7.3 MSQ Was Absolutely Terrific

[MaikoRaines]

I 100% agree.

Post MSQ has been trending in the right direction, and 7.3 knocked it into a place where it was familiar to me in terms of dark themes, grit and proper storytelling. Without spoiling much, the one area you go to investigate gave me old-school Resident Evil vibes without the jump scares.

I like how they developed this Sphene and, dare I say, to the ire of the naysayers, Wuk Lamat was kind of badass without the saturation effect from the MSQ. I never disliked Wuk Lamat, but I just disliked how the MSQ made her eclipse everyone else's story.

I'm still kinda sore about how they sideboarded Krile's backstory since her origins were always some kind of mystery. I feel like with this post MSQ, it sheds some more light and it made me that much more sad for her. (IYKYK...)

[RedLolly]

I wholeheartedly agree. So glad Dawntrail had a lovely finale.

I also want to give a special shout-out to the devs behind cinematography in this patch. That was just excellent in a few scenes.

[TaleraRistain]

My favorite part was the locker lol

[Mondschnee]

The animations were amazing, the graphic really brought some improvements on that front.

But from a writing perspective, while the ending was befit for a story like Dawntrail, in a greater scope it was average/mid.
Unfortunately many things that I disliked about 7.0's writing returned here, even though they were an issue almost all throughout Dawntrail anyway.

Character actions continued to be forced, character arcs felt rushed and a lot of characters displayed a lack of intelligence, even those who are supposedly smart (like Calyx).
Calyx in particular was so overconfident that he would triumph over us that at one point, it wasn't believable anymore. He really can't have been that smart given HOW MANY miscalculations he has made without ever learning from them. And I genuinely don't know if that's what the writers were intending.
I couldn't really get myself to care about the people of Solution 9, and while I was sad about Geode's death, his arc, too, was rushed, and this "show don't tell" element came way too late.
Another arc that was rushed was some of the Alexandrian's change of heart in regards to the regulators.
Overall, I constantly struggled to suspend my disbelief when it comes to core concepts of Dawntrail and character actions.

Dialogue bloat was also a huuuge issue again in the first few quests of 7.3.

I still feel sad for Zoraal Ja, who could have been a great villain.
It's a shame the lack of consequences for Bakool Ja Ja never got addressed.
Tural as a whole was completely shafted after Alexandria was introduced. This entire Rite of Succession feels completely pointless in retrospect. Why. Just why. Why did we have to go through all these hoops if they never served any purpose other than "establishing new nation"?

The explanation why Calyx lost his authority over Endless Sphene was also rather disappointing.

I understand that Alexandria was a nation that developed completely separately from the soucre, but Solution 9 felt out of place in a way that was immersion breaking for me.

7.2 was the best we got out of Dawntrail for me personally, besides Erenville ofc.
7.3 was aight, but I can only hope that this is not the standard moving forward.

[MicahZerrshia]

a lot of characters displayed a lack of intelligence, even those who are supposedly smart (like Calyx).

Seems I underestimated you.

Seems I underestimated you, again.

Seems I underestimated you, yet again.

Here! This is where I am at, right here in this room, I dare you to come try to defeat me.

*shocked Pikachu face* Seems I underestimated you.

/sigh

[Boblawblah]

I'm only at 7.2, so I dont know how 7.3 goes quite yet, but I'm struggling to connect with Sphene and Calyx. Sphene is very unoffensive, but nothing she does/says makes me really care about her, especially when I get the feeling that she'll be forgotten soon enough. Calyx reminds me of Asahi, which is never a good sign.

Part of the problem making a convincing villain now is that they would have to spend some serious time building up someone who felt serious enough to compete with the likes of the Emet-Selch, Gaius, Ysayle, NidHogg, Ilberd, Zenos. Calyx feels way too much like an anime villain. I'm just afraid though, that the devs don't want to take the time to basically rebuild a compelling arc from scratch, and we're going to have these 2 year jaunts that get resolved with no real connection to a larger story.

idk though, going to start 7.3 today, looks like you guys are liking it more, I'll try to stay positive.

[Haru304]

As a long term fan of the pokémon anime, I think the narrative, character dialogue, etc, is up to par for the current MSQ.

[Exmo]

7.3 msq was a major disappointment. It lacks any thematic consistency, ostensibly being about grief and fear of death, yet failing to foreground that theme through it's character's stories.

In one breath some character will say we must accept the finality of death as part of life's continuity, that to be locked into the past is folly. Yet the story ends by reverting Alexandria's ruling system back to it's original state.

The restoration of Living Memory is the epitomy of this sloppy writing. It feels like pandering to a negative part of the player base, who didn't like it's former resolution and who didn't like to be sad so would NG+ to bask in ignorance under a pretty facade. The zone operated as a clear and powerful metaphor. Now it's muddied and self-deluded.

Overall it feels like the devs lacked the courage in this patch series to tell the story they originally wanted to tell, and in an effort to appeal to haters they told a worse, incoherent story, settling for easy answers to easy questions.

[Hallarem]

7.4 will be setup. At least there we can see if they set the writers room on fire or are just letting them slop this up.

[Striker44]

In one breath some character will say we must accept the finality of death as part of life's continuity, that to be locked into the past is folly. Yet the story ends by reverting Alexandria's ruling system back to it's original state.

They're not going purely back to their original state; they reflected on the system they had in the past and decided to keep the specific piece of it that they liked while modifying it significantly. Instead of the Queen being an absolute monarch, there's also the equivalent of a council/parliament that's going to work with the "rulers" to govern Alexandria rather than having one single point receiving all of the stress. They're also using the "King of Resolve/Queen of Reason" dual leadership rather than just the single monarch they had pre-Source.

The restoration of Living Memory is the epitomy of this sloppy writing. It feels like pandering to a negative part of the player base,

I didn't get that sense. One of the biggest comments I saw during 7.0 was surprise that they made such an elaborate zone just to "turn it off" after a questline. I don't find it surprising at all that eventually it was getting turned back on. In ever-evolving MMO's, some things are time-sensitive. For the entire year of 7.0-7.2, that "clear and powerful metaphor" existed for people to experience, and if you just take a quick trip around places like YT, you'll see it more than served its purpose. Also, general storylines are written well in advance; what happened in any of the patches up to this point was already decided and in production when 7.0 launched. It's not a response or "pandering" to anything, just them making a decision you personally happen to not like.

Overall it feels like the devs lacked the courage in this patch series to tell the story they originally wanted to tell,

Given the hate a certain segment of the gaming population gave to Wuk Lumat contrasted with her continued central presence in 7.3, I have zero doubts whatsoever that they had the absolute courage to tell the story they wanted to tell. If they were "appealing to haters," Wuk Lumat would've been out the door, not front-and-center.