JP: Yoshi P should step down, FF14 is a sinking ship, in response to interview

[Doomed_Raven]

I'm a new player and am loving FFXIV, it's an impressive game.

But I've seen an overwhelming amount of dislike for the new Dawntrail DLC, for it's story writing which is likened to writing for children. And the main character and focus is apparently 'Wuk Lamat'? a female Hrothgar that everyone pretty much hates. If this DLC was worked on since 2021, I wonder if Square Enix's DEI department let another group of writers outside of Square Enix (or a consultation company) take the reigns for the writing process and characters, given they'd finished the 10 year story arc. This would perfectly fit the time frame in which far-left DEI exploded in entertainment mediums and also became politicized. Though letting DEI/neo Marxism have anything to do with your product is death - if indeed this was the case. It seems unfeasible the writers of a highly received 10 years worth of expansions, possibly FFXVI too would then write something this poorly received, and may also be why YoshiP doesn't elaborate well on it. But who knows, I'll have to grit my teeth and bear it when I get to this DLC. YoshiP knows at least this DLC's story wasn't well received so maybe there'll be changes moving forwards, and focus returned to the warrior of light/player. In fact I'm sure he mentions the focus will be different next time which is good.

[GrizzlyTank]

My concern is still that Yoshi seems to have been deliberately steering away from things that made the story good, particularly because he doesn't want to force people to play all the side content. Which is unfortunate since seeing stuff like alexander, omega and the crystal being brought up again as pivotal plot points felt amazing. When we are dealing with the void, us messing up the cloud of darkness, killing Diabolos, whatever went on with Gaia, Cyella and Can't pronounce his name... Should play a relevance to the story.

Dawntrail also covers way too much of this new continent, all the focus should have either been in the south or north. Not both. With north having a return of the monetarist plot line that was also brought up during blue mage quests.

Then the poltical story was cut short thrice Ala Mhigo and Doma being merged, Varis being killed and Bozja having it's last part be an essay in favour of some overpowered emo kid (Not Meteion, she's precious).

[lolnotacat]

(Not Meteion, she's precious).

[Carin-Eri]

I LOVED Wuk Lamat! That's what drives me crazy with those that won't point out the poor quality of writing and just blindly defend the character and expansion - I was a massive fan of Wuk Lamat when she was introduced. She was the starry eyed adventurer coming to seek our help - the champion of Eorzea. She was brash and insecure and showed so much room for growth. She hadn't seen what we had seen. She hadn't been through what us and the scions had went through. She reminded me so much of Moenbryda. Loud, happy, brash, and strong - ready to take on any foe!

Then Dawntrail happened and my goodness, the problems with the writing are problems I've never seen in this game. Even in the infamous paladin job quest it wasn't this bad.

Forced to agree. Whilst I'm not in the 'omg Dawnfail sux!' camp, it did feel like there was a severe disconnect between the Wuk Lamat we met near the conclusion of Endwalker and the one we followed through Dawntrail. It honestly feels like in that moment she removed her turban, on the boat to Tural, she became a different character in all but appearance.

I haven't looked, but was the closing patch of Endwalker written by the same writer who produced Dawntrail's story?

[Shaera]

I do find this doom and gloom attitude of oh, one expansions weaker than the last, games dead, Yoshi-P should step down really strange. Like when did we decide that just because this expansion wasn't as good someone should lose their job? That's just wild to me.

I will say I enjoyed most of DT. My only real critique is the pacing felt off.

I really enjoyed the first half and I feel like the fight against Papa JaJa should have been a trail and should have been the finale, it means moving the skydeep cenote ahead of the fight but maybe the point is we fight him outside the gate to the city of gold idk, we have the coronation ceremony credits roll, post credits "meanwhile in the skydeep cenote" Zoreel Ja has his ominous little cutscene. Shoalaani opens as a post msq zone (since we do literally nothing important there anyway), but it gives us time to get to know the people and actually care. Then the whole, dome, invasion, Everkeep and Interphos all become patch content.

Living Memory can become a dungeon, it feels like a less effective retread of Ultima Thule so we could at least do something interesting with it if it were a dungeon, it would also then feel like Sphene was *trying* to stop us.

Do we need heritage found as a big ass zone? I feel like we could have had it more like a Werlyt kind of small zone or make it the Bozja of the expansion a few patches in and its the Tulliyolal forces fighting to gain a foothold idk.

Anyway, it could have been better but I really don't think its any reason for the level of backlash we're seeing!

[GrizzlyTank]

I do find this doom and gloom attitude of oh, one expansions weaker than the last, games dead, Yoshi-P should step down really strange. Like when did we decide that just because this expansion wasn't as good someone should lose their job? That's just wild to me.

Yeah, screaming for him to step down is excessive.

However this isn't the first miss-step. The void story carried similar issues as dawntrail, but it was short enough to not be as frustrating, just boring.

[StormChase]

I know the forums have been pretty doomer-y about it, but right now Dawntrail's story is a C to me. Could be worse, but also could be better. If the writers play their cards right, the patches can help make up for some of the missed potential.

It falls into the same trap Stormblood did where it spread the focus too thin across two major locations. In Stormblood's case it was Othard and Ala Mhigo, while in Dawntrail's case it's Tuliyollal and Alexandria. Because of that I think they could've prevented a lot of the issues one of two ways:

1. Remove the Alexandria storyline so the Rite of Succession lasts from beginning to end
2. Make the story significantly longer so both locations get enough time

[Kacho_Nacho]

(Not Meteion, she's precious).

[Eraden]

Is....tasty?

[ovIm]

Is....tasty?

Does not taste like chicken. Only tastes like sadness and runny mascara.