemed to just kind of fizzle out. It's like a writer who has a good idea for a story, but then doesn't know how to end it appropriately.

[Mondschnee]

They did shadow of Werlyt? This was nice, compared to every other thing they did (Pandemonium was a snooze fest, not uninteresting, but not good either).

Personally, I liked the Werlyt raids more than the actual storyline. I remember it being very much the same "tell not show" as the MSQ was. I did have my doubts going into Dawntrail but I'd hoped that Ishikawa's supervision would help quq

[Aurelius2625]

To be honest, I really enjoy deep, involved stories like Lord of the Rings, Dune, stuff like that. But I also enjoy more simplistic hero's journey stories like Star Wars (not the woke stuff, the Original Trilogy). What really drew me in to FFXIV's story wasn't ARR. It was fine. It was a simple, dopey hero's story. Adventurer learns to be hero type of thing. The defining moment that really, really drew me in to FFXIV's story was during Heavensward at the end where you face off against Nidhogg. Like holy shit dude I felt literal chills when the Heavensward theme started playing with the panning to Nidhogg with the soldiers running for cover as you walk forward. Like god damn. THAT was the moment where I was like, "Okay I really need to start really paying attention to what's going on here." HW's themes were more complicated: two warring factions that forgot why they were fighting in the first place. People trying to stop the fighting to no avail, people caught in the crossfire. Haucherfaunt's death hit hard because it was deserved. He spent a lot of time with the character. You got to know him as a person. You got to know his family, who helped you out. Aymeric was a good guy that got seriously burned by his father. It had more simple and personal stories wrapped up in an epic longer story. It just worked so well. You also got a little teasing of the Empire with the actual Emperor.

Stormblood's themes of a people conquered and rebelling against oppression really resonated with me as an American, and our history of rebellion against Great Britain. It was a theme that I could really get on board with and support. Ala Mhigo wasn't filled with darlings. Some of the people that we were trying to liberate weren't great. But, it also had a few people connected to it: Raubahn, Lyse, Hien, Yugiri, etc... it worked as well. I know some people don't like "political stories, but it worked for me as a Poli Sci major and history major. I really enjoyed it.

It also furthered the story with the empire, and introduced Emet.

ShB's story literally brought me to tears at the end. I shed actual tears and sobbed at the end. It was that good. I legitimately stayed up for like over 24 hours to finish it it was so good. Something spoke to me in such a fundamental, deep, human level. I felt actual sorrow for the ancients, who did nothing wrong, but lost everything. They wanted to save their people, and for that, we needed to die for it. It was so understandable, and even the characters understood Emet, but couldn't condone it. It was either you win or you die. Both sides had a right to live, but only one of them could persist. It felt so unfair. So raw. So real. We "won" but there was no sense of happiness. It was a hollow, empty victory with a bitter wisdom of what really went on. I legitimately had to sit quietly crying and process what just happened.

ShB's story spoke to something so primordial and fundamental to the human spirit: the desire to live, to be remembered, and to be around those that love us. To do what ever it takes to protect what and who we love. For ANYONE who is an adult and has lost someone, it absolutely spoke to the soul. I lost my step father, a man that I consider to be my father, and something about SHB's story of loss just ripped my heart out. It felt so raw and real. People you love are going to die, and sometimes, you can't do anything about it. The past is just lost. It never will be again.


EW was the conclusion of ShB's arc and the entire Ascian story line. It was so well threaded together from that simple quest back in Thanalan where you meet the "spooky dark ascians" but you know them now, they are human, they have goals, they have families. They aren't just mustache twirling evil bad guys. They are your ancestors. I got real messed up when we got to Elpis for the first time. I so desperately wanted to see even a glimpse of the ancient world. When we see Hythlodaeus for the first time, the actual Hythlodaeus and Emet, fuck man, I literally just lost it. And when your character is sitting at the table, the shade of Azem and you are talking with both former and actual members of the convocation with Venat and company over tea, like and Answers is playing...dude I was a MESS.

MY POINT BEING: the writing was solid. It had reasons for me to care about the story. Dawn Trail has none of that. I don't care about it. It has nothing to lure me in like ARR did. The Garleans and Gaius were typical bad guys, but they had enough going on to where you wanted to learn more about them. The Ascians were sneaky and dark and you wanted to know more about them. Dawn Trail has nothing really going for it. No hook. No purpose. It doesn't lure you into the story like ARR-EW's story arc did.

That's what DT is missing that ARR had: a plan, a purpose, a goal for the story. It's just kind of THERE with no purpose or plan. I think that they really need a design document or something so that they have a clear focus on what they want to achieve, narratively, so that they don't lose track of it and can ask "does this get us closer to x?"