7.2 MSQ opinions (spoiler obviously)

[Raim]

Theres good and bad. I really like the presence of real Sphene and how she acts. I dislike how Wuk is around more, especially in a situation where it would be questionable as she said to have a foreign ruler snooping around. I dislike bringing Gulool with us because he seems like a major liability in a warzone. I thought it strange that we took the crown with us without a second thought as to it being a trap or tracking device. I dislike how easily the villains in the story can teleport the WoL, yet nobody thinks to just drop us off a cliff.

[Raim]

To be fair those societies were also impacted by Meteion

Would the Ea have regretted their decision to give up mortality if Meteion didn’t mess with their perception of the value of their existence due to the heat death of the universe (that she was accelerating)

Theres no downside to biological immortality. The only reason we have a problem with what is going on now is because their immortality requires taking the souls of others to fuel their own.

[Supersnow845]

Theres no downside to biological immortality. The only reason we have a problem with what is going on now is because their immortality requires taking the souls of others to fuel their own.

I know. I’m pointing out in the comment I replied to that they wished the WOL could tell calyx that other societies tried sacrificing their body for immortality and they ended up regretting it. But most of that regret comes from Meteions influence, not because the concept of self sustaining biological immortality is a flawed concept

[ZXN]

My personal feelings.

Calyx made both a good impact and a bad impact.
Good: They came out of the gates essentially swinging with him. Before we even really meet him the first thing he tries to do is kill us, and it only continues as it leads to him pretty much just killing people left and right in order to essentially force his plans forward and doesn't care otherwise.
Bad: He's an endless and they're doing the whole "DON'T YOU UNDERSTAND WHAT YOU'RE DOING?!?!?!?" song and dance they did with Fake Sphene again. I didn't care much for Fake Sphene and the whole "Robot AI suddenly gets feelings" so them trying to push Calyx as Fake Sphene 2.0 but this time actually "bad" is not really all that interesting to me. Gonna roll my eyes if 7.3 comes around and he suddenly feels remorse for everything he's done the past 4 centuries because we told him doing the bad thing is bad enough times.

Real Sphene is probably the best character Dawntrail has given us with her story arc currently. An actual character with actual emotions and believable dialogue that I actually find interesting. It actually got me invested. Good job, I hope we get more of this character...as long as they don't just pivot and turn her into another Wuk Lamat yes man or make her try to understand the AI's feelings. Also hoping that the results of her "being trained" is actually shown next patch with her, well, doing something to help even if minor using what she learned from Y'shtola magic wise.

Dungeon was fine. Trial was great. More voiced cutscenes are also good.

Overall to me personally, 7.2's MSQ is a BIG step up from both 7.0 and 7.1 in terms of writing / delivery. Sure that's not really saying a whole lot since the bar is literally on the floor currently, but at least they picked the bar up off the floor. Given this story is suppose to be completely resolved with Patch 7.3, given that's what Yoshi-P said the plan was for this expansion and return to 7.4+ being the build towards the next expansion, I can only hope it doesn't end with them putting the bar back on the floor for the "climax" of this story.

[CNitsah]

nobody thinks that crown we took without second thought might be a trap?
our enemy is an electrope-genius. and yet we just take that thing and let real sphene take it without checking it on hidden malicious traps?

i feel like sphene will put it on while trying to calm down the people in 7.3... and then either her memories will be manipulated heavily or something takes over her body.

like the 7.2 story though definitely a step up to 7.0 xD

Yeah, my fear is that she will put it and it's a trap that gonna control it. It's the worst thing they could do with that, and the fact nobody said "ok, but please don't put it". There still is several way they could ruin the good work they did with 7.2, and it's just one of them.

My problem is the fact that I feel like this should have been 7.1’s patch. The setup for this story is really good and besides the 4th tour of solution 9 feels like it has a tight and defined direction. However this story basically had be resolved by the next patch. 7.3 is the end of DT functionally as they said they are returning to the prologue epilogue design so 7.4 has to start setting up 8.0.

