Dawntrail Is A Great Expansion

[Nasigno]

Dude, what were you doing during ShB and Endwalker? Did you slip on a cable and stay in a coma during those extensions?

Apart from the dungeon boss fights and PvE stuff, I found Dawntrail's MSQ to be very Filler extension, full of fan service.

Where were you during Endwalker?

As it has been a point of fanservice clearly as how much of Estinien was on display for the player base? That is textbook fanservice that not even Dawntrail has dipped into.

Granted I'll admit that Dawntrail has some places I'd say could of been addressed better. Especially revolving around very questionable actions of some the core antagonist.

But I'll also say in the same vein Final Fantasy XIV Zerowalker was such a rushed bore that I lost interest in anything story wise pretty much after we went to Garlemald. Elpis was nice, but did nothing to outweigh the fact that real threat to us for the last 10 years was the result of 1 person making the personification of Twitter and it deciding heat death of the universe is inevitable so I'm killing everything. Just to be topped off with the void pact fence post Zenos used against us was the saving grace to end the immortal threat that was the voidsent.

Shadowbringers however was by far my favorite, but if I put Dawntrail and Endwalker head to head, Endwalker loses horrendously.

[Mcg55ss]

I don't know if it was great little early to make that claim, We don't even have the first savage available. However, it was good.It's not near as bad as the people complaining but some people struggle with change and it's OK.

[Escalan]

I think it's a very bland and boring expansion with 5th grade level writing and shallow characters.

[Turtledeluxe]

Where were you during Endwalker?

As it has been a point of fanservice clearly as how much of Estinien was on display for the player base? That is textbook fanservice that not even Dawntrail has dipped into.

Granted I'll admit that Dawntrail has some places I'd say could of been addressed better. Especially revolving around very questionable actions of some the core antagonist.

But I'll also say in the same vein Final Fantasy XIV Zerowalker was such a rushed bore that I lost interest in anything story wise pretty much after we went to Garlemald. Elpis was nice, but did nothing to outweigh the fact that real threat to us for the last 10 years was the result of 1 person making the personification of Twitter and it deciding heat death of the universe is inevitable so I'm killing everything. Just to be topped off with the void pact fence post Zenos used against us was the saving grace to end the immortal threat that was the voidsent.

Shadowbringers however was by far my favorite, but if I put Dawntrail and Endwalker head to head, Endwalker loses horrendously.

Well I'm sorry but EW is the highest rated expansion so, yeah.

That's not to say SHB is bad. It's fantastic. But EW storytelling is just on another level, even with the bizarre storytelling choices related to how time works.

I've also never heard someone say EW was only good due to Estinien..huh? Most of the main cast in EW are finally written to act like genuine human beings and I found it quite interesting.

[Astronema]

Dude, what were you doing during ShB and Endwalker? Did you slip on a cable and stay in a coma during those extensions?

Apart from the dungeon boss fights and PvE stuff, I found Dawntrail's MSQ to be very Filler extension, full of fan service.

And the job quests are all equally uninteresting, and we don't even have the leisure to go back to our job masters to say hello, as we did in ShB.

And I've just seen the skins for raid 8, which comes out today, and I'd say they're problematic... I'm not really into the bare-chested, look-like-nothing thing.

I wonder how many brothels and pimps are active in solution 9 based on those bondage armors? I think they outsourced every part of this expansion to a different company and none of them had any communication with the others and in the end they had to blender everything even if it went together wrong or not.


FF9 becoming a sci-fi world is the most surreal part of it all. FF8 the references match up better but 9 hell no. It is as bad as the last jedi or star trek discovery.

[Raven2014]

I wonder how many brothels and pimps are active in solution 9 based on those bondage armors?

Uh ... have you done the new raid at all?!? Those gears match the WWE theme of the raid, which IRL does look like bondage clothes, but that's ... kinda the point.

If anything, seeing how even with Wrestler gears FF14 still stay true and faithful with its obsession of skirt, I say the design is extremely consistent.

[Granyala]

it would have been far "greater" if they had some explanation for the time difference, as in... it affected everyone inside the bubble, and yes, they had a plausible (universe wise) as to what happened to everyone in it. so why didnt it affect us? I know the WoL is virtually a goddess, but what about the rest of the party that entered?

