Dawntrail's MSQ story is a disaster and waste of potential. [full spoilers]

[Ramiee]

I started an alt to play BLM so I'm redoing the story and I have to say Heavensward has a more interesting premise and stronger set up and it takes far less time than Dawntrail does. You meander around for so long in DT with Wuk telling you stuff constantly but in HW you experience stuff then talk about it which is far more engaging.

That pillar stuff at the start of Dawntrail is such a good example, it goes through the history of Tulioyal with Wuk explaining it but in HW you get told three things about Ishgard; They're at war with Dragons, they don't like outsiders and their leader is Bishop Thordan VII.
Then you go around the city and piece together other details yourself, you see there's crumbling infrastructure so you know they aren't winning against the dragons, you can tell by the names of the guards and the fact the bishop is the leader that this is a religious state and you see people hoddled around fires freezing on the lower section and people relaxing in fine clothing on the higher section so you know there's class disparity.
If this was Dawntrail Wuk would explain all this to you before you see it.

[Coombah]

This whole expansion/ experience has been trash.

[ReynTime]

I'm thinking back on the moment at the beginning of a recent Live Letter where Yoshi-P speaks in hypotheticals about how CBU3 isn't in charge of any FF9 Remake, and that 'whoever would be in charge of that project would take great care as it's a very important game to many people'.

Then I think about how he said that knowing full well he let Hiroi riff on FF9 for Dawntrail's MSQ, and I can't help but wonder if he kind of knows that FF9 deserved a better representation in his pride and joy MMO than what it got.

He's right. FF9 is a delicate game that requires utmost care. Nice self-awareness to distance your team from an unannounced game right before giving us a botched FF9 story in the second half.

Yoshi-P also said he respects Yasumi Matsuno's writing a lot but unceremoniously cut off his plans for the rest of the Ivalice story, then had the writers make XIV's MSQ go full anime with random gags, and hundred layers of plot armor for the good guys since.

He says what he thinks he should say for good publicity. Nothing more.

[Zakuyia]

For me outside op points and they not wrong. I was more disturb with the erenville and mother thing. I didnt like how its played off about his brooding. I didnt like how close the mother was with wuk lamat and co. It bothers me even more about how ppl go yeah we knew your mom was dead. As someone who grew up with just a mother no father figure. This just really made me fustrated to no end. Yeah I was not.a fan of how they treated erenville at all.

[DonutSteel]

That whole deal with Erenville's mom never sat right with me from the beginning. Viera are supposed to be able to live for like centuries, but Erenville's mom just dies in the 30 year porp orb with no explanation or anything.

It's just "Oh yeah, she was dead this whole time. Too bad. Be happy you're even able to talk to her memory at all, Eren."

It's like they just wanted to make Erenville sad for its own sake.

[Themarvin]

I quite like DT, some very few parts that could had been done better, eg. maybe finding another Name for Sphene in English version is horrible to say and pronounce and to yell no matter dialect, origin of english language and more...

It is mostly just the Op that post in this thread anyway to be able to give it any credits, spending too much free time on something that is totally irrelevant and a very little part of the actual game as it is.

MSQ you do once... then there is the rest of the game = no point.

[lolnotacat]

I quite like DT, some very few parts that could had been done better, eg. maybe finding another Name for Sphene in English version is horrible to say and pronounce and to yell no matter dialect, origin of english language and more...

It is mostly just the Op that post in this thread anyway to be able to give it any credits, spending too much free time on something that is totally irrelevant and a very little part of the actual game as it is.

MSQ you do once... then there is the rest of the game = no point.

Hard disagree that the MSQ is pointless. It sets the tone for the entire expansion, especially because this game hung its hat on its story, particularly after ShB dropped. I can say anecdotally, a bunch of my friends and myself feel drained after the MSQ and are finding it difficult to stay motivated. I started playing in 2.5 and never had this issue before.

Granted, I don't think it's just the MSQ that's causing the overall bad vibes, but it was probably the last straw for a lot of people, which is leading to a lot of the overall negativity seen towards the game. People tolerated their concerns about healers, encounter design, job homogeneity, poor QoL because of spaghetti code, glamour issues, etc... because the story was good enough to keep them entertained and feeling positive. That's really not there anymore so now they're latching onto the few good things that do exist (Arcadion) and are huffing copium that 7.1 content will be good and the story won't be too shitty.

[CuteBucket]

For me outside op points and they not wrong. I was more disturb with the erenville and mother thing. I didnt like how its played off about his brooding. I didnt like how close the mother was with wuk lamat and co. It bothers me even more about how ppl go yeah we knew your mom was dead. As someone who grew up with just a mother no father figure. This just really made me fustrated to no end. Yeah I was not.a fan of how they treated erenville at all.

This also really rubbed me the wrong way. Erenville is going through HELL in Living Memory and it's like no one cares. The most you get is talking to one of the npcs on the side between cutscenes and them saying "poor Erenville," but never actually saying or doing anything in any of the actual scenes to acknowledge his sadness and anger at everything happening and try to offer him any comfort or empathy.

The Capybara ride made me have to get up and take a break from the story, it was so hard to sit through. "C'mon Erenville! Get on the capybara ride with your dead mom! Because it's all about her AI memories and what they want more than you!" If I was supposed to like his mom, it didn't work. All I felt was that Caciua was a selfish, absent mother who ran off on adventures and made other people raise her own son, and even after she's dead, her memories are trying to drag Erenville around and do what she wants to do with him with no regards to his wants and steps all over his boundaries, and all the characters just go along with and force WoL onto the stupid ride too. UGH.

[caffe_macchiato]

People said it would get better after the first month, but instead it's only getting worse. What's the latest cope?

[Striker44]

I don't recall people saying anything about a month, just watching in the long run what happens. Personally, I don't expect much from Steam reviews. The type of people most likely to give them aren't the intended audience, so as long as the game itself is still extremely healthy, I wouldn't put much stock in them. What I'm seeing in-game are tons of people online having fun, hunt trains still so large they're lagging the servers, FATE groups running constantly, and just a lot of folks upbeat and enjoying themselves.

Heck, if you want to look at Steam, why not look at the infamous Steam data and compare it to EW and ShB?

EW had 53k average players the month of release and 36k a month later (retaining 68%). That avg is inflated and the subsequent fall-off exaggerated a bit due to the "WoW exodus", though, so take with a large grain of salt.

ShB had 23k average players the month of release and 16k a month later (retaining 72%). Remember, this forum nowadays love to praise ShB as the best expansion ever for the game.

DT had 42k average players the month of release and 33k a month later (retaining 78%). So far, it has both a significantly higher average playerbase and better player retention than ShB.

The reality? Yeah, people overall are actually really enjoying DT. They're just not the kind of people that love to review bomb. What's your next cope for the game's continued health and success?