I am glad that Dawntrail seems liked a focused expansion

[DamianFatale]

I am sick of expansions that go all over the world in one go. I would rather have focused expansions like Heavensward, and Shadowbringers.

With the exploratory/relic zone being confirmed on the coast of Tural, and not some far off sequel out in Ivalice, I am relieved. Ivalice is fine, but save it for when it makes more sense to go back please. Make its return after the Bozja saga make sense. It will be worth all of the speculation, and frothing at the mind if its strategically placed in the right expansion.

With the 8 man raid series taking place in what looks to be the end game hub, it seems like it will be sticking to the overall narrative of this expansion.

All of the zones appear to be in Tural. Unless the mystery one they never reveal is somewhere else, the expansion should remain focused in its setting.

The only content that seems to be exploring outside of Tural is the Space Exploration sequel to Island Sanctuary, and the 24 man. Space Exploration makes sense, because continuing the narrative that Dawntrail started for a side feature isn't a bad thing. It also helps give a good break from the setting, which is fine. Those things can be healthy to keep people interested, and not bored of an expansion. For all we know the 24 man despite being a crossover MIGHT tie into Tural in someway. There is no way to know, but I do have hope that it will connect in some way. Perhaps on theories that we are learning how to shard travel, it will tie into that story. (not saying XI, is a shard, just saying if experimenting on travel is a thing, we may accidentally end up there.)

I just hope that if they bring back deep dungeon it is IN Tural. If they do more Criterion type content, I want them to take a break from adding onto older regions, and focus on the new place for a bit. I'm not saying no to going back and exploring old locations. Its a great way to let us check in and expand on lore, especially in places like Hingashi that are clearly being saved for later.

I just don't want to see resources wasted. Lore is extremely important to this games expansions, and locales. Not everyone needs to be into it, but if its not respected fully, and resources are pumped to the new thing 90% of the time, it shows, and an expansion weakens. People who don't even care about lore as much will notice. If the lore isn't strong enough, immersion drops.

Ultimate isn't in Tural, but that is fine. That makes sense for treading back. They are ultimate challenges of past fights. No complaints. Tural will get its turn. I just don't want everything to be like all over the place all of the time. Garlmald would of been way better if it weren't spread thin by the other locations in Endwalker, and could have had more attention brought to it. Its basically a Doma, but with no known Enclave. It really let all of the fans down after years of the empires home being hyped up as a setting. I don't want to see stuff like this anymore in this game. I want focus from here on out.

Housing would be welcome in Tural, but that can end up anywhere. Should honestly go to Old Sharlayan, and The Crystarium first. Wouldn't mind seeing it in Tuliyolal though. Though when they debuted the housing ward in Hingashi back in the day, it did help bring out the world building that Eastern half of Stormblood had, and was an example of good execution in world building. Even if that expansion was a disfocused mess, it built up the idea that living outside of Eorzea is real, and it would be cool to see more things like fresh with an expansion, or later in an expansion. Living in the New World would be a treat, and a good way to build more lore immersion, so I think things like this should be considered when building new locations in expansions.

[Cleretic]

While I like a focused expansion (Endwalker's my favorite, but its main problem was it constantly jumping around in location and failing to expand on them all too much), I do think that it runs the 'all your eggs in one basket' risk. If for whatever reason that focus is a miss for you, then the entire expansion is a miss.

I do think it's pretty up-front about what that focus is, which probably means that if you think you like it you will (although there's plenty of room for them to surprise us on that), and it's definitely looking like something I'll like. Nothing that's in the immediate front-of-mind 'List Of Things I Will Always Turn Up For', but basically everything they're offering up is in the second tier of 'Things I'll Always Enjoy Well Enough If They're There'.

