Dawntrail’s Narrative Missteps: Why Natsuko Ishikawa’s Touch Is Sorely Missed

[ScartPearl]

After watching Zepla’s livestream, where she discussed the issues with Dawntrail, I felt compelled to share my thoughts on the state of FFXIV’s storytelling, particularly regarding Natsuko Ishikawa's contributions. While the discussion happened in a live format, it’s closely tied to the topics she’s explored in her content before.

I’ve been playing FFXIV for about a year, so I wasn’t around for the launch of expansions like Shadowbringers. However, going through those parts of the game, I experienced the emotional depth and quality of its storytelling. That’s why Dawntrail felt like such a letdown. Despite its tropical setting and promise of adventure, the story fell flat. The pacing was inconsistent, the stakes felt low, and character arcs lacked the emotional weight we’ve come to expect.

It makes me wonder if this is due to Natsuko Ishikawa’s absence from a lead writing role. She first gained recognition with the Dark Knight Role Quest in Heavensward and later led the team for Shadowbringers, crafting one of the most acclaimed stories in FFXIV history. Her work on Endwalker also delivered impactful moments and satisfying conclusions. However, after Endwalker, Ishikawa transitioned to a more managerial role, overseeing the writing team rather than crafting the MSQ directly.

This absence has left a void. Dawntrail lacked the cohesion and depth that defined earlier expansions. It makes me think the game could benefit from treating its writing team with the same consistency as it does its music. For example, Masayoshi Soken, the principal composer, has worked on every expansion since A Realm Reborn, ensuring a coherent and recognizable identity for FFXIV’s soundtrack. Writers like Ishikawa, who have proven their talent, should have the same continuity to maintain the story's strength.

FFXIV is the golden goose of Square Enix. Maintaining a strong, consistent writing team is crucial to keeping players invested. While Dawntrail didn’t meet expectations, there’s still time to course-correct and return to the storytelling heights of Shadowbringers and Endwalker.

Lastly, I want to give a shoutout to Zepla. Her livestream provided a clear example of constructive and well-founded criticism. Her analysis and passion for FFXIV have influenced how I see the game and its story.

[Hallarem]

I rock onto the scene with hot takes galore.

While I like most of Sokens work, I think he works best when reined in a bit. Because a lot of his zone music and some other stuff doesnt exactly immerse or resemble what youre seeing on screen. Which in my opinion is the composers job in a game. And Im kinda hoping they rein in the vocal tracks too. The mix of the final boss theme for Sphene was a hot mess.
The choice to have a vocal singing track for Ultima Thule zone robs the tune of its power and makes it annoying.

As for the story. Aside from the meme of Ishikawa being responsible for SMILE, speaking of music.
I think its rigid Japanese company culture at its basis. You are good? Manager role and less talented people get pushed onto your former role and voilà Dawntrail. Nobody can with a straight face tell me Japanese work culture is efficient when napping and going to drink with your bosses until 4 am and working the next day(forced) is a thing in a lot if not most of the office culture. Social pressure, and even quitting a job has services for someone else to call for you to do it. In case they try to blacklist you etc.

Hottest take. SE needs devs outside of Japan and outside of their culture. Or people with a new mindset or someone within their company in Japan to steer the ship to innovation if they are serious about the "next 10 years".

Hot take number 4. Endwalker was the start of the downpath - Dawntrail is the culmination - lets hope 8.0 delivers on story and pacing.

[Nebelheim]

I rock onto the scene with hot takes galore.

While I like most of Sokens work, I think he works best when reined in a bit. Because a lot of his zone music and some other stuff doesnt exactly immerse or resemble what youre seeing on screen. Which in my opinion is the composers job in a game. And Im kinda hoping they rein in the vocal tracks too. The mix of the final boss theme for Sphene was a hot mess.
The choice to have a vocal singing track for Ultima Thule zone robs the tune of its power and makes it annoying.

I like a lot of sokens music also and agree that there are times he doesn't really capture a zone well. I think they should bring in ff11's composer Naoshi Mizuta to provide zone music I think he does pretty good capturing the magic and atmosphere of a zone when it comes to ff11 zone music and have soken do stuff with the vocals/band type stuff for fights.

