What would you change to improve Dawntrail’s MSQ writing?

[fioravictorine]

Deleting Wuk Lamat would improve the MSQ

As a matter of fact I wish I can delete 6.1-7.0 from my memory, FFXIV ended in 6.0 and we lived happily ever after

[Naoki34]

Just the content or Wuk Lamat is too good for her own good or any other character's would be good enough.

One thing I found Too Much was the "Smile" theme... Why do we have a theme like "USA for Africa - We are the world"... ? (When they're all singing together)

I don't mind the shonen spirit. But the power of friendship and benevolence bores me to tears.

Especially since, between the many false choices we're made to say... It's "yes" to a stupid situation, you saved the universe, why are we made to answer such stupid things.

It's such a stupid antagonist, too, compared to ShB & Endwalker. Even Zenos was nicer to me.

And then, thank you Tuli-Jazz BGM, it's a pain to hear, not because of Jazz, but because of BGM's off-topic. This is the moment when I turn off the music and hang out at Solution 9, except that there isn't even a table of hunts, even though we're going to Solution 9 to unlock the Advanced hunt.

Zone-wise, I like Yak'Tel's BGM, but the rest... After finishing Endwalker, I was going to hang out in Elpis, the Moon or Ultima Thule for the AND BGM atmosphere. In truth, for me, Yak'Tel's daytime BGM would have been so good for Tuli-Jazz City.
And... I'm pretty insensitive to the Far-West zone craze.

It all sounds so much like a filler extension of that Dawntrail, too bad... Still, the PvE content is cool.

The role quests too, I found so stupid with the fake Hildibrand atmosphere, so boring for the majority only the Tank one seems to stand out (so far I've only done Tank, Heal, Dps: SAM). As a result, I found myself skipping everything because it was so boring.
Give us Hildibrand instead...

[Lusarae]

Hien was the protagonist together with Lyse, we were the main character.
Hien had actual character grows, he asn't in our face the whole expansion and didn't say shonen stuff all the time.
If he had the same suffocating screentime as Wuk lamat, people would hate him also.

<snipped for character limit>

Let us meet Sphene far earlier, give Otis more screentime and let him come with us to the final zone.
Let Krile have an actuall story arc.

Wuk Lamat can be a character of herself, struggling and overcoming her weaknesses with Alphinaud and Alisae. We don't need to be there for that the entire time.

I agree with most of this. The only thing I'd change is that we should be disqualified from being a champion to anyone. Considering we're like... a godslayer and just came back from traveling to the end of the universe to save all of existence. Handing the reins to the twins and watching them struggle against Thancred & Uri would have been entertaining. Meanwhile Krile and Erenville should have been our main companions. We should have been able to meet Cauchia earlier, MUCH earlier and develop a relationship with her. Nana should have retired peacefully and never been involved in the story past her introduction so that the zone actually becomes more about Erenville and not Wuk Lamat's side character.

Having us do our own things in the zone, seeing the trials from an outside perspective... would have been refreshing. Wuk Lamat is the one who grew up in these lands. Why the hell are we educating her about the cultures and customs? The game should be educating US as the WoL these things. While she goes to each place (mostly offscreen) and puts her combined native experience with some of the scions to use. I'd respect her more as a character if she actually did things without me having to carry her and do literally everything while I get none of the credit.

Sphene should have been our relationship, not Wuk Lamats. Period.

As for the overall pacing of the story? They need to stop compensating for cut scene skippers or people who want to "take an extremely long break" inbetween play sessions. The journal exists for a reason. You either experience the story or you don't. Stop wasting time on endless recaps on recaps like I have the attention span of a goldfish. Instead, use this newly acquired time to actually flesh out interesting characters (literally anyone but Wuk Lamat) or let us do fun gameplay things.

[Themarvin]

The kid that shows up, would remove that part, it made no sense at all... else don't want to change anything.

People need to learn how to read in a figure of speech or analyze stuff, the game has some real heavy points and also very much about our reality as well, which should bring up some concerns... I can understand that some people claim not to like it... but they are the lost or endless souls or soul addicts you see on Solution Nine and onward.

It is fun that none of the complainers has not gotten to that conclusion either, which is a part of why this current expansion is actually really good.

Some quirks here and there, but so we had in the other expansions, especially the first level 50 MSQ Dungeons from ARR... and also quite a bit in HW, SHB and EW... it is like we need to make friends with the most chaotic mass murdering genocide based creatures in the game.... and people love them... like the bad eggs before and during WW2 was, locally.

There is and should be no sympathy for Ascians, no matter how nice they seem to be.

[Raven2014]

There is and should be no sympathy for Ascians, no matter how nice they seem to be.

You seem to be missing a very obvious point that this is entertainment and fiction, not reality. In real life nobody would (or should) love and sympathy genocider and will always cheer for the real heroes. But fiction is different. It's not sympathy, it's being delighted. I will always prefer and enjoy a deep and well written villain over the flat and shallow super heroes regardless of my approval on the nature of their action. I don't mix up morality with my entertainment.

The skill to distinguish fiction and reality, what inside and outside of the 4th wall, IMO it is a skill that's worth cultivating.

[Hallarem]

Another idea rose to mind.

Switching the current writers and never letting them near the MSQ ever again.

[ThorneDynasty]

Another idea rose to mind.

Switching the current writers and never letting them near the MSQ ever again.

I partly blame the fandom for dismissing and shouting down every valid criticism others had about Werlyt and 6.X for the warning signs not being noticed sooner with this writer. The kindly father figure and an egalitarian Gaius was embarrassing levels of retcon and narrative twisting to frame the writer's favorite in the most positive light imaginable. Zero's character "arc" was painfully obvious and simplistic every step of the way and (while nowhere near as bad as Wuk Lamat) did not need an entire patch cycle devoted to it. So basically the exact amateur writing problems that were allowed fester into DT.

EDIT:

So I guess my fix is: Stop bootlicking this game, even when the writing is still overall good. It does it no favors.

[Iskra]

Another idea rose to mind.

Switching the current writers and never letting them near the MSQ ever again.

I support this message

[CasterSvarog]

Outside of the standard ‘cut back Wuk Lamats lines down because she’s a black hole of words.’
I feel like they should have made the succession plot line into the patch storyline instead and make Dawntrail feel more like a vacation like it was advertised as.

[Zakuyia]

Honestly, I don't think this is a problem.

The WoL was a sidekick to Hien during the second half of Stormblood and, as I understand it, Hien is liked by a big part of the playerbase.
On the other hand, with all the issues all the other characters had (Bakool Ja Ja suddenly changing gears from one scene to the other, the rather subtle hint to Zoraal Ja's drive, Koana's sister complex), everyone but the main character we're supposed to be a sidekick for seems more interesting and seem to actually develop as a character, albeit at a poorly planned pace seemingly.

Meanwhile, Poochie just keeps being the oh so quirky character the universe revolves around and only needs to lift a finger to get her way, or rather, use us to get her way and she's just not a compelling character or even entertaining to see.

Thats true sane with hildebrand but we at least was doing something not being set pieces