How could the developers destroyed Tural like this?

[Palladiamors]

It's been that way since Shadowbringers and got worse during Endwalker ie. Thavnair and Garlemald. I think Dawntrail has better more organic zone design versus Endwalker, but it's still not up there as ARR's. For context I do adore ARR's zone design and consider it peak zone design in the game.

I feel like Shadowbringers was the first time they didn't really have a plan. You saw it in the MSQ ((Smack dab in the middle of a war...LETS GO ON AN EXPANSION LONG SIDE QUEST! PEOPLE LOVE GRAHA, RIGHT?!)) you saw it in the zones (( a bunch of zones with no real interconnecting theme)) and you saw it with job designs. I don't know what happened in Stormblood that broke the team but if I had a time machine, fixing that would be on my list. Further down but on the list.

[ExESGO]

I feel like Shadowbringers was the first time they didn't really have a plan. You saw it in the MSQ ((Smack dab in the middle of a war...LETS GO ON AN EXPANSION LONG SIDE QUEST! PEOPLE LOVE GRAHA, RIGHT?!)) you saw it in the zones (( a bunch of zones with no real interconnecting theme)) and you saw it with job designs. I don't know what happened in Stormblood that broke the team but if I had a time machine, fixing that would be on my list. Further down but on the list.

There is too much empty space and that's what always struck me as odd. ARR zone had this thing that while compact, everything made sense where it was and felt more lived in. The zone towns in Dawntrail finally got that aspect right, but the zones itself have too much dead space. I'm not sure what exactly it needs, but imo adding world bosses wouldn't fix me lose my suspension of disbelief (I do think Urqopacha is the best at giving me ARR zone vibes). For the cities, Tuliyollal's design is better, it still suffers from things are too tall for no real reason, but the lack of traffic through the main road bugs me. Solution 9 is horrible; you could have fit everything into the Recreation Zone.

[lolnotacat]

I feel like Shadowbringers was the first time they didn't really have a plan. You saw it in the MSQ ((Smack dab in the middle of a war...LETS GO ON AN EXPANSION LONG SIDE QUEST! PEOPLE LOVE GRAHA, RIGHT?!)) you saw it in the zones (( a bunch of zones with no real interconnecting theme)) and you saw it with job designs. I don't know what happened in Stormblood that broke the team but if I had a time machine, fixing that would be on my list. Further down but on the list.

I didn't really get that feeling. Instead I got the feeling that they wanted to speedrun to the story finale, particularly with Endwalker. The little detour in ShB was generally fine since with me, though I didn't really remember Graha, and I feel like I wasn't the only one.

On the other hand, Endwalker could've probably been two expansions. The Garlemald section was paced weird, feeling really slow in some parts and really rushed in others, but I feel like with how long the Garleans were the big bad, they should've been a bigger enemy/threat than what we got.

[Dorito_Burrito]

Tural is the worst setting ever created for a rpg. For real, u wasted an entire continent to create a boring, bland and too safe environment, that lacks any wonder, mystery and reasons for players to care and sympathize with it.

There was no enemies, being it cultists, savage tribes (perhaps even cannibals), old mysterious ruins, conflicts, tales of ancient beings, forgotten and dangerous places... nothing. Everything is peacefull and happy and extremely uninteresting.

How did u waste a full continent like this? Even hingashi has more wonder than this thing. Im beyond disappointed with the direction FFXIV has moved too. Its like the ppl in charge dont care about the plot anymore.

This reads as if you were expecting Dawntrail to be something like Indiana Jones or Tomb Raider.

[Vinter]

This reads as if you were expecting Dawntrail to be something like Indiana Jones or Tomb Raider.

Maybe it should have been. Consider why out of all the ancient works that survive the most beloved and renowned ones are tragedies, not comedies.
Peace and happiness are uninteresting. Suffering and sorrow are relatable.

[lolnotacat]

Maybe it should have been. Consider why out of all the ancient works that survive the most beloved and renowned ones are tragedies, not comedies.
Peace and happiness are uninteresting. Suffering and sorrow are relatable.

DT was like Raiders of the Lost Ark where if the WoL or Indie weren't around, the plot wouldn't have changed much.

