Positive Dawntrail Narrative Feedback Thread

[ksuyen]

1. Wuk Lamat is okay. At some point I had to switch her VA to Japanese because her English ‘accent’ gets too much. She redeems herself second half, less talking and more action.
2. Story is a bit linear but I guess it is expected to set the ground work for future more expansions. I believe the story arc will involve a lot more endless and merging reflections. Overall I like the story actually. It is supposedly to be lighthearted, characters development are plenty, we see scion members again, old friends and new friends, what’s not not to like?
3. $50 well spent especially just for graphics update alone. Compare to the games coming out lately, FFXIV is miles ahead still.

[OMGJesuis66]

Dawntrail worked the Side Characters marvelously. People complain a lot about 'how everything is bad writing' (Trust me, you haven't seen bad writing and if you simp for the Ancients and Emet-Selch, you lie on a hypocritical value here).

I genuinely appreciated how the side characters had their time in the spotlight. Made them feel relevant, unlike in other expansions it was always 'Scions and WoL' talking, everyone else in the world became incompetent and just stared before they gave their one-text dialogue to thank the supreme overlords.

Worldbuilding has been very interesting too, it was the first time I felt compelled to actually read sidequests and information about the world, even doing the Brown Quests. I want to know more, and it is paying off quite well.

Zones are marvelously well done, the graphic update made them fantastic to be, and it is refreshing to see maps that genuinely have something visual to stare. I know it was a limitation, but until DT, the zones were incredibly bland and any other MMO had more interesting zones to stare at since they communicate so well visually for the narrative.

The last zone of this expansion beats my heart much more than Ultima Thule, the same as the last dungeon of the expansion (Not counting experts). And the second half really was interesting to see as scales grew, while the first half was a simple summer vacation. After Mamook, vacation is over, and I like that.

While some points could've been better written to avoid people making questions about character decisions, suspension of disbelief works better for some situations. It isn't perfect, but it is still a good story. Wuk Lamat wasn't an annoying character, but her appearance at the end didn't feel right and the VA did not deliver the necessary weight on that moment, but that's a forgettable moment.

All that being said, the thingamajig they got can lead to some very interesting build up for future expansions in the patches, and I am vastly curious to see where they plan to go from it.

[Alice9]

Really enjoyed the worldbuilding and detail brought into the world! I felt you could feel the narrative pulls strongly in the symbolic incorporations brought forward in the zones too, they were really great! Personally I loved the difficulty jumps of the last few dungeons and I found the trials super fun.

[Aurumis]

I liked the G'raha gondola scene and when we were together alone with Erenville. Also the tiny bits with Cahciua and Krile's parents.

But that's about it. The story is very badly written and the story itself made me hate Wuk Lamat, but instead made me care more for the mamool ja and Bakool Ja Ja who was like the Team Rocket from Pokemon, he is an asshole but he has a heart inside that was neglected by his own father and people, unlike the stupid Zoral Ja, who had all the love in the world, and even so he went bad in the world. So for that, I'm grateful too. But that's it?

They don't even touched the theme of ff9 how it should be, they didn't use well the graphics and ambient of that game, not even the music fitted Sphene. We are suppose to see Dagger (Garnet) reference in her, but they failed completely. They don't even use the Vivi existencial crisis, they just did an awful experience with the endless farse. It's a shame because ff9 is such a good game... I hope they can bring something about it in the post game. But I hope for something more adventurous than babysitting the stupid Wuk Lamat. I want her away, very very far away. Let this be the end of her character please.

Vtra is so endearing, Zero is cliché and I don't like her character, but I still liked her better. Why can't they writte female characters well like how they did with Ysaile, Y'shtola and Alisaie? I don't know who is the guy this time but please, fire him or put him behind in side quests. Don't let the main writter of DT touch the MSQ never again.

[Catwho]

I think Vivi didn't make it in because he was already used as part of a Manderville storyline.

What I liked about Dawntrail:

• Zone Design was outstanding throughout
• Trials and dungeons are fun
• The NPCs tell the WoL to go take a break and that's your cue to TAKE A BREAK
• The heavy themes of life death and the afterlife and the beliefs of other people were all treated fairly respectfully
• Wuk Lamat got to grow up
• Koana being a siscon was funny
• Bakool Ja Redemption Arc (I wanted more and so did everyone else)
• Baby Gulool Ja
• Not wholly recycling FF9 story but definitely taking large chunks of it
• Obvious clues that this was a shard early on before even Y'shtola confirmed it

[Hallarem]

I've enjoyed the role-quests, crafting quests and pictomancer quests a lot. Wish they were voiced.