They chose the simplest way to write it: the moment Vanguard breached the dome and Zoraal-Ja attacked Tuliyollal with the helicarriers, the temporal differential was negated and the flow of time synched to the source.

So our expedition was never subjected to an accelerated flow of time at all. the whole point of having it in the first place is to have some convenient plot device so ZJ could build up his forces w/o us having to wait 3 decades.

[Astronema]

They chose the simplest way to write it: the moment Vanguard breached the dome and Zoraal-Ja attacked Tuliyollal with the helicarriers, the temporal differential was negated and the flow of time synched to the source.

So our expedition was never subjected to an accelerated flow of time at all. the whole point of having it in the first place is to have some convenient plot device so ZJ could build up his forces w/o us having to wait 3 decades.

time travel and manipulation is the option of last resort when a writer is backed into a corner unless the story is directly dealing with it such as the 12 monkeys tv series which was a masterpiece of time travel stories.

[Granyala]

time travel and manipulation is the option of last resort when a writer is backed into a corner unless the story is directly dealing with it such as the 12 monkeys tv series which was a masterpiece of time travel stories.

If used like this: yes.
Though we already had a time differential when we entered the first, so it does make sense, lore wise.

ZJ's goons HAVE TO neutralize it, or anything passing through would be torn to shreds by tidal forces. Keep in mind, we're talking about a factor of roughly 1500 here.

They should have changed / removed the dome during the story. That it remains unchanged whether time flows at 1500x the outside rate or not is weird.

In general, I always enjoy time travel shenanigans like this but in DT's instance it was just waaay to convenient and so obviously a plot crutch that it also negated the entire impact of the inhabitants being dead or old for me.

[Nasigno]

Well I'm sorry but EW is the highest rated expansion so, yeah.

That's not to say SHB is bad. It's fantastic. But EW storytelling is just on another level, even with the bizarre storytelling choices related to how time works.

I've also never heard someone say EW was only good due to Estinien..huh? Most of the main cast in EW are finally written to act like genuine human beings and I found it quite interesting.

Then I ask you to think long and hard about this.

Metion from A Realm Reborn to Elpis was not even a mentioned entity. Literally you have no idea she exists, causes anything or otherwise. A literally deus ex machina for why the sundering happened. It was a cop out thrown in to fill the gap of why we are here.

So yes it was on another level, but not in the way you want to say it is.

Lets hit the 6.0 items: Heroic sacrifices are meaningless gestures if you get snapped back into existence 10 minutes later. The death and impact of events was literally non existent. You cannot name a single person harmed in the final days. The only named NPCs to meet their ends was the following:

Zenos (Again)
Quintus van Cinna (Did it himself)

Heavensward has far set the bar on how much impact characters death can be in the story and Endwalker falls short horrendously.

If you want to talk on reviews or the performance I'm willing to play those metrics.

Dawntrail
IGN: 8/10
EuroGamer: 3/5
CGMagazine: 4.5/5

Endwalker
IGN: 9/10
GameSpot: 8/10
PC Gamer: 89%

Shadowbringers
PC Gamer: 94%
Metacritic: 90%
GameSpot: 9/10

Stormblood
IGN: 9.2/10
MetaCritic: 87%
PC Gamer: 92%

Heavensward
IGN: 8.6/10
MetaCritic: 86%
GameFAQ: 86%

Statistical speaking, Endwalker by your own argument performed worse than even Stormblood, and I'll be honest I rate Stormblood worse than Endwalker personally.

Usually I'm one to shrug and say people can like what they like, but Endwalker just left too many things just thrown under bus that I can't forgive it.

Ending 2 threats we faced since the start of the game off screen essentially. Garlemald gone without more than a cutscene. Ascians are defeated. And the voidsent the immortal threat solved by the second deus ex machima thrusted out the aether.

There was no struggle, no issue that was not handed out on a silver platter to be solved. Even in Shadowbringer least we were struggling with absorbing light wardens. We needed the help of the Eulmorians. We impacted a devastated world and turned it better.

In Endwalker we taught a voidsent that meatpies have aether and to not gawk at the Azure Dragoon. Or as many have quoted, "friendship is power" as the Zero turning to paladin literally was the same as Wuk Lamat, just one was not all brooding till the end.

I could go on, but as said Endwalker is by far weaker that Shadowbringers, and depending on how Dawntrail matures in post content it will further push Endwalker down.