Yeah, I totally agree with that. I feel like the whole calyx feeling more like a plot device than a character is the result of them having only 2 patches to make that story.

[CaptainLagbeard]

The bad guy's objective is the same if not similar to what happened with the Omicrons, Ea, and the Nibrun. I'm kind of disappointed we didn't get the option to let him know we've met people that obtained the immortality he was looking for and it didn't work out for them.

It's kinda disappointing and stupid that the WoL doesn't just tell people in the story about things...
We could tell them about the Ascians and calamities to explain why their world got so much Lightning. We could have all the way back in our first visit to Solution 9 told them about the cure to the paralysis. And now we could just told Calyx about Meteon and Ultima Thule.

And on the side, for the Arcadion storyline, we know Beq Lugg who's spent about a century studying souls, we could have just gone to talk to him.

[Nadda]

Yeah, I totally agree with that. I feel like the whole calyx feeling more like a plot device than a character is the result of them having only 2 patches to make that story.

What they could do is make him an overarching villain.
Emet Selch and Fandydandy were both later patch villains that continued on.

THOUGH admittedly that's wishful thinking on my part and granted those were all .5 or .55 introductions - it makes more sense for this story to conclude this Expansion, but supposing it didn't...

Maybe he could be something more? But what? I couldn't say.

[Supersnow845]

What they could do is make him an overarching villain.
Emet Selch and Fandydandy were both later patch villains that continued on.

THOUGH admittedly that's wishful thinking on my part and granted those were all .5 or .55 introductions - it makes more sense for this story to conclude this Expansion, but supposing it didn't...

Maybe he could be something more? But what? I couldn't say.

Preservation is too closely linked to the 9th and Alexandria

If we made an entire expansion that was just shard travel to protect the remaining shards against preservation’s current plans we are basically set up to stop next patch then the expansion will just end up feeling like a weird duology to dawntrail rather than its own unique expansion

Kinda like how in hindsight EW feels like a conclusion to ShB not to the entire 10 year arc

[Yoshihara]

I've been highly critical of Dawntrail's writing.
7.2 feels like someone else took over and the writing style is completely different and actually understands the nuances of creative writing a lot more.

If Dawntrail 7.0 is a 2/10 and 7.1 is a 1.5/10, then 7.2 is a 6-6.5/10, which is good, because anything higher than that would've been extremely jarring and would feel like a moment they just replaced an entire team working on the game.
That being said, the fact that there was a noticeable jump in quality from abysmal to "Yeah we can work with this" means if they keep the momentum up I can definitely see myself giving later patches and expansions a higher score.
Bear in mind I'm incredibly stingy when it comes to rating the writing. Even Shadowbringers is 8/10 for me at the very best and that's if I'm generous, I still find flaws in Shadowbringers even if it's considered the best FFXIV currently has to offer, however I've always know that there's better out there (not in the MMO genre), so I'm always hoping for one day FFXIV hits that 9/10 for me.

My gripes with this patch lie mostly in the gameplay of the casual dungeons and the new trial - They were by far the weakest and most... Endwalker feeling boss fights.
The English voice acting outside of Sphene was also extremely stilted and arguably worse than what it was in the base expansion, which was already not very good. Shale in particular sounds like someone who's either bored or couldn't care less about who she's voicing.

Like what others have mentioned already in their replies, the real Sphene shady is the most standout player in terms of writing and delivery by far this patch. Unlike 7.0 Endless Sphene who felt like Princess Prissy Pants Wuk Lamat 2.0 who isn't quite as annoying but just as illogical if not more.

[CaptainLagbeard]

What they could do is make him an overarching villain.
Emet Selch and Fandydandy were both later patch villains that continued on.

THOUGH admittedly that's wishful thinking on my part and granted those were all .5 or .55 introductions - it makes more sense for this story to conclude this Expansion, but supposing it didn't...

Maybe he could be something more? But what? I couldn't say.

They COULD have introduced him earlier, and build him up more...
But that would have taken away time from talking with wuk lamat.