Dawntrail's MSQ story is a disaster and waste of potential. [full spoilers]

[Coratanni]

Which is the point of the story. None of them is good enough individually to be Dawnservant. Both Wuk Lamat and Koana realized this at the end of the contest and Wuk Lamat invited Koana to be co-dawn servant.

The problem though, is Wuk Lamat's solutions worked due to plot convenience from the writers because heaven forbid she failed. She didn't really learn anything. She's the same dumb character she was in the post EW msq.

[Striker44]

Plus like... asking Koana literally during the coronation? Was she even sure he was going to be there? She talks about empathy, tells him she's going to ask the PC to stay and be part of her administration, but doesn't bother to try and tell him 'listen, you're important too'? She doesn't think that might come across a bit... insulting?

Well, yeah, I'd say she could be confident Koana was definitely going to be there during the coronation. I had the same thought of "wait, you didn't clear this with him beforehand?" but I could definitely see someone of her age and maturity thinking it would be an "awesome surprise" thing to do rather than insulting.

She didn't really learn anything. She's the same dumb character she was in the post EW msq.

This I'd have to disagree with completely. She learns a ton of things during the MSQ. Aside from the literal lore she learns about the various cultures in Tural (whereas she previously only interacted with those who had moved to Tuliyollal), she learns a lot about herself. Much of it is even made straight-up explicit, such as her out-loud monologue about realizing there are people she can trust and doesn't have to put on the act of false bravado in front of, or the scene at the top of Warqor Lar Dor where she realizes the empathy she has is one of the three main characteristics that made Gulool Ja Ja an effective ruler and that she does in fact have something important to bring to the table.

One of them quit the feat because of "muh sister" and the other told the starving birds the equivalent of "have you tried dancing, lmao?"

Koana bowed out of the contest because he came to believe that Wuq Lumat would be the "best" one to become Dawnservant, and completing the feat at all was going to require a combined effort.

Which is the point of the story. None of them is good enough individually to be Dawnservant. Both Wuk Lamat and Koana realized this at the end of the contest and Wuk Lamat invited Koana to be co-dawn servant.

Exactly. I wonder if it gets "lost" on us sometimes that Gulool Ja Ja is actually two separate people, just in one body (think Siamese twins). Tuliyollal always had two rulers, one focused on the physical aspects of the job, one the thinker. It just so happened that the two rulers shared a single physical body in Gulool Ja Ja. Wuk Lumat and Koana both come to realize that they, like their adoptive father, bring the two different sides of the same proverbial coin.

[ZXN]

...The Hanu Hanu chief among them. They are given an innovative solution for their reed-growing issue that could presumably work in any and all circumstances and yet they are enamoured by Wuk Lamat's genius idea of dancing in front of the flowers and hoping that'll do the trick.

To add to this, The Hanu Hanu elder KNEW what Ihih'hana does to the reeds the whole time and just kind of...stayed quiet about it to the village apparently. Yes, the story does say they have been slacking on keeping the float repaired and not taking Ihih'hana seriously and just using it as a day to party, but the fact that the Elder and Wuk Evu knew about Ihih'hana's true purpose and just kind of...didn't tell or teach the younger Hanu Hanu about it, or how the older Hanu Hanu just somehow "forgot" it's importance is kind of dumb.

It would've been more believable if the the story was that most of the older Hanu Hanu went to live in Tuliyollal and the ones that stayed in Kozama'uka were just too old to properly perform Ihih'hana themselves now, leaving just the younger generations of Hanu Hanu to do it. However, the younger generation don't care enough about performing Ihih'hana "properly" because the harvest has always been solid all these past several years and they grew under the assumption that "The magical focus of the float and the Hanu Hanu's prayers for a good harvest are what is keeping the reeds healthy" is just some dumb old story to get them to take things seriously when they don't want to. But now their lack of respect or care for their own culture comes back to bite them after the storm and now they don't have enough food, so in a last-resort desperate attempt to try ANYTHING to get their crops growing again, even though they are all skeptical it'll actually work, they are convinced to give it their all and perform Ihih'hana the proper way and learn how important Ihih'hana really is to their way of life. Maybe even in a similar vein to how the Pelupelu who made the Saddle for Wuk wanted Zoraal Ja to win they could've made it so that some of the younger Hanu Hanu didn't care about Wuk's suggestion of Ihih'hana because they are more interested in Koana's innovations instead of performing some dumb festival.

