Dawntrail is so painful; is it on purpose?

[Wojnar]

It is so dull I am taking it in chunks. It is hard to finish tbh and do not really care to. :/ The story isn't the same quality as Stormblood or Endwalker and if people were honest, they could admit that.

Of course it's not. It was written by supporting writers who did side quests in EW. The most important parts are Wuk's babbling about peace and perfect multicultural society built by papa, where problems don't exist for more than 5 minutes. Are we back to elementary school or what?

[ThorneDynasty]

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.

Because someone was claiming there was no change in quality of the MSQ in DT compared to the rest of the game. That's not even true within DT.

Like splitting hairs "hur-dur well role quests aren't MSQ duh" is fine and good smartassery, well done, but they still prove we can and should expect better.

[Alchemii]

Because someone was claiming there was no change in quality of the MSQ in DT compared to the rest of the game. That's not even true within DT.

Like splitting hairs "hur-dur well role quests aren't MSQ duh" is fine and good smartassery, well done, but they still prove we can and should expect better.

Oh yea, no I agree with this. You are 100% on point, there is a clear drop in quality of the MSQ compared to other parts. My apologies.

[Turtledeluxe]

Well we got to pick up coca leaves too XD (because in that region yerba mate doesn't grow and the drink is mate de coca to combat altitude).

Seriously, the EW quest had a lot of talking but it wasn't as bad as this one in terms of significance of quests, repetitiveness as someone has pointed out and pacing.

I disagree. A comparable moment in the story in EW would be like, Matsya running with that baby. Sitting with the villagers in Palaka's Stand when they talk about their values in the face of adversity. That whole sequence is just so good. In DT not only would it be unvoiced, but someone would have just told you Matsya saved a baby and you would have missed one of the story's most powerful narrative moments that happens with a minor character who is barely even in the xpac.

That's not to say EW didn't have lulls, all xpacs do, but it had such better storytelling SHOWING you the narrative.

That scene is incredible btw. I will never forget saving that baby and Matsya running back to town with it. I had no idea that would even happen and I was anxious as hell that they weren't going to make it. DT never had me surprised or on the edge of my seat as such. If anything it was predictable.

[Toutatis]

I disagree. A comparable moment in the story in EW would be like, Matsya running with that baby. Sitting with the villagers in Palaka's Stand when they talk about their values in the face of adversity. That whole sequence is just so good. In DT not only would it be unvoiced, but someone would have just told you Matsya saved a baby and you would have missed one of the story's most powerful narrative moments that happens with a minor character who is barely even in the xpac.

That's not to say EW didn't have lulls, all xpacs do, but it had such better storytelling SHOWING you the narrative.

That scene is incredible btw. I will never forget saving that baby and Matsya running back to town with it. I had no idea that would even happen and I was anxious as hell that they weren't going to make it. DT never had me surprised or on the edge of my seat as such. If anything it was predictable.

I don’t see how that is incompatible with what I said (i.e significance of quests). Regardless of voice or not, doing a multitude of transactions in the alpaca quest did not add anything to the MSQ. It felt like a side quest. WoL’s presence was irrelevant too. The scene with Matsya and the baby was not only well executed but was shwoing what was happening to the world and how urgent it was to act.

[1313]

devs just need us to straighten somethiing out here for em, we said we want more voice acted scenes. not that we wanted more scenes and more voice acting, just that we want the scenes we already have to be voice acted. they took it too far in typical ffxiv fashion and went full overkill on a misinterpretation. and boy it really killed it lol .. it dragged on so long i ended up skipping the last 1/4 ish of the story cuz i was tired of falling asleep and getting kicked off the server and forced to do it all over again

[Xieldras]

Of course it's not. It was written by supporting writers who did side quests in EW. The most important parts are Wuk's babbling about peace and perfect multicultural society built by papa, where problems don't exist for more than 5 minutes. Are we back to elementary school or what?

I think that's why I can't find Tuliyollal interesting as a Kingdom compared to Ishgard or the main 3. It feels more like a forced message than an actual place because of how perfect and wonderful it is.

You mean to tell me there's no group vs group in-fighting? That there no bad blood at all between certain clans as we saw in Yak' Tel's History? That everyone is happy with the current state of affairs? Heck no one really challenged the Dawnservants or anything because no roadblocks/opposition really sticks in this expansion.

Land of sunshine is right because there's not a single thing wrong with that kingdom, and that's why it's so shallow despite the prettiness.

[Boblawblah]

It is indeed on purpose OP, but it's not really working apparently People keep paying and playing.

[Turtledeluxe]

I don’t see how that is incompatible with what I said (i.e significance of quests). Regardless of voice or not, doing a multitude of transactions in the alpaca quest did not add anything to the MSQ. It felt like a side quest. WoL’s presence was irrelevant too. The scene with Matsya and the baby was not only well executed but was shwoing what was happening to the world and how urgent it was to act.

I guess what I'm saying is, I feel like all xpacs are heavy on exposition. When you mentioned EW specifically I wasn't sure why, because I felt like of all xpacs it (along with SHB) does the most showing vs telling to counteract the talking. DT imo is more like HW or StB than either of those.

And SHab/EW do it with even minor characters. DT is easily the worst offender to have a main character major story moment off screen. What's even worse is that the campfire scene of Erenville talking while that's happening occurs, we dont really learn much we didn't already know about him.

[Voidmage]

I think that's why I can't find Tuliyollal interesting as a Kingdom compared to Ishgard or the main 3. It feels more like a forced message than an actual place because of how perfect and wonderful it is.

You mean to tell me there's no group vs group in-fighting? That there no bad blood at all between certain clans as we saw in Yak' Tel's History? That everyone is happy with the current state of affairs? Heck no one really challenged the Dawnservants or anything because no roadblocks/opposition really sticks in this expansion.

Land of sunshine is right because there's not a single thing wrong with that kingdom, and that's why it's so shallow despite the prettiness.

I think the biggest time that flaw could be seen was the one with the train.
The train is loud and makes animals aggresive.
You have a native tribe there that has problems because of that.
All it takes for them to be ok with that is:
"Tell us a story and promise to solve the problem".
That's it. The problem is not even brought back ever again. Even the sidequests seem to ignore it as far as I could see.

Why couldn't there be more conflict?
I don't even want blood or fighting but there was not even grumpling or even a discussion. That whole scene couldn't even be called a dialogue.
Remember the Blue mage questline? It was all about the natives and Ceruleum sheningans. Even that is just brushed aside there.
You tell me there isn't even some unrest by getting that stuff?

At points it feels like they were so afraid of cultural backlash they overplayed the safecard.