I thought Dawntrail was going to be a grand adventure surrounded by friends

[Sonoskay]

No, I did not forget! You and everyone else defending Dawntrail against any criticism keeps dropping that line like it means anything.

"It's the start of a saga, so you shouldn't have any expectations going in." is some of the worst logic and excuse for any criticism. The story DOES crescendo. They wrap up Dawntrail. My experience with Dawntrail SUCKED.

I'm not here to talk about the next expansion. I'm not here to talk about the new story arc. I'm here to talk about Dawntrail. When the other expansions are released I will talk about those.

You don't go "Well that movie sucked, but I can't judge it because it has a sequel in the works". You judge a piece of art as it is. If the rest of the arc is great, then that's GREAT! I hope it is! My experience with Dawntrail would still suck. This is how criticism, media, and the general flow of time works.

I don't think that's quite true. ARR now has a lot of defenders for establishing the setting. Its still to date, the worst story experience in the game, and people do defend it because it did establish some neat threads. To clarify. i am not trying to invalidate your feelings about Dawn trail. I am merely saying people do give ARR props for what came later.

[Drkdays]

I'm not surprised it seems all wrapped up, but I'm sure it's not. This is an entirely new continent after all, and the man himself says it's a new beginning, so ya, there's a lot more coming. Book one of a second series. You say not to forgive how bad a movie is because there's a sequel coming, but c'mon, the movie isn't even over yet. In fact, it has barely started.

Like credits rolling in FF14 means anything.

[HyoMinPark]

I’m currently in the 5th zone. It’s taken me this long since the game came up on Friday morning (take away ~6 hours that I spent leveling up Pictomancer) to get here because I have to keep stopping and restarting the MSQ due to how unengaging it is. For reference, when I play early access for expac launches, I’m usually already done with the MSQ by this point. I finished both ShB and EW on Monday evening after their early access launch. SB took a bit longer, but a lot of that was due to difficulties such as Raubahn Savage and Pipin EX, alongside login queues and the issues that happened back then.

I didn’t go into Dawntrail with any expectations that the writing was going to be Shadowbringers level of quality—I wasn’t expecting the quality to be on the floor, though. I was moderately curious about how the developers would handle the beginning of a new arc now that the Hydaelyn/Zodiark/Ascians story has wrapped up. And while there were FINALLY some moments about midway through where I sat up and started getting engaged, my engagement is still taking a hit due to a certain character.

Someone else said it, so I’ll just repeat: I think the enjoyment of Dawntrail for any individual is going to hinge entirely on whether or not they like Wut Lamat. If you like her, then you will probably like the expansion and the story. If you don’t like her, you are going to struggle.

And I am struggling. I just cannot vibe with her. She seems way too one dimensional. Everyone that does like her keeps saying she has some character growth moment, but I’m going into the level 98 MSQ and I’m still waiting for that moment… They say she’s quirky and relatable, but her “quirks” are way overplayed and just seem like they were thrown in there to try and give her “relatability” or “flaws”. (Which there’s a name for characters like that…)

Others say this is supposed to be a reset akin to ARR—well, at least in ARR, I might have been running the errands of others, but at least I was ACTIVELY DOING STUFF. In Dawntrail, the majority of my time has been spent acting as a set dressing for the Wut Lamat Show. I don’t know how many quests passed before I got the “go slay x amount of random monsters” quest. I think there’s also only been like 3 solo instances up to level 98, and one of them doesn’t really count because you had to play as ANOTHER CHARACTER and not even your own.

I would prefer to like her—but I just cannot. I cannot find anything likable about her for me, personally.

Story spoiler below for ~level 95 MSQ:

The first moment of enjoyment I had in the MSQ was in the 4th zone around level 95 where it was just me and Erenville—and one character was noticeably absent. I was finally just…adventuring. Erenville and the WoL set out to go back to his village, got pulled into some shenanigans, helped a guy oust a dirty cop all Western-style and free his friends.

