Dawntrail's MSQ story is a disaster and waste of potential. [full spoilers]

[Voidmage]

So there are crystals of pure aether all over the known world, and some people essentially do mathematical magic to build constructs of Aether. Not to mention creatures created by a fervent wish.
But a mineral that comes from a shard that has/had problem with too much aspected aether like the First, the Thirteenth and so many other Shards that absorbs and stores a certain kind of aspected aether, and can, with some fiddling, convert said aspected aether into other aspected aether and caused a war of resources is where you draw the line?

Agree with you.
It’s not even that unrealistic. It’s just a converter of electric aether in another form.

While not the same it’s more or less how we use electricity in real life just that we don‘t use lightning bolts for that (far too unpredictable) but instead stable sources like solar, wind, charcoal and so on to make electricity first.

Aether is just a simpler form of that like mana in other games.
It’s everywhere and everything is made of it. The world just uses it.
FF14 actually manages to make it interesting with the whole aspecting system.
If anything we have much more unbelievable technology. Solution 9 ONLY used lightning aether.
We managed to „convert“ light to electricity.

If you showed Cid a PV Module in our world he would probably ask us how in the seven hells we came up with something like that even though the basic principle is really simple.

It would be like if we used matter, converted it to energy like electric and then use that.
The FF14 world has it actually a lot easier to get energy.

[fioravictorine]

So you see, it's not even a quality question, to me DT's problem happens on a basic and technical level. Now you can argue seasoning is a matter of taste, it's much harder to argue raw chicken or burnt food as anything but bad. Now, there gonna be people who are ok with it, that won't change the fact raw chicken and burnt food is bad. I had eaten my own undercook chicken and burnt food before, I actually think they taste fine, doesn't change the fact I did screw up the cooking though. DT's problem to me isn't even about it has too much salt or not enough sugar, it's the raw chicken and burnt food.

Agree, DT storytelling is basically burnt food haha

some will just eat whatever SE serves them as long its more FFXIV, regardless its good or bad (most common reason probably)

and some will like it because of poor taste xD

Yeaaaah no. Penacony was BAD. So bad that I quit HSR because of it. It was boring and bland. I couldn't get past the first patch. Kudos to you and others for making it through.

[Atmaweapon510]

My bias is colored by first impressions, but when entering Shaaloani for the first time, I was so excited. The weather was cloudy and that had the effect of making the environment look like a polluted hellscape choked by smog, Ceruleum just leaking directly into the sky above. I was thinking that this was the point in the story where everything would be turned on its head, starting with how they deal with the physically negative effects of industrialization on Tural. I was thinking of the level 50 blue mage quest and how Tural now had to rapidly industrialize so that they couldn’t be taken advantage of by foreigners.

Then I got disappointed by a boring fetch quest with a spaghetti western backdrop.

[gumas]

Then I got disappointed by a boring fetch quest with a spaghetti western backdrop.

I keep saying "why we doing this?" during the whole quest lol

The whole thing also doesnt make any sense, you are basically living breathing weapon that kill primal for breakfast, why you so hesistant to fight a bandits? Why we didnt chase the bad guy when he saw erenville? Guy is like 10 meters from us?

Why rubber bullets? Wtf? Did ff14 got bought by disney or something?

[Somnolence]

Why rubber bullets? Wtf? Did ff14 got bought by disney or something?

How did we go from Livia butchering all the people in Waking Sands back in ARR with her gun and us hauling their corpses to this?

[Voidmage]

How did we go from Livia butchering all the people in Waking Sands back in ARR with her gun and us hauling their corpses to this?

We sniffed the chocobo too hard.

[BilboSandbaggins]

I'm more impressed by the level of effort the OP spent presenting their opinion while giving the thread such a dramatic title. There are certainly things to critique but calling the MSQ a disaster only discredits yourself.

[Turtledeluxe]

I was one who said DT speaks about Legacy. It is not a unique perspective, it is about carrying over culture, tradition, family values, and memories as you move forward. And yeah, yeah. ShB did that, and honestly? I hated it. That's my personal take, but they introduce us to an illusion of a people whose impact on the world over millennia has been nothing but negative, so when the narrative burdened us with carrying over their legacy and fulfilling promises to those people, it lost my interest completely. I prefer the approach of DT as it was displayed. We have Zoraal Ja, a very simple villain, who was burdened with expectations and left with nothing to carry over from his Father, which built resentment and a lack of purpose. Not only that, his goal was also because he saw the younger generations had forgotten about the past. We had the Hanu Hanu having the conflict over young generations not knowing the past meaning behind their cultural values. It is very on the nose that Dawntrail brought over all the themes around the legacy, as both villains' motivations were due to their inability to either have or let go of their own in the hands of others.

But in the end, that's my personal preference.

If you're going to be on the nose and traditional with your exploration of legacy, there just needed to be more imo. Where were the flashbacks giving us a better sense of the family dynamic between the claimants? Why couldn't NPCs give us a little more than "oh he was always quiet"? Most people I've seen react to Zoraal Ja's trial just don't care and are glad he's gone. That's because his ending statements are designed to make you feel empathy but they just fall flat. I get what they were going for-- someone who feels that the adopted children got more love than them and robbed him of his own destiny. Someone who felt neglected as a child and has harbored resentment toward their parent. Someone who feels crushed by the weight of expectations in the midst of all these factors. The problem is that blank stares and repeating to us about proving the miracle 100x times doesn't get us from point A to point B. Zoraal's dialogue is mostly him just repeating himself, sometimes seeming contradictory even. His complaints about legacy feel unearned, because he lost fair and square and it had nothing to do with being spurned*. And I don't think that was intentional, either. I think the writers tried to write it so that it seemed like Gulool Ja just didn't understand Zoraal Ja and wasn't the best father, there just wasn't enough there.

[Kozh]

Done with the MSQ yesterday. I have so many things to say but in the end I just feel.. tired.
If I can sum up my feeling about Dawntrail, it would be Hide the Pain Harold meme.

I'll just say this, as much as I wish Wuk doesn't exist, I disagree that she single handedly destroy the story. Don't get me wrong though, she's responsible for making it way, way worse. But even without her, DT story is.... 4/10 at best.

Alexandria plot is so convoluted and dumb (not to mention very preachy), while the Turali succession rite plot is written like it's intended for 10 years old. In what way do they think making a succession contest for A NATION LEADER all about "learn tradition" and "peace is good" is believable and well written? I honestly almost get offended by how sanitized and boring Tural is.

We can't even pick who we want to support. I rather support Koana since his "flaws" is easily fixed, while Wuk is simply unfit to rule. It amuse me when one of Bakool ja ja's lackey wondered if he has any future plan/program for Tural and their friend said that Bakool most likely doesn't have any plan at all. Because that's pretty much how Wuk is asl well, isn't it? What really is her real plan other than vague "I want to make everyone happy"? At least Koana has clear vision of what he wants to do for Tural.


.. as for Alenxandria/Sphene/Living Memory, sorry I can't be bothered to type it down.

[Atmaweapon510]

The whole plot with the Endless kind of confirms my suspicions that the writer really dislikes intra-party conflicts. Wuk Lamat clearly believes that the Endless are real people, but is forced to fight to preserve her nation( the entire emotional impact of the last trial hinges on this).Meanwhile, everyone else is handwaving the Endless away as unnatural AI beings and this is causes a massive story disconnect with the player because the two sides never reconcile on this point. So now we have two views on the endless that, when taken together, paint us as being similar like the Ascians, acknowledging the endless have valid feelings, but are lesser so it’s ok to get rid of them.