The Actual Problem With Dawntrail

[lolnotacat]

Too short? If the MSQ was any longer I would've tossed my monitor out the window. Wuk Lamat isn't the issue, she's a symptom of one of the many issues DT has, the biggest one being bad writing.

[MediocreIndigo]

I agree that Wuk Lamat is not the problem, but the issue is not the length of the story, it's the writing of said story.

Case in point: Shaaloani. It's an entire zone that feels like a meaningless sidequest where almost nothing of import happens.

And to follow it up, Living Memory. Another entire zone that's narratively wasted, because before even entering it we are told numerous times that its inhabitants are not living beings, but are simulations made manifest from aether. Which means that all the time we spend there pleasing holograms is just time we're wasting, instead of addressing the impending threat to all life.

And all of that is to say nothing of how flat the Scions are for the entire expansion. You would think there was a second sundering with how watered down their personalities are, to the point where they're all basically interchangeable. A longer story would just mean even more of this.

The writer clearly demonstrated that they could not fill the 100 quests they had with life nor a convincing, consistent story. Asking them to perform an even bigger task would have stretched their limited talents even further, resulting in less, not more.

I disagree with the sentiment that Living Memory was wasted. While it's true that the Endless are only constructs created from the memories of the deceased rather than the actual people they're based on, they're still sentient beings, not just algorithms without any true self-awareness mimicking human behavior. The fact that the Endless are seemingly able to exist independently of the terminals so long as they have unfinished business is proof of this. If they lacked a will of their own, they all would've disappeared once the terminals were shut down. The writers wouldn't have put as much emphasis as they did on Sphene's internal dilemma if she was merely a hologram.

The reason that most of the Scions feel flat during this expansion is because they've already gone through their arcs and the writers would rather focus on the newer characters. I don't think it was necessary to involve all of the Scions if some of them were just going to be out of focus, but we did get a few moments of good characterization. Alisaie consoling Wuk Lamat after the attack on Tuliyollal and G'raha speaking about regret during the gondola ride come to mind.

[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.

[Turtledeluxe]

Dawntrail may be short but the content before the plot twist makes it feel like all expansions long combined.

I literally could not wait for it to be over until we finally met Sphene.

[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.

[LilimoLimomo]

While it's true that the Endless are only constructs created from the memories of the deceased rather than the actual people they're based on, they're still sentient beings, not just algorithms without any true self-awareness mimicking human behavior.

If I recall correctly, the writers literally refer to them as "simulations" multiple times. If there's any text in the game that contradicts that, I would love to be directed towards it so I can speak accurately on the topic.

The reason that most of the Scions feel flat during this expansion is because they've already gone through their arcs and the writers would rather focus on the newer characters. I don't think it was necessary to involve all of the Scions if some of them were just going to be out of focus...

I think you're misunderstanding me; I'm not talking about how the Scions didn't get moments in the spotlight. I'm talking about how as a general rule they are written as indistinguishable from each other. Past expansions have done a great job of characterizing the Scions; each of them has different perspectives and histories and interests and slants. And if you replay an expansion like Shadowbringers, you can see this characterization in almost every single line. Even when everyone is talking about the same issue, each Scion talks about it in a way where you can see how they are parsing the situation distinctly through their own lens. And that's just almost entirely non-existent in Dawntrail except for a select few momentary moments. The writer seemingly did not understand (or perhaps didn't care) about the Scions as individual characters.

[Kes13a]

Dawntrail was as expected (unfortunately) and an adequate release.

the problem is, as you say, not Wuk Lamat (entirely), the issue lies entirely with:
1. this is the start of a new arc, and as such, could be expected to start slower.... but this was a bit glacial
2. the main selling point of FFXIV is the story, and while not a hideous story... the story we got.. was not worthy of a AAA studio that prides itself on a story based MMO

Wuk Lamat seemed to be a problem with VA direction (or entire lack thereof)
not sure how they test things these days but its fairly obvious that a play through of ten levels by play testers could have found places to improve.
the release was decent. the delivered product however... seemed ... low effort.

[LilimoLimomo]

This is exactly what happens in every expansion. We have to do a bunch of dumb stuff before we save the world cuz some sissy wants to.

I don't mind doing dumb stuff before we save the world; often I think it works well. There are plenty of places where doing so introduces us to the people who live in a place and their distinct perspectives. It helps us better understand the problems and preferences of an area, sometimes teaches us new knowledge of skills that help us down the road, and perhaps most importantly it allows us to forge connections with the people we will be fighting for which creates not just ethical stakes, but personal emotional stakes. Shadowbringers did this magnificently in so many ways.

The reason it didn't work in Living Memory is because there ain't no people there; we already know where we need to go and what we need to do and in spite of that we waste time trying to get to know ChatGPT. There are a few moments where we learn interesting things, but they're so few and far between that the zone is just painful to get through.

[hydralus]

Didn't Dawntrail have almost 24 hours worth of cutscenes?

[Swordsman]

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.

I'm not sure how I feel about that. Asking the writers to create a story with a longer runtime isn't suddenly going to improve their writing skills. It's just gonna end up being more of the same.