Thank You for Dawntrail

[Yuella]

I give Dawntrail MSQ 7/10. Not great but it's enjoyable enough and justified resubbing to this wonderful game.

[TDawnstar]

such as Wuk Lamat jumping off the balcony like it's a safe height

So, your party jumping off a huge cliff in Bardam's mettle or the Aery is fine but this isn't?

[TDawnstar]

I give Dawntrail MSQ 7/10. Not great but it's enjoyable enough and justified resubbing to this wonderful game.

IMHO, the problem for both EW and DT is that they start off slow. Now, it's a nice storytelling technique to slowly build the story up to the culmination, but they may have went a bit overboard with it.
By contrast, the SHB MSQ straight hit you on the head like a truck with the world building and then went from there, which was also nice. And the problem with DT is that the last 2 zones are nowhere near as good as the last 2 zones of EW were.

[Jeeqbit]

So, your party jumping off a huge cliff in Bardam's mettle or the Aery is fine but this isn't?

I answered that in the post below it.

[OMGJesuis66]

And the problem with DT is that the last 2 zones are nowhere near as good as the last 2 zones of EW were.

I would argue this is because Elpis had a backstory already carried over from other expansions (As half of Endwalker was, truth be told).
And still, it comes to personal preference. I wouldn't have enjoyed Elpis if it wasn't for Hermes and Venat's walk cutscene, same reason why I did not really care about Amaurot in ShB.
Now, Ultima Thule is very crippled by emotional irrelevance. The writers would NEVER allow the Scions to sacrifice themselves like that, each one of their deaths felt pointless as we knew they would be brought back. While it was pretty in the general consensus due the progress you make, it is still quite weak. And in particular, as you reach the Ea, the huge lot of 'Oh, we did this because we wanted to die' gets quite tiresome. It's cool, but it feels like a slog going over the same degree of dialogue 3x. The coolest part of those conversations is to learn about the origin of the races, but that is left in the initial dialogues of each civilization in Ultima Thule. The walk at the end and the music as you 'complete' the zone is fantastic, but overall it is a weak zone for the weight it should bring.
I felt like Heritage Found and Living Memory were darker and much heavier than the zones we had before, some people may argue it feels rushed, but the topics within were really fucked up and Living Memory stands as my favorite endgame zone given how bittersweet it is.

[TDawnstar]

I felt like Heritage Found and Living Memory were darker and much heavier than the zones we had before, some people may argue it feels rushed, but the topics within were really fucked up and Living Memory stands as my favorite endgame zone given how bittersweet it is.

Don't get me wrong, I don't think Heritage and Living memory were bad. But Elpis was something else :3 And yes, I agree about Ultima and the Scions, that writing immediately felt cheesy, because you know full well FFXIV writers aren't GRR Martin and won't destroy their most important characters.

[Yuella]

IMHO, the problem for both EW and DT is that they start off slow. Now, it's a nice storytelling technique to slowly build the story up to the culmination, but they may have went a bit overboard with it.
By contrast, the SHB MSQ straight hit you on the head like a truck with the world building and then went from there, which was also nice. And the problem with DT is that the last 2 zones are nowhere near as good as the last 2 zones of EW were.

I actually find Shadowbringers story boring at the beginning with the exception of Alisaie's path. Il Mheg is extremely dull because I never liked the Fae in any media. Raktika isn't that much better but at least we got Emet's bombshell. Shadowbringers story didn't really pick up until the trolley scene.

[TDawnstar]

I actually find Shadowbringers story boring at the beginning with the exception of Alisaie's path.

That is subjective, of course, but the very first steps in SHB (before the MSQ splits) simply blew my mind. The arrival on the First was so well done.
But yes, I think that's why they went to the "start slow and build up" approach in EW and DT.