For the writers of the FFXIV story

[Cilia]

Being grim, dark, and dramatic doesn't make a story "mature."

Dawntrail actually features some very mature themes (racial tension, cultural dissonance, and legacy), I just don't think it was written particularly well. A big part of that is the front half of the story spends so much time worldbuilding Yok Tural there's not much room for the back half (Shaaloani, Yyasulani / Heritage Found + Solution Nine, and Living Memory) to actually engage the players with the story. Tellingly, according to the (now somewhat infamous) chart showing who has how many lines in the story, Sphene is second despite only being present for approximately 1/3 of the story. (How valid that data is I couldn't tell you, but it's still true that outside of a glimpse during the attack on Tuliyollal Sphene doesn't show up until Heritage Found and has a lot of lines.)

After the heavy moral and existential themes of Shadowbringers and Endwalker, a more relaxed atmosphere is exactly what Dawntrail needed.

[Lyth]

I especially enjoyed the scene where we found out about Lamaty'i's desire for peace.

Jokes aside, I think Dawntrail borrows too many tropes that were better executed in previous installments to be particularly memorable.

[Cleretic]

In all honesty, if we're trying to ding Dawntrail for not having 'That Scene' (even though I do think it'll have it and we just haven't figured it out yet), I have a question: What's 'That Scene' for Stormblood?

Endwalker has Venat's big elaborate scene, Shadowbringers has Tesleen and the post-Amaurot pre-Dying Gasp bit, and Heavensward has Harchefaunt's death, with both Endwalker and Shadowbringers having a few other highlights. But what does Stormblood have in terms of standout scenes that people really turn up for? Yotsuyu's not-really-a-death scene? Zenos' also-not-really-a-death scene? Yotsuyu's actual death scene in the patches?

'That Scene' isn't something we just made up here, even if nobody's really called them that, it's actually a known phenomena; people doing first-time streams of FFXIV's MSQ have noticed that viewership spikes for very specific moments, as people just want to see them react to that one thing. But to my knowledge, Stormblood just... doesn't have those.

[kaynide]

What's 'That Scene' for Stormblood?

To be fair, story-wise Stormblood is by far my least favorite expansion pack, but I would say the standout moments for me were:

My top is probably when Emet (Solus) revealed the Ascian machinations. That the Garlean empire itself and the overall Eorzean conflict were just a cogs in his elaborate plans to a rejoining.
Basically the wind-up to Shadowbringers.

I'd say other stand-outs are:

Yotsuyu's trial-fight (not technically a cutscene, but more the despirete holding-onto-hope that we wouldn't have to kill her...though granted her death tells a better story.
The actual retaking of Doma with our Steppe allies
Fordola's surrender (the "I will never forgive you, but I will thank you" bit)

Buuuut, I wouldn't really put any of those above really good scenes in other expacs, like say, Shiva's sacrifice. Or even Estinien getting bullied into joining the Scions.

Putting the Whalaqee in the one tiny visitable sliver of Xak Tural would make the continent feel very small. Better for them to be off somewhere in the distance.

That would have been cool- a small outpost (like the native village we already have), with them saying (some area they've blocked off) is sacred/off limits to outsiders, then show some stuff in the distance to imply there's a lot going on over there.

...Double points if that off limits area became a dungeon/exploration area that shows a lot of wide open tribal stuff (like Paglth'an); Triple points if it's modeled after yellowstone.

[Iscah]

That would have been cool- a small outpost (like the native village we already have), with them saying (some area they've blocked off) is sacred/off limits to outsiders, then show some stuff in the distance to imply there's a lot going on over there.

I mean more hypothetically off in the distance – they're *somewhere* in Xak Tural but that doesn't mean we're going to be anywhere near them just because we visit one random stretch of desert. A continent is a big place to expect to cross paths with the one village we previously knew was located there.

[kaynide]

I mean more hypothetically off in the distance – they're *somewhere* in Xak Tural but that doesn't mean we're going to be anywhere near them just because we visit one random stretch of desert. A continent is a big place to expect to cross paths with the one village we previously knew was located there.

I gotcha, but even so one of the only things we knew about Tural WELLLLL before DT was that the Whalaqee were somewhere there, somewhere near where Ceureleum fields exist, and that they were big-enough of a thing to have Mamook members and at least one guy wanting to bring it back to Eorzea, even if it was kinda a con. It's kinda like if your parents booked a vacation to Orlando and just didn't go to any of the theme parks.


I don't expect a future expansion to further detail the Tural continent outside of DT itself (exploratory zone or deep dungeon etc)- too much low hanging fruit in Meracydia, the north viking-lands, the 4 remaining shards.

Shame really that we'll never really get to interact or at least see it.

Could be wrong though; the world map we got has a few regions we haven't visited (Loazeniheta NE of Shaaloani) and Ty'ak Tyak south of Yak T'el. Could be dungeons. Could be exploratory things. Could be -whatever replaces island sanctuary for this expac-.

[Yuella]

My favorite scene in Stormblood is Nanamo releasing Raubahn from his duty so he can go home and serve Ala Mhigo.

[Iscah]

...my angle is to look at the things that first Shaaloani trip is supposed to do on a functional level, and try to fix it in the smallest way. Which is:

1. Get us away from Tulliyolal so we're too late for the attack,
2. Gets us close to where the attack comes from so we still see it (technically optional, but hey, if you can you might as well)
3. Introduce us to the region that's then going to be the backdrop for getting to said source of the attack,
4. Reintroduce Estinien, if only as an 'also he's here'
5. Give us some time with Erenville

One more purpose (for better or worse) is to introduce the landscape of Shaaloani so when we get to Heritage Found we can recognise it as the same landscape elements but twisted.

Or at least bring in the tribe from the Blu quest line that's supposed to be around here.

Putting the Whalaqee in the one tiny visitable sliver of Xak Tural would make the continent feel very small. Better for them to be off somewhere in the distance.

It probably could have worked to have them as one of the robbed tribes we deal with in the battle role quests, though. The totems we're tracking down even seem to be the same concept as BLU's spell-learning totems.

[Cleretic]

Putting the Whalaqee in the one tiny visitable sliver of Xak Tural would make the continent feel very small. Better for them to be off somewhere in the distance.

It probably could have worked to have them as one of the robbed tribes we deal with in the battle role quests, though. The totems we're tracking down even seem to be the same concept as BLU's spell-learning totems.

For what it's worth, the Whalaqee do get a storyline, and a fairly decent one at that. It's just in the absolute last place you'd expect.

It's Fisher. The two 'minigame jobs' have teamed up, Fisher's storyline is about the Whalaqee's magic.

[not_ya_wify]

I just got to the fourth zone and I like the story so far. This is exactly the story I expected when they announced Dawntrail. The world building is really good. I enjoyed the sidequests where each of the two towns in a zone has a quest line (one of the aether current quests in each town) and they ended with a combined story of the two towns. Best side quests since Stormblood (where it had similar side quests structure in each zone).

Wait for judgment until you finish the story