Quote Originally Posted by Mondschnee View Post
- characters are collectively incompetent all of a sudden, some of the worst moments were for example when we let Wuk Lamat get abducted (because the story needed this to happen), trusting a complete stranger?? and watching Gulool Ja Ja die after Zoraal Ja gets resurrected (no the honor argument doesn't count), Ketenramm losing the keystones because apparently he doesn't know how to hide valuable things
- Actually competent characters on the other hand are "proven wrong", like Erenville, who questioned Wuk Lamat's decision to hold a festival instead of solving the reed problem, and she's rewarded for her weird priorities
- Character writing was inconsistent. Examples: Bakool Ja Ja's sudden change of heart, Wuk Lamat emphasizing that "she wants to know" but doesn't care about Zoraal Ja at all. She cares more about the red Yok Huy (who attack her!!!) than about her own brother.
- The story struggles to gain momentum. The moment we think we can move on to another zone, we're being held back (examples: Wuk Lamat's abduction, not being able to enter the golden city, visiting Erenville's home but then bubble appears, etc.)
- there's no build up to big moments, it's always a really flat suspense curve with a major spike
- Moments don't happen naturally, the writing is full of convenience. Events feel like they happen because they *have* to, not because of organic reasons. For example, Bakool Ja Ja being able to release Valigarmanda because *checks notes* only two headed Mamool Ja can cast two strong fire spells at once???
- the writing overall was immature, very tropey, contrived and predictable
- the dialogue quality was notably worse than in previous expansions

And the sad thing is, I could go on if I wanted to...
To be fair, Wuk Lamat wasn't as determined to understand Zoraal Ja as she was Bakool Ja Ja and the Yok Huy guy because he killed her dad and a bunch of her countrymen. And even though Sphene was also in on it, she'd realized how similar they were as people and wanted to try reaching her through that, even if it didn't work in the end. With Zoraal Ja she realized their similarities too late.

I didn't bring this up in the first post because it might've gone past the character limit, but while it's not unique to Dawntrail (there are plenty scenes throughout the game where the WOL just stands there while an NPC gets seriously hurt or killed), the forced incompetence was definitely a problem. Wuk Lamat being too trusting makes sense, but it's hard to believe everyone else would let her go off with a stranger. I think the writers did stuff like that because they wouldn't have time to progress the plot the way they wanted to without it. Easier to have nobody stop her than come up with a better reason why she got abducted.