Dawntrail Is A Great Expansion

[TheMightyMollusk]

Dawntrail lacks player agency. They could patch it in where you can give her some more appropriate responses and I think it would go over better.

So it's just like the rest of the game. Look back at any time we're allowed to backsass an NPC, and you'll immediately see that either it gets played off as the WoL joking, or another NPC apologizes for it. Or the dialogue loops around or ends until you pick the option that lets it continue. I don't get why people keep calling out Dawntrail for this as if it's some new development.

[Zaytex]

The MSQ is abysmal but the actual battle content is pretty good - the expert dungeons, the first 2 extremes and PCT/VPR are generally all well done.

[Minerva-Redwater]

I agree it is a great expansion, the only thing I didn't like was the last zone turning grey forever. Other than that everything was great. Unfortunately people love to complain about everything so there's gonna be people who cry no matter what they do. All we can do is support the devs and hope they continue doing great work <3

W Story
W Fights
W Characters
W Development

it was nice to have a break from "saving the world from all doom" thank you for the story writing.
I really enjoyed it and a lot of people I know have.

[Voidmage]

So it's just like the rest of the game. Look back at any time we're allowed to backsass an NPC, and you'll immediately see that either it gets played off as the WoL joking, or another NPC apologizes for it. Or the dialogue loops around or ends until you pick the option that lets it continue. I don't get why people keep calling out Dawntrail for this as if it's some new development.

Because of the dialogue choices themself.
Sure the outcome was always the same but the choices gave the illusion of player agency like the "Kupo" or the dialogue choices to Zenos.
Sometimes other characters also remarked on you staying silent in a way not to twist your words.

This time more then once all dialogue choices are some kind of applauding Wuk Lamat.
As a quite snarky person irl myself that was pretty jarring.

[angienessyo]

I've enjoyed the expansion thus far but can't give a full verdict until we're like, 2 savage tiers in and have seen the side stuff like criterion and Bozja/Eureka. My overall feelings will always depend mostly on how I feel about its content and it's just too early for me to say. But I'm liking what we've had.

[Bitmoar]

So it's just like the rest of the game. Look back at any time we're allowed to backsass an NPC, and you'll immediately see that either it gets played off as the WoL joking, or another NPC apologizes for it. Or the dialogue loops around or ends until you pick the option that lets it continue. I don't get why people keep calling out Dawntrail for this as if it's some new development.

The major difference to me is that I've never been totally against the choice the writers make for me. Sometimes I'm like "eh, this isn't really what I want to say/do in this situation", but I was never truly annoyed.

In DT, though, I was vehemently against supporting Wuk Lamat from the beginning (6.5x). I don't believe we should be propping up incompetence. They didn't frame it as us mentoring her to become a better ruler. We were just going to Tural to help her win, despite her showing no qualities of a good ruler. Despite these misgivings, I was willing to let the writers convince me that we should support her. Not only did they fail to convince me, they made her an overbearing and obnoxious presence, and gave her the most repetitive cliches to spout at us at every opportunity. Making us leave our room to climb to the top of the city for the umpteenth time had her on thin ice. But hey, maybe this was going to be a good character building moment for her. Maybe she actually has something meaningful to say. NOPE. PEACE AND HAPPINESS FOR MY PEOPLE!!1! Why was she acting like that was some big thing to say that required a hike and some fresh air? We know Wuk, you've been yapping about it for the past few hours of quests.

[PercibelTheren]

The final zones where the expansion starts getting interesting should have taken up a hell of a lot more screen time.

I feel like I'm taking crazy pills. Everyone keeps saying how the final zones are the best part but I actively hated them. I wasn't sold on Sphene, Lamat annoyed the hell out of me by being so friendly and trusting with an obvious villain, 90% of the final zone just felt like padding. And the final trial was incredibly anticlimactic.

[Roshidon1]

IDK. You have never had and will never have any player agency in XIV's story. You can choose which emote your character does before the other characters put words in your mouth, but that's about it. The game is not an RPG, it's a visual novel.

eh I always took it as trying to imitate the older "silent protaginist" jrpgs where the main character literally does not say anything the entire game and that is kind of just...whatever you want it to be. The problem is like actual rpgs you "sometimes" have a choice with what to do but with FFXIV other than...where to go first there isn't really much choice. Like, I couldn't decide to work for the Ascians if I wanted to, for example (extreme example, but you get the point). I would definitely still call it an RPG though.

[Basteala]

Dawntrail in a weird way reminds me of Rogue One. I like it. I want to love it because I love some of the ideas that it brings out, but the lynchpin, it's characters, are largely undercooked and that weakens what could have otherwise been a really good story.

Plenty of people blame Wuk Lamat for this, but Zoraal Ja is every bit as guilty--and I would say more guilty. He can be unapologetically evil and ruthless, totally fine with it, but his idea of wanting to break the peace to make people appreciate peace, while wanting to conquer and unite but has such a twisted egotistical way of it...it could have been really interesting, but the idea and motives are so lacking in fleshing out that it comes along as contradicting and bland and that breaks my heart. Zoraal Ja has little driving force beyond being the "obvious" antagonist to distract us from the twist villain, as it were. He's kind of just there

And because he's an obstacle for so much of the story, it really kind of weakens the story as a whole. People might say Bakool Ja Ja was a better and more active antagonist and that's true, but his own arc and conflict is when he started getting interesting, and by then, he's not really our problem anymore.

[Kaurhz]

I think we have a different idea of what constitutes a 'curveball'