[Akonyl]

I swear people are just making things up to complain about Dawntrail now. It's one thing if you want to complain that XIV zones aren't very interesting, but they've never been (and I wish they were), and all the zones are just setpieces you'll briefly go through and then never meaningfully deal with again. Like:

ARR: Alright, this was the start of the game and had a bunch of zones (which were redos of existing ones), so expected to have some variety
HW: I think Azys Lla is the only "meaningfully interesting" zone here, but unique final zones isn't a surprising thing. The churning mists was pink, which was neat, but that's about as neat as Mamook being blue.
SB: This had unique zones due to having the expac take place in two entirely different parts of the world. But like, the Ala Mhigo side (Fringes/Peaks/Lochs) are about as similar as DT zones and the Othard side (Sea/Yanxia/Steppe) isn't much better outside of having a sea-based area.
SHB: This had unique zones, sure. But it also came with the caveat that they used an entire world's worth of content to do it, which seems a bad example if you're complaining about the use of a single continent.
EW: This had 10 years of plot points to wrap up and is in an obviously unique position compared to other expacs.

And when did this become an entire continent? It's a part of two continents (N/S America), but if you look at any XIV maps there's still cloud cover over north-north america and south-south america (which is the XIV map language for unexplored areas).

Like, I fully agree there's issues with Dawntrail, mainly the first half of its MSQ. But choosing to complain about zone homogeny here is just baffling to me. Maybe they could have made the zones different colors, or something (like the Mamook portion of Yak Tel), but like, if not for the fact that the Final Days (major story event spanning multiple expacs) happened in Thavnair, where would be the mystery there? It's a pretty happy zone otherwise, about the same as visiting a new people in Tural. Just swap the comedy segment with the alchemists with the comedy segment of Wuk Evu. The only mystery in Thav is the dragon ruling it, which is something that lasts all of a single cutscene for the player.

[Gember]

I wish FFXIV's outer world was more dangerous to traverse like FFXI. However, both games are incredibly different when it comes to their design. I read a quote by someone awhile ago that put it into perspective:

"Final Fantasy XI's world is dangerous, and Final Fantasy XIV's world is a theme park."

I would love for more outer world lore. Once I get done with the yellow quests; I kind of forgot what they were all about because they were more or less fetch quests. I know it will fill up more when the tribal quests come in, but that is usually it.

I appreciate it when the dev team makes the players go back to older parts of the game to fill in those empty places with a purpose in the MSQ, or provide more side content in those regions. This is one of the main reasons why I am not a fan of instance zones. (Diadem, Bozja, Eureka.) It's not because they are bad content, (They are quite fun actually) but because they are completely put into a pocket in the game that has zero correlation with the outer world. They probably do this to separate people who are grinding endgame verse players who are doing MSQ. I can understand when a new player is questing, only then have their shout chat bombarded by endgame conversations that could potentially spoil the story for them. That might be a factor as to why, but I wish at times it was more mixed in so there is that MMO feel to it.

Edit: I am speaking for all of the zones in the game; not just Dawntrail.

[CuteBucket]

Zone design in this game has needed work for some time. They've been way too big and empty with nothing to do since Heavensward, tbh.

That said, I will specifically call out Heritage found for easily being the worst zone in the entire game. Ugly, nothing to see or do, and tells us next to nothing about the people besides "They all use electrope now and love it!"

In previous zones, you'd usually get some sort of story and background about why things were the way they were. See a unique landmark? Chances are it will come up in the MSQ or a sidequest, at least. But here, there's a giant wall going through the middle of the zone to cut it in half, and there is no explanation for it. It's one of the first things I noticed about the place. "Wow, they sure have a big wall here. Wonder what that's for?" There was always an answer for things like that previously. Well, I did every side quest in the zone, and unless I somehow missed it or it was that much of a one line footnote, I never got an answer. It's just there. It keeps nothing in or out. It doesn't divide up any people or cultures. It's not an entrance or exit from a specific space. It has no reason to exist at all. It's just there. And after all the previous attention to detail, even if the zones were still rather boring and empty overall, it was such a slap in the face to someone like me who loves the lore and the little details in this game. I was already so angry and disappointed in the story in that zone and that added to it. It's a little thing, yeah, but those things build up.

So much of Solution 9 is massive for no reason and feels so...fake. Yeah, futuristic sterile world, sure, but not fake like that, fake as in it feels like a movie set. Like if I turn a corner I'll be back in a warehouse with the lighting crew. I was really looking forward to Solution 9. Now I go there as rarely as possible because it's so flat and boring and lifeless (and I hate the music there too).

[Sensui]

Something I also really miss is Besieged. Enemy hoards, attacking a main city, causing chaos, killing AFK players, kidnapping NPCs, and then once the dust settled, players would band togethet and send a rescue party to get the NPCs back so your teleports worked or Merchant NPCs were available. Each major zone had a big bad that would come towards the end and you would have an epic battle with massively hard bad guys.

Could do the same with FATEs, I guess, but would love for something like that to be implemented in 14. Could you imagine if the tome or savage NPC got kidnapped?

Rescuing the NPCs could yield special prize or something. 4 man content at a savage level difficulty. Maybe a window of time to attempt it for the week.