Wow, Wuk Lamat is really single-handedly ruining the DT story...

[gumas]

That and people always forget that ARR showed us how deadly adventuring can be with the adventurers dying in the first dungeons.
There is also the whole thing with the elementals in Gridania or the poor people right infront of Ul'dah.

There was so much grity stuff in ARR, DT should be ashamed of itself because it's a completely unrealistic world.

Remember back in early arr days went we about to enter dungeon (manually) you always see a couple of npc adventurer who stand at the enterance, They just npc and has nothing to do with your msq, but everytime you finish the dungeon and leave, you can see that npc adventurer also done their own exploring, and some of them got their own story to explore

-The oldman elf and young elf woman start fine but at the end the oldman got hurt and decide to retire
-The small group of young adventurer start with high morale, later they all sad because one of them die because he got pinned by falling big rock (which actually you can see in the dungeon because its blocking your way so you took different path, when i heard that i was like "omg its that big rock that block my path?")
- and off course who cant forget edda adventure, start as minor npc and become personal matter that we need to deal with

Arr was "slice of life" yes bjt if you check for further detail you can find its not all sunshine and rainbow, DT is just pure slice of life at least on the first half

[Niervel]

Wuk Lamat is an absolutely atrocious character with one of the worst vocal performances ever recorded (EN), and yet Wuk is not single-handedly ruining DT. Rather, Wuk is a symptom of a rot festering at the very core of this expansion's story.

That rot is simple: the lead writer was unable to conceptualize that there exists a world outside of his own perception. The plot feels stream-of-consciousness, wherein the author believes everything they write is immaculate and needn't be concerned with fitting in with the story or the world in the slightest.

One-pass, no-review, send to prod: a character will be demonstrated to be using a linkshell; the next scene will suggest that they have no means of communication because communications are jammed; and in the same scene another character will use a linkshell with zero issues. "Communications are jammed!" was a cool idea the writer had in one breath, and in the very next breath it was decided that it'd be cool if someone communicated something really mundane via linkshell.

There is nothing that can be salvaged from Dawntrail. It has no characters. It has character concepts, at best. Its plot is a complete mess, because it's trying to create a drama out of empty, vapid silhouettes.

The head writer deserves all of the rancor and more. Every previous expansion has had multitudinous voices, which has often had deleterious effect: Shadowbringers' midgame is clunky and reliant on cheap pratfall-deaths as a replacement for tension; Endwalker's pacing is absolutely all over the place and whoever wrote Garlemald certainly didn't write the Loporrits. And yet here, in Dawntrail, everything sounds like this one, singular writer. Everything is about Wuk Lamat, how cool peace is, and how it's so great and awesome to solve all of your problems just by talking with people. Absolutely. Everything.

It feels like the lead writer became a tyrant with creative control, and decided that this expansion would be his absolute opus!: and well, that's such a comforting thought for anyone struggling. No matter how hard life might get, no matter how hard it might be to see the light of morrow: at least you didn't write Dawntrail.

Square should charge double, triple, or even quadruple the price of a story-skip for this expansion, and it would still be a bargain. Having suffered through it, there is genuinely no reason beyond utter masochism to not spam escape at the advent of every cutscene.

[Bright-Flower]

idk, I don't trust the writing team not to do that atm. Of course it sounds like a ridiculous premise that would never be allowed to happen, but DT would have been called the same if you'd told most people about it 6 months ago instead of how it was advertised as a fun and relaxing vacation.

DT has writing character writing problems sure, but the base premise of the expansion is fine. Also they called it a summer vacation AS A JOKE at the first fanfest and immeidately said it wouldn't just be a summer vacation. And they advertised S9 and showed invasion stuff in the launch trailer to make it clear it wasn't just a beach vacation. People really overplay that point.

Also don’t forget wuk almost talk no jutsu a freaking Computer program hellbent on saving the people of Alexandria into becoming a “good person”. Maybe I should try that when my pac is acting up at some point so he feels bad and stops whatever he does. Like thinking about it they told us endless are already dead and a perversion that needs souls too function and we shouldn’t feel bad ending them. Why do they think we would care about sphene in any way when they told us don’t care about the endless. It’s like so brain rotting after I thought about it again. She’s a murdering ai memory of a person that died 1000 years ago and poochie tries talking with it……….

I don't think the game is trying to tell us not to care about the Endless.

Sure. Erenville's mom says not to. But if she really felt that way, why is she making sure to spend those final moments with her son? Why do Krile and Erenville get moments of bonding before they have to say goodbye? Why does the camera linger on the world going gray and the utter silence after shutting one of the terminals off?

