This story is really underwhelming - it's opened to mixed reviews.

[Zumi]

Personally I thought it is pretty good. I am on chapter 6 right now.

[ZephyrMenodora]

That damn healer strike.

I just laughed as they created an alternate scene because I was a Culinarian, but couldn't be bothered to account for my combat job at all. They seemingly just threw their hands up in the air when it comes to a healer being present. I just watched Krile and Alisiae try to help healing of all things rather than do anything.

[xbahax92]

-snip-

B-But power of friendship...? Power of friends-- Power o--- Pow--- ....
Cant agree more with you. Expansion is full of yapyap, but no core.

[OliverQ]

This, this and this. Even if we fought him, he had the resurection thing. And could have still left, giving him one more reason to feed so much on soul. But that would have been about the WoL and not Wuk Lamat. That frustrated me SO much.



Yeah, I thought the same when they came the ether inbalance. There is even a choice to mention the flood of light. And we have Krile and Raha here, and none of them think about the freaking cure to turning into a sin eater? Everyone is dumb in this expansion, it takes them 30 years to put 2 and 2 together and voice what you has a player has been thinking for hours... It's so bad. With that writing team, I have no hope for the future of FFXIV.

Someone's ass must be sweating at SE right, when to add to their terrible year, now their one and only stable cashbringer get mixed reviews. And the worst part is that every of the problems was already in the 6.3 to 6.55 patches, we complained about it, and like always, they did nothing. Now they will probably stick to their plan until the end of the patch, and come at 8.0 : "look, we listended to what you began to say 4 years ago"...

I want to see that game do well, but oh boy, if they don't get their shit together in the patch, this is gonna be bad.

I feel like a big part of their problem is they don't take feedback seriously enough, and even if they do listen to feedback, it takes years until they address it.

How many years have we been complaining about this dumbing down/homogenization of jobs and the awful 2 minute meta? And yet they say they may look into it by what 8.0, in 2-3 more years?

[EorzeaHero69]

I'm a bit more mixed towards Wuk Lamat's English voice acting than the story itself. While she wasn't bad in her role, in some scenes the acting felt forced rather than natural, especially when it comes to delivery. I think the story was good. It was a bit slow on the first half, but the second half was slightly better, though it has fumbled a little at the end, imo.

[Vahlnir]

B-But power of friendship...? Power of friends-- Power o--- Pow--- ....
Cant agree more with you. Expansion is full of yapyap, but no core.

Honestly, you can follow the plot even without watching the cutscenes it is so shallow. "Blah blah help this person. Kill this. Something something internal conflicts. Power of Friendship™ saves the day. Okay, next zone."

[Malthir]

I feel like a big part of their problem is they don't take feedback seriously enough, and even if they do listen to feedback, it takes years until they address it.

How many years have we been complaining about this dumbing down/homogenization of jobs and the awful 2 minute meta? And yet they say they may look into it by what 8.0, in 2-3 more years?

Especially with the WoW expac coming at the end of august. If the FF14 team don't deliver something actually good, and fast. We might end up seeing a reverse situation of what we saw just before endwalker.

[Hallideus]

I've actually enjoyed the stripped back style of story telling. I actually thought Endwalker suffered hard by how much was squeezed into the 6.0 story.
Dawntrail's a breath of fresh air. The first half is a nice little adventure playing mentor, while you get to grips with the world then the pieces start to come together and move in the second half.
There's plenty of moral and philosophical questions to think about in the final act too, as well as potential future story threads being drawn up to explore somewhere down the line.

There was plenty of "the power of our bonds" patter in EW, except it wasn't pulled off as well.
But hey, we can't all like the same stuff right?

[Argasun]

This is a contender for worst expansion I've ever played. And no, I don't care if my character is more of a side kick -- I played WoW and other games for years and I'm used to being a nobody in the lore. I'm not used to being a vehicle for another character I can't get away from for two seconds and have no investment in. They made me hate Wuk Lamat by about 96 / 97 where I was actually feeling angry every time I was forced to be in a cutscene with her. Solution 9 is woeful, with too much empty floor space and a complete misunderstanding of the cyberpunk aesthetic they advertised in their teasers. It's sterile and boring and feels more like an old-school WoW zone where everything is insanely scaled and I'm looking at floor tiles more than anything else.

I have zero investment in this story and now I feel like I have zero investment in my character within the story going forward. The 99/100 zone is terrible and a cheap grab at emotions that plays upon the heights of the last two expansions. Unbelievably bad. Have no idea how the production let this spiral out of control to this point.

[Xio_Dio]

I've not played a single expansion of this game that made me feel as disappointed as DT has. Pacing wise it has a very slow start that finally picks up around the third dungeon, only to slow down again. I screamed when we just left the portal to the golden city behind. Wuk's questionable VA aside, she simply has too much of a story presence. Wuk should have been sidelined after winning the contest while WoL takes Krile and Erenville north to find their parents. Saw the conflict with Sphene coming from a mile away, her dialogue and expressions literally give her away instantly. Wuk's barging into the last trial was another low point, it just made me cringe and roll my eyes. Art, Music, and encounter design are all great, some of the best this game has had yet. But MSQ was a slog, spotted with moments of interest, and bogged down with far too much Wuk. I hope patch content is WoL and reflection focused.