The Negative Impact of Poor Character Writing on the Quality of Dawntrail's MSQ

[Gwen_Lavellan]

Good points.

I'm currently clearing sidequests expansion per expansion while rewatching correspondants story progression per zones I clear and I'm on SHB sidequests since a few days.
They feel more disconnected to the region lore and I'm finding myself skipping most dialogues parts because they are quite generics and bland.
Previous sidequests were more engaging lore and society-wise.

[Hallarem]

What this game needs is innovation. Storywise, gamewise, systemswise. They need to be brave, Final Fantasy has always been about trying new things. It just feels STUCK.

"The customers are expecting a certain type of product" pleaaaaase, this isn't Coca Cola, stop coping. It's an MMO, you need to try to push in new things per expansion to give people something to be interested about and excited about.

[MemcyBanana]

I am ranting. Need to express my emotions.

Just finished DT this week. I hated it so much I logged in the forums for the very first time just to air my discontent. I played this expansion with an open mind. I have had instances when people just wanted to ride the hate train, so I always play/watch first and then judge later. Sadly, everyone saying that DT is bad is correct.

I never EVER skip cutscenes and dialogues when I first see them. But I was so so tired of Wuk Lamat that I ended up smashing the mouse button to skip whatever it was she was saying. I'm sorry, other characters, whose lines I may have skipped by mistake in my effort to NOT see WL's lines ever again.

Am I supposed to be emotionally attached to Wuk Lamat? Maybe if we didn't talk to her so much, I would be somewhat okay with her, but the writers wanted to endear her so much to us that I just ended up hating her and.... whatever it was she was trying to be. I don't understand what exactly were they trying to portray her to be. Why did she need to be with us during the entire Sphene arc? She's the leader of the gahddamn nation. I understand Koana was there but she wasn't much help while we were in the Unlost World and beyond. Why did we need her help in the first place? She couldn't have just waited for the opportune moment if she really wanted to fight with Zoraal Ja, she had to be there the ENTIRE time? Aymeric wanted to help us too, but the dude understood what it meant to lead a nation. Wuk Lamat is just selfish, self-serving, and absolutely NOT needed in the entire thing.

What is with the writer's obsession with Wuk Lamat and food? Wuk Lamat and forms of transportation? Wuk Lamat and her main character syndrome? Everything we do is Wuk Lamat this and that. Every time I was starting to enjoy something, they would insert Wuk Lamat in it and I lose all joy.

I don't understand why we had to talk to the farmers, they were obviously farming. What was the point of the whole food hopping in Station 9???? Weren't we in a hurry??????

I am not sure why they wrote DT this way, why is WL in 90% of everything? Why is the pacing so bad? Why are there so many plot holes? Why was everyone so bland??? Pixel NPCs had more character than whatever they did to the Scions.
I am just rambling at this point. I am at the point where my frustration jumbles everything that I want to say.

I just don't understand why DT was written this way.

[Basteala]

Nameless NPCs in the settlements of ARR like Swiftperch, Aleport, Golden Bazaar, etc, are written like they have their own little backstories, and the settlements themselves It also makes the fact after Heavensward the number of hamlets with houses you can enter became a lot more scarce be more than just a coincidence. It highlights how little care they started putting into the design of those locations beyond a surface level.

I hadn't thought about that, but you're absolutely right. It's very frustrating from an RP sense, as well.

[CuteBucket]

Nameless NPCs in the settlements of ARR like Swiftperch, Aleport, Golden Bazaar, etc, are written like they have their own little backstories, and the settlements themselves have long pasts leading to what they are when you visit. Meanwhile settlements like the ones in later expansions are basically "this is place where we fish then send fish to city" and the like. To me that's one of the biggest differences.

It also makes the fact after Heavensward the number of hamlets with houses you can enter became a lot more scarce be more than just a coincidence. It highlights how little care they started putting into the design of those locations beyond a surface level.

This may actually be a point in Ishikawa's favor. Checking the staff credits of each expansion shows that that in ARR and HW, Ishikawa was predominantly writing sidequests and side NPC dialogue like this. The first time she is listed as a lead writer is in SB working along with Banri Oda. Both of them are co-writers for SB, ShB, and EW. But as she became a lead writer, naturally the job of writing the sidequests and minor NPCs fell to newer members of the writing team and thus are *not* written by Oda and Ishikawa.

[Doopliss]

Regardless of who actually is at "fault" for the decline (at this point I'm within the belief that the whole team might just be a mess; too many people shuffled into the wrong positions, etc), I'm just so glad people are finally pointing out how horrible the sidequest and ambient/overworld NPCs have become. But as pointed out, this isn't new to Dawntrail; it's been a problem since Shadowbringers. It feels like the little things and little people are never explored anymore, which was the main source of lore I really preferred looking at as a roleplayer.

It makes Hydaelyn feel extremely artifical as a world, and Tural--being an entirely unexplored, gigantic continent--suffers the greatest from it. Everything is solved with a single, simple solution. Nobody asks questions. Nobody presents any real interpersonal or cultural conflicts. It's all toothless. This affected Sharlayan and, to a lesser extent, Radz-at-Han as well, but I think Tural by default has it the worst. You can even see it in the ambient chat bubbles... Everyone sounds like they're in an infomercial advertising something to you now, when in ARR through Stormblood you'd have NPCs talking about randomly insane, yet far more human things like how they shagged somebody's husband and then got their cow stolen for it.