Yes one character says not to worry about it but it seems more likey she's trying to convince us to go through with it rather than her actions backing that sentiment up. And everything else about the final zone is trying to make us feel something for them. I wouldn't take one npcs words motivated to getting us to stop all of it at face value there.

Also considering that 'talk no jutsu' failed and wasn't likely to ever have succeeded given Sphene's directives I don't know why it being there bothers you that much.

[Zaniel]

... Rather, Wuk is a symptom of a rot festering at the very core of this expansion's story.

That rot is simple: the lead writer was unable to conceptualize that there exists a world outside of his own perception. The plot feels stream-of-consciousness, wherein the author believes everything they write is immaculate and needn't be concerned with fitting in with the story or the world in the slightest.

One-pass, no-review, send to prod: a character will be demonstrated to be using a linkshell; the next scene will suggest that they have no means of communication because communications are jammed; and in the same scene another character will use a linkshell with zero issues. "Communications are jammed!" was a cool idea the writer had in one breath, and in the very next breath it was decided that it'd be cool if someone communicated something really mundane via linkshell.

...

This guy gets it.

[Teraluna]

Wuk Lamat is an absolutely atrocious character with one of the worst vocal performances ever recorded (EN), and yet Wuk is not single-handedly ruining DT. Rather, Wuk is a symptom of a rot festering at the very core of this expansion's story.

That rot is simple: the lead writer was unable to conceptualize that there exists a world outside of his own perception. The plot feels stream-of-consciousness, wherein the author believes everything they write is immaculate and needn't be concerned with fitting in with the story or the world in the slightest.

Square should charge double, triple, or even quadruple the price of a story-skip for this expansion, and it would still be a bargain. Having suffered through it, there is genuinely no reason beyond utter masochism to not spam escape at the advent of every cutscene.

The story must have been reviewed, discussed, edited and finally approved by the senior team as a product appropriate for the ffxiv playerbase. The lead writer quite rightly gets the most attention, however that should not remove all the others involved in this drivel from taking their share of responsibility.
In the end, it would have been high level management & directors that signed this off as the direction the game was going to take. What they imagined the playerbase reaction would be? We will likely never know.

[original quote abbreviated due to character limit]

[Voidmage]

DT has writing character writing problems sure, but the base premise of the expansion is fine. Also they called it a summer vacation AS A JOKE at the first fanfest and immeidately said it wouldn't just be a summer vacation. And they advertised S9 and showed invasion stuff in the launch trailer to make it clear it wasn't just a beach vacation. People really overplay that point.

Soooo… you are saying I won’t get my Y’sthola and and Thancred beach episode with my WoL in swimwear and beach volleyball?

Can this expansion get any worse?



Fun fact:
We actually had a beach episode in Island sanctuary with Tataru and HW noble (forgot the name).
Our WoL even did something there instead of standing around, they played volleyball.
Yes, Island Sanctuary had more action for the WoL than DT.

[gumas]

This guy gets it.

I joke around in my previous post that someone finalize wuk lamat design and when the writer see it, he/she went full mad love with wuk lamat and want her to be the focus every minute and want her to be as perfect as possible because the writer went full simp on wuk lamat

I would laugh if it that really the case lol

[Antharaes]

Last 3 quests and after that I desperately need my memory wiped...because if I read "Speak to Wuk Lamat" one more time, I am going to bang my head into the wall, might help with the memory loss as well, so killing 2 birds with 1 stone.

Edit. Done. goodbye Wuk Lamat

[Godzillaxpowerrangers]

Last 3 quests and after that I desperately need my memory wiped...because if I read "Speak to Wuk Lamat" one more time, I am going to bang my head into the wall, might help with the memory loss as well, so killing 2 birds with 1 stone.

Edit. Done. goodbye Wuk Lamat

Get that wall nice and ready.

[Gullis]

They should have swapped out Wuk with Koana for the 2nd half of the msq. Since the defense of the city just ended up being everyone just coming togheter to fight, it could have easily been Wuk leading it, since she spent the first half becoming frens with everyone anyway.

Koana is the technology guy, and it would be much more interesting to see him react to solution 9 and it's stuff. It could have even helped to show him the dangers and downsides of relying too much on technological advancements, which is what he was all about.

It wouldn't really save the story for everyone, but at least it would given us a break from Wuk, and allow more screentime for others. I didn't like Lyse much in SB either, but at least she is not with us for the whole msq