How would you improve Dawntrail's writing?

[MoofiaBossVal]

My main issue was the lack of tension. It is a very long story punctuated by some ocassional neat moments, but I was overall bored and found myself spending more time alt+tabbed out to browse the internet than engaged and sitting on the edge of my seat wanting to find out what happens next.

Right off the bat, it does not feel like there is an urgency or stakes to the contest. Bajool Ja Ja is just a bully and then keeps failing so no reason to fear him. Zoraal Ja never came across as threatening. So I go to Urqopacha and Kozam and spend a lot of time meandering around and doing chores and Wuk gets two keystones, and then eventually the only thing that happens is that Wuk Lamat gets kidnapped, and then we get her back and she hasn't lost any keystones. The turning point for me was when the doom bird was unleashed and nothing happened. I was expecting it was going to be like FF9 or FF10 and villages would have to be evacuated, settlements wiped off the face of the earth, the army mobilized and divisions wiped out, etc. But we just teleport onto a rock with 8 guys and kill it just like that with no casualties. That greatly diminished my interest in the story, and then the cooking contest had the two agreeable good guys paired with each other vs the two antagonists, and at that point it is clear there is no risk of failure or anything bad happening, and I abandoned the MSQ to go level up alt jobs instead.