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

[PaleYonder]

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.

(snip)

It's not just you, I feel the same exact way. I've always loved the multilayered ambiguity in the previous settings, and to get immersed in the world.
This new continent isn't real. It's not populated by people. At every step, it feels deliberately constructed, at the same time carefully (so as not to make anyone look bad) and sloppily, without any depth or meaning or humanity or attention to detail.
And any local "problems" can't possibly be taken seriously because they're solved within minutes by a not-all-that-bright contender for the throne who so far hasn't learned anything about their deal at all, by saying "Did you know you should be nice and try to understand each other?" and a bit of help by some outsiders, who don't get to do anything of real consequence but can contribute things like "did you know you can use different plants? We'll send you some". Which makes the locals look even more one-dimensional and stupid.
Generations-spanning conflicts that can only be slowly mended, with old wounds torn open at every step and needing more patching? Please. We've got other places to be, where we repeat the same beats on yet another one-note tribe and their one-note problems.
The entire continent feels as fake, artificially happy, and made for our amusement as the last zone. Except it's not even amusing to go through.

[Isala]

(snip)

It's not just you, I feel the same exact way. I've always loved the multilayered ambiguity in the previous settings, and to get immersed in the world.
This new continent isn't real. It's not populated by people. At every step, it feels deliberately constructed, at the same time carefully (so as not to make anyone look bad) and sloppily, without any depth or meaning or humanity or attention to detail.
And any local "problems" can't possibly be taken seriously because they're solved within minutes by a not-all-that-bright contender for the throne who so far hasn't learned anything about their deal at all, by saying "Did you know you should be nice and try to understand each other?" and a bit of help by some outsiders, who don't get to do anything of real consequence but can contribute things like "did you know you can use different plants? We'll send you some". Which makes the locals look even more one-dimensional and stupid.
Generations-spanning conflicts that can only be slowly mended, with old wounds torn open at every step and needing more patching? Please. We've got other places to be, where we repeat the same beats on yet another one-note tribe and their one-note problems.
The entire continent feels as fake, artificially happy, and made for our amusement as the last zone. Except it's not even amusing to go through.

Live action Disney movie, all the way through. We even have the power of friendship finale, where Twilight Spar... I mean, Wuk Lamat tries to friendship the final boss.

[Ayer2015]

No offense taken.

The battle content is great, I like the graphic update, the sidequests are quite good and Arcadion has a nice story.
I even see potential in the story itself just badly used.
The lore it gives is great actually.

Yes they lost points with me with that story and the blm changes. Many points actually.

But trusting their abilities and criticizing the here and now are two different things for me.

I hate the story (and will keep showing it) but I wait for the patches even though I know the first one or two are probably already written then I decide for real.

I am who I am. Maybe too trusting, maybe too naive. I’m just some nobody who likes their hobbies and talking about stuff they lik probably too much at times. There is no special reason for that tbh.

Edit:
To bring it down to a few words.
I know they can do better when they get up from sitting on their hands so much the thumbs are probably brown.

A measured opinion is rarely welcome on the internet unfortunately. Yes, the MQS was bad, but the game as a whole isn't a trash heap like some are now trying to make out.
Hopefully we either get new writers in the future or considerable oversight for the next MSQ.

[Voidmage]

A measured opinion is rarely welcome on the internet unfortunately. Yes, the MQS was bad, but the game as a whole isn't a trash heap like some are now trying to make out.
Hopefully we either get new writers in the future or considerable oversight for the next MSQ.

I'll be honest.
I was absolutely furious after the MSQ.
The Arcadion story though has calmed me down a bit and I do actually like the sidequests even though Wuk lamat is pretty often mentioned there.
That and the realisation that there is absolutely no way they don't see that feedback and react to it in whatever form actually gives me hope with the writing.

Make no mistake though. I despise the MSQ writing (minus the lore drops) and absolutely hate Wuk Lamat.

[Isala]

A measured opinion is rarely welcome on the internet unfortunately. Yes, the MQS was bad, but the game as a whole isn't a trash heap like some are now trying to make out.
Hopefully we either get new writers in the future or considerable oversight for the next MSQ.

Things that are good in DT:
1. Some of the new fights, in the Trials, Raids and Expert Dungeons.
2. The new zones. They are visually gorgeous.
3. The (very few) side quests. They actually go into some decent detail about the world that the MSQ glosses over.
4. Most of the Role Quests. They were goofy, and a nice step back from Blasphemies, but mostly done well. The final fights, with a HEAVY exception of the Ranged fight making you smack a shield 500 times, were fun.

Things that are bad in DT.
1. The MSQ. Both in storytelling and pacing, it falls flat.
2. The (English) voice acting. It's pretty bad. Like, "Who signed off on this?" bad.
3. The Job design. It's still the same terrible design we've had since ShB, now with extra buttons tied to 2 minute CDs. A bad idea on DPS, and then they copy pasted that to healers, to somehow make healers suck more than they already do.
4. Viera and Hrothgar. Still. This is unacceptable for a company of SE's size.
5. Hit detection and netcode. This is extremely noticeable in both the Noggin boss, and the hearts in the Bee fight.
6. Leveling dungeons. They still suck. God, do they suck. Hallway into boring boss into hallway into boring boss into hallway into boring boss. All using the same mechanics they always have, just with fancier tells. Sure, they're pretty, but that's all they have going for them.
7. Wuk Lamat. Yes, I'm separating her from the MSQ, because she also ruins a perfectly good trial that you will end up running multiple times, unlike the singular MSQ run.

