ARR > Dawntrail

[Alchemii]

These figures are not equal.

The ARR figures are for PS4, while the Dawntrail figures are for PC. So it's not an equal comparison.

The second batch of images don't show the User Score, which is the only score worth anything. The other one is created by journalist who spend barely any time playing or understanding the game. They probably wipe to basic stuff like stack markers and then write in their little review that it's "hard".

Regardless, I think the User Score is often initially a lot of frustrated players protesting and will probably change over the long-term as the more casual players leave their reviews and balance the score. If you check back some years from now, the User Score will probably be a lot higher.

I do think the feeling of FF9's lore being trashed on will leave a poor impression to many who played it though. If they had changed the lore enough to not resemble FF9 so much, it may not have left an impression like this but unfortunately this could affect the User Score in the future as well. Nevertheless, if you can separate yourself from the references to FF9 and pretend you never played it, it's a decent expansion.

Your correct. ARR on PC has a Critic rating of 83, and a user rating of 7.8

[Turtledeluxe]

Your correct. ARR on PC has a Critic rating of 83, and a user rating of 7.8

It's interesting to me when people type up long comments but don't double check something like that. Then again that's probably why they didn't mention it in their post.

[TheMightyMollusk]

Eh. Personally I'd put them about equal. ARR has a ton of jank, a lot of slow points (the Company of Heroes, the whole Coerthas arc, etc), and absolutely abysmal English voice acting.

Personal ranking, from favorite to least: Shadowbringers, Heavensward, ARR, Dawntrail, Endwalker, Stormblood. I still really don't like Stormblood.

[Xelanar]

Personally I agree if we're talking about the story. For everything else I enjoy Dawntrail more.

[Verathel]

ARR is better for sure.

I'm personally very big on themes, underlying purpose and motivations alongside worldbuilding. ARR definitely had very shallow moments but even those shallow moments had purpose and that by itself makes it better than Dawntrail. The patches can change this opinion and I certainly hope they do.

This is for the story only, obviously in other aspects Dawntrail is vastly superior.

[Chasingstars]

The numbers don't lie.

[Nitelancer]

The numbers don't lie.

That's only because the PS3's performance issues. Otherwise, critics rate it higher for other platforms. So yea, numbers don't lie.

[Isala]

The numbers don't lie.

That's actually a bit more damning, really... A decade of experience, and even the best comparison is still equal to the game they literally had to save from shutting down.

[Chasingstars]

I don‘t wanna be that guy but a sampling size of at least 30 is normally the minimum requirement to see a trend.

At topic:
I actually really like ARR. For me it had the best level experience to date, the best worldbuilding and was just a fun experience.
It was nice and down to earth. Kinda cozy.

I would also see the DT story behind it but I am actually not neutral in that regard.

ARR came after 1.0 so it’s hard to say how that was part of the review but on the other hand DT had the actual luck to have experienced devs behind it. ARR didn’t have that.

Hmm yeah. I put DT under ARR also.
For me the experienced Devs and the goodwill from Shb and EW give it a slight edge at having an easier time for me.
ARR didn‘t have that back then and it also had a strong competition in WoW.

This one doesn't get it.

That's only because the PS3's performance issues. Otherwise, critics rate it higher for other platforms. So yea, numbers don't lie.

This one doesn't get it.

That's actually a bit more damning, really... A decade of experience, and even the best comparison is still equal to the game they literally had to save from shutting down.

This person gets it.

[Voidmage]

The numbers don't lie.

I don‘t wanna be that guy but a sampling size of at least 30 is normally the minimum requirement to see a trend.

At topic:
I actually really like ARR. For me it had the best level experience to date, the best worldbuilding and was just a fun experience.
It was nice and down to earth. Kinda cozy.

I would also see the DT story behind it but I am actually not neutral in that regard.

ARR came after 1.0 so it’s hard to say how that was part of the review but on the other hand DT had the actual luck to have experienced devs behind it. ARR didn’t have that.

Hmm yeah. I put DT under ARR also.
For me the experienced Devs and the goodwill from Shb and EW give it a slight edge at having an easier time for me.
ARR didn‘t have that back then and it also had a strong competition in WoW.