I thought Dawntrail was going to be a grand adventure surrounded by friends

[Sharie]

We were supposed to go on an adventure, with our Scion Friends, but ended up with someones Fursona Forced into the spotlight, and a Voice actor that makes ARR VA's look good.
Just Big sigh...

[Dogempire]

Taking this from the other thread, but I think someone from the Japanese forums put it best.

"It was Estinien's summer vacation.
The end."

Honestly, I would have prefered if the WoL was just actually taking a vacation during the first part of the expansion and exploring things on his own and enjoying his time, giving more screentime to Krile and Erenville, while occasionally watching Wuk Lamat run around in the background desperately fumbling to do the trials, and then you could occasionally help and watch her grow. I don't think Wuk is necessarily a bad character, but she is pushed so hard if you don't like her then there's nothing else to hang onto for most of the story.

There was one point during the story that sums up DT pretty well, and it's when you choose the dialogue option "I'm gonna take a nap" after being asked what you're going to do and Erenville interjects and is like "I think they mean they'll help Wuk Lamat."

The story was never about you, you're just playing second fiddle to the Mary Sue MC and being muscle when needed, not that she needs the muscle because she stops struggling with combat after a few history lessons and going "Blah blah blah work together peace is good strength in unity etc."

Doesn't ever struggle after that, never screws up catastrophically and gets someone killed, never struggles with grief over any mistakes she made, is just flawless and perfect after acting like a girlfailure for a few scenes

[NevaehQuest]

Yeah I can no longer look at the title screen cinematic anymore because the vibe is so different from how we actually getting to the point I cringed every time I look at it.

[Coratanni]

I'm still working on the MS, so I haven't experienced it all, but I think you might be forgetting something. This is supposed to be the start of a brand-new arc. Not merely a new expansion but an entirely new saga. I think this slow start is an echo (haha, echo) of how ARR began. I fully expect the story to crescendo.

I'm sorry you didn't get the epic adventure you were expecting, but remember that this truly is a new beginning, a foundation of what is to come. Honestly, I felt like Endwalker moved too fast with all the death and carnage smacking you in the face from the get-go, but that was the very end of a decade long ark while this is a much simpler beginning of a brand-new arc that will no doubt go on for several expansions. I'm eager to see where the game and characters go from here.

In short, give it some more time.

Alot of us are sick and tired of that excuse about "It's a brand new arc. Of course it's going to start off slow. It needs to cook."

Just stop with that. There are ways to start a new arc. To show a new area(which coincidently, is what every single expansion has done, though none so poorly as DT). The characters were flat. Mary Sue Wuk Lamat was terrible in every single way imagineable, and was forced down our throats 139 times, and the story was a mess. I didn't pre-order every expansion over the last 9 years, to enter someone's middle school fanfic.

[Shuuchi]

Alot of us are sick and tired of that excuse about "It's a brand new arc. Of course it's going to start off slow. It needs to cook."

Just stop with that. There are ways to start a new arc. To show a new area(which coincidently, is what every single expansion has done, though none so poorly as DT). The characters were flat. Mary Sue Wuk Lamat was terrible in every single way imagineable, and was forced down our throats 139 times, and the story was a mess. I didn't pre-order every expansion over the last 9 years, to enter someone's middle school fanfic.

The excuses used for DT are eerily similar to the ones used to run cover for Amazon’s Rings of Power.
Hope ff14 doesn’t end up the same.

[programcanaan]

Yawntrail!

[Fatch38]

I didn't pre-order every expansion over the last 9 years, to enter someone's middle school fanfic.

oh don't trashtalk fanfics, there are way better written ones than the whole DT, it's more like child books than fanfic. sometimes i feel like DT was totally made by AI (from story to gamedesign), it's the only excuse i can see.