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

[ArcSolaris]

While not the worse ever but I will admit Wuk Lamat started working on my nerves near the end. Her English Voice actor didn't really help because it felt like they were doing a theater play. While it wasn't the worst as I say, she did start feeling very 'Stagey". I get it, they wanted to create a character with Joy and hope but good lord there were times I wanted to just hold them down and tell them all about the bad stuff in life. Point is she gets a bit too perky at times.

[ZXN]

...Her English Voice actor didn't really help because it felt like they were doing a theater play. While it wasn't the worst as I say, she did start feeling very 'Stagey". I get it, they wanted to create a character with Joy and hope but good lord there were times I wanted to just hold them down and tell them all about the bad stuff in life. Point is she gets a bit too perky at times.

About that: Daichi Hiroi, the Lead Writer for Dawntrail, use to run his own theater company before he joined Square. If I recall correctly, during the 8th 14-hour broadcast, Famitsu interviewed several devs, including Hiroi, during the broadcast. Some of the summarized highlights posted on reddit involving Hiroi specifically were...

- Hiroi comments on the differences he has found between writing for theater (where he worked with his own company he founded before joining the FF14 team in 2014), and for video games. He feels that theatrical scripts are often written in such a way that they push the creator’s individual ego to the forefront. When it comes to this game, there’s already this umbrella of FF14, underneath which there’s an existing playerbase with their own expectations, so the starting point is very different.

and this as well

- Hiroi comments on what he’d like to focus on as the lead story writer moving forward. He says the flow of the emotions of the characters, their sadness and joy, and how this touches the player. Also, how the player’s emotions change by the characters. This is the kind of thing he has done in his theatrical career previously, and it’s a point he’s particularly focusing on here on out. He adds that “I’m writing while saying ‘I’m so sorry’ to the characters” (laughs).

I won't pretend to know how/if things changed drastically in the development process of Dawntrail from that interview until now, but if Dawntrail feels like "A Theater Play", then based on that interview during the 14-hour broadcast, and assuming nothing drastic changed Hiroi's mindset during the timeframe of that interview to what we got, then that was most likely the intention all along.

[AnimaAnimus]

- Hiroi comments on what he’d like to focus on as the lead story writer moving forward.

If SE even allows him to maintain his role as lead writer from here on out, after the reception this expac's story has gotten from all regions, it will just prove how inept the ppl making those decisions are and would explain a lot of SE's recent failings.