Have the devs responded to Dawntrail reception?

[Voidmage]

While in game you'd fine other people being vocal about it, like in X00 people FC, turns out it's usually a limited group of people (and that will criticize DT for any reason in my FC case -which is fine- going as far as saying the servers were better for EW release lmao).
However, when you talk to non vocal people you get to realize that most people liked the MSQ and are overall loving the post-MSQ setting of Tural compared to EW.

That wasn’t my experience tbh.
In dungeons and Ex farming I see quite a bit of memeing and making fun of the story and Wuk Lamat.
I think both of our experiences are anecdotal because that’s what we look out for the most. We are just human after all.

I won’t deny that quite a number of players like the story and the new direction and they are not wrong for that.
On the other hand the unhappy players also seem not so small as some people would like to believe and the unhappy players are also not wrong.

DT MSQ split the playerbase far more then stormblood back then it seems.
I disagree that the devs shouldn’t worry about that.

[Coratanni]

This isn't about the MSQ first of all it is only optional content, but the game itself... the game itself is built to last for those that will stay long and stay subscribed most of the time to 8.0.

Get it?!?

ALL these rabblerabblerabblerabble over the story arch is insignificant, am a long time player since 2016, if I played the game only for the MSQ's I would had been gone with HW, but it is about the game itself and community.

The story for DT was and is good I actually get to see through it all this time, where as HW uhm... too many medieval quirks, SB... Trivial tasks and a villain who is a big baby and trial it followed was much better.. SHB... uhhhm duuuuh... the first half of story was epic good but then all the Emet Selch bs came in and we allowed him to tag along instead of just dealing with once and for all... then EW... also ok stuff first half of the MSQ.... the going back in time to fix or find out things made little sense where only Meteion was a bright point.... all this about Ascians ascians and ascians... and finally having to figth Zenos again because the big baby needed his fight... should had terminated him with SB for good or in SHB.

DT is about the fellowship, and it works and there is some serious twists that hit what is happening in reality as well, people are very off when stuff go against their believes instead of what they actually know and want to learn to know, people are in a dreambubble like endless, and getting confronted with it, and it show clear in second half of DT.

That is one of the reasons it is actually quite a bit good, as with anything else some quirks and minor things I would like to have dodged, for an instance Krile is so cringe for me, Estenien makes no sense and has never done so not even in HW and the only good part about him is when you got to beat him in the Dragoon Job story.

God am I glad we don't share the same taste because I'd have to get a lobotomy if we did. I've been here since 2015, and playing FF since 1987. Dawntrail's MSQ and characters were BAD. Real bad. They were flat, the voices didn't match what was going on around them, they were completely enthralled by Primal Wuk Lamat, our Warrior of Light was nothing more than a cheerleading poodle that went to Wuk Lamat what, 138 times in quests? Yeah I hope whoever green lit this finds new employment because it's embarrassing how bad it was compared to any aspect of the previous expansions or even the base ARR game story wise.

[Gortys]

That wasn’t my experience tbh.
In dungeons and Ex farming I see quite a bit of memeing and making fun of the story and Wuk Lamat.

The issue is the FFXIV community memes on just about everything in the game so that alone isn't enough for me personally to understand if the player posting this stuff does or does not like something.

If the response is overwhelmingly negative (and it doesn't seem to be) then YoshiP will address it. Expecting that a few weeks after the official launch is kind of silly though.

[Voidmage]

The issue is the FFXIV community memes on just about everything in the game so that alone isn't enough for me personally to understand if the player posting this stuff does or does not like something.

If the response is overwhelmingly negative (and it doesn't seem to be) then YoshiP will address it. Expecting that a few weeks after the official launch is kind of silly though.

Fair.
Still I stand by my opinion that only seeing positive or negative stuff is depentend on what you want to see mostly and that it's all anectodal. None of us did a research on it. I bet even Square can't to that without gigantic polls because the MSQ HAS do be done anyway.
Most people in game don't say anything at all, be it positive or negative.

I'm just against implying everthing is fine and all that nonsense about people who criticise would do that anyway or trying to weeve a false narrative to prove a point (not saying the poster I cited was doing that). You know, like implying we skipped cutscenes or that Square actually announced the story I that form. Thats just blatantly false.

