Why are people settling for an "ARR Tier" story?

[heliacide]

I'm a little torn on the overall thing. I like Wuk Lamat, but the last zone was a huge bummer. And I noticed there was just a lot of cutscenes that were cool to watch, but probably would have been much more fun to play.

(Late game zones)

The exploding train, cutscene, for example, could have been a fun rail shooter. We literally have that in the Gold Saucer, why couldn't we have had a short bit of it in the cutscene? We are literally on a rail, shooting things. Or the sequence where Wuk and the WoL are having a fake swordfight, one of the most famous minigames in Final Fantasy 9... that couldn't have been a super simple quick time event? Something?

Also I didn't appreciate Wuk's kill-steal in the last trial but whatever.

So idk. I thought it was fine. Middle of the road. I don't think it was worse than ARR or Stormblood. It was about the same. You know - fine.

[Nitelancer]

ARR is superior to DT in its storytelling and execution of the concept of being an adventurer.

[DreadCrow]

Why can't we have Shadowbringers every time?

Answer: Final Fantasy XIV has multiple writers, so the quality cannot be the same, and as with any form of serial story-telling, even good writers will eventually tell bad stories.

Here's an example; Chris Clairemont's run of Uncanny X-Men. It's iconic. Literally everything that people love about the X-Men today originated under Clairemont. For sixteen years, he wrote some of the best superhero comics ever. But that doesn't mean that everything that he wrote was great. There were some bad issues, especially when he was forced by editorial to write crossover events he didn't care about. Some arcs were obviously better than others and a couple are even boring... But Clairmont's run is still great. And there's been great runs after Clairemont, too.

Final Fantasy XIV is also more than story. It's gameplay - and as far as gameplay goes, this has been the best expansion as far as base dungeons and trials went.

[Lusarae]

ARR is really bad and it's like 80% filler, but at least it builds up the actual world and sets up the story. Dawntrail is just horrific and it does NOT do the same thing at all. It is a net negative and it has done nothing but harm the overarching plot of the game. We would be better off of they said "well oops we'll redo it" and rolled the servers back for a year so they could rework it as opposed to keeping it in.

Yeah you can't compare the ARR "filler". ARR is building up to future content. We can see the need to bring Ishgard into the fold, the need for Ala Mhigo to be restored, and quiet a few instances of people even as far as Doma needing your help. In addition to having it explain why you are just more than some ordinary adventurer with the echo and other little power ups we get along the way.

What is DT's "filler" giving us? We go to some random tribe and trade petty goods. Go to more worthless spitholes on the map and have the dumbest among us learn a very simple lesson. Meanwhile I'm over here wanting to see where the Viera (Shetola) are desperate to see what their towns are like. While Estinien is doing what the WoL should be doing and teases us about it everytime we personally bump into him. I'm also wishing we could have just had Krile be the protag and have us helping her find her history as a focus rather than a footnote of a sidestory. Why couldn't her character be enough? Why did we need someone that half of the audience is probably not going to like?

So far the only thing with actual tangible repercussions on the overarching story and world is from the 96+ part of the MSQ. Between exploring that stuff and knowing what we did in the 6.x content it opens up nearly a dozen or so possibilities for us to explore. None of which have to do with Tural. The new world should have been so much better. Hopefully we unexplored parts of it are more interesting assuming they don't just count these initial DT maps as the entire two continents.

[Wildheaven182]

They could have ai generated emet selch read 120 hours of ai generated story directly to the player in a silent cutscene and drooling idiot fanboys and fangirls will still say it was the best expansion yet, it was just laying the groundwork for future content.
I think the devs needed a vacation, not the WoL.

[Lusarae]

I'm not finished with the MSQ, but will be today. When they said this was going to be a "vacation" and they were breaking from the previous story completely, I set my expectations low.

My biggest disappointment is having these twins with me.

And the WoL being on a "side" doesn't add up to me either.

