Even our content creators cannot pretend to like the trashy writings of Dawntrail.

[Galvuu]

Zepla is trash.

If this makes Zepla quit the FF Content creation scene, i'll take all the Dawntrail controversy we can get.

I don't even watch the woman, but you guys sure are making very convincing arguments by blindly hating on her. I'm sure whatever she did definitely deserves this unprovoked reaction It's wonderful when the XIV hardliners show their real colors.

snip.

Even if it were pure expository segments with dumb fetch quests (which is terrible writing and terrible gameplay), what we're offered is an infantilized caricature. Ul'dah is my favorite starting city-state, and the comparison is night and day.
Within the first 25 levels, you get to see that:
- Ul'Dah is a beautiful city in the desert, bustling with commerce and craftsmanship;
- By virtue of that, Ul'Dah is very well-connected and quite innovative (alchemy guild, lots of mercantile trade routes, guilds of magic);
- In Ul'Dah, wealth is the measure of a man's worth, to the point it's tied to their religion ("divinity is the color of gold" on every fountain, the Ossuary rewards better tombs and rites of interment to the wealthy who donate, etc);
- Ul'Dah paid the highest price, in wealth and man, in the battle of Cartenau;
- Their entertainment is tied to gambling, and it's seen as a legitimate avenue of wealth acquisition (Gold Saucer, gladiatorial matches, etc);
All lovely, right? But, on the flip side, you also see:
- Ul'Dah treats the poor and refugees poorly- they, wrongly, believe that you "earn your lot in life", and leaves the Ala Mhigan refugees to starve and bake in the Sun, unwilling to bend to help them, save for rare exceptions, even though they never had a chance to shine or prove their worth;
- The Monetarist faction has an immense amount of influence on the politics and daily life of Ul'Dah, and they will use it to greedily squeeze every bit of profit out of the common citizens they can;
- The Monetarist faction and the Monarchy are at odds, and this friction often leads to problems;
- There is a systemic issue of corruption and bribery in Ul'Dah that reaches all the way to its law enforcement. You're quickly introduced to corrupt members of the Brass Blades, and eventually to spies and corrupt members of the Flames.

So much of this is organically integrated in msq or side quests. Some side quests even delve into Ul'Dah's dark past with the Trader's Spurn. You see the good, the neutral, and the bad. This goes for any of the original city-states, even Ishgard. The racism and religious zeal of Gridania (their disdain of Duskwights, or leaving people to die to appease the Elementals), the crime and piracy of Limsa, the systemic classicism and discrimination in Ishgard, as well as the paranoia regarding dragon-sympathizers brought by the war. Everything is gray, there are good men and cruel men in all these city-states, there is a good, flourishing side to their culture and history but also a dark, grim one.
I get nothing like that in DT. The game even contradicts itself, going on about long-standing problems that are always resolved in a couple of minutes (or days at worse, if it's Gulool Ja Ja's doing). This isn't human. It's so detached from any experience you have- how can I believe this place where everything gets resolved in minutes or is otherwise a perfect fantasy-land? Even in Mamook, we undo decades of strife, suffering and resentment in minutes. I don't know. Maybe it's me, but I just can't really hold my suspension of disbelief.