[Alenore]

Let's recap everything we visited in past expansions:
- ARR had us explore a lot of the City States ;
- HW built upon Coerthas and Ishgard, the Sea of Cloud (3 regions), Yafaem Saltmoor, Dravania and Xelphatol ;
- SB added Gyr Abania and a lot of Othard: Kugane, Yanxia, Azim Steppes, Dalmasca and the Burn ;
- ShB had us revisit a different flavour of Eorzea in the form of Norvrandt, but also built upon Ilsabard by adding Gangos and Bozja ;
- Endwalker intoduced Radz At Han, Garlemald, Sharlayan, the Sea of Stars (the moon and Ultima Thule) and a quick peek to the past ;
- Danwtrail seems to bring us a few locations in the entirety of tural, wherever Vana'diel would take place, and space exploration.

I kinda understand what you mean with Endwalker feeling disconnected, but even compared to Heavensward, the different areas don't really feel very linked to each others :
- The Sea of Stars and Sea of Cloud are clear parallels. Loporrits are replaced by Moogles. It's initially out of reach because blocked by an enemy, and while the Sea of Cloud was known to Ishgard, their presence there is minimal ;
- A lot of time is spent in friendly territory (Ishgard if you can call it that lol, and Sharlayan) but we're split with another settlment quite remote from it, Idyllshire which is thematically and culturally very different from Ishgard ;
- Last zone is a remote and normally unreachable place that thematically has almost nothing to do with the rest of the story.

Mind you, this recipe is applied to almost every expansion.


Additionaly, Tural is a whole continent, about the same size as Aldenard and Othard combined. If anything, having only 6 locations to cover all that immense territory feels more disjointed to me than Endwalker ever was, since I knew of all these place in EW beforehand.
The culture, civilization and technology in Solution Nine and say, Yak'Tel seem to be absolutely different. I suppose it's expected, since they're both geographcially and culturally as remote as Garlemald is from Gridania.

What people dislike in Endwalker and Stormblood is that we jump around locations too often. From Sharlayan, to Radz at Han, to Sharlayan, to Ala Mhigo, to Garlemald, to the Moon, to Sharlayan, to Radz At Han... Thing is, it's just the way the story is being told.
If we're going from Yok to Xak constantly, with the quick interruption where we'll have business in Eorzea to get somebody's opinion at some point, it won't be any different.

[MikkoAkure]

Additionaly, Tural is a whole continent, about the same size as Aldenard and Othard combined. If anything, having only 6 locations to cover all that immense territory feels more disjointed to me than Endwalker ever was, since I knew of all these place in EW beforehand.
The culture, civilization and technology in Solution Nine and say, Yak'Tel seem to be absolutely different. I suppose it's expected, since they're both geographcially and culturally as remote as Garlemald is from Gridania.

What people dislike in Endwalker and Stormblood is that we jump around locations too often. From Sharlayan, to Radz at Han, to Sharlayan, to Ala Mhigo, to Garlemald, to the Moon, to Sharlayan, to Radz At Han... Thing is, it's just the way the story is being told.
If we're going from Yok to Xak constantly, with the quick interruption where we'll have business in Eorzea to get somebody's opinion at some point, it won't be any different.

I don't see how Dawntrail is "disjointed". With the exception of Solution Nine, all of Tural is under one rule and all the regions appear to link directly together physically in one long line even better than ARR since 1/3 of the zones aren't separated off on an island only reached by boat.

The territory we appear to cover on the world map seems to only be about the size of Eorzea and considering that Tural is exactly like the Americas where geography is oriented north-to-south vertically, that means a wider range of biomes due to the latitude differences. I'd much prefer they do it this way anyway unless you REALLY want 4 different jungle zones.

Solution Nine being different isn't any different from Garlean forts inside of Eorzea, Allagan ruins anywhere but mainly in HW where an entire Allagan sci-fi laboratory appears in an otherwise dark fantasy setting, or 1920/30s art deco skyscrapers and jazz showing up in Shadowbringers. The Niners themselves invading Tuliyollal in the trailer parallels Garlemald invading Eorzea as well.

