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

[Iams-Cat]

Yeah, I can totally see how you'd love the Dawntrail MSQ. Because your defense of it basically boiled down to explaining exactly what is happening in the plot with no reference to personality or emotion, just like what every single character's dialogue in DT is!

Okay now I'm done being sarcastic, the real problem with DT's story is not DT's story. The overall story is pretty good, there's some intrigue, some emotional moments, new cultures to learn about, all good. I like Tural, I think it's interesting and fun. I liked the golden city mystery, and the Alexandria arc.. I think could've been handled better but it was okay.

The REAL problem with this MSQ is the dialogue writing. Because, much like your post, characters will simply explain matter-of-factly the things that are happening, describing exactly the plot points as they would've been written down in the writers' room, rather than like fictional characters in a story. So many times I found myself saying to myself "this..... is just not how real people talk". I WANTED the adventure in a new land, with all these new cultures to explore, but.... I really don't feel like I got to meet the people of Tural, or Alexandria. I feel like I got to talk to a bunch of museum exhibits, explaining what happens in these places that I am not in. There were very few times I felt like I had gotten to look into this fantasy world, full of life, which was my favourite thing about the MSQs before.

The other issue, is the use of the scions. Most of the scions are there to be trust NPCs, and for no other reason. What were the twins' character arc over the expansion? Y'shtola? Urianger and Thancred? Estinien? Raha? They were just being the same characters they became after Endwalker, which, yeah cool, I like these guys, but I'd much prefer stories with characters that grow and change and have interesting shifts over the course of them.

Why could we not have just had Turali warriors alongside us as trust NPCs? In the expansion all about learning the culture of Tural, surely fighting alongside the Turali people would have been the best thing for this! I would have loved to have gotten to meet some Turali warrior who has dialogue over the course of the dungeon, explaining the world by pointing out dangers, or telling stories about the place we're in. It's one of the few places where characters simply turning around and explaining what's happening around you makes sense, because you're in a combat situation!

In summary I think the overarching story of this expansion is good, but its execution in dialogue and how it uses its characters shows a complete lack of creativity and inspiration.