Look, I'll be real, DT is suffering. There are good points in there, but even then, those have the caveat of "yeah, but..." Some fights are fun, but you also have to deal with the crappy job design. And the fights that aren't, REALLY aren't fun. The new zones are gorgeous, but what exactly do you do in them? Are you a gatherer, smacking the same few corners of the world, staring at a wall or a tree? Maybe you hunt train, where you can't see the world anyway below the hundred other players? They're wide open and empty. Even the Fates are spread out like this is an open world with bandit camps. There are so few side quests now that you can't even level with them, so there's no real interesting content to be found behind them anymore, outside of the few actually well designed plot points. And the Role Quests are just as divisive as the MSQ for people. You either liked the humor, and rolled with it, or you hated it. I've seen both.

[Strike_]

(snip)

It's not just you, I feel the same exact way. I've always loved the multilayered ambiguity in the previous settings, and to get immersed in the world.
This new continent isn't real. It's not populated by people. At every step, it feels deliberately constructed, at the same time carefully (so as not to make anyone look bad) and sloppily, without any depth or meaning or humanity or attention to detail.
And any local "problems" can't possibly be taken seriously because they're solved within minutes by a not-all-that-bright contender for the throne who so far hasn't learned anything about their deal at all, by saying "Did you know you should be nice and try to understand each other?" and a bit of help by some outsiders, who don't get to do anything of real consequence but can contribute things like "did you know you can use different plants? We'll send you some". Which makes the locals look even more one-dimensional and stupid.
Generations-spanning conflicts that can only be slowly mended, with old wounds torn open at every step and needing more patching? Please. We've got other places to be, where we repeat the same beats on yet another one-note tribe and their one-note problems.
The entire continent feels as fake, artificially happy, and made for our amusement as the last zone. Except it's not even amusing to go through.

this is the biggest issue with dawntrail. we've seen the results of political upheaval over and over in FF14. we see religion, class structure, public opinion on dragons and so many more things change in Ishgard. we see the struggles of a resistance faction as it transitions into a government in Ala Mihgo.

the dawntrail msq was written with no political thought at all, compared to EVERY other expansion it feels like a movie set. a fake place. Gulool Jaja shows up and has a few chats and unites the entire country. wuk lamat fixes 80+ years of distrust and isolationism with a verbal promise that they'll import some crops from sharlyan.

Alexandria is written as if the writers don't really seem to have any idea what the opinions of it's people even are they just accept the regulators and even people without them just sorta seem blasé about it. the resistance vaguely opposes zoraal ja but mostly because he wants war, there's no real acknowledgement that they know he (and sphene) are planning to soul suck other worlds.

the depth isn't there and it makes tural feel like a fake place. Shadowbringers was arguably the least "political fiction" focused expac, but there were still factions with believable motivations and outlooks that opposed each other and had conflict that couldn't be resolved with some power of friendship platitudes.

[Lady_Silvermoon]

*snip*

I completely agree. When I was playing through DT I couldn't help but think back on a young idealistic Alphinaud when he told the Alliance they should help Ishgard because it was the right thing to do and for no other reason and Merlwyb told him that her first responsibility was to her people and then to the Alliance and IF there was anything left over, everyone else, and if he didn't understand that he had no business at that table. That's the reality of politics. Everyone can't have their way. You can't just do everything for everyone. There is only so much to go around.

DT felt like politics for babies, where a guy went around and united an entire continent of warring factions under him by talking to them. Wut?! That's not how anything works. People fight for a reason. The Mamool Ja weren't attacking the Xbr'aal for no reason. They were low on resources. Galool Ja Ja stopped the fighting with a talk and a meal, but the problem that motivated the hundreds of years of war was still there for another 80 years...

There people were willing to bury thousands of their own children to get out of their situation, but then they just decide to live with it for 80 years cause Galool Ja Ja tells them that people from the East might one day attack...Can they eat the people from the East? If not, they still have a pressing issue that needs to be resolved.

[PaleYonder]

I completely agree. When I was playing through DT I couldn't help but think back on a young idealistic Alphinaud when he told the Alliance they should help Ishgard because it was the right thing to do and for no other reason and Merlwyb told him that her first responsibility was to her people and then to the Alliance and IF there was anything left over, everyone else, and if he didn't understand that he had no business at that table. That's the reality of politics. .

Oh yeah, those were the days. And my goodness, can you imagine if we didn't have a princess ascension plot nor the father, but came in with someone like Merlwyb ruling, with the way she makes decisions and the way the game's politics used to be written? The narrative possibilities fan out into infinity for interesting story threads that could have come from that. We wouldn't have had to walk across the map looking for issues to resolve or any coherent plot to find us, we could have thrown a pebble at the map at random, and it'd have hit a conflict herd no matter what that could have been spun on into any bigger plot, no matter how regional or world-ending-once-again.

[Windwalker]

Insanely boring expansion, storywise, walk there, walk back, talk talk talk, get rewarded food and a very tiny sum of XP... This expansion is marketed focusing on exploration and stuff. Were are the secret bosses, the treasures etc. FF14 is starting to get really stale.

In WoW you find treasures everywhere, secret bosses to kill for unique items, toys etc :\

Feels like FF11 did exploration better than 14.

Sure, dumbing down mechanics and putting everyone on a straight line is easier, but it loses alot when it comes to socialising, asking other players questions, watching walktroughs etc to find secret items and stuff. The overall world is really dull with nothing to do besides following the MSQ, doing dungeons, trials, raids, alliance raid the same dull system that has followed since HW. ARR experimented more when it first released "Green and Pink" items from dungeons as an example, but alot of things were removed and dumbed down over time.

[Strike_]

young idealistic Alphinaud

if Wuk Lamat had founded the Crystal Braves in Dawntrail they would have been the most upstanding heroes in the land and been unfailingly loyal to Wuk.