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

[Allegor]

I was so done with the story and the whiplash Living Memory with its pacing caused that I skipped through it. I couldn't care less anymore.
Like, here is an entity which decided to delete her restrictions to become more efficient in amassing souls, and we're told how important it is to shut her down. Just to go on a mandatory side quest to get to know the memories of long gone people, for exactly what reason?

The whole zone felt like it was trying to manipulate you to get emotional, while simultaneously telling you that you shouldn't care.
And the one thing that I can't stand is when writers try to manipulate me.

To me, the failure of Living Memory was that literally nobody cared. Like, we're supposed to believe these people are still alive, right? fine, then imagine you find out you aren't "you" but leftover memories and the real you is already dead. That alone is arguably traumatic enough, but then when you come to accept it and live your second life peacefully in this utopic city, some foreigners come out of the blue and overtly say yeah, we've come to shut down this place, you'll all be dead dead now. Those people should be terrified, hostile even, but nah, they'd even happily show you the direction of where the control system is located, whatever.

The whole zone just feels like a waste of time both as the WoL and as a player.

[ReynTime]

For what it's worth, I'd like to add this review series by Durantes to the pool of Dawntrail feedback.
He is pretty harsh with his feedback, but it's worth listening to because he breaks down critical points extremely well.

Story: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CJiYJXd4vaE
Wuk Lamat: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2fdIcjviRFo&t=1s
The villains: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bl0_kt7CyRE&t=2397s

And just like Thancred once said: "And if that sounds harsh, it's because we care."

Saw his Endwalker critique in the past. He makes points I hadn't considered before.

My only criticism is that he's like every other XIV content creator who uses their player character in videos... Interrupting themselves with unfunny non sequiturs and tangents about themselves or their roleplayed character from time to time.

"Here's my character doing funny thing, btw irrelevant nonsense comment, anyway where was I?"
Every XIV video creator who uses their avatar wants to be a Josh Whedon character.

[Daralii]

To me, the failure of Living Memory was that literally nobody cared. Like, we're supposed to believe these people are still alive, right? fine, then imagine you find out you aren't "you" but leftover memories and the real you is already dead. That alone is arguably traumatic enough, but then when you come to accept it and live your second life peacefully in this utopic city, some foreigners come out of the blue and overtly say yeah, we've come to shut down this place, you'll all be dead dead now. Those people should be terrified, hostile even, but nah, they'd even happily show you the direction of where the control system is located, whatever.

The whole zone just feels like a waste of time both as the WoL and as a player.

It's like they deliberately tried to invert Ultima Thule for some reason.

[Xeronia]

I will always question why I never brought up the concept of Dynamis to Sphene as a way to preserve her people and Living Memory. If you did the Omicron tribe quests in EW you use Dynamis to restore whole civilizations that fell people included. I understand not every player has done those but it was a really weird narrative disconnect that I didn't even bring it up to have Sphene shoot me down. It also really makes Dynamis at seem like the deus ex machina power we will never mention again in the main story.

[Hallarem]

I will always question why I never brought up the concept of Dynamis to Sphene as a way to preserve her people and Living Memory. If you did the Omicron tribe quests in EW you use Dynamis to restore whole civilizations that fell people included. I understand not every player has done those but it was a really weird narrative disconnect that I didn't even bring it up to have Sphene shoot me down. It also really makes Dynamis at seem like the deus ex machina power we will never mention again in the main story.

The less we mention Dynamis, the better, it really came out of nowhere and it's not a thing you *use* really and manipulate on a whim to my knowledge. I think it was because Ultima Thule is at the edge of the universe and literally bathed in the stuff. Meanwhile Etheirys is the most aether dense planet out there.
They really didn't even explain how Hermes, an ancient who SUPPOSEDLY can't PERCEIVE, USE, OR MANIPULATE dynamis made a being out of dynamis, that uses dynamis. It makes no logical sense.

[ZXN]

The less we mention Dynamis, the better...

Too late.

Now that you brought up Dynamis: Prepare for Wuk Lamat to have another Queen Eternal moment during the Post-Patch MSQ with huge damage and near invincibility and then watch everyone around her be shocked and amazed and go "She's harnessing Dynamis!?" We still need Wuk Lamat's Endsinger bootleg after all for her WoL copycat journey...and FF9's Necron is looking preeeeeetty good candidate right now.

[genuine_stranger]

The less we mention Dynamis, the better, it really came out of nowhere and it's not a thing you *use* really and manipulate on a whim to my knowledge. I think it was because Ultima Thule is at the edge of the universe and literally bathed in the stuff. Meanwhile Etheirys is the most aether dense planet out there.
They really didn't even explain how Hermes, an ancient who SUPPOSEDLY can't PERCEIVE, USE, OR MANIPULATE dynamis made a being out of dynamis, that uses dynamis. It makes no logical sense.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but wasn't Meteion only able to interact with Dynamis because she consisted of so little aether that she was on the verge of blinking out of existence?

As for Dynamis... It's the worst deus ex machina in FFXIV so far. It can be used for literally everything without any drawbacks.
Creation, power-ups, and whatever excuse the writers need to make some random nonsense work. But, of course, Dynamis is always stronger in the good guys, because reasons.
It's not like the Endsinger had accumulated Dynamis in the form of nihilism, despair, and whatever negative emotion you can imagine, for over ten thousand years, just for a handful of people to arrive and safe the day.

[lolnotacat]

I will always question why I never brought up the concept of Dynamis to Sphene as a way to preserve her people and Living Memory. If you did the Omicron tribe quests in EW you use Dynamis to restore whole civilizations that fell people included. I understand not every player has done those but it was a really weird narrative disconnect that I didn't even bring it up to have Sphene shoot me down. It also really makes Dynamis at seem like the deus ex machina power we will never mention again in the main story.

I agree with Hallarem in regards to using Dynamis as a solution to Living Memory, but I'm very annoyed we didn't at least consider talking to the Omicrons about the Endless to try and find another solution. I would've been fine with "Sorry can't help for BS reason." but the fact they were completely forgotten was pretty ridiculous.

[Mondschnee]

The less we mention Dynamis, the better, it really came out of nowhere and it's not a thing you *use* really and manipulate on a whim to my knowledge. I think it was because Ultima Thule is at the edge of the universe and literally bathed in the stuff. Meanwhile Etheirys is the most aether dense planet out there.
They really didn't even explain how Hermes, an ancient who SUPPOSEDLY can't PERCEIVE, USE, OR MANIPULATE dynamis made a being out of dynamis, that uses dynamis. It makes no logical sense.

I also agree with the Dynamis thing. Dynamis was already overused in Dawntrail and trivialized parts of the plot, I don't want this to become an easy explanation to everything. Especially because the power is supposedly barely explored by scholars.

Other than that, genuine_stranger is correct. I don't think Dynamis was considered a factor when Meteion was invented by Hermes, but rather a byproduct due to her aether being so thin. I never felt like it didn't make sense in the story.

[Eyrilona]

(...) but I'm very annoyed we didn't at least consider talking to the Omicrons about the Endless to try and find another solution. I would've been fine with "Sorry can't help for BS reason." but the fact they were completely forgotten was pretty ridiculous.

This, very much. The Omicrons are a race that converted their memories and minds to data and proceeded to live on completely artificial hardware with absolutely zero need to be fed souls or anyone else's life force. This is literally the problem of the Endless, solved. Sphene not knowing how to do it without a constant supply of living aether is a skill issue. We could have consulted with the Omicrons to fix the design flaws in Preservation's methods at absolutely any time.