JP Official Forums are also criticizing the Dawntrail MSQ.

[Sharie]

Well Yes in a Final Fantasy i expect the whole Storyline revolving around the Main Character, Us the Player, otherwise we have World of Warcraft where the Player Character will always be the Sideline Character or a FF12 Situation.
Or in our Situation we being Forced into a Furry Show, it would be less bad if the Wuk lamat character would be a Well Written Man or Woman, but we got a Head Empty Furry

[Souljacker]

I agree there was nothing new to learn. The Hanu are the same, no real culture differences from their counterparts in HW, and the short amount of time we spent with them didn't even seem worth it. I'm also questioning the continued quest format - who exactly finds it engaging to type in a hard to spell word three times? I find it obnoxious to have to put the controller down to do a silly quest when all I want to do is relax and explore.

But again, because all of it is just so bad and disengaging I think every little nuance feels like the end of the world. I found it mildly irritating in previous xpacs when we had to do this, but in this one it made me want to just shut down the game and renew my sub in WoW to get ready for that xpac.

I have no idea who this xpac was for, but it wasn't for players of Final Fantasy games.

Want to give the WoL a vacation? Cool. Make it an actual vacation where crazy things happen he\she needs to solve while trying to get some rest. At least that makes some sense other than oh, let's spend my break helping someone I literally met 5 minutes ago that I know nothing about beyond she 'says' she's 'for peace' attain power. Holy crow, who came up with this premise to begin with?

The vacation should have been something like they did in XI with Rhapsodies of Vana'diel - a storyline that crossed all previous expansions and missions so we can see how everyone is making out and help them with lower level tasks now that the world isn't in crisis. Whatever this is, they need to drop these writers and either get some new talent or get the Shadowbringers folks back in the seats. What a mess.

[ThorneDynasty]

Again, WoL not being the main character is completely fine.

WoL having the idiot ball permanently glued onto their hands to artificially prop up another character is, however, bad.

That's not how you elevate either character.

[ThorneDynasty]

And it's not some insurmountable issue of "WoL is just too OP to work as a main character, just deal with the writing being weird because of that."

It's absolutely not. The hyper capable mentor figure is such standard adventure/fantasy fare it's cliche almost. They've done it multiple times in the series. And in FF14 specifically too. Hell, they do it in Dawntrail perfectly fine in the role quests. With WoL.

Why is it only in MSQ the writers are suddenly incapable of writing us as the Aragon of the story, not Frodo?

[Elkanah]

*WoL protagonist head nod* is about 90% of what we do, other than the occasional obvious choice of wording lol

[Vahlnir]

*WoL protagonist head nod* is about 90% of what we do, other than the occasional obvious choice of wording lol

*nods stoically*

[HighlanderClone]

You did learn about each region's culture, its people, and the activities they engage in. The side quests further elaborate on it and many have cutscenes. The vistas now give historical backgrounds, so I am not entirely sure what you actually mean.

Bro we spent 2 hours learning that Pelupelu likes to barter and the only thing they do in the MSQ is barter barter barter.

Imagine if Assassin's Creed had a game set in France and everyone is just like "baguette baguette baguette". That's how shallow (and frankly insulting) the writing is.

If anything it's a NET NEGATIVE that we're learning about their culture because the writers didn't bother to think of any sophisticated culture at all. It's all tropes. My time was wasted learning about tropes more apt for a picture book you read to your little 4 year old toddler tucked in bed at night.

[Ozmandis]

Bro we spent 2 hours learning that Pelupelu likes to barter and the only thing they do in the MSQ is barter barter barter.

Imagine if Assassin's Creed had a game set in France and everyone is just like "baguette baguette baguette". That's how shallow (and frankly insulting) the writing is.

If anything it's a NET NEGATIVE that we're learning about their culture because the writers didn't bother to think of any sophisticated culture at all. It's all tropes. My time was wasted learning about tropes more apt for a picture book you read to your little 4 year old toddler tucked in bed at night.

I can't agree more. I'm tired of hearing this from people defending the MSQ. They had tens of hour to do some world building and ended up doing less than some amateur cartoons do in their 20m pilote episode. I don't care we have side quests that give more informations, I want the actual important content to be in the f**** mandatory MSQ so I don't feel robbed out of my time while doing it. It's asinine how low your standards have to be for you to be fine with the "world building".

[jameseoakes]

I can't agree more. I'm tired of hearing this from people defending the MSQ. They had tens of hour to do some world building and ended up doing less than some amateur cartoons do in their 20m pilote episode. I don't care we have side quests that give more informations, I want the actual important content to be in the f**** mandatory MSQ so I don't feel robbed out of my time while doing it. It's asinine how low your standards have to be for you to be fine with the "world building".

The story was so long yet and had so little depth and completly forgot to actually set up the villains arc it's so badly written

[BakoolJaJa]

I can't agree more. I'm tired of hearing this from people defending the MSQ. They had tens of hour to do some world building and ended up doing less than some amateur cartoons do in their 20m pilote episode. I don't care we have side quests that give more informations, I want the actual important content to be in the f**** mandatory MSQ so I don't feel robbed out of my time while doing it. It's asinine how low your standards have to be for you to be fine with the "world building".

I don't even know what that commenter is smoking to think that side quests "further elaborate." There is nothing to elaborate on and consequently the side quests do not give any additional information at all. I did all side quests for the first two maps including the questlines that eventually connect two location inhabitants together. There is nothing there. It's all just water. Pelupelu continue trading. None of them stop trading. There's no side quest about not trading. When the giant's quest eventually crosses over all we learn is that Pelupelu are willing to hire them as bodyguards. Because they aren't ultra racist... Though one of the first quests kind of made me give it a side-eye. Said something along the lines of "I always dreamed of hiring a Yok Huy, but they look scary so I didn't." Which uh. Certainly not something I would say irl - "I always dreamed of hiring a person of X skin color, but they kinda look scary so I didn't." Maybe the race of an employee shouldn't be something to dwell on THAT much, but what do I know.

Not that I care personally, because this is a silly a video game and all that. But this sort of thing along with the shallow and stereotyped depiction of the peoples sure comes across as tone deaf, especially in combination with nonsense like renaming beast tribes to "allied society quests." Essentially virtue signaling while doing the exact opposite.