Dawntrail is so painful; is it on purpose?

[Gullis]

Have you actually played the tank role quest for example?

MSQ: We have to catch an alpaca > Wuk Lamat goes to catch an alpaca in a cutscene.
Role quest: We have to stop these rampaging monsters > Find someone attacked by monsters and defend them in gameplay.

MSQ: Oh no the villain is trying to get away > We stand there haplessly in a cutscene as the villain leaves, not even trying to stop them.
Role quest: Oh no the villain is trying to get away > Immediate transition from cutscene to gameplay, you are attacked by villain's goons as they make their escape, using gameplay to explain why the plot beat makes any logical sense.

I thought we were talking about the msq formula, not the quality of the writing. I might have misunderstood, in that case, my bad

what you said is not wrong, but that happens all the time. as soon as Wol enters a cutscene his/her brain gets paralyzed. I remember when I did HW MSQ, and when everyone just fucking watching Illberd summon the new primal. like he is standing right there, just try and do something! not an excuse to keep it happening of course.

[Regis_Paran]

AND yet another one jump on the bandwagon ... If a game makes me dragging to play. I stop. I unsub!

Really, stop being obtuse.

It's not the GAME that the people complain about, it's the MSQ. That why - once it ended - I'm happily doing role quests, crafting (seriously, gathering one had more emotional impact on me than 99% of MSQ) - you know, everytrhing else that te game has to offer.
The problem is what you have go through to get to the good (or better) stuff.

[Alchemii]

I thought we were talking about the msq formula, not the quality of the writing. I might have misunderstood, in that case, my bad

what you said is not wrong, but that happens all the time. as soon as Wol enters a cutscene his/her brain gets paralyzed. I remember when I did HW MSQ, and when everyone just fucking watching Illberd summon the new primal. like he is standing right there, just try and do something! not an excuse to keep it happening of course.

We are, they are trying to misdirect.

[ThorneDynasty]

We are, they are trying to misdirect.

How is that not a huge part of the MSQ formula?

Literally the paragraph I was responding to originally:

Nothing has changed. The formula for the MSQ is the same as it's always been. There isn't any less or more "action" than there always has been. It's always been mostly go from point A to point B and talk to NPCs, have MAYBE 1 small encounter (you know, those purple glowy circles), then towards the end of section have a bigger fight (the shiny rainbow circle around the NPC) and then sprinkle the dungeons in every other level..

The absolute gall to accuse me of gaslighting speaking out of topic.

[Alchemii]

How is that not a huge part of the MSQ formula?

Because it's not part of the MSQ. It's not even related to the MSQ, it is a completely separate thing.

[ThorneDynasty]

Because it's not part of the MSQ. It's not even related to the MSQ, it is a completely separate thing.

???

What isn't?

[Drimn]

Imagine commenting on the MSQ before actually completing it.

The first half is abysmally bad and people going "wait, it'll get better" really doesn't help when you're slogging through the first 6-7 levels. People have every right to complain if they're between a third and halfway to the end and all they've seen is a cutscene grind with an infantile story, unlikable characters, and bad voice work.

[Derio]

A combination of bad story telling, poor job design and poor quest design. The dungeons and trials are great, however unlike previous expansions the build up to these big moments are lacking.

[ThorneDynasty]

I thought we were talking about the msq formula, not the quality of the writing. I might have misunderstood, in that case, my bad

what you said is not wrong, but that happens all the time. as soon as Wol enters a cutscene his/her brain gets paralyzed. I remember when I did HW MSQ, and when everyone just fucking watching Illberd summon the new primal. like he is standing right there, just try and do something! not an excuse to keep it happening of course.

The big difference there is, while yes, they do the usual JRPG thing of talking-is-free-action a lot everywhere, in DT that's all of the expansion. And it's not just that particular trope, but being robbed agency at literally every turn.

There's a limit of how much you can take being forced to be a passive spectator. Like you can easily forgive one scene like that once in a while. And maybe the average player can go, say, 30 minutes just watching characters talk with no gameplay. But start to push that to hours and a lot more people are going to hit their breaking points.

It's called bad pacing.

[Alchemii]

???

What isn't?

Did I misread something, I might have misread something. We're talking about the role quests being part of the MSQ.

If not then why did you bring up the role quests at all? The complaints are about the MSQ, the role quests are most likely done by completely different people than the MSQ.