JP Official Forums are also criticizing the Dawntrail MSQ.

[fulminating]

Did anyone else notice that cutscene where the pc and scions were flanking wl, but it was framed in such a way that the axe head almost completely obscured the view of our character? The craziest part is this has to be intentional because wl is the same height for everyone.

[Gilihere]

Man, someone mentioned the lack of depth that is unusual considering the other expansions and it actually "dawned" on me, the characthers aside from the scions that have already been flushed out, are just veneers of what they are supposed to represent that's what sucked for me.

[ReynTime]

Something that dawned on me during Dawntrail is how sick I am of seeing the same models being recycled down to the same animations they come with.

The Pelupelu are just a bunch of copy-paste standard Elezen child models disguised in colorful garment and hats. The Yok Huy are recycled from Mor Dhona enemies. Both are even animated exactly like the characters they're recycled from.
Every single monster and boss aside from the trials are recycled from monsters that have been recycled in the game for multiple expansions, same animation and everything. Recycling models isn't new or exclusive to XIV, but it gets so blatant with some of the enemies and bosses that I really wonder where all that extra budget is going towards. Don't forget the game since the beginning was already recycling enemy models from XI.

[Fawkes]

Something that dawned on me during Dawntrail is how sick I am of seeing the same models being recycled down to the same animations they come with.

The Pelupelu are just a bunch of copy-paste standard Elezen child models disguised in colorful garment and hats. The Yok Huy are recycled from Mor Dhona enemies. Both are even animated exactly like the characters they're recycled from.
Every single monster and boss aside from the trials are recycled from monsters that have been recycled in the game for multiple expansions, same animation and everything. Recycling models isn't new or exclusive to XIV, but it gets so blatant with some of the enemies and bosses that I really wonder where all that extra budget is going towards. Don't forget the game since the beginning was already recycling enemy models from XI.

Well, the Yok Huy are just the Trolls from FFXI. If they're recycled from the Gigas/Giants then that happened in FFXI in 2006. I'm not going to complain about stuff from FFXI coming over.

I'll gladly agree about the other beast tribes though. Short people with beak hats is lame, blatant recolor of Vanu Vanu is lazy.

[Estarriol]

Just created a forum account after 10 years of playing FFXIV to add one more voice to the criticism of Dawntrail's story, particularly its pacing.

Endwalker's story was very cutscene heavy for me, but as the culmination of the FFXIV story so far I was down for it. Additionally, each zone had a very different vibe and aesthetic, so there was lost of tonal variety throughout the expansion.

Dawntrail's story had the same amount of cutscenes, but it was all for low stakes stuff that I didn't have a reason to care about. The first half was like a show on the National Geographic channel - individual details might be interesting, but there was no stakes. I appreciated Bakool Ja Ja's arc in the blue forest, but that was really the most intriguing part of the story in the first half.

Cowboy land put me to sleep, so not much to say there.

I feel the invasion was done particularly dirty. We see all of these cool spaceships in the sky, and then we don't get to interact with them at all - we watch a dragon do it. We are attacked on a moving train and half to defend ourselves, but I have to watch my character do it. It was cool to see Vrtra lay waste, don't get me wrong, but it felt like we hardly did anything to stop the invasion ourselves. And yes, I understand it's good to have these other NPCs do things for us... but to me it felt like I was robbed of interesting gameplay. The train scene in particular was begging for a mini-game, and we didn't get one.

As for the finale, I felt the pacing was all wrong. We entered the final zone racing to stop the Big Bad from eating worlds, and we then spend 2-3 hours ruminating on moral issues. I'm not opposed to that rumination - I've played this game for 2000+ hours, I know it's story heavy. But it absolutely interrupted the flow of the narrative. I think it would have been a much more impactful question if we visited Living Memory earlier, fell in love with the zone, and *then* learned we had to delete it. But that's just me.