I think what many forget is that citicising the story and defending it both come from those who care about it.

I probably wrote more then I intended here and more then was needed.

[Karkarov]

Fair.
Still I stand by my opinion that only seeing positive or negative stuff is depentend on what you want to see mostly and that it's all anectodal. None of us did a research on it. I bet even Square can't to that without gigantic polls because the MSQ HAS do be done anyway.
Most people in game don't say anything at all, be it positive or negative.

I'm just against implying everthing is fine and all that nonsense about people who criticise would do that anyway or trying to weeve a false narrative to prove a point (not saying the poster I cited was doing that). You know, like implying we skipped cutscenes or that Square actually announced the story I that form. Thats just blatantly false.

I think what many forget is that citicising the story and defending it both come from those who care about it.

I probably wrote more then I intended here and more then was needed.

All I can tell you is I have played since 1.0. I have never wanted to skip a story cut scene enough to do it until some scenes in dawntrail that just screamed time waster filler. I have never skipped the credits scene of a MSQ because this is the staffs moment to say "hey I made this", they deserve it and I am ok sitting through it. Until DT, which I skipped it as soon as it was possible to do so. I don't think they deserve much credit for this one.

[Boblawblah]

God am I glad we don't share the same taste because I'd have to get a lobotomy if we did. I've been here since 2015, and playing FF since 1987. Dawntrail's MSQ and characters were BAD. Real bad. They were flat, the voices didn't match what was going on around them, they were completely enthralled by Primal Wuk Lamat, our Warrior of Light was nothing more than a cheerleading poodle that went to Wuk Lamat what, 138 times in quests? Yeah I hope whoever green lit this finds new employment because it's embarrassing how bad it was compared to any aspect of the previous expansions or even the base ARR game story wise.

Well, to quote you:

Hope you find something that makes you happy.

I've been here almost 9 years, and have been playing MMO's for over 20 years. None have kept me in them as long as FFXIV has. And as a fan of Final Fantasy since 1987, this is by far my favorite. You can't please everyone. So good luck.

[Eastwall]

Lol. It is a good thing story is not why l pay sub so l am ok with whatever they do. I find it not impressive Even with story like heavens ward and shadow bringer.

[Marhee]

I think it's ok for a story to hit less than the rest of it ? Especially with MMOs with several expansions, one gotta be the worst one. Most people thought until now it was ARR, I personally always disagreed as I really enjoyed ARR myself, it all comes down to taste.

To be clear DT is not my favorite story at all. And I play first and foremost for the story. It took me way longer to finish the MSQ than I usually do, cause I needed breaks from falling asleep. I still don't think it's that dramatic. I'd rather have the team take risks, and it to miss sometimes so it can hit harder next time. Thankfully the battle content is amazing and I've been farming the extremes on release for the first time in my life. Which will be what will carry the expansion for 2 years +.

What I think will happen is that even with the story written ahead, devs will hear the community and make adjustments, but won't necessarily address it until way, way later, when they will eventually reflect on the game since DT release. Since FFXIV has been incredibly amazing in story writing so far (in my opinion*), I'm confident the team will write more interesting, fleshed out stories going onward. It missed this time. It's ok to complain and be unhappy with it, but I really don't think it's the end of the (FFXIV) world.

+ (TWO LAST ZONES SPOILERS) FFIX being my favorite FF of all, I've been waiting for more FFIX references for the past 4 years I've been playing FFXIV. I have very mixed feelings about what they did with it. Hearing the OST of the original game made me very emotional, but what they did with Alexandria was truly heartbreaking to me. FFIX was THE FF game that went back to medieval fantasy roots after all the tech heavy/modern games they released and they decided to... make it tech heavy and futuristic. I am also conflicted about making another FF game so dominant in two whole zones of the MSQ. While I'm really happy I finally got some FFIX content, I couldn't help but be a bit disappointed. I guess it is another case of hit or miss, especially when a game is so dear to you. I think the devs had the best of intentions with it and are very passionate about other FF games as well, and I take it into account. I wish the references were a bit more subtle though !