I miss it, man. I keep trying to give Dawntrail slack, but it's just so...nothing. Not even an ARR-Tier story, because it lacks the genuinely engaging prose and conflict and world-building that ARR granted us. Sorry for rambling.

[Hallarem]

I miss it, man. I keep trying to give Dawntrail slack, but it's just so...nothing. Not even an ARR-Tier story, because it lacks the genuinely engaging prose and conflict and world-building that ARR granted us. Sorry for rambling.

I got to finally doing the Postmoogle questline that starts in Limsa. One of the quests was to mediate between a little sister, whose Coeurlclaw sister had been supporting her family with gil in secret for a long time. She had been a victim of abuse, stuck in a perpetual circle of crime, prejudiced because of the Coeurlclaws labeling all Keepers of the Moon subconciously into criminals in Gridanians' mind. Stockholm syndromed by the Coeurlking, probably feeling that was the only safe place left to her in society. Failing to escape with her little sister because of that, even if one male ruling over a harem of females is COMPLETELY AGAINST Keeper of Moon culture.

The quest told me:

- local lore, politics
- culture of the Keepers of the Moon
- offered genuine conflict and disagreements
- didn't have a happy ending (I know the coeurlking got killed later and the coeurlclaws mostly disbanded, but dont know if the sister made it out okay in the end)


What Dawntrail quests have given me?

......

......

A potential regional conflict between technology and the indigenous nomadic Hhetsarro solved by a magical trainwhistle overnight where both sides win? I've done ALL the sidequests in Dawntrail, barely anything gave me something to cling onto. The cultures and regions are so SURFACE LEVEL it hurts. Hell, even the goofy rolequests gave me more on culture of other tribes and some nuance. Though its all TEXT mind you, nothing was shown.

If your story, quests, MSQ don't have ARGUMENTS, DISAGREEMENTS, CONFLICT. Its bad writing.
One of the BEST moments in Shadowbringers to me, was when Y'shtola and Thancred ARGUED and disagreed on Ryne. Where is that writing? Everyone on Dawntrails MSQ is magically tempered by Wuk Lamats ideals. She COULDVE been a great character, but its just too much of a nonsensical thing to swallow. The Alexandrians are LITERAL CHILDREN mentally, I have no idea how they function on a daily basis.

[JohnLakeside]

I got to finally doing the Postmoogle questline that starts in Limsa. One of the quests was to mediate between a little sister, whose Coeurlclaw sister had been supporting her family with gil in secret for a long time. She had been a victim of abuse, stuck in a perpetual circle of crime, prejudiced because of the Coeurlclaws labeling all Keepers of the Moon subconciously into criminals in Gridanians' mind. Stockholm syndromed by the Coeurlking, probably feeling that was the only safe place left to her in society. Failing to escape with her little sister because of that, even if one male ruling over a harem of females is COMPLETELY AGAINST Keeper of Moon culture.

The quest told me:

- local lore, politics
- culture of the Keepers of the Moon
- offered genuine conflict and disagreements
- didn't have a happy ending (I know the coeurlking got killed later and the coeurlclaws mostly disbanded, but dont know if the sister made it out okay in the end)


What Dawntrail quests have given me?

......

......

A potential regional conflict between technology and the indigenous nomadic Hhetsarro solved by a magical trainwhistle overnight where both sides win? I've done ALL the sidequests in Dawntrail, barely anything gave me something to cling onto. The cultures and regions are so SURFACE LEVEL it hurts. Hell, even the goofy rolequests gave me more on culture of other tribes and some nuance. Though its all TEXT mind you, nothing was shown.

If your story, quests, MSQ don't have ARGUMENTS, DISAGREEMENTS, CONFLICT. Its bad writing.
One of the BEST moments in Shadowbringers to me, was when Y'shtola and Thancred ARGUED and disagreed on Ryne. Where is that writing? Everyone on Dawntrails MSQ is magically tempered by Wuk Lamats ideals. She COULDVE been a great character, but its just too much of a nonsensical thing to swallow. The Alexandrians are LITERAL CHILDREN mentally, I have no idea how they function on a daily basis.

I'm doing the Postmoogle quests right now, and I really appreciate how much worldbuilding flair they add. I've only completed Baderone's and Momodi's quests so far, but one thing I've noticed is that the characters we meet are always actively engaged in something or found in a place that feels intentional. They’re not just idly waiting in a random field for us to talk to them. Instead, it feels like their lives and stories existed long before our arrival.

For instance, when we met Momodi's past suitor, he was fishing in a village—a clear sign that he had established a life there. Similarly, Baderone's old friend was found after having just left the cabin at Summerford, a cabin that we later got to explore and retrieve his belongings from. This attention to detail makes the world feel so much more grounded and lived-in.

[Hallarem]

Meanwhile we are entering the age of Final-Scifi-Fantasy.

Get your phasers set to fail, ladies and gentlemen. There is no reason for any medieval fantasy societies to exist in this world where we are going to farm planets for resources even before opening up the whole DAMNED WORLD MAP.

Can't wait to rock up to Hingashi on my personal spaceship that we farted out of nowhere because some nerd in Sharlayan just studied a book! Lost technology and empire my arse.

[Zakuyia]

Im amazed at how many ppl understand how bad / weird the writing is...sadly im already ready to skip msq during the next patch update if it hurries and gets me to arcadion dome faster. Bad when side quest has better writting than msq. Mind you this new chapter for next years to come also wuk lamat gonna be narrator for next expansion.