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

[Asphhar]

I sadly have to reflect the same sentiment as most others. I did the level 99 trial last night (Brilliant fight, and the music goes soooo hard, Soken has gone nuclear in DT) ..and outside of maybe the end of part 1, beginning of part 2 where I THOUGHT it was going to start to ramp up a bit... it doesn't. Didn't think I'd be even more bored doing the narrative than EW, but man, SE proved me wrong. Dawntrail has helped me with something I have been thinking about for a while. For the first time in my FFXIV lifespan, after 2 expansions of not liking the narrative, I will now no longer be watching cutscenes. Hope my ESC key is up to the task!

I am enjoying Dawntrail as a whole though, the gameplay is the best it's been in a long time.

[ZodaSoda]

I sadly have to reflect the same sentiment as most others. I did the level 99 trial last night (Brilliant fight, and the music goes soooo hard, Soken has gone nuclear in DT) ..and outside of maybe the end of part 1, beginning of part 2 where I THOUGHT it was going to start to ramp up a bit... it doesn't. Didn't think I'd be even more bored doing the narrative than EW, but man, SE proved me wrong. Dawntrail has helped me with something I have been thinking about for a while. For the first time in my FFXIV lifespan, after 2 expansions of not liking the narrative, I will now no longer be watching cutscenes. Hope my ESC key is up to the task!

I am enjoying Dawntrail as a whole though, the gameplay is the best it's been in a long time.

Im not gunna lie, that ending credits song is so bad, I'm wondering if it wasnt Soken or if he was high.
Especially when ending credit songs previously have been songs we've actually heard before and hearing them at the credits hits different, This song came out of nowhere and has vocals while Erenville narrates, actually bad song and bad implementation.

[PaleYonder]

I read an interview or article a while ago, don't even remember where, but in effect Soken also get his directions from the narrative team on what kind of music is wanted where, so I wouldn't blame the last song on him; to me it rather fits the overall direction of this expansion. But I wasn't a fan of that one either - though I would have possibly liked it more by association if I'd been satisfied with the ending and coming into the end credits with the usual buzz of a great story well told and experienced. This time I was more than annoyed at the last trial and the bit of scene afterwards, and then it was already over and everything was happy and everything was once more about Wuk Lamat. That definitely didn't match such a happy song. It would still not have been my genre of music otherwise, but I suspect I'd have been a lot more lenient.

Overall, I absolutely loved the soundtrack; not every track would be my favourite, but it had some stand-out pieces and a lot of very-well-done ambience in my opinion. I also happen to usually overlap with the genre tastes in this game, that's just lucky for me and very subjective, and for the most part that continued here. Loved the jazz as always, loved the synth rock, always love hard rock when it arrives, loved the implementation of vaporwave in a thematically fitting zone, etc. But what I thought all throughout since sometime in the first zones was: Normally, the music is not only excellent on its own, but it also underlines the narrative, the mood, it gets mixed with events and zones in my mind, to form this whole matching experience. This time, the music was still great, but I wished I could care about what was happening, too.

[Yurhee]

It pains me to say this about a game I love so much but this is a very underwhelming story.

The argument that "It's a new story arc after we've ended a ten year long one" is not a good excuse. That isn't going to keep the average player invested, coming back, or subscribed. Those are important things in an MMORPG.

The game needed to keep or maintain the momentum it had built in Endwalker. While this would be hard to do it is far from impossible.

Giving up momentum is a very bad decision.

Hmm Endwalker was criticized for lacking content. Also from what I heard in game and sharing the same opinion, Tural is a much nicer setting (vibe-wise, content is yet to be seen) for that expac and the post-msq.
Also it's a classic case of unhappy people being more vocal than happy ones, and due to our dear confirmation bias, they find other people sharing the same opinion, which is fine, until they start claiming things as if it was a community-wise opinion. This forum being a prime example of negativity

As from personal opinion, I didn't like Wuk Lamat for the entirety of the first part of the expansion, however I was fine with that game taking time to set the continent and its tribes. I found them pretty likable as I am taking my time, doing all the small quests available, giving more depth to these tribes, I thought it makes them easily on par or above with some fan-favorites (carried by being in other games). I also enjoyed there being small questlines, gathering up in another one when finishing the multiple questlines of the sub-regions of an area. However, for people hoping for the story to quickly pick up and be as fast paced as the last 2 expansions were, despite all the warnings from the devs, were just hoping for something that was announced wouldn't be and still disappointed because it wasn't this way, storytelling-wise, there's always a calm period in between two story arcs, but if anything, taking its time so correctly set things up is a sign of a good incoming story arc. I was also mad at Krile for taking G'raha's spot, but that's only because of my ongoing bromance with my bro lol.

