/r/ffxivdiscussion: Data analysis of Dawntrail negative reviews (Steam)

[PercibelTheren]

I dunno how the reviews are now after several months but I could tell the first couple of weeks when it was cool to bitch about Wuk, that a majority of the negative reviews were simply a review bombing campaign.

I'm still of the opinion that the expansion is fine, but its neither good or bad. It's mid.

I'm not sure about Steam, but the review score on Metacritic has continued to slowly go down since the release of DT, as more and more people finish the MSQ. Personally, I didn't feel the need to leave a review until DT. I only tend to review games that are either exceptionally good or exceptionally bad and found FFXIV to be neither. I was already on the fence in Endwalker and Dawntrail really pushed me in the direction of thinking the MSQ was terrible. It's frustrating because the themes they went with are fine, it's just that they're handled in the worst possible way. Same with characters - the ideas of them are fine, but they end up flat and one-dimensional. They feel like someone's first RPG character.

Edit: Just went and checked. The Metacritic scores started out at 7.4 and are now sitting at 5.3. I checked about a month ago and they were still at 6.0. I would hardly call people leaving negative reviews months after an expansion launches and people have had the chance to really experience it "review bombing". A lot of us just didn't like DT and that's it. If you did, good for you, I wish I had liked it as well but alas.

[Lyndina]

Guess i'm one of those who really push the playtime in their reviews. Counting almost 16k hours, although most of it is standing around or roleplaying.

[Sotaris]

Guess i'm one of those who really push the playtime in their reviews. Counting almost 16k hours, although most of it is standing around or roleplaying.

Not sure how much playtime I have combined since I play/ed between PS, Xbox, Steam and PC (I'm a bit nuts I know). But played very active between 2014 until 2023 ish. If I were to guess I'm probably in 30-40k hr range.

[dwodmots]

I didn't leave a review, but if I did it would have been negative. If Wuk L*mat shows up in a single patch quest I'll do it.

[Reinha]

I can't leave a review since I don't play on Steam but I read the thread.

Dawntrail's MSQ has seriously damaged my attachment to my character and my positive investment in the world. Me logging in and doing anything was, to a large degree, predicated on me adoring the games story. I associated my WoL and every location in the game with tons of positive memories and I loved being a part of something so valuable to me and my personal development as a human being. It was a huge part of my life and the life of my closest friends who all experienced this story together. Now, neither I nor my friends have logged on in like, 3 months. It's not like I've quit the game out of protest; no, it's worse than that. I've simply lost the desire to keep playing it. I mean, it's not like FFXIV ever was the best raiding MMO (probably WoW), and it's not like FFXIV ever had the most content or had the most rich goal-setting and character building (probably OSRS); my engagement with the game was predicated on what most people recognize as FFXIV's main draw and selling point - it's exceptional narrative. For as much as people say this is "Stormblood 2.0," I don't even really have that expansion's considerably more enjoyable and engaging job design to give me some intrinsic motivation on a gameplay level to keep raid logging or doing roulettes.

This comment sums up how I feel about the game, with the addition that I also no longer have a character design I enjoy (thanks to the graphics update) that would motivate me to collect glamour, take screenshots and do new game plus.

[Hatsuoki]

I can't leave a review since I don't play on Steam but I read the thread.



This comment sums up how I feel about the game, with the addition that I also no longer have a character design I enjoy (thanks to the graphics update) that would motivate me to collect glamour, take screenshots and do new game plus.

This is the same for me. I'm okay with one bad expansion. I'm okay with the WoL not being the center of attention. I'm not okay with losing my WoL so bad that I can't go back and play the old expansions or take screenshots.

[SentinelBasch]

I just wanted to offer an additional viewpoint on the 1,000 hour discussion.

On the 1st character that I had a few years ago, I did hit over 1,000 hours before even starting Heavensward. At that point, I wanted to experience every little niche of what the game had to offer, and I'm sure there are other players that have a similar desire. It wasn't that difficult to hit, either - I got all classes to 50 so that I could get a feel for them, and outfitted them all with Ironworks gear. I also did a lot of crafting/gathering and got the Mor Dhona gear, and relic quests, too, which easily take hundreds of hours on their own.

It definitely wasn't required, but increased my enjoyment of the game as a completionist.

It did give me a very good feel for the game, but I didn't consider myself a veteran by any means, not even making it to endgame content yet by that point.

Just something to consider for the data.

[Sensui]

1000 hours in the game isn't necessarily a veteran player. That's about 2 months of playing all day (16 hours a day). Could easily be done during a holiday, summer break or while seeking employment.

I don't think it's necessarily review bombing on Steam, but you're more likely to leave a review for a negative experience than a positive one. It's got to be extraordinarily positive (to the point of changing your view on life or something like that) to motivate you to leave a positive one usually, which to be fair, much of the story does motivate people to want to go out of their way to praise it for that, which probably explains why there are positive reviews at all.

The story in Dawntrail may not be for everyone but it's just one expansion. I don't get the people acting like it's the end of the world because one expansion didn't hit for them.

I've been playing since 2 0 Beta. The games pacing and lack of content is frustrating for someone who has invested literally 1/3 of their lifetime playing it.. that is probably why some people are so passionate and take the issues so personally
and want the devs to address the issues and want to see them fixed. I think they just want the devs go take the game somewhat seriously and not produce garbage. Which is what we have here.

[Fawkes]

I don't think I would just instantly classify everyone who hits 1000 hours as a veteran in a 10 year old MMO, that's like maybe two years of casual gameplay. It's a lot for a single player game but not for an MMO.

If you didn't play through the original ARR patch quests before it was trimmed I'm not going to consider you a veteran until you have 365 days of playtime.

[Xeronia]

Ah dang my review made in early access didn't count for this, off by one day. Overall I still agree with my review that the pacing and characters were far below average and while the instances are fantastic I would wait for whatever content you want to be released before purchasing the game or if you are curious catching the expansion on sale.