The Actual Problem With Dawntrail

[StormChase]

This may or may not be me about the kick a hornet's nest but I'll say it anyway.

I think a lot of players are missing the forest for the trees. Wuk Lamat isn't the problem.

If she wasn't around during most of the scenes where she is then it'd look like she's just sitting on her hands and doing nothing. The first half is her journey to leadership and the second half is how she handles leading. We can help her but we can't do the job for her. She has to be the driving force. When the game tried something like this in Stormblood there weren't many scenes showing Lyse's skills as a leader until the patches, and players thought she was unqualified because of it. The writers didn't want to repeat that.

I think the actual problem is this: Dawntrail is too short. 2.0 had about 160 quests (even more originally) to reintroduce players to Eorzea. 7.0 has only 100, even though we're exploring a whole new landmass and a nation from another shard. That's why these players feel exhausted. Everything is crammed together and there's not enough time to fully explore what the writers want to explore. Wuk Lamat takes the blame for this larger issue because she's the most prominent character.

Dawntrail isn't a bad expansion and the patches might improve it, but Square Enix should be less afraid to make longer expansions. I know a lot of people dislike A Realm Reborn for being tedious, but in the case of Dawntrail I think that kind of length could help.

[genuine_stranger]

I don't know chief, making DT longer would not salvage this poor writing in any way shape or form. Wuk Lamat is just the rug that covers the messed up floor underneath.

[Jason_Ashford]

I don't know chief, making DT longer would not salvage this poor writing in any way shape or form. Wuk Lamat is just the rug that covers the messed up floor underneath.

this. Dawntrail's story was given to a team of writers who only handled small projects before now and obviously didn't know the first thing about writing a whole expansion's worth of story content.

[Crimen]

this. Dawntrail's story was given to a team of writers who only handled small projects before now and obviously didn't know the first thing about writing a whole expansion's worth of story content.

This is the main issue.

[Zaniel]

this. Dawntrail's story was given to a team of writers who only handled small projects before now and obviously didn't know the first thing about writing a whole expansion's worth of story content.

I mean if we magically went back in time and CTRL+X Wuk Lamat and pasted in Emet Selch into the Dawntrail story it would still be a disaster, for all the same reasons.

[All_Nonsense]

this. Dawntrail's story was given to a team of writers who only handled small projects before now and obviously didn't know the first thing about writing a whole expansion's worth of story content.

I think this was the biggest faux pas. This shouldn't have been a sandbox for inexperienced writers to try new ideas. This was a $60 expansion with a monthly sub - our expectations were higher because we PAY for it.

[1313]

There's way too many long cutscenes too. It's not even a game, its an interactive movie for children. There's hardly even any combat. I like the idea of the story , but it feels really scattered like my adhd brain on a bad day, and I don't feel the 95 plot twist was a good idea. This expansion cut down on the good, and made up for it with increasing the tedium of everything. I think the patches will make for a great story, if it is delivered better. The msq felt a lot like the formula they use for patch quests. extremely dragged out with too many cutscenes, too many boring and tedious tasks... but the one good thing in that regard, is that theres less solo instances. there's usually way too many of those, with their ten minute duels vs 1 npc with 56 trillion hp.

[arstoka]

Wuk Lamat is a symptom of much bigger technical writing issues.

Pacing: writing choices that repeat information unnecessarily (the walk around the city with Wuk, Koana and Gulool Ja where they talk about the events of everything we, the player, just witnessed). Important character moments and world building are glossed over and have no repercussions on the narrative (Bakool Ja Ja's redemption arc.)

Character writing: more telling than showing leading to inauthentic character development. Flaws are "present" but have no meaningful impact on the narrative. (Wuk Lamat's sea/air sickness being played for laughs. Her confidence issues being magically resolved resulting in her having the physical ability to defeat Bakool Ja Ja not long after having been bested and kidnapped.)