My thing is, we never got to enjoy our "vacation". Before we even step off the boat we already have a mission. Deciding the next ruler of these two continents. That's not a low stakes operation. A vacation would be me, Estinien and Erenville exploring the continent solving local issues we bump into. Helping bunbun visit his mom, getting to know his home and the people in it... so we have a reason to care for future events. Have Krile coax us into a more focused task as we help her discover her history and then, THEN, have the big reveal with the rising stakes.

As for the 'competition' it was never fair to involve the WoL at all. It really should have been a more fair competition. With the twins being on different teams. We should have been the group that bumps into either team once in awhile while they do their own thing. Seeing them and their actions in the background of OUR story. Have them better grow as characters by not having to constantly shadow us like puppies, evolve from what they started to do in Garelmald after EW.

Bottom line is the expansion was full of lies. There never was a vacation. There never was a real true fair competition. Friends did not ever become rivals, we helped each other several times despite being on opposite teams. And it certainly wasn't my story. Wuk Lamat just outshines everyone, pushes the WoL out of our own story. Anytime there would be an appropriate bit of attention focused on a different character, she finds a way to insert herself into that story and be the spotlight yet again. Can't just have Koana or Erenville lead an arc on their own god forbid. Imagine if Hauchefront, Iceheart, Estinien, or Ameryic just got shoved out of their own scenes and became background characters so we could focus on a cringier character that was only put here to showcase a new races model.

Shame they didn't do this when Viera were new. At least I'm sure that character would have been more bearable.

[Zaniel]

ARR wasn't "bad" it was just slow, the actual story and characters were pretty good. DT is objectively bad in almost every respect with its story. From framing to character building to pacing to plot holes and blatant illogical craziness and unholy levels of repetition and forced flat attempts at humour to its complete ignoring of the entire events of FF14 to date (was Tural immune to the Final Days??!?!?!).

There are some hazy kernels of good ideas in Dawntrail, the setting and history of the region sometimes peak out from underneath the suffocating blanket of the plot, a couple of characters briefly show some sparks of what could have been interesting personalities before collapsing into caricature. To me it feels like when they first brainstormed ideas for the expansion some really good post-it notes got up on the board, then the producers just walked out of the room and left the amateur writers to their own devices. Cue forward two years later and everything had collapsed under the weight of inexperience and the lead writer's love of "baby's first MMO character".

Any framing of this as being "a restart" or "a holiday" or "subverting expectations" is just utter nonsense, it is just OBJECTIVELY appalling bad storytelling from a team that should know better. Keeping up with the Kardashians is OBJECTIVELY bad TV, it just is, don't excuse it. It's fine if you like it for the cheese and moving coloured lights after a hard day's work and are sick of thinking, I am happy for you and I'm not going to criticize you for liking it. However you simply can't pretend it's good.

[Garolymar]

I think ARR is a lot better than Dawntrail. For one learning about Eorzea and its troubles were a lot more interesting than anything on Tural. The different ways the beast tribes were being oppressed and using their religious fervour to summon primals was really good stuff. The 3 main city states were all also very fleshed out compared Tulliyolol. Like besides the food stuff and "everyone gets along always here" it doesn't go into much detail at least from what I remember, Maybe there are some yellow quests that flesh out the country more but I didn't do any yellow quests in ARR and I still got to experience Ul'dahs shady monetarist under belly, the trafficking and piracy of Limsa, The weird spirit elementals that haunt Gridania. It kinda felt like they were too afraid to give Tural any sort of grit in case it offended somebody.

[Midare]

Disliking any part of it would lead to an identity crisis. God help you if you criticize it.

I hate myself and I think the story's fine so far.

Sure, Suk Lamat is cringe, but a lot of people are blowing things out of proportion.

[Jojoya]

My problem isn't the first half of the story. It's the second half.

To me, it's (spoiler tagged because it will give away most of the plot)

second half of Endwalker repeated.

Right now, it seems most players will like one half but not the other and it varies between which half is liked. That's going to leave a lot of players unsatisfied in general with the MSQ.

Edit: regarding the first half of the story, remember that the WoL is

the soul of Azem.

.

While someone might prefer more combat, lore-wise the tour is very fitting.