The Negative Impact of Poor Character Writing on the Quality of Dawntrail's MSQ

[SigmarrIrenesch]

Dawntrail had great potential - Tural's politics and future depending on a competition between would-be successors all with different ambitions? A really interesting premise, so much can be done with it. But as the story progresses, there is no political intrique to be seen anywhere. For half the game we're simply on a school trip around Tural, occassionally dealing with bullies and carrying out unnecessary tasks just so we can have a talk about how important it is to respect different people and their cultures. It's a wonderful message, don't get me wrong, but if your storytelling constantly relies on telling us, the readers, what the message is just so we won't get confused, then maybe writing isn't your calling?

While XIV has never been the peak of political writing, what it's done so far has always felt beliveable to some degree (on it's own established standards). At the very least it has always given any political conflict grounds to stand on. Here we're competing for an entire nation's leadership and that role is never expanded beyond "oh it's for the peace and prosperity, it's this real cool thing". We never really get to truly witness how the said peace is upheld, and anyone who could potentially threaten or test it is immediately swept aside upon introduction, like the renegade faction of Yok Huy or the Mamool Ja with their Blessed Siblings. With just a few empty pleasantries about wanting to get to know you, all is forgiven and forgotten. In Mamool Ja's case, their old (althought harmful) tradition is just neatly dropped, just like that, no questions asked. All of Tural's politics are a mystery and every time there's a chance to explore them, it's not used. Oh, in Shaaloani there's people who rose to enforce laws in midst of rampant unlawfulness? Interesting, is this not the norm in Tural? Are there laws on the other side of the bridge then? How are they being upheld? Is the lack of them why there's a problem with bandits in Kozama'uka? How does the Dawnservant rule over Tural, exactly? Oh, there it goes, never to be touched on again. The Very Important Bracelet™ is much more interesting and relevant, apparently.

It's been touched upon plenty in the thread already, but damn, the characters. They were not handled well. Zoraal Ja's motivations for war were to... show everyone how bad war is so there'll be no more wars? Sure. Okay. Whatever. Zoraal Ja telling Alphinaud and Alisaie about his plans to invade Sharlayan? You expect me to believe the twins, especially easily agitated Alisaie, would stay so robotically calm while their home and family are threatened like that? Who are these two and what did you do to the real twins? Then there's Y'shtola's indifference towards everything she should've been ecstatic to study, Estinien only existing for a single Cool Scene™ with Bakool Ja Ja and to turn the tide of the invasion in Shaaloani, Alphinaud not having any interest in the politics of Tural or diplomatic approaches when something goes south... Like someone fittingly put it, all already established characters were stripped of their character just so they could serve Wuk Lamat's story.

Alexandria was definitely the lowest point of the expansion. While I can appreciate the attempt to make Sphene this tragic "what-if"-scenario version of Garnet from FFIX, she is unbearable, unlikeable and suspicious to boot from the start and I will never understand why me and my player character were forced to go along with her and Wuk Lamat's shenanigans (to progress the story, yes, but boo tomato tomato tomato). Everything about Alexandria is even more hollow and without substance, everything we know about their society is just... magical aether mineral from another world and soul abuse. That's it. That's even less than we know about Tural, and at least there an attempt was made to establish the nation as part of Etheirys. The writer(s) clearly tried to draw inspiration from Shadowbringers and Endwalker, especially with Living Memory being just a more shoddily done version of Amaurot/Elpis, but they fail to understand what made them so emotionally impactful. The twists and attempts at gripping your heart are just to laughably bad. You don't have enough build-up for any of this, you can't just pull things out of your ass at rapid fire and expect it to work out. I don't care for Alexandria or Sphene, they attacked Tuliyollal. I am not going to symphatize with her - she is an invader, no matter what kind of tragic preservation AI backstory you bring up or how ~oh so tragic~ you make her choice to assault Tuliyollal seem. All this while Wuk Lamat is still "Please let us carry your burden, Sphene!" Like sweetie, no, stop.

On that note, taking into account the current state of the world, the fact that XIV writers are trying so hard to redeem both the Empire in EW and now Sphene in DT just feels so tone-deaf. It's fantasy, yes yes, but as someone sharing a border with A Certain Country™ that pulls similar shit on their neighbours, that's a horrible way to take a story not once, but twice.

Personally, I feel Dawntrail would've been a much better experience had they designed a proper Rite of Succession without it being a fetch quest fest and have it play out from level 90 to 100. Build up this colourful nation more and make the competition more of a clutch where Wuk Lamat actually has to grow, instead of everything happening conveniently for her cause while she's having the most basic realizations a catwoman can. They barely did anything with the whole tural vidraal thing. What was that about? Such a cool idea and you take the endgame to some eyesore futuristic hellscape instead giving us more creatures inspired by the pleasing aesthetics of ancient mesoamericans, which is DT's and Tural's strongest positive going for them? What an absolute waste of potential. Fuck Alexandria, boooooo. #fuckalexandria

I still want to believe the patches somehow improve what we were given instead, but I'm honestly not too hopeful. They should've held onto the idea of another reflection and just focus on Tural for now. Oh well. We'll see how it goes.