Quote Originally Posted by arstoka View Post
Wuk Lamat is a symptom of much bigger technical writing issues.

Pacing: writing choices that repeat information unnecessarily (the walk around the city with Wuk, Koana and Gulool Ja where they talk about the events of everything we, the player, just witnessed). Important character moments and world building are glossed over and have no repercussions on the narrative (Bakool Ja Ja's redemption arc.)

Character writing: more telling than showing leading to inauthentic character development. Flaws are "present" but have no meaningful impact on the narrative. (Wuk Lamat's sea/air sickness being played for laughs. Her confidence issues being magically resolved resulting in her having the physical ability to defeat Bakool Ja Ja not long after having been bested and kidnapped.)

Passive protagonists: the narrative pilots the characters to their destinations instead of the characters making meaningful choices to drive the narrative forward (characters tend to be more reactive then proactive. The entire first half of the story is an example).

Themes: barely fleshed out in meaningful ways that leaves the audience to fill in the blanks to make sense of everything, a result of failing to create characters and meaningful scenarios/interactions to reinforce the message(s) of the story. (This loops back into passive protagonists and telling rather than showing.)

Lack of meaningful conflict: the narrative goes out of its way to have everyone agreeing with the protagonist without challenging her views. Most problems are black and white and are resolved with either deus ex machina (the crystal bird descending upon the Yok Huy conquerors and) or feel artificial due to lack of consequences (Valigarmanda doing zero damage once it is released in order to make Bakool Ja Ja's redemption easier, to name a couple.)

Failure to critically engage with the protagonist's ideals: Yes, we agree peace and happiness for all is a lovely sentiment. What do they actually mean to the character though? How will they "preserve the peace". What lengths will they go to?

Tone: failing to properly establish characters, settings, themes and conflicts results in a shift of focus and subsequent failure to identify what should be tonally accurate for a plot point (see the 'Smile' theme song playing after we defeat Sphene as an example).

Bonus round: Cutscene direction and composition

Many of the scenes are poorly composed and fail to invite the viewer into the scenes. Such examples are the positioning of NPCs that are in front of the player's character...
Another serious crime I would add: World-building disconnect: A complete loss of memory of previous events and critical world concepts in the game if not outright contradictions. I mean, the Scions ... THE SCIONS ... take part in what amounts to a primal-summoning ritual in the Hanuhanu area without blinking.