The Actual Problem With Dawntrail

[Silver-Strider]

There's like 4-5 problems with Dawntrail but the length of the story is not one of them (arguably).

1) Pacing. There's a lot of unnecessary filler and just when story beats start speeding up to create tension, it comes to a grinding halt and just never gets to the point. Our first trip into Heritage Found is exactly that. We just got off of the high of ramming a train into Vanguard and invading into the Dome, let's now stop and get to know the gardening tricks of Alexandria. WHY? You want to know what would've worked wonders? If we got attacked by more soldiers to stop our advance into Heritage Found but got rescued by the Resistance. That would've kept the narrative flowing in a natural way, we could've met Cahciua and gotten the whole explanation about regulators, gotten some insight on what happened to the other people that got stuck in the Dome, about Zarool Ja's actions after becoming King there, etc. but no, we get Sphene's grand tour instead to try and endear us to her character, despite everyone, even Wuk, calling her sus as hell.

2) Lack of Character growth. Not just Wuk Lamat but several characters got shafted in terms of their story arcs. We know the usual suspects of Krile and Erenvile, but there's also Bakool Ja Ja that went from a total dick to even his own men to being redeemed because he told us of his generational trauma. I'm sorry, but you were willing to leave behind one of your own men after they were injured. Your entire existence that hundreds of your "siblings" were sacrificed for was to help your people and you do the exact opposite, time and time again. Let's release Valigarmanda, surely this creature that terrorized the lands would never deem to harm Mamook, right? Then, there's Zarool Ja. We got some vague premonitions from Krile about his dark ambitions but we're never given any direct motives as to why he is that way. We're given to believe that the burden of being the 1st promise and a miracle child became too much for him, THEN FUCKING SHOW IT!!!!!! and not in a 2 second transition scene during your Trial fight. There's the whole red herring of him being potentially manipulated by his supporter but that goes nowhere because the guy just ends up dying with nothing manifesting from his little scheming. I won't even go into the mess that is him being a father because that comes so far out of left field that I'm still reeling from the whiplash. I have so many questions that I want answered in regards to Galool Ja but I can't help but feel that it'll open up a can of worms that might make the plot of DT even more convoluted than it already is.

3) Lack of Gameplay. We have hours upon hours of cutscenes that almost rival that of EW in this expansion alone but when it comes to the gameplay itself, there is nothing. We walk and talk with NPCs everywhere but god forbid I get to actually PLAY. I could've done half the entire story as a Crafter/Gatherer for all that it mattered because I sure as hell didn't do anything that warranted needing to be a combatant. FFS, half the trials are something that crafters/gatherers would've been able to complete. Crops are failing? I'm a BTN, I'm sure I know something about it, or maybe pull a Koana and make a potion with ALC that will cure the problem. Making Tacos with the Hrothgar? I'm sure my CUL would make it perfectly. The Moblins want a craftsman? I have a laundry list of candidates that I have helped from all the questlines I've done in regards to crafters. I did not need to be a combatant to finish half of these quests and it made the story drag on for much longer than it really needed it. Even ARR had combat in between the story beats.

4) The Scions. What's there to be said about them? They showed up and did nothing. The whole divide between the Scions amounted to a singular moment in the 1st dungeon and was totally abandoned afterwards. When the whole interdimensional travel plot started, they shafted Erenville's concerns about his homeland to announce the Scions of the Seventh Dawn's reunion and accomplished nothing with that. Legitimately, you could've replaced all the Scions with entirely new people and it would've worked just as well. They were shoehorned in for the Trust system so hard that they miraculously showed up at the start of the 2nd trial. That's one of the most BS Deux Ex Machina moments in the entire story, 2nd only to Wuk Lamat's appearance in the last trial.

5) Black Hole Sue. The all encompassing, all suffocating presence of Wuk Lamat sucked out any potential this story could've had. Between characters bending over backwards to worship the ground she walks on to how perfectly everything works out for her just makes her annoying as a character. She can do no wrong, her actions are 100% correct and to hell with every other character in the story, it's all about her. For someone with as much screentime as she got, you'd expect there to be some flaws or challenges for her to overcome to make her endearing but there just never was. She goes from easily being pushed back by Bakool Ja Ja to singlehandedly stopping Sphene from beating us without much rhyme or reason to it and I have never felt like such a third wheel as much as I did in the cutscene past the final trial, with Wuk telling Sphene that she'll take care of her people, while my character just watches awkwardly in the background. Shaaloani is simultaneously both the best and worst zone because, while the story was weak, at least we got away from Wuk Lamat during it.