Unpopular opinion - I like Dawntrial expansion.

[honest_psycho]

It gave me many "wow" moments, especially with the graphics.

I love Wut Lamat's accent, seeing her journey from being an adopted kitten to a novice adventurer, and finally becoming the Dawnservant. (The only thing I dislike is that she always uses the sentence, "LISTEN TO ME.") It gave me the feeling that you might not be highborn, but you still have a chance in life if you strive for it.

I love the Wild West zone of Shaaloani and the music, as well as the cyberpunk 2077 (or Phantasy Star) theme for Solution Nine.

In the last zone, I don't see the Endless as a life form, and I agree that switching them off is the right path.

The dungeons in DT are fun, and I can see some new mechanics. The world also has many new monster skins.

The base game of DT might not be perfect but its not bad as well. I rate it higher than ARR, Stormblood and Endwalker.

Playing since 2010 and 2013 ARR beta.

Ok, serious question:

Are you really not bothered at all at all the blatant plotholes in the story? (Like Bakool JaJa not getting fucking executed for domestic terrorism via releasing Valigarmanda)

Or the fact that a Mary Sue gets the majority of the screentime, lobotomising every other character in her vicinity?

If you really don't see these problems, you should ask yourself, if you're not a bit tooo much of a loyal fan who doesnt want to admit to the faults of his object of reverence.

[TaleraRistain]

I'm enjoying the gameplay in the expansion. The raid tier has been a lot of fun.

The story missed me, unfortunately. I am intrigued by some of the breadcrumbs they left with the key. But they really need to tell a story aimed at adults, not children, in the post patches.

[Valence]

I enjoyed the expansion's story quite a bit, for which I made an appreciation post as well.

With detachment now, there are definitely things that I agree were botched (some pacing, the writing, but especially the shounen tone shift), but I'm not gonna lie and pretend that the previous expansions didn't have problems as well. The first half of HW was empty past the opening in Ishgard and had a full filler area (Sea of Clouds), while Western Coerthas had almost nothing going on there as well (just an old farm to investigate). SB had great themes but didn't always fully capitalize on them. ShB was probably the most well rounded expansion, but it still had very underwhelming elements like Ranjit. etc.

It also boils down a lot to what your appreciation and interest as a player will focus on during the msq. My whole focus in DT on the first part was on the world building that in my opinion was the biggest strength of the expansion, and exploring that new world. No other expansion ever comes close to the time and care put into fleshing out each of its areas. In the second part I was immediately on board with the rising threat and the plot and perhaps this also has to do with my science fiction leaning. Either way, DT also has problems, doesn't seem to be able to find new, fresh existential themes after EW, and suffers from bad writing at times, so I can see how someone that would focus first on this would have their experience somewhat ruined by it.

And one absolute constant that has been the true weakness of the XIV story and writing imo, is that the way the story is designed to fit within the 6 areas of each expansion, you essentially get into a new area, have to talk to a certain amount of NPCs to learn about the area and its problems, then spend a lot of time doing trivial tasks or just walking around, until you finally get to experience the true meat of the story and plot in the 20% last moments of the area. It adds a lot to the filler vibe and I do think the writers are very bad at working on those slower paced scenes between story highlights you'll find in any story, and have difficulties making them engaging with actual character development, especially on the side of the Scions.

[Gunz_Zbestest]

Ok, serious question:

Are you really not bothered at all at all the blatant plotholes in the story? (Like Bakool JaJa not getting fucking executed for domestic terrorism via releasing Valigarmanda)

Or the fact that a Mary Sue gets the majority of the screentime, lobotomising every other character in her vicinity?

If you really don't see these problems, you should ask yourself, if you're not a bit tooo much of a loyal fan who doesnt want to admit to the faults of his object of reverence.

Most of the confederate soldiers and leaders were paroled and not charged after the Civil war. Many northerners thought it was impractical and could interfere with nation building.

[honest_psycho]

Most of the confederate soldiers and leaders were paroled and not charged after the Civil war. Many northerners thought it was impractical and could interfere with nation building.

Dude, if I go to the zoo and open the Tiger cage, I'm going to fucking jail. What insane argument is this???
Even if you want to let this slide, Bakool should have been disqualified from the Rite at MINIMUM.

This is the kind of blind loyal white-knighting I'm talking about.
Making insane arguments defending absolute horrible writing.

Meteion come back, I changed my mind.

[Kes13a]

Dude, if I go to the zoo and open the Tiger cage, I'm going to fucking jail. What insane argument is this???
Even if you want to let this slide, Bakool should have been disqualified from the Rite at MINIMUM.

This is the kind of blind loyal white-knighting I'm talking about.
Making insane arguments defending absolute horrible writing.

Meteion come back, I changed my mind.

since you are clearly letting your sub expire, can we have your stuff?

[Uncle_Jafar]

Posting a counter thread won’t make the problems go away.

[Doomfist]

Valence basically said my thoughts on Dawntrail, and that all the previous expansions stories had flaws as well, some more crippling than DT. I do think that going to Tural after Endwalker wasn't the most logical progression for the story, but it seems the new direction of FFXIV was for the wol to be more of an adventurer again, since all the main foes have been dealt with.

A long time ago during EW, there was an interview with Yoshi-P where he said 7.0 "could go anywhere", which filled me with worry at that time. While I'm lucky to find enjoyment in Dawntrail, I can't help but feel that the Void and Corvos had more setup to be the 7.0 setting throughout the EW patches. The Void for obvious reasons, and Corvos because it just keeps getting mentioned over and over.

[honest_psycho]

since you are clearly letting your sub expire, can we have your stuff?

Will you follow up with an argument refuting why where aren't any plotholes?
Or do you concede that there are?

[Sacae]

Will you follow up with an argument refuting why where aren't any plotholes?
Or do you concede that there are?

I'm gonna regret this, but...

Them not arresting Bakool Ja Ja isn't a plothole. Character stupidity isn't a plothole. A plothole is something that violates the established rules of the setting. The characters being overly forgiving doesn't do that.

That doesn't keep it from being a bad plot point, but that's exactly what it is, not a plothole.