JP Official Forums are also criticizing the Dawntrail MSQ.

[fioravictorine]

Its just comes down to shes forced on us, They expect us to like her, which makes them bad writers. It hasnt even crossed their minds we wont like her and the irony on top of that being, they've made a lot of people who would have liked her or had no opinion also dislike her because of how much she wont go away.

Wuk Lmao is shoehorned so forcefully into everything, I am not sure if the writers genuinely thought all players will like her or they are just trolling us at this point

[SirShady]

Left in ARR,
Friend convinced me to give it a shot in EW,
Fell in love with MSQ,
Was hyped and looking forward to joining a my first FFXIV expansion launch and Dawntrail MSQ,
Got hit in the marble sack by whoever the hell wrote the story and got Wuk Lamat shoved down my throat the entire MSQ with monotone voice acting.
my thoughts: *Insert jokers ball drop off meme*

Yeah this expansion makes me so damn grateful I came back from my ARR hiatus at the end of Shadowbringers. It really was the perfect time to start playing the game again and catch up to the MSQ right before Endwalker.

I'm disappointed as hell with Dawntrail, but it would be so much worse if this was my first "current" expansion experience. I'm sorry buddy.

[Jack-Rakan]

Honestly, I didnt like endwalker because at some point the pacing felt off and they turned a weird plot into either a sad bird or gods wanting someone to off them.
A lot of it was just because i was sick and the queues were awful. I called it lukewarm

I took a break after 6.3 and would only come back because it felt like DT was interesting, (I called the 6.x patches the Zamasu arc in dragon ball super because of how similar it was to going to the 13th, beating things, getting attacked and running back to the source, and Zero constantly tipping her hat obsessively.)

I mean I did not decide to come back to play 14 till literally *a day before early access started*. And what i was met with.....less than lukewarm storytelling that made me feel like i was watching a badly written marvel or star wars show.

I didnt even come in with any expectations and even had thoughts that maybe it would be fine, and I still felt disappointed with DT. Like, I'm here for a good story and character stuffs and all Im getting is a ton of preaching of ''peace and happiness'' as if its some weird chant spoken by some cult.

Not even getting started on when there is real conversations about reflections and calamities and the character we are stuck with who apparently has more lines than any other character in other expansions combined is like Oh, huh really? well anyway who cares peace and happiness right?

so... who exactly was this story for? it feels like everywhere else i see is the same and only people on twitter are defending it, and even that is a relatively small number of people.

[Karkarov]

It is really simple. Player Agency is needed in a video game story. Yes in FF14 no matter what the story always plays out the same way, always has, always will. But in previous expansions you would have moments where your character was clearly central to what was happening. You did something that saved the day when others were failing or maybe you showed up to support a friend in need? Sometimes you fought the villain on your own and won. You got dialog options where every line was not a different flavor of the exact same statement. Your character mattered and was important to the story, even when they weren't the most important person in the room.

In Dawntrail you never show up to save anyone, you never provide critical aid to an ally in need, you are never given a dialog choice that has options all of them are literally the same statement just phrased slightly differently or at best "say nothing". Even when the stakes are just "take out the generic leader of these generic bandits" you aren't allowed to do it, some side character gets to do it while you stand there and watch. Wuk Lamat is the only character that matters for the whole story outside of the antagonists and Koana. She makes all the decisions, she fights all the battles that matter (some of them one on one while you are forced to again stand there and just watch), you are never allowed to disagree with her, and 9 out of 10 times she decides what everyone will do even in the beginning when she is clearly basically incompetent with no real skills or experience to back up what she is saying.

The reason this is the worst the FF14 story has ever been is because your character has no agency. If your character were removed from the plot nothing changes, the story plays out the exact same way. That was never true in FF14 until Dawntrail. You don't need to be "the main character" but you do need to matter. In Dawntrail you do not matter.

[Dogempire]

Its just comes down to shes forced on us, They expect us to like her, which makes them bad writers. It hasnt even crossed their minds we wont like her and the irony on top of that being, they've made a lot of people who would have liked her or had no opinion also dislike her because of how much she wont go away.

I liked her at the beginning but honestly started to get annoyed with her around the time we get to Solution Nine.

Wuk Lamat feels like someone who you hit it off with when you first meet them, but then they just WON'T LEAVE YOU ALONE and it really sours the friendship as a result.

I like people with golden retriever energy, hell, a lot of my favorite anime characters have golden retriever energy, but just please leave me alone and stop breaking my immersion, I'm trying to play through MSQ as the Warrior of Light, not Wuk Lamat's Hired Muscle.

God, the best thing about finishing MSQ is that I won't have to see Wuk Lamat for at least a decent while, I hope she gets stuck being busy as Hokage Wizard Pirate King so I can at least properly play as the WoL in the next story patch.

[Kohashi]

Actually, I enjoyed that the WOL took the backseat in the story but they could have done more to empower the mentor role that they supposedly had for this. They could have integrated more of the struggles and tribulations he faced.

Well, it's the creative direction they went with so I am fine with it. The mini story to start the new expansion was a huge step up from ARR for me. I absolutely despised ARR.

[DoomRyder]

MSQ is not a "mini story."

[Kohashi]

It's a mini story to set up what is to come. Like the calm before the storm. What's wrong with that? You aren't the main hero and everything doesn't spin around the WoL?

[Vahlnir]

It's a mini story to set up what is to come. Like the calm before the storm. What's wrong with that? You aren't the main hero and everything doesn't spin around the WoL?

If this is their attempt to set things up for what's to come, I am very, very concerned.

[Karkarov]

It's a mini story to set up what is to come. Like the calm before the storm. What's wrong with that? You aren't the main hero and everything doesn't spin around the WoL?

Lol did you even pay attention? You are not only not a hero, you are not even a participant. You never make a decision, you never express an opinion (except 1 scene, and even then your opinion is forced every option is the same thing), you never do anything meaningful to the plot, if you were written out of the story ..... the only scene that changes is now no one other than Estenien duels Gulool Ja Ja, everything else is identical. It isn't about "not being the main character" it is about "being a participating character on any level".