Wow, Wuk Lamat is really single-handedly ruining the DT story...

[ZXN]

The entire expansion is just Member Berries in narrative form.

'Member the treacherous boat ride before getting to the new zone in Stormblood?
'Member the 'two half' story structure of Doma and Ala Mhigo?
'Member travelling with a wet-eared would-be leader of a nation as she learns what it means to take charge?
'Member racism from and between the beast tribes?
'Member Azem's crystal that was supposed to be non-functioning three uses ago?
'Member when Erenville having an Icelandic accent made sense until they gave him a backstory where he would talk like an American?
'Member the trolley? I loved the trolley.
'Member when everyone got together to make the golem?
'Member the callback moment in EW where older characters got their moment in the Ilsabard Contingent? Let's do that again with Vrtra because he's the only one who can fly.
'Member how mysterious Estinien is?
'Member how G'raha got the Crystal Tower to the First and how similar that is to Heritage Found?
'Member when he wasn't reduced to a dude that REALLY loves food and was actually a very intelligent and inward-feeling person?
'Member Princess Garnet and Steiner?
'Member FF9 locations? 'Meeeeeeember?
'Member 'I Want To Be Your Canary'?
'Member the Twelveswood tree monsters?
'Member the entire moral dilemma Emet-Selch already offered in a much better way?
'Member how much you love adventure?
'Member the Dawntrail trailer where we had cool vignettes that were just crammed into the final credits?

Seeing this, a cursed thought just popped into my head if they continue with this "remember" train: What if they just pull a Shadowbringers and Wuk is in an impossible situation, near her end, desperately hanging on while everyone around her falls, when suddenly, the real Sphene's soul reappears! But what's this?!?! Sphene's soul resonates with Wuk Lamat's soul!! Then Plot Twist! It's revealed that Sphene is one of Wuk Lamat's sundered shards! And they fuse together! And now Wuk is filled with this incredible power, allowing her to stand back up, her resolve reinvigorated and now has the strength to overcome the impossible threat before her!

Just. Like. Ardbert.

[BigBoom550]

Seeing this, a cursed thought just popped into my head if they continue with this "remember" train: What if they just pull a Shadowbringers and Wuk is in an impossible situation, near her end, desperately hanging on while everyone around her falls, when suddenly, the real Sphene's soul reappears! But what's this?!?! Sphene's soul resonates with Wuk Lamat's soul!! Then Plot Twist! It's revealed that Sphene is one of Wuk Lamat's sundered shards! And they fuse together! And now Wuk is filled with this incredible power, allowing her to stand back up, her resolve reinvigorated and now has the strength to overcome the impossible threat before her!

Just. Like. Ardbert.

Sphene felt like a moderately interesting character. Don't do her dirty by putting her in the poochie purse.

[ZephyrMenodora]

Sphene felt like a moderately interesting character. Don't do her dirty by putting her in the poochie purse.

I really liked Sphene. In fact I wish the MSQ we were supporting Sphene and got really attached to her, only to realize we put a monster in power than suddenly had full military control.

WoL creating that level of a problem could have been interesting.

[Remiferia]

Seeing this, a cursed thought just popped into my head if they continue with this "remember" train: What if they just pull a Shadowbringers and Wuk is in an impossible situation, near her end, desperately hanging on while everyone around her falls, when suddenly, the real Sphene's soul reappears! But what's this?!?! Sphene's soul resonates with Wuk Lamat's soul!! Then Plot Twist! It's revealed that Sphene is one of Wuk Lamat's sundered shards! And they fuse together! And now Wuk is filled with this incredible power, allowing her to stand back up, her resolve reinvigorated and now has the strength to overcome the impossible threat before her!

Just. Like. Ardbert.

I wouldn't know, as I would have skipped the cutscene.

But generally speaking I wouldn't put it past them. Dawntrail just rehashed everything we've already seen before, and while older expansions tangentially relate classic FF games to their story, Hiroi has overseen the EW patch content which was 'Member FF4?' and now DT which has most of the meat stewing in a broth of 'Member FF9?'

