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

[Midare]

many of the scene is definitely because they see things are working so well in shadowbringer they though doing it again in dawntrail is guarantee success (albert visiting us, musical scene, chainuzz slowly become leader, visiting "different culture" in each region, etc)

but yeah... they fail so hard, more like they didnt get what make that scene so good, its like that banana leaf cooking, they only recreated it, they didnt feel it at all

"Mom, can we have Shadowbringers?"
"We have Shadowbringers at home"

Shadowbringers at home:

[Gullis]

Completely out of place too btw. A bunch of people just got murdered, there's a war on our hands, the main engineer is sending off his wife with us, unsure she'll come back. We're building a suicide bomber train to storm a hostile base. We might not survive the train ride there, we might not survive the explosion part, we might not get into the base or get past the bubble, etc. Our failure might lead to this whole nation getting destroyed, and later to more of the world getting destroyed.

Cue the ridiculous happy Disney music.

As someone who generally enjoyed the story, even I had to cringe hard when they played that song

[jameseoakes]

I think they were trying to achieve the same effect as the moment when everyone in Norvrandt comes together thanks to us to get the Talos going to grab onto Mt. Gulg but boy, did they miss the mark.

A lot of DT felt like they were trying to copy parts of earlier expansions that people liked but with no actual understand of why it worked and we get content that really misses the mark

[Plumerian_Ariadust]

Completely out of place too btw. A bunch of people just got murdered, there's a war on our hands, the main engineer is sending off his wife with us, unsure she'll come back. We're building a suicide bomber train to storm a hostile base. We might not survive the train ride there, we might not survive the explosion part, we might not get into the base or get past the bubble, etc. Our failure might lead to this whole nation getting destroyed, and later to more of the world getting destroyed.

Cue the ridiculous happy Disney music.

Did the engineer's wife even reappear after we jumped off the train and before storming vanguard?

[MartinFreeman]

Did the engineer's wife even reappear after we jumped off the train and before storming vanguard?

She was there. I checked to make sure cause it was almost a death flag with sacrificing herself. But nope, no one dies.

[Ranaku]

To me the story was a gripping tale of nothing at all. SE gave, again, one character too much screentime and rushed us through an expansion.

To me it felt like i was playing stormblood again and Wuk Lamat is just a Lyse copy. Letting her LB out every five seconds. Teaching us that you can't fight and rule alone...wow...it's really just Lyse, huh?

Tbh...now that i think about it i guess Meteion was right.

[Remiferia]

I think they were trying to achieve the same effect as the moment when everyone in Norvrandt comes together thanks to us to get the Talos going to grab onto Mt. Gulg but boy, did they miss the mark.

The entire expansion is just Member Berries in narrative form.

'Member the treacherous boat ride before getting to the new zone in Stormblood?
'Member the 'two half' story structure of Doma and Ala Mhigo?
'Member travelling with a wet-eared would-be leader of a nation as she learns what it means to take charge?
'Member racism from and between the beast tribes?
'Member Azem's crystal that was supposed to be non-functioning three uses ago?
'Member when Erenville having an Icelandic accent made sense until they gave him a backstory where he would talk like an American?
'Member the trolley? I loved the trolley.
'Member when everyone got together to make the golem?
'Member the callback moment in EW where older characters got their moment in the Ilsabard Contingent? Let's do that again with Vrtra because he's the only one who can fly.
'Member how mysterious Estinien is?
'Member how G'raha got the Crystal Tower to the First and how similar that is to Heritage Found?
'Member when he wasn't reduced to a dude that REALLY loves food and was actually a very intelligent and inward-feeling person?
'Member Princess Garnet and Steiner?
'Member FF9 locations? 'Meeeeeeember?
'Member 'I Want To Be Your Canary'?
'Member the Twelveswood tree monsters?
'Member the entire moral dilemma Emet-Selch already offered in a much better way?
'Member how much you love adventure?
'Member the Dawntrail trailer where we had cool vignettes that were just crammed into the final credits?

Yeah, sorry Hiroi, but you'll get no applause from me for banking so hard on better stories that came before to score cheap nostalgia-based emotion that are clearly plugging in the vacuum of your own lack of competency.

As I've said before, Wuk Lamat is a glaring symptom of a much deeper issue. Much better FF stories are being pillaged to make up for the lack of substance the original work possesses and I find that kind of depressing.

[ReynTime]

And what's funny is that they could've cleared this mess of a cutscene with one additional shot. Pan the camera down over Ketenramm's body, then swap the frame on his hand and show it twitch or curl a little, showing that the life is still present. BAM, he is clearly still alive, but something evil is afoot. And now his sudden appearance in Gulool Ja Ja assassination cutscene is no more confusing.

With that problem cleared, here is another question for you all (maybe it was asked already, but the thread getting kinda big):

Why such seasoned seafarer, explorer and pioneer was keeping ALL SEVEN KEYSTONES in his house under his pillow, ripe for the taking by any determined thief? Maybe I am paranoic, but if I was entrusted the keys to the room with a super mysterious and potentially very dangerous artifact, I would have hidden them in separate places all over the zone. That makes anyone wanting to claim them either search a needle in the haystack or try to interrogate the keeper.

Oh, and also, even with keystones stolen, this guy didn't raised any alarm. Like at all. The entire Wild West zone story has happened, and nobody got told anything. It would've made sense if Ketenramm was actually killed, but thanks to "dineyfication", he is apparently not while the player at that particular moment assumes that he is dead. So... with his sudden appearance in mentioned cutscene, the writing just falls apart.

Think about it, if not for this guy massive blunder, the second arc wouldn't have started, lmao. I understand that writers wanted to push the narrative, but they did it in the most crude and lazy way. In line with majority of Dawntrail, sadly.

I don't know if that's better or worse than Sareel Ja just happening to suddenly "have" taken the portal key without anyone one noticing in the palace of Tuliyollal.

[gumas]

i didnt use duty support after first dungeon in DT so i though i use it again for 4th dungeon (vanguard)

and wtf happened with wuk lamat dialogue? why she become such a showoff in a wrong way, her dialogue during duty support is mostly "that was easy!!!" "thats all they can do?" "this is all they can send to us?"

like.. what? in the first dungeon at least she was very cautious, none of her dialogue is snobbish like that, even against giant walrus from the first dungeon her reaction is "iam not going to look that creature the same way again", at least she still cautious about it, now she suddenly feel like vergil from DMC with every words she spoke is literally humiliating them

i get she finally beaten bakool ja ja but thats not how you do character progress

[Xellith]

Completely out of place too btw. A bunch of people just got murdered, there's a war on our hands, the main engineer is sending off his wife with us, unsure she'll come back. We're building a suicide bomber train to storm a hostile base. We might not survive the train ride there, we might not survive the explosion part, we might not get into the base or get past the bubble, etc. Our failure might lead to this whole nation getting destroyed, and later to more of the world getting destroyed.

Cue the ridiculous happy Disney music.

To be fair, this just screams "MURICA!"