[Kaurhz]

It's all well and good saying this,

But this is an utterly unhealthy way of developing talent, and it only exposes the massive skill disparity if the absence of 1 persons touch is enough to do this much 'damage' to a story.


Besides was she still not the Senior Story Designer for Dawntrail anyway?

[ScartPearl]

It's all well and good saying this,

But this is an utterly unhealthy way of developing talent, and it only exposes the massive skill disparity if the absence of 1 persons touch is enough to do this much 'damage' to a story.


Besides was she still not the Senior Story Designer for Dawntrail anyway?

I see what you mean. At this point, I’m just trying to figure out how such a drastic drop in quality happened—it doesn’t even feel like it was written by the same team. I honestly don’t know where else to look anymore *.*

[Kaurhz]

I see what you mean. At this point, I’m just trying to figure out how such a drastic drop in quality happened—it doesn’t even feel like it was written by the same team. I honestly don’t know where else to look anymore *.*

To be honest, there is no single reason for it. I think it's best to just accept that even the greatest talents can still make mediocre moves, or allow mediocre moves to happen.

I think to some degree the biggest part of the issue is that people were just spoilt far, far too much by the quality of Shadowbringers.

[Mimilu]

It's all well and good saying this,

But this is an utterly unhealthy way of developing talent, and it only exposes the massive skill disparity if the absence of 1 persons touch is enough to do this much 'damage' to a story.


Besides was she still not the Senior Story Designer for Dawntrail anyway?

Senior Story Designer is a supervisory role, so she was more in charge of the big picture, plotting the story, then actually writing the story.
The current Lead Story Designer/Writer is Daichi Hiroi, who was the lead writer for things like the the 6.2-6.5 MSQ, the Void Ark raids, the Pandaemonium raids, Palace of the Dead, BRD (3.0 and up), BLM (3.0 and up), and DNC's job quests, and ShB's Caster Role quests. To me, he shines more with more action-based stories with cool protagonists then with deeper character-focused dramas.
If I had to compare the two's storytelling types, Ishikawa's writing is more like a character-focused/driven novel or seinen anime/manga while Hiroi's is more like a plot-driven YA-novel or shonen anime/manga. Both have merits but in different ways. Σ(-᷅_-᷄ ๑)

This took me way longer to write then it should. (◍´͈ꈊ`͈◍)

[Raraka]

Besides was she still not the Senior Story Designer for Dawntrail anyway?

She was, and thats why I will still consider Dawntrail Ishikawa's work, she had the power to course correct, but she didn't.

[ForteNightshade]

She was, and thats why I will still consider Dawntrail Ishikawa's work, she had the power to course correct, but she didn't.

Not to mention, while this may be a hot take of mine. I don't think Endwalker's main story (i.e. 6.0) was great either. It's certainly a mile above Dawntrail, but that's not exactly a high bar. Endwalker suffers from its own pacing issues, predominantly the 81 split where Thavnair, in particular, really starts to drag on. I have similar criticism towards the Moon with the whole Loporrit plot angle reaching a point where I couldn't wait to leave. Another point of contention for me is how much EW relies on poorly timed jokes to break tension. Perhaps the best example is the Puddingway scene after the Final Days hits the Garlemald camp. You have an emotionally charged scene, especially with Julius finally coming to terms with years of brainwashing, then you have the chaos of people becoming monsters all juxtapositioned with a bunny pretending to act like a zombie because he's that obsessed with pudding. It wrecks of current day MCU not letting the serious moments be serious.

And don't even get me started on how horrendously utilized Zenos and the whole Final Days plot arc is. In the latter case, it literally only impacts Thavnair on screen. Everywhere else is regulated to side quests where it's barely an inconvenience.

Suffice it to say, Ishikawa’s writing is not the gospel. She's incredibly talented, and Shadowbringers is by far her magnum opus, but she has her own struggles. Of course, the aforementioned criticism of Endwalker is only my opinion. I do think she would have done better with Dawntrail as its lead again, however he still signed off on a good portion of Dawntrail's story ideas even without writing them herself. And a number of those ideas were just bad no matter who wrote them.