It was amazing. I was laughing and having fun. THAT was what I had in mind when I thought about an ARR reset: traveling, getting pulled into random events, helping people. Not being background fodder for another character and actively NOT participating in anything happening outside of smiling and nodding a lot.

[SirShady]

I'm not surprised it seems all wrapped up, but I'm sure it's not. This is an entirely new continent after all, and the man himself says it's a new beginning, so ya, there's a lot more coming. Book one of a second series. You say not to forgive how bad a movie is because there's a sequel coming, but c'mon, the movie isn't even over yet.

Like credits rolling in FF14 means anything.

Well if you want me to be specific about it...

The last 30+ hours of the "movie" have sucked.

Book 1, the one called Dawntrail, sucked.

Final Fantasy 14's 7.0 patch, the one that holds the 30+ hours of MSQ content, sucked.

That thing. You know. The game that we are all currently playing right now? That one. For me, it sucked.

Is that specific enough? Am I allowed to hold these opinions? I really hope I don't have to wait for the servers to close down before my criticisms of FFXIV are valid.

I don't think that's quite true. ARR now has a lot of defenders for establishing the setting. Its still to date, the worst story experience in the game, and people do defend it because it did establish some neat threads. To clarify. i am not trying to invalidate your feelings about Dawn trail. I am merely saying people do give ARR props for what came later.

This is valid, but I can tell you right now that the plot threads established at the very end of Dawntrail do not excite me. They could potentially develop and use them in interesting ways, but the setup so far is literally just a mcguffin with no explanation as to the how or why. If it becomes a good plot device later, it will not be because of what was done with it here. It would be like ARR just dropping the word ascian and showing a dude in a black robe right before the credits roll. Ultimately nothing, even if it becomes something much larger and greater later down the line. ARR's plot threads are interesting and developed within ARR itself, and are expanded upon later.

[fioravictorine]

But it is a grand adventure surrounded by friends. 'Friends' being Wuk Lamat, Wuk Lamat and even more Wuk Lamat

95% of the time her face and annoying yap fill my screen with joy

[Kashou]

All I wanted to do was go adventuring with G'raha like we promised, and then all he gets is going to the one dungeon in EW post story and then they write him out entirely lmao.

[Regis_Paran]

She actively makes every conversation about her. Every scene is about her. All the other characters are set pieces to react to her.

I started zone 4 today. And for about 15 min, it was such a breath of fresh air! Exactly what I was hoping this expansion would be. But then we meet certain NPC and we're back to the world evolving around Wuk Lamat. Because obviously the first person we decide to help will be closely connected to her. Why am I even surprised by this point...

[EusisLandale]

All I wanted to do was go adventuring with G'raha like we promised, and then all he gets is going to the one dungeon in EW post story and then they write him out entirely lmao.

If it makes you feel any better

He gets called up to basically help make a couple cannons for the Boomtrain to get you into the mystery orb.

And then promptly gets sidelined again for the Wuk Lamat show.

[Voidmage]

For being an expansion that was supposed to be us going back to adventuring we do everything but that actually.

I don‘t mind the story so far even though it’s not my favorite. I don‘t even really mind Wuk Lamat being forced in my face every literal second that much even though she’s annoying more by the minute.

But we are just trotting behind others without an agenda. A soulless husk. I don‘t think my WoL did anything out of free will till now (I‘m after the Wild West zone right now).
Estinien lives our life now. He goes adventuring and has fun. I‘m just there to nod I guess?
Even the dialogue choices are lackluster this time (reminding me of Genshin sometimes, not a good thing).

I can‘t believe I say this but… I want Zenos back. At least my character existed back then as a person.

I will withhold final judgment till the end but right now the expansion is a 6 or 7 for me. Just slightly above Stormblood.

[Malthir]

When we all looked at World of Warcraft and said, god no one could screw up a story this badly. That wasn't supposed to be a god dam challenge SE