Instead we get a cat going "Even though you are starving and mourning, you should dance and be happy and have fun" and being told as a result "Oh my goodness, you're a genius! Thank you for saving our harvest!" and another cat solving the reed issue using alchemy and being told as a result "Yeah, thanks, I guess."

[sharplysurreal]

the smile song is so bad dude what happened to ff14?

[Kasasagi]

The problem though, is Wuk Lamat's solutions worked due to plot convenience from the writers because heaven forbid she failed. She didn't really learn anything. She's the same dumb character she was in the post EW msq.

Sorry but she does learn. Just pay attantion to wat is said and read all.

[Kasasagi]

the smile song is so bad dude what happened to ff14?

The song is fine. The szene where it is played was poorly chosen.

[genuine_stranger]

the smile song is so bad dude what happened to ff14?

The same thing that happened to every other media. Companies are enamored by the elusive modern audience, while completely disregarding the actual things which made their franchise popular in the first place; leading them to stumble and fumble their way into failure.

I hope that SE doesn't continue down this path now after they had their recent restructure, but my outlook is rather pessimistic.

[Jason_Ashford]

Snip

Zarool Ja's main problem is that he basically didn't exist outside of.... 2 cutscenes priors to Heritage Found. His whole "unite the world through war" rhetoric felt shoved in because they were so busy trying to cram as much main character-ness into Wuk Lamat that they forgot the primary antagonists need character development too. And then that was completely discarded for the "woe is me. my father didn't love me enough to give me the throne". as some last ditch effort to elicit some sympathy for a character who is somehow even more 2-Dimensional than Bakool Ja Ja.

For Wuk Lamat who is supposed to give a shit about her people, she made no efforts at all to try and reach out to her brother despite his problems. she goes from uncaring to angry, to sadmad.

He would have been so much more compelling if they had written him with a fervent desire to prove himself worthy of being the true ruler of Tural and having that devolve into near fanatical desperation as he falls farther and farther behind in the rite of succession, culminating in him turning to Sphene's advanced technology to seize the throne that he feels is rightfully his in exchange for allowing Sphene to harvest his people for their souls and life aether.

[ViaDesperare]

Playing through SoC, which has 3 siblings fighting for their kingdom, and boy are the characters done so much better in SoC, even if the translation is not good.

Dantalion will sacrifice everything for his people, even his own life. Lutfi strives for advancement because every other country is improving, and he wants his country to advance and keep up with them while also fighting to get out of his brother's shadow. Inanna is the naive sheltered princess who learns that the world is unforgiving and has to fight to keep her people safe because a kingdom is nothing without its people.

Compared to a blue lizard boy with daddy issues, siscon nerd brother, and Black-Hole Sue the siblings in that game are insane in characterization, even if you don't like them. They also don't take up 30 hours to get characterized.

You can also get them all killed, so yeah. If only we got to do that with Wuk Lamat and Koana. Watching those three fail, learn, and grow has been so amazing. We really needed similar characterization with DT. Matsuno was hyped to play SoC from what I saw.

[SwadTheFrog]

Playing through SoC, which has 3 siblings fighting for their kingdom, and boy are the characters done so much better in SoC, even if the translation is not good.

Dantalion will sacrifice everything for his people, even his own life. Lutfi strives for advancement because every other country is improving, and he wants his country to advance and keep up with them while also fighting to get out of his brother's shadow. Inanna is the naive sheltered princess who learns that the world is unforgiving and has to fight to keep her people safe because a kingdom is nothing without its people.

Compared to a blue lizard boy with daddy issues, siscon nerd brother, and Black-Hole Sue the siblings in that game are insane in characterization, even if you don't like them. They also don't take up 30 hours to get characterized.

You can also get them all killed, so yeah. If only we got to do that with Wuk Lamat and Koana. Watching those three fail, learn, and grow has been so amazing. We really needed similar characterization with DT. Matsuno was hyped to play SoC from what I saw.

SoC? Sorry - which game? Sounds like a SRPG, and I've been dying to get into a new one.