All of the intrigue about soul extraction, implantation, corruption, what is 'real', and the circumstances of an alien planet invading and trying to bring back their loved ones ('Member Ascians?) is really strong thematic work...but it's so strong because it's ripped from one of the best FF games of all time and given a cyberpunk coat of paint to try and hide it.

3/4 of the raid bosses ended up surpassing or pushing Wuk Lamat in the popularity polls. Hiroi is best at stories where he has to keep things tight. Give him any more than 3 patches to write a story and he falls apart.

[Plumerian_Ariadust]

To me the story was a gripping tale of nothing at all. SE gave, again, one character too much screentime and rushed us through an expansion.

To me it felt like i was playing stormblood again and Wuk Lamat is just a Lyse copy. Letting her LB out every five seconds. Teaching us that you can't fight and rule alone...wow...it's really just Lyse, huh?

Tbh...now that i think about it i guess Meteion was right.

Watch as Wuk and Koana form a lower council where citizens and their concerns be represented while the two of them make the final decisions.

[Bunyon]

I feel like a pretty big rule of storytelling is that when a character announces their plans, or says that something will happen with complete and utter confidence, that usually means that it will either not happen that way or at least not with quite a lot of trouble. But Wuk Lamat says over and over that she will become dawnservant, and... does so with not really much adversity at all. Bakool Ja Ja submits to her, Koana gives up, and Zooral Ja disqualifies himself.

[Bunyon]

And just to continue off the previous post a bit: I think Zooral Ja would have been perfect as the initial winner. He should not have been an obvious villain (he's IMMEDIATELY pointed out as someone who CANNOT win) but presented as someone who is ruthless and extremely skillful due to wanting to surpass his dad and meet the lofty expectations of his birth. Wuk's loss would have been a perfect point to better characterize Zooral Ja and also point out her immaturity and need to grow, while also giving Zooral Ja the means to go to the golden city and still kickstart his crusade for "better" world under his rule.

He also would have been a much better choice as the one who releases Valigarmanda. First, he wants to beat him to show he can surpass dad. Second, he doesn't care if Vali escapes and does some damage because he thinks people have become too complacent in times of peace. Third, if someone questioned why he did such an awful thing, he could easily justify it: Vali's ice was going to melt one day and release him, he wanted to finish him once and for all. It would have turned this "villainous" act into something somewhat morally gray, and in total line with his character.

But instead Bakool Ja Ja released him because funi prank bro to slow down the others, hee hee. He did it in front of witnesses and didn't get disqualified or reprimanded at all.

[LisseyCrowe]

Something's that's been bouncing in my head for a couple days is that for all the talk of Sphene being a foil to Wuk, Bakool and Zoraal are just infinitely more suitable for this. Sure, both of the princesses want their people to be happy but ... that's kind of it? It's not like they're that alike, and their overall story and hardships are entirely different.

Meanwhile, here we have two literal miracles with towering expectations put upon them. Except one of them is a result of happy events, son of a benevolent king who's mutation was thought to make him infertile, while the other was born to tragedy. Handled properly, these two characters together could have carried the entire expansion in my opinion. But instead there's practically no development between these two other than practically comic relief considering how harshly one outmatches the other, and the development they get is rushed in order to fit it in Wuk's story.

Just thinking about it takes me out of the story entirely because none of the MSQ content, Ishikawa-lead or not, would've made that mistake before. It's weird that Dawntrail actually introduces a lot of new characters (while also bringing most Scions) but has no intention of developing any of them. You'd think a story heavily centered around Wuk Lamat would have taken that into consideration and have less characters around so they can better work with those but no, instead it's a bunch of rapidly-added NPCs to be used and stored away until Wuk's story needs'em again.

[x037x]

It has been counted. You have to talk to Wuk Lamat a total of 139 times as a quest objective in the MSQ, wow, like.. .WTF, even if Wuk was a "good" character, that would fatigue anyone with the exception of the FFXIV shills.

[DiscoDuck]

WL is not added to trusts (thank the stars)! She's for Duty Support, so she would be forced on you only once

Well, that's a relief.