The Actual Problem With Dawntrail

[Kennar]

I've only skimmed this thread, so apologies if I'm just parroting everyone else.

Dawntrail didn't need to be longer, it needed to use its time more efficiently. There was so much pointless filler dialog, characters restating what we already know, flashbacks to stuff we had only recently seen, cutscenes that lingered like a fart in a car; and don't forget the hours of dead time running to an objective all the way across the map, but having to stop halfway to speak with Wuk Lamat. If I remember correctly, at one point I logged about four hours between duties, with not even a solo duty to break up the monotony. None of this was helped by the fact that EXP gain from the MSQ is so great that I was never locked out of the story, forcing me to take a break and explore the world a little (as with HW and SB). The first act of the story was far too long for what little that happened; while on the other hand the second act was far too short to give any weight to the new revelations and the massive shift in tone.

I would like to know what the scripts are like for the other languages, if they are as bad as the English. I get the feeling that it was written by a committee that didn't have the talent to write such a complex story, nor a head writer with the courage to say "no" to bad ideas.

For the record, my first "grownup" novel was Jurassic Park when I was in sixth grade, and it wasn't too long before I was reading Tom Clancy and Arthur C. Clarke, and anything else I could get my hands on. The writers need to give their audience a little credit and not treat us like kids. Let us figure things out without boring exposition dumps; allow bad things to happen sometimes (dueling with rubber bullets--come on, man); give us some conflict and drama instead of being best friends with everybody all the time; and for the love of Halone, let our characters act when it is appropriate! Evil wins when good people stand aside, and I am so damn tired of my character standing around and letting the bad guy get away.