Passive protagonists: the narrative pilots the characters to their destinations instead of the characters making meaningful choices to drive the narrative forward (characters tend to be more reactive then proactive. The entire first half of the story is an example).

Themes: barely fleshed out in meaningful ways that leaves the audience to fill in the blanks to make sense of everything, a result of failing to create characters and meaningful scenarios/interactions to reinforce the message(s) of the story. (This loops back into passive protagonists and telling rather than showing.)

Lack of meaningful conflict: the narrative goes out of its way to have everyone agreeing with the protagonist without challenging her views. Most problems are black and white and are resolved with either deus ex machina (the crystal bird descending upon the Yok Huy conquerors and) or feel artificial due to lack of consequences (Valigarmanda doing zero damage once it is released in order to make Bakool Ja Ja's redemption easier, to name a couple.)

Failure to critically engage with the protagonist's ideals: Yes, we agree peace and happiness for all is a lovely sentiment. What do they actually mean to the character though? How will they "preserve the peace". What lengths will they go to?

Tone: failing to properly establish characters, settings, themes and conflicts results in a shift of focus and subsequent failure to identify what should be tonally accurate for a plot point (see the 'Smile' theme song playing after we defeat Sphene as an example).

Bonus round: Cutscene direction and composition

Many of the scenes are poorly composed and fail to invite the viewer into the scenes. Such examples are the positioning of NPCs that are in front of the player's character. Other scenes take place over the anticipated action expected of the genre and narrative cues (for example, rescuing Wuk Lamat and the train battle sequences). FF14 has set scenes such as these up for battle content and have subverted the expectations causing an unintended release of tension and less impactful climaxes.

[Zaniel]

Wuk Lamat is a symptom of much bigger technical writing issues.

Pacing: writing choices that repeat information unnecessarily (the walk around the city with Wuk, Koana and Gulool Ja where they talk about the events of everything we, the player, just witnessed). Important character moments and world building are glossed over and have no repercussions on the narrative (Bakool Ja Ja's redemption arc.)

Character writing: more telling than showing leading to inauthentic character development. Flaws are "present" but have no meaningful impact on the narrative. (Wuk Lamat's sea/air sickness being played for laughs. Her confidence issues being magically resolved resulting in her having the physical ability to defeat Bakool Ja Ja not long after having been bested and kidnapped.)

Passive protagonists: the narrative pilots the characters to their destinations instead of the characters making meaningful choices to drive the narrative forward (characters tend to be more reactive then proactive. The entire first half of the story is an example).

Themes: barely fleshed out in meaningful ways that leaves the audience to fill in the blanks to make sense of everything, a result of failing to create characters and meaningful scenarios/interactions to reinforce the message(s) of the story. (This loops back into passive protagonists and telling rather than showing.)

Lack of meaningful conflict: the narrative goes out of its way to have everyone agreeing with the protagonist without challenging her views. Most problems are black and white and are resolved with either deus ex machina (the crystal bird descending upon the Yok Huy conquerors and) or feel artificial due to lack of consequences (Valigarmanda doing zero damage once it is released in order to make Bakool Ja Ja's redemption easier, to name a couple.)

Failure to critically engage with the protagonist's ideals: Yes, we agree peace and happiness for all is a lovely sentiment. What do they actually mean to the character though? How will they "preserve the peace". What lengths will they go to?

Tone: failing to properly establish characters, settings, themes and conflicts results in a shift of focus and subsequent failure to identify what should be tonally accurate for a plot point (see the 'Smile' theme song playing after we defeat Sphene as an example).

Bonus round: Cutscene direction and composition

Many of the scenes are poorly composed and fail to invite the viewer into the scenes. Such examples are the positioning of NPCs that are in front of the player's character...

Another serious crime I would add: World-building disconnect: A complete loss of memory of previous events and critical world concepts in the game if not outright contradictions. I mean, the Scions ... THE SCIONS ... take part in what amounts to a primal-summoning ritual in the Hanuhanu area without blinking.