What is up with Wuk Lamat being so omnipresent.

[Zelda206]

I did a side-by-side comparison for myself to see what was it about the expansion that got under my skin, new patch included. I did the cutscenes with the sound and BGM on and felt triggered by how much repetitive 'peace and harmony' and Wuk Lamat dialogue there was as well as how much bending-over the NPCs did for that character. Then I went to my Unending journal, turned the BGM and VA off and reading it with my own thoughts wasn't nearly as irritating but I didn't keep a tally on how much 'feeling' was mentioned. I even put Donkey Kong Country music with rainfall as placeholder BGM and my experience was far better. The amount of walking and cutscenes in lieu of activity or combat is what made itself most known to me once I focused less on the story execution; lackluster, a bit bland, and felt like two steps back from our journey through Stormblood. Much of this was us chauffeuring the would-be ruler(s) around to learn about a series of cultures they should have already been made thoroughly aware of if they wanted to appeal to rule, and us (the WoL) not intervening when it would be prudent to do so, patch included (I could also go on a tangent about how forcibly-nice we were to Wuk Lamat, in the wake of the sarcastic remarks we've given in previous expansions, and the forced niceties were another thing that broke immersion). The team tried something new -- kudos and kupos -- and it's the first flop I've felt when playing FFXIV. In essence, the most annoying things that I could glean were Wuk Lamat and how a lot of the plot laid a velvet carpet out for that character (almost exclusively); I tried to like it, and I couldn't. The experience becomes less jarring when you omit all of the VA'ing to balance the upset of 'when or when not to include voice lines', so my time with the expansion DID improve when I made the adjustments that suit me best. The character 'Wuk Lamat' is the poster-child for the expansion and will remain being fronted like a sandwich board on the sidewalk until the expansion ends, and hopefully not much further after that; it wasn't a good character.