I think the point that the OP is making that I agree with, is that unlike SB and EW, there is MUCH more continuity between areas we're going to. Unlike SB we're not dividing the expansion up into 2 completely separate corners of the world with completely different cultural aesthetics and separate plot lines. It's much more focused than EW where we went to an underground park/lab, frozen and destroyed Garlemald half a world away, the jungles of Thavnair on the opposite end of the continent from Garlemald, the friggin moon, time traveling to yet another floating lab 12,000 years ago, and then the far edge of the universe. We had no knowledge at all of the last 2 zones before Endwalker started and with the exception of Ultima Thule and the moon, none of them have any visual cues linking each other at all and none of them have anything really to do with each other. Dawntrail is much more focused.

[Alenore]

I don't see how Dawntrail is "disjointed". With the exception of Solution Nine, all of Tural is under one rule and all the regions appear to link directly together physically in one long line even better than ARR since 1/3 of the zones aren't separated off on an island only reached by boat.

The fact there's only one ruler doesn't change much if the cultures are quite different, which they apparently are between north and south. Yes, zones are directly linked, but then the argument of continuity doesn't hold if it's applied to HW / ShB as OP say. We take multiple Airships / Black Chocobo / Amaro during the story to reach places seprated by air or water. How is that different from an airship in Garlemald, a ship to Sharlayan or the teleporter for the moon?
As I said, the point is why you're sent to all these places and

The territory we appear to cover on the world map seems to only be about the size of Eorzea and considering that Tural is exactly like the Americas where geography is oriented north-to-south vertically, that means a wider range of biomes due to the latitude differences. I'd much prefer they do it this way anyway unless you REALLY want 4 different jungle zones.

It's not as if biomes follow much logic. On the same latitude, you have Shaaolani, Coerthas and Dravania (snowy, mountain biome), temperate, etc. It isn't really a point of discussion sicne aether intervenes in the weather and climate of most place (Coerthas, Heritage, Mor Dhona, the Burn, ...). I don't care that we have different biomes, and I'm not the one saying I'm bothered by this disjointed feeling. I'm actually fine with it. I WANT areas to feel disjointed if I'm literally travelling across a whole continent.

Solution Nine being different isn't any different from Garlean forts inside of Eorzea, Allagan ruins anywhere but mainly in HW where an entire Allagan sci-fi laboratory appears in an otherwise dark fantasy setting, or 1920/30s art deco skyscrapers and jazz showing up in Shadowbringers. The Niners themselves invading Tuliyollal in the trailer parallels Garlemald invading Eorzea as well.

I absolutely agree it isn't much different than the rest. It's just the Azys Lla, Garlemald, Northern Thanalan, etc of the place. That's actually my point, it doesn't have much more continuity than the rest.

I think the point that the OP is making that I agree with, is that unlike SB and EW, there is MUCH more continuity between areas we're going to. Unlike SB we're not dividing the expansion up into 2 completely separate corners of the world with completely different cultural aesthetics and separate plot lines. It's much more focused than EW where we went to an underground park/lab, frozen and destroyed Garlemald half a world away, the jungles of Thavnair on the opposite end of the continent from Garlemald, the friggin moon, time traveling to yet another floating lab 12,000 years ago, and then the far edge of the universe. We had no knowledge at all of the last 2 zones before Endwalker started and with the exception of Ultima Thule and the moon, none of them have any visual cues linking each other at all and none of them have anything really to do with each other. Dawntrail is much more focused.

- Underground park/lab : honestly wouldn't have made much difference if it had been an area right outside Sharlayan, so I'm not sure I follow the problem, except it doesn't fit the story ;
- Garlemald : Frozen wasteland, lightning devastated wasteland, potato potato ;
- Jungles of thavnair : Jungles if Yak T'el ;
- The moon : Solution Nine ;
- Ultima Thule and Elpis, I'll grant you, but even then we don't have info about what Solution Nine is, if it's not another shard, another Ancient gimmick and what it'll entail. bit too soon to compare it when we don't have any of the story.