[Bunyon]

Spoilers for the end:

Felt bad to introduce a new shard but then immediately resolve the story the way they did, because I honestly liked some of the introduced concepts. I hope they explore both the aftermath of the endless and what may be left of that shard (if anything else survived the storm surge).

[Luca_]

Currently around lvl 97-98 MSQ:

While it's severely lacking in execution, the overall plot is really interesting. I also thought the WoL taking on more of a mentor role was pretty cute.

Erenville is even more endearing than before, I'm so glad we got to hang out with him for a while. Definitely headcanoning him and my WoL as besties post-DT. On that same note, I really loved the whole goofy spaghetti western adventure. Thought it was super funny and makes the best use of the NPC accompanying mechanic so far.

95+ spoilers:

The train railgun cutscene made me lose my mind laughing, I loved it. I'm always excited to get more lore on the other shards and their relation to the Source so I'm looking forward to learning about Alexandria.

Koana has some of the best voice work in the entirety of FFXIV and that alone has made him one of my new favorite characters. Whatever his VA is getting paid, it's not enough.

Bakool Ja Ja is a very interesting character and I'm glad he was treated seriously by the story instead of permanently being reduced to a blundering comic relief antagonist. His and Mamook's problems were solved a little too easily, but that's not a huge deal.

Gulool Ja Ja is him. Such a cool character.

Looking at all the parts I did enjoy, I feel like it was a dire mistake to give Wuk Lamat more dialogue than pretty much everyone else combined, as DT's writing only really gets to shine when the focus is on fleshing out individual characters and their stories rather than the main narrative and the Wuk Lamat Show. I don't even dislike her, but after a while it gets very, very noticeable that they're forcing her into every possible cutscene, dialogue, and story beat regardless of the negative impacts.

[Catwho]

Looking at all the parts I did enjoy, I feel like it was a dire mistake to give Wuk Lamat more dialogue than pretty much everyone else combined, as DT's writing only really gets to shine when the focus is on fleshing out individual characters and their stories rather than the main narrative and the Wuk Lamat Show. I don't even dislike her, but after a while it gets very, very noticeable that they're forcing her into every possible cutscene, dialogue, and story beat regardless of the negative impacts.

Coming in a bit late (and drunk) to say that of all the critiques of Wuk Lamat as a character, I think this is the most fair. We love XIV for its ensemble cast and it leaned too heavily on a single character this particular expansion. It wouldn't have mattered which character it was, we needed more of everyone else to balance it out. This is an overarching narrative flaw that likely was the result of cutting scope and story in other places.

Please take this into consideration for the future story. We like BALANCE.

[Aquaticnaho]

Currently around lvl 97-98 MSQ:

While it's severely lacking in execution, the overall plot is really interesting. I also thought the WoL taking on more of a mentor role was pretty cute.

Erenville is even more endearing than before, I'm so glad we got to hang out with him for a while. Definitely headcanoning him and my WoL as besties post-DT. On that same note, I really loved the whole goofy spaghetti western adventure. Thought it was super funny and makes the best use of the NPC accompanying mechanic so far.

95+ spoilers:

The train railgun cutscene made me lose my mind laughing, I loved it. I'm always excited to get more lore on the other shards and their relation to the Source so I'm looking forward to learning about Alexandria.

Koana has some of the best voice work in the entirety of FFXIV and that alone has made him one of my new favorite characters. Whatever his VA is getting paid, it's not enough.

Bakool Ja Ja is a very interesting character and I'm glad he was treated seriously by the story instead of permanently being reduced to a blundering comic relief antagonist. His and Mamook's problems were solved a little too easily, but that's not a huge deal.

Gulool Ja Ja is him. Such a cool character.

Looking at all the parts I did enjoy, I feel like it was a dire mistake to give Wuk Lamat more dialogue than pretty much everyone else combined, as DT's writing only really gets to shine when the focus is on fleshing out individual characters and their stories rather than the main narrative and the Wuk Lamat Show. I don't even dislike her, but after a while it gets very, very noticeable that they're forcing her into every possible cutscene, dialogue, and story beat regardless of the negative impacts.

I'm in the same boat as you with Wuk Lamat. I loved her at the start of the story and was wanting to help her get far, but I definantly feel like she overstayed her welcome past the succession and while it would of been fine to have her with us post 95 dungeon, I genuinely feel like the plot would have hit harder if it was focused around another character instead of just mostly Wuk Lamat.