JP Official Forums are also criticizing the Dawntrail MSQ.

[ForteNightshade]

The whole story has been like this for me. The Warrior of Light had no business being involved. Krile and Erenville could have gone off and done this by themselves and given us a brief synopsis when they got back while we went and actually had our vacation somewhere else. We should have told Wuk Lamat "no," since unlike every other "Warrior of Light enjoys helping the powerless" quest, Wuk Lamat wasn't even that. She was a literal princess with no actual problems, all the resources she needed at her disposal, who ended up somehow always having the right answer despite her naivety. She literally went across the ocean to turn the world's most powerful hero into a show poodle so she could skip around the continent with us sitting patiently on a leash by her side like a status symbol.

The irony is despite having us at her beck and call, we're literally never needed for damn near anything. We just stand around like a flower ornament while she gets the "POWER OF FRIENDSHIP" whenever the story needs her to win a fight. It speaks volumes some of the best segments of Dawntrail--few and far between as they were--all conveniently didn't involve Mary Sue Lamat. Having now completed the story, I'm more convinced than ever they simply didn't have enough of a story to tell and just padded the living heck out of the MSQ to make it work.

This is probably one of the most important criticism. There is a reason why story telling have things like ramming up the momentum. FF14 has a really bad habit of just yanking you off the highway without an off ram.

The pacing is absolutely horrendous. Time and again when the story finally had some sort of momentum, it crash to a complete halt because our resident Mary Sue wanted to go talk to everyone again. Even the very end couldn't keep itself together without being all about her.