What is this writing in DT?

[Connor]

The pacing for this expansion is absolutely abysmal and would rival ARR if it wasn’t also so massively inconsistent. I’ve touched literally 0 roulettes and exclusively done storyline / run the story dungeons, yet somehow I still managed to overlevel the MSQ by at least 2-3 levels. All because the pacing is so completely awful that you’re getting a metric shitton of useless filler quests that pad the exp gain.

As for the writing itself I’m conflicted lol. As someone who also enjoys writing it feels a bit mean to say that it’s just straight up bad . At the same time though, it absolutely is not good either lol. As others have said it feels like a ton of story and dialogue was either AI generated or written by the least passionate intern to have ever existed lol

[Fhaerron]

Square Enix did mention that they would increase their efforts in AI.

Also somehow they are still holding onto NFT's ...

[Raikai]

The first part of the MSQ sums up (for the most part, I'd give that) to:

"Let's split and talk to the locals to see what ever mundane thing we can learn..."
<learns obvious mundane things>

[Ahelissa]

The pacing for this expansion is absolutely abysmal and would rival ARR if it wasn’t also so massively inconsistent. I’ve touched literally 0 roulettes and exclusively done storyline / run the story dungeons, yet somehow I still managed to overlevel the MSQ by at least 2-3 levels. All because the pacing is so completely awful that you’re getting a metric shitton of useless filler quests that pad the exp gain.

As for the writing itself I’m conflicted lol. As someone who also enjoys writing it feels a bit mean to say that it’s just straight up bad . At the same time though, it absolutely is not good either lol. As others have said it feels like a ton of story and dialogue was either AI generated or written by the least passionate intern to have ever existed lol

Ok, I'm not the only one who noticed the over-leveling. That has never happened to me before in an expac. In the past, I usually ended up under-leveled if I just did MSQ and didn't do a roulette here and there. Says a lot about how much filler there is in Dawntrail.

[koko-on-da-forumz]

I don't think that the overlevelling would have made a big difference if it were different, but it is indicative of the shift towards pure visual novel with a raiding scene at the end. XIV (and most modern MMOs) have always had levelling as just a footnote to the endgame, but it's wild to effectively not have it and have no other path of progression besides inconsequential gear upgrades that don't matter until the AF is handed to you automatically anyway.

[Connor]

Ok, I'm not the only one who noticed the over-leveling. That has never happened to me before in an expac. In the past, I usually ended up under-leveled if I just did MSQ and didn't do a roulette here and there. Says a lot about how much filler there is in Dawntrail.

Same; I’ve been through every expansion since ARR (unless 1.0 counts lol) and I honestly think in terms of exp gain / quest padding this expansion is the worst offender of them all lol. There are far too many entire quests dedicated to like ‘Wuk has a chip in her axe’, ‘talk to 3 people in this location’, ‘stop in the middle of a ruined town populated by killer robots to gather meat for a heart-warming dinner’. The robots are literally 4 feet away from the door and you want to stop for food?!?! With a child present?!

[OliverQ]

Why did Ishikawa step back from writing the main story? They really need to bring her back and have her write everything.

[Isala]

Ok, I'm not the only one who noticed the over-leveling. That has never happened to me before in an expac. In the past, I usually ended up under-leveled if I just did MSQ and didn't do a roulette here and there. Says a lot about how much filler there is in Dawntrail.

I've been doing my daily roulettes for tomes, because I just could not be bothered to full 660 on weekly tomes in EW, and somehow, with those, and quests, I have two Jobs ahead of the MSQ, one equal, and two a single level behind. That's one of each role for the role quests, pretty much keeping up with me for story, just by doing my daily chores, and doing MSQ and SQs while I wait in DPS queue...

[OliverQ]

The pacing for this expansion is absolutely abysmal and would rival ARR if it wasn’t also so massively inconsistent. I’ve touched literally 0 roulettes and exclusively done storyline / run the story dungeons, yet somehow I still managed to overlevel the MSQ by at least 2-3 levels. All because the pacing is so completely awful that you’re getting a metric shitton of useless filler quests that pad the exp gain.

As for the writing itself I’m conflicted lol. As someone who also enjoys writing it feels a bit mean to say that it’s just straight up bad . At the same time though, it absolutely is not good either lol. As others have said it feels like a ton of story and dialogue was either AI generated or written by the least passionate intern to have ever existed lol

I just hit 100 on my main on the 99 dungeon, so I was 100 going into the 99 trial. I still have 7 or 8 level 99 quests left which would be wasted xp if I do it on my level 100. I'm not sure if that's overleveled or not. It's roughly 10 million experience wasted, which is only about half a level. I didn't do any roulettes. Just MSQ and MSQ dungeons/trials.

[genuine_stranger]

I just hit 100 on my main on the 99 dungeon, so I was 100 going into the 99 trial. I still have 7 or 8 level 99 quests left which would be wasted xp if I do it on my level 100. I'm not sure if that's overleveled or not. It's roughly 10 million experience wasted, which is only about half a level. I didn't do any roulettes. Just MSQ and MSQ dungeons/trials.

Fun Fact, all of the yellow quests are now synced down to lvl 90 and you can turn them in with whatever job you want. So even more free exp.

Idk if past expansions did the same thing, I just noticed it after I was clearing the 4th zone of them that I can get free levels on another job.