Reminder that Dawntrails MSQ will drag the game down, if it's not getting a rewrite.

[Tizzy_Tormentor]

Honestly, I found DTs story to be really underwhelming and there are plenty of things I'd have done differently, but I don't think it was horrible, I enjoyed it more towards the end, but more than anything, I just felt that there wasn't much substance to it, especially in its treatment of existing characters.

I'm disappointed by the Scions role in the story, they might as well not have been there. There was a pre-release interview that said the Scions would get into an ideological conflict, which sounded interesting, but in the end it was all super friendly and toothless, they barely did anything, Alphinaud didn't even talk about his time as the commander of the Crystal Braves to Wuk Lamat, nor did we learn anything new about them. The only honest conversation we had with a scion that wasn't about the immediate situation was with Graha on the gondola ride in Living Memory, where he opens up about his feelings on those he's lost. They were basically there to act as trusts and little else. Likewise, I don't hate Wuk like a lot of people seem to, I just found her role not all that interesting since her ideals aren't challenged in a meaningful way and a lot of her more comedic scenes fell flat. A lot of issues are also wrapped up way too conveniently, like how decades of mistrust and xenophobia from the people of Mamook is basically solved in an hour, or how we learn that Galool Ja Ja ended a near century long blood feud with tacos. It all feels like they didn't want any dangling threads for the Tural side of things so they can focus on the Alexandria story, which is a shame.

There will not be a rewrite, but I do hope they actually learn the right lessons from this going forward. I was genuinely expecting more, I like Tural and its culture/locales and the content of the expansion so far has been good, but storywise, I hope we see improvements.

[CVXIV]

snip

What you've said is a lot like how I feel in regard the story.
I don't view Dawntrail as bad, nor do I dislike Wuk Lamat. To me, both are alright. Could it have been better? Absolutely, but I don't think it's as terrible as people are making it out to be

Regarding the Scions specifically, I'm also disappointed of how little of a role they played. When the expansion was first announced and the story was teased, we were told that we would see the Scion's divided. Of course I never expected it to be an actual break with them, but we really only go against two of the members and even then it doesn't feel like much of a competition. The only thing that got in our way because of them was when Thancred dropped rocks on us to block our path

I think the writers really hurt themselves when it came to the claimaints specifically, because it didn't allow for much diversity in ideals. From the start, the only good claimaints were Wuk Lamat herself, and Koana - though as was shown had he continued on the path he was on he would have essentially erased Tural's culture and their history even though he had good intentions

Zoraal Ja from the get go was very clearly evil, and Bakool Ja Ja, as comedic as he is, was also seen as a villain - wanting to subjucate the other races and put the mamool ja on top. I cannot see any of the other scions not accounted for supporting either of them.

It would have been really cool to actually be against them idealogically and come to arms whether it be in dungeons or a solo duty.

Another part I personally took issue with is how half the continent of Tural was excluded from the competition. I don't think it was intentionally the case, or at least I can't recall why they weren't involved, but it always struck me as weird that the Shetona or the Hhetsarro didn't have the opporunity to test the claimaints and give some history about the area.

If anything, I really had the impression at the start that the contest was going to take place over the entire main expansion

There's probably a lot more I could say, but I think I'll leave it there
I know Yoshi-P has acknowledged the reception Dawntrail has gotten, so we'll have to see what happens in the next expansion and if the team truly has learned anything that was stated