Gameplay wise, I've loved the dungeons, trials, and class changes so far so I'm happy to keep playing (as that's the main thing I spend my time doing in the game). I just wanted to add one more voice to the chorus that this was a big step down narratively from the heights of Shadowbringers and Endwalker.

[Zolvolt]

there is a weird fetishization of the thoughts and opinions of JP. Just because JP likes/dislikes something doesn't mean anything beyond they liked or disliked it. And there are JP people who like it just as much as they dislike it. This thread is dumb.

[KurenXIV]

there is a weird fetishization of the thoughts and opinions of JP. Just because JP likes/dislikes something doesn't mean anything beyond they liked or disliked it. And there are JP people who like it just as much as they dislike it. This thread is dumb.

It's to show how it's not just a specific audience having an issue with the MSQ; it's not a 'fetishization of the thoughts and opinions of JP'.

Players across all regions have issues with aspects of this expansion. It helps to keep those trying to shout down others who have issues with said expansion to have something to point to that debunks the 'it's just a regional issue, all the other regions love DT!" notion.

[Striker44]

It's to show how it's not just a specific audience having an issue with the MSQ; it's not a 'fetishization of the thoughts and opinions of JP'.

Players across all regions have issues with aspects of this expansion. It helps to keep those trying to shout down others who have issues with said expansion to have something to point to that debunks the 'it's just a regional issue, all the other regions love DT!" notion.

Except the game is massively popular in all regions. Before early access, we were at ~1.1 MILLION players, split fairly equally between DP, NA, and EU. It's only spiked significantly since then with the release of early access and then DT. With that many people playing, two things will be true:

A.) You will find people supporting any position on any topic.

B.) People with complaints are more likely to "voice" their opinion, especially on something like a casual video game, than people who are satisfied.

"There's people on JP saying they don't like it" means, well, nothing. It doesn't "debunk" anything. It's about as mature a take as the people thinking they have some right to "demand" the developers do certain things. It's their game. They make the product; you choose whether to purchase it. End of story.

[AnotherHighlander]

Except the game is massively popular in all regions. Before early access, we were at ~1.1 MILLION players, split fairly equally between DP, NA, and EU. It's only spiked significantly since then with the release of early access and then DT. With that many people playing, two things will be true:

A.) You will find people supporting any position on any topic.

B.) People with complaints are more likely to "voice" their opinion, especially on something like a casual video game, than people who are satisfied.

"There's people on JP saying they don't like it" means, well, nothing. It doesn't "debunk" anything. It's about as mature a take as the people thinking they have some right to "demand" the developers do certain things. It's their game. They make the product; you choose whether to purchase it. End of story.

[KurenXIV]

Except the game is massively popular in all regions. Before early access, we were at ~1.1 MILLION players, split fairly equally between DP, NA, and EU. It's only spiked significantly since then with the release of early access and then DT. With that many people playing, two things will be true:

A.) You will find people supporting any position on any topic.

B.) People with complaints are more likely to "voice" their opinion, especially on something like a casual video game, than people who are satisfied.

"There's people on JP saying they don't like it" means, well, nothing. It doesn't "debunk" anything. It's about as mature a take as the people thinking they have some right to "demand" the developers do certain things. It's their game. They make the product; you choose whether to purchase it. End of story.

"End of story" would be FFXIV 1.0 if SE chose to not listening to players.

You can be vocal about disliking aspects of a long running MMO/Live Service game; it doesn't mean the entire games bad nor does it mean people will immediately stop subbing or paying for the next expansion . . . but it will eventually have an impact.

Feedback doesn't mean "nothing", it means people are unhappy with an aspect of the product. In this case it's an aspect of the product which is the main selling point of said product.

Yes, there are plenty of people who play the game. Yes there are plenty not voicing their opinion but the game is absolutely shaped based on feedback. Job design, encounter design, world mechanics and many other aspects have all changed due to player feedback.

So they clearly are listening to some degree.

All in all the more people who complain, upvote, etc the more likelihood that they will get the message.

Otherwise people will eventually stop purchasing the product.