Thread: One small worrying issue I have with Dawntrail (Ending Spoilers)

Dawntrail was advertised everywhere as the 'story reset' expansion, something on the level of ARR that would "provide the foundation for another 10 years of story". That's all well and good, but after going through the Dawntrail MSQ, I find that it's lacking pretty much any of the keystones needed for such a foundation.

In ARR, we were introduced to the following story beats that weren't resolved during the course of it's MSQ:

• The Ascians. They would go on to be the main antagonists of the entire ARR arc, and we'd see them in pretty much every expansion.
• The Garlean Empire. Another, more tangible and political antagonist that filled in when it wouldn't make sense for there to be Ascians everywhere.
• Hydaelyn and Zodiark. The dicotomy of the two pretty much defined all of our actions from 2.0 all the way up to the end of Endwalker.
• Ishgard. While we couldn't access the city itself or anything north, they were present in conversations and the story, and we could tell they would have more to do in the story in the future.
• Ala Mhigo. Same deal as Ishgard, probably even moreso because the presence of the Ala Mhigan refugees were probably responsible for more than half of the political strife stories seen in ARR.
• The Allagans. Their past actions are pretty much entirely responsible for the events of ARR-forward, and we deal with them until the end of Endwalker as a result.

Seems like a good foundation.

In DT, we were introduced to the following story beats that weren't resolved during the course of it's MSQ:

• Another reflection, potentially already rejoined (jury still out, although wasn't it heavily implied that the Source's Calamity of Lightning happened because of what happened in Alexandria?), that we summarily dealt with, cut off from the Source, and likely won't be seeing again soon.
• The "ramifications of interdimensional fusion."
• Another Azem macguffin.

...and that's about it.

This doesn't seem like a fantastic foundation for another 10 years of story. It just feels like 'another expansion'.

This doesn't have to be a problem, but I foresee it being one. Not because I have any doubts that Square Enix will be able to pull another story out of their corporate cheeks, but because this is the same pitfall that caused me to abandon WoW for FFXIV in the first place.

3000 character limit lulz

In WoW, a main problem people had was the lack of a cohesive story. After a certain point (I think, maybe Cataclysm?), when one expansion ended, it was pretty much entirely bookended. You'd count yourself lucky to see a reference to past expansions in future ones unless they A. had their roots in the old Warcraft games (see: Lich King), or B. had new races or classes, which meant that they had to be included for the sake of the players playing them. There are some exceptions, such as Gul'dan from Warlords of Draenor being the catalyst for the events of Legion, but otherwise it's exceptionally slim, and it not only made it difficult to immerse yourself in the world, but also made the new player experience horribly fragmented.

FFXIV's long, continuous MSQ made this a non-issue in the past, although I started getting those same question marks hovering above my head in 6.5. The entire post-MSQ was a side story almost completely unrelated to the events that came before it, and then found out in 7.0, also completely unrelated to the events that came after. This is a first for the MSQ as far as I can tell (memory somewhat hazy, although skimming the patch cycles seems to confirm this).

So, is this what we're doing now? Because the Hydaelyn saga is over, we're just going to do the same thing as WoW and fragment the expansion stories to be entirely self-contained?

Before, we could somewhat tell what would come next. Even before 2.1, there were so many established story beats to explore that it was almost certain that there would be more to come exploring them. We get an Ascian story with HW, then a Garlean story with SB, then another Ascian story with ShB, and finally the end of the whole saga. It made sense.

Now... I have honestly no idea where they could go from here. Tural's problems seem solved, and other than the weird cyberpunk city that appeared on Tuliyollal's doorstep, there don't seem to be any threads we can follow. Well, there's also the key/chalice/Azem macguffin that everyone decided it was okay for me to hold onto, but as far as I can tell from the story, it's just 'thing that will help us go to some isolated locale for an adventure and then come home'. The only other people who knew of its existence are now either dead or couldn't care less.

Things seem dim for the progression of FFXIV's story, and with all the complaints most everyone has had with DT's MSQ, it doesn't give me faith that things will improve.

Originally Posted by NegativeS

3000 character limit lulz

For this, if you are making a post and you will exceed the character limit....
All you have to do is post what you can, then go back and Edit the post, adding anything over 3000 characters which basically lets you exceed the character limit.

I'm pretty sure that Doma and Zodiark were the only new elements that ARR added over 1.0. Plus nothing stops them from taking 1 existing element and extrapolating it, the few that were added actually have bigger consequences than any older one.

The Battle of Silvertear Skies cinematic isn't the one with the proto-Crystarium(it was from a much earlier tech demo of what eventually became 1.0, before it was even called FF14), and the Crystarium wasn't built until after the Flood.

Originally Posted by Sephi_Ravour

It isn't explained in game and Y'shtola even says that there is no way of knowing which shard it is. Personally I doubt that this is the last remnant of a rejoined world. The ascians wanted to rejoin the whole star, they wouldn't let a small bubble remain. Also the calamity of ice that made the milalafell leave the source was the 5th, whereas the calamity of lightning was the 2nd. Kind hard to imagine how they would flee to a shard that had already rejoined at that time.

Hmm I forogot about the Milalla.
Regarding the calamity order. Imo we don't know yet how exactly the time stuff between shards and source works. It could be that it gets so bad that a destroyed shard may still exist in the "past" and that's how the Milalla got there.
That would give us also quite a potential on future stories like getting to a shard while it is rejoined (would also be bad for us while being there).

At least to me everything screamed calamity of lightning there. Not explaining this (or better said no interest from the scions) is just another bad writing issue.
Or they just forgot their own oder of calamities.