So as for the first-half laid back part, it filled the job and expecting otherwise would have been misplaced expectations. Hoping to continue on EW's momemtum would have had it reached a ridiculous point where most people's suspension of disbelief would be broken.

As from when the story starts to pick up... It had good and... meh writings (and I'm still not a huge fan of Wuk Lamat). It clearly wasn't all good, although not warranting such slack ~but nuance isn't a thing on internet anymore~.

So in the end, a very enjoyable expac in a great environmental setting for the inter-expac period, with a good yet not up there MSQ, which however is solid enough to be the start of a new story arc. Oh and the soundtrack was amazing.

[Voidmage]

limit reached so cut out

Not to belittle your opinion but most people say that the problem is Wuk Lamat.
I'm in the camp that the story itself, while having glaring pacing issues and plotholes was an interesting concept in itself and the overall thing going on was fine, even though I hate stuff like the rubber bullets or the trial writing. Heck I'm probably one of the few people who actually liked Bagool JaJa and his story.

Most of the ones complaining are annoyed by Wuk Lamat being shoved into every single second of the story.

Normaly I would also agree with that vocal minority take but this time it's really not just this forum here. There are sites that are normaly so positiv and protective of the game ripping the MSQ appart and even the japanese forum is extremely negative on it with more or less the same complaints this site here has. I think it is more half half right now with the MSQ dividing the playerbase in two.

Again, it is fine to like the MSQ and it's great to voice that opinion but I am tired of some people trying to bellittle complaints as "vocal minority" or "transphobe".

[VictorSpoils]

No actual scion tension
Kidnapping plot was rather random and pointless (she was somehow overpowered by common bandits, just go with it)
The pop song when they're assembling the train felt almost satirical
Alisaie's most meaningful contribution to the story was her 50k HP Vercures in that one dungeon where she can be a healer
Bakool Ja Ja is totally going to face reckoning for his act- oh, the credits are rolling
Zoraal Ja's parents don't seem to care that he went apeshit since they aren't seen again
No idea how Zoraal Ja managed to have a kid where he was (almost expected to see a "it's him as a kid" thing)
For that matter, Wuk Lamat's mom also doesn't appear to exist

(INB4 that stuff gets crammed into post-patch content)

There were a few noticeable things that stood out this expansion: the especially high number of FFXIII enemies, the paradoxical trend of anti-melee dungeon bosses continuing from post-EW, and the fact that most of the children in Tural are Mamool Ja. Like the other races are just still giving birth to adults.

[AnimaAnimus]

Mixed reviews is an understatement. 76/100 critic score on metacritic and 7.4 user score and dropping. That critic score is even lower than ARR. Lowest yet.

Ppl have also been saying that on sites like metacritic, their negative reviews are being deleted. But metacritic hasnt been trustworthy for a long long time

[Naria]

AGREED!!!!

But again, this game has no identity and it shows. Almost none of their OC are any good, the one they plucked from another game is the more compelling character. If they are going to grab stuff from XI, they should give it the respect it deserves.

I mean in a way this felt like a very XI expansion, we were just following some random girl (Lion, Prishe, Aphmau etc) around for her story. No one I played with ever played XI for the story--most people only progressed as far as they needed to unlock sky/sea/salvage etc. People only went farther when they started offering bis pieces of gear as a completion reward. FFXIV is a very different game so maybe don't take your storytelling cues from XI?

Galool Ja Ja did make me a bit nostalgic for Besieged though, so there it that.

[AnimaAnimus]

I mean in a way this felt like a very XI expansion, we were just following some random girl (Lion, Prishe, Aphmau etc) around for her story. No one I played with ever played XI for the story--most people only progressed as far as they needed to unlock sky/sea/salvage etc. People only went farther when they started offering bis pieces of gear as a completion reward. FFXIV is a very different game so maybe don't take your storytelling queues from XI?

Galool Ja Ja did make me a bit nostalgic for Besieged though, so there it that.

Ummm..... yeah.... no lol idk who you played with, but this was a super unpopular opinion in XI.

So so so many of us loved the story and you never, ever followed some girl around who was constantly in our face and talking and talking and talking like we did with Wuk. They were much better written and only around when it was necessary. We did most of the expacs without them around. Not to mention, this is a controversial take for most ppl who are crazy hateful of XI, but the XI stories were much better than the XIV and many of the single player FF game stories. DT....is not lol.

[Karious]

Ppl have also been saying that on sites like metacritic, their negative reviews are being deleted. But metacritic hasnt been trustworthy for a long long time

Metacritic refuses to let me post a review no matter how word it. It says saved, and then I refresh the page and it just prompts me to leave a review. I don't know how to get it to stick.