Zepla's Dawntrail MSQ Analysis

[CamuiKushi]

I don't know if DT is much better, but I've been going through bits and pieces of EW content and it feels incredibly awkward and stale at this point, especially when it shifts jarringly from one to the other depending on the current mood.

It is not. There are new tracks that would absolutely slot in just as well that get ignored in favour of the exact tracks you've listed here.

Worst still, tracks that get heavily associated with certain characters from Endwalker have been used in a generic fashion in DT, too. It really feels weird when I typically feel FF14 does a solid job of respecting motifs.

[Fawkes]

Not only did we as a community ask for a lowering of the stakes post-EW, we welcomed the idea of a low-stakes beach adventure when DT was announced. That means you can't have every opening dungeon be a sky is split moment. We have to build back up to that, or else we have the World of Warcraft and Guild Wars 2 problem of every single threat being somehow bigger and badder than the last and *this time it's for real.*

DT's story did a lot of things poorly, but delivering on the promise of a lower scale threat for the grand majority of it was not one of them. Sphene/The Endless would only make it into the Top 10 list because we've had 6 expansions worth to fill it out.

I didn't even say anything about the expansion's overall stakes. We're talking about SE potentially using a cookie-cutter formula for the MSQ, specifically referencing how the last 3 MSQs have had a sort of pattern with like the final dungeon being the bosses memories or whatnot. I'm saying there was no "moment", nothing interesting or relevant happened. You could completely remove Dawntrail's first dungeon and the story doesn't change at all, whereas Shadowbringers and Endwalker the first dungeon is actually part of the story and stuff actually happens.

If the first dungeon is an "MSQ package" then it's a Stormblood package, and there's no good reason to intentionally go back to that.

[BigCheez]

1st half of fiscal year (ended September 2024)

MMO Division

Net Sales: 32.4 billion yen
operating income: 13.1 billion yen


The numbers include sales of the current expansion, which increased operating income greatly. [Q1 was 6.6 billion yen on 12.5 billion net sales)

Operating income is what the company uses to purchase shares, pay dividends, fund new development, and run the company as a whole.

Seems to me that putting almost 20 billion yen into the game itself (operating costs, salaries, marketing, whatever) can't be considered "barely".

Blame the company for whatever (unsatisfying expansion, mediocre gameplay, not enough shills on Twitch), but don't use "this game gets barely any of the proceeds", because that, at least, can be disproved.

A large chunk of that will have gone into outsourcing the mobile game.

[Immut]

1. The developers do because they said they watch Zepla's videos.
2. They are not just content creators, they are players and human beings.
3. She had been working on the video for ages.

I don't even subscribe to her, I just see what's going on in the FFXIV category on YouTube because the recommendations are perfect in recent years and inform me of everything important in YouTube's FFXIV space, regardless of their subscriber count.

Ok but did you like not have an opinion before you were given one or something?

[Jeeqbit]

Ok but did you like not have an opinion before you were given one or something?

I am never "given" an opinion. I just wanted to share the video here for the reasons stated especially since we know the developers like to watch her videos.

I don't have a creative writing degree, so my analysis is much less nitpicky than her's.

[DPZ2]

A large chunk of that will have gone into outsourcing the mobile game.

Oddly enough, the relationship between Tencent and Square Enix was explained quite differently in a recent [February 2024] Reuter's article explaining the end of development for a Nier mobile game by Tencent:

"Mobile games adapted from famous computer and console games, known as intellectual property (IP) games, often entail hefty fees to IP owners, in this case to Square Enix.

Royalty fees of 15% to 20% of sales are typical, the people said, while Apple's App Store takes a 30% cut and marketing and user acquisition can cost another 30% to 40%, leaving slim profit margins.

As growth in mobile games slows and development costs rise, Tencent is finding that many IP games are becoming too expensive to pursue, the people said.

One of the people said that Tencent was only willing to pay royalty fees below 10% in recent negotiations with IP holders."

Doesn't seem like a hefty "investment" on Square Enix's part. More like free cash cow -- no development, no risk.

[DPZ2]

They put 20 billions into the MMO division. And this division is way more than FF14 only.

You are absolutely right. So, how much of those 20 billion yen did FF11 and their only other MMORPG, Dragon Quest X, utilize? And how much of the 32 billion net sales are they responsible for, specifically?

"[The] division is way more than FF14 only" = "Square Enix's MMO division currently supports three MMORPGs, of which one (FF11) isn't even mentioned in financial reports"

[Themarvin]

Sorry I can't use that persons clown with a mic thing to anything, the person is very short sighted and a joke.

[ReynTime]

It is not. There are new tracks that would absolutely slot in just as well that get ignored in favour of the exact tracks you've listed here.

Worst still, tracks that get heavily associated with certain characters from Endwalker have been used in a generic fashion in DT, too. It really feels weird when I typically feel FF14 does a solid job of respecting motifs.

This is something XIV's sound direction borrows from long-running anime.
Composers for anime usually come up with certain themes and motifs for specific major story points or characters. Then the directors decide to re-use those themes based on the audience really liking it the first time so let's keep using it + not wanting to use older tracks but also not wanting to allocate budget for even more additional tracks.

Whoever makes those cutscene music decisions in XIV is being very lazy.
Series like Naruto have done this a lot. It undermines the significance of the first time some of the (actually very good) themes because they get used 20 more times, often for situations that are nowhere near as impactful.

[FudoMyoo]

Zelpa who? Did she pay the same subscription fee as me?