How are the frozen and destroyed Garlemald half a continent away from the jungles of Thavnair, and the lightning devasted wastelands of Heritage Found half a continent away from the dense jungles of Yak T'el different, exactly? The fact we reach it by multiple areas instead of an Airship or a boat?
Visual cues between a far west landscape, a jungle and a perpetual storm, a forest and a mountain don't scream to me "It's the same place". And again, neither should it! It's perfectly fine to have variety, I welcome it.
But if you say the moon, Garlemald and Sharlayan have nothing linking them, you haven't been paying attention to the story since ARR. It's not like EW is taking place in a bubble where every other location linking these two don't exist. They're additional location in an existing world, all interacting with each other.

[SannaR]

Corthas used to be more green and temperate than it is now. It is also very slowly thawing out. Not that we will actually see it be thawed out unless we have another time travel plot point, but this time to some point in the future where Coerthas has gone back to being grasslands surrounded by mountainous regions.

[MikkoAkure]

snip

The whole point of the OP is that here in DT, we’re focused on just one specific place in the world. EW’s locations were obviously a part of the story and world overall, but they didn’t exactly have much if anything to do with each other. Elpis has absolutely nothing at all to do with Garlemald, which has absolutely nothing to do with Ultima Thule, which has absolutely nothing to do with Thavnair.

DT is a nice breath of fresh air where we just go to one, perhaps two-ish countries and the entire thing is focused on just one region of the world with a cohesive story and seemingly no side-tracks to 12,000 years ago just to find the origin of 1 word or to the opposite end of the universe filled with aliens and dragons to chase down an angry bird.

I’m still not sure where you’re saying that DT is less continuous than EW. Again, we have a bunch of cultures united by one that is directly in the center of them all. All the locations are in the same region together and likely connected via direct zone lines. The zones are not separated by thousand of miles or light years or 12,000 years and we don’t need to travel to a city on another plane of existence to access one of them either.

SB was disjointed because it tried to tell two separate stories in two separate ends of the world that weren’t connected except by the fact Garleans and our “friend” were there. EW was disjointed because the devs realized that the story is about to end and we haven’t been to Sharlayan, Garlemald, or Thavnair yet so they threw them all in together despite being thousands of miles apart and then threw the moon, Elpis, and the edge of the universe in as well. It’s certainly cinematic like an epic movie with the world at stake, but it’s not exactly focused.

It's not as if biomes follow much logic. On the same latitude, you have Shaaolani, Coerthas and Dravania (snowy, mountain biome), temperate, etc.

London is on the same latitude as Calgary. New York City is the same latitude as Madrid. Due to the Gulf Stream and other climatic factors, same latitude on a different continent doesn’t mean as much and the same rule seems to apply here. My point is that cultures and geography on Tural/America change drastically as you travel due to both being tall and narrow. But here, they’re all ruled by one overarching culture that is located directly in the middle and the story revolves around the unification of the different peoples.

[Cleretic]

The best comparison for Dawntrail's focus as the OP describes it is to Heavensward. Which, as an expansion, is all about Ishgard and its war with the dragons, and who only contains nations that exist in close physical and relational proximity to that fight. Dravania only exists in relation to that conflict. The Sea of Clouds is a different place, but it's not a different story; we go there because Ishgard is there.

In terms of story every expansion's got a similar overarching relation to all of its zones, although Endwalker kinda stretches that to its breaking point, but their vast distances in region make them far less cohesive as an expansion package. Stormblood feels like two stories told in one package, because the only real connective tissue is that overarching theme and the Scions themselves; Shadowbringers crosses an entire continent, and while they're all facing the same problem I find they rarely feel like they exist in the same space (plus that final zone just goes off and does its own thing entirely); and Endwalker, much as I love it, is a mess.

So yeah, I can appreciate going from that disparity to a story that's explicitly saying 'we're going to one landmass, full of societies that are already connected, and are going to go on a journey entirely driven by this one specific goal'. After Endwalker especially, I welcome that; we're gonna have a world that really gets some room to breathe and build out its concepts and problems. Hopefully, they use it!