Wow, Dawntrail was bad

[Barwara]

I wouldn't consider myself the Great Defender nor the Great Critic when it comes to ffxiv.

I've casually enjoyed the game despite it's flaws, accepting the things the game excels at and accepting also the other areas where it could really improve upon.

But boy was Dawntrail bad. :/

And I'm not going to re-iterate everything that everyone else has said, I think most critics are pretty valid. But Zepla put it well when she said this expansion's biggest flaw is that it kills every momentum it has.

Its bewildering how the game manages to hype you up at different moments just to let you down so hard. How come when everything is at stake and we're literally running out of time to save the world again, we end up talking to npcs about their favorite snacks, taking a gondola ride, having ice cream, put on a play, go to a museum, and ride on the back of a capibara... Like, are you for real?

We've just reached the absolute last quest of this expansion and all we did for the past four hours was casually talk to NPCs. While there's a ticking time bomb... And the rest of the team is supposedly busting their ass to keep a gate open... Astounding...

Not that it hasn't been varying shades of this for the rest of the expansion as well. And I've stayed optimistic in hopes the expansion would redeem itself and the negative reception was a bit overblown.

I can accept Wuk Lamat, the poor voice acting, and the lackluster cast of new characters, but the pacing... the absolute lack of any stakes... wow.

Dawntrail can only be considered as an interlude in the series of expansions. So many missed opportunities when it comes to tackling the 'next chapter' after the finale EW delivered.

I can only hope the devs deliver better with 8.0...

Wow... just really wow.

[DynnDiablos]

I love how Dawntrail really doubled down on the flashbacks to events that legit had happened five minutes prior, like the player suffers from short-term memory loss and needs a nudge for even the smallest of things. I was like - seriously, that JUST HAPPENED.

[Jeeqbit]

How come when everything is at stake and we're literally running out of time to save the world again, we end up talking to npcs about their favorite snacks, taking a gondola ride, having ice cream, put on a play, go to a museum, and ride on the back of a capibara

It's pretty obvious why. We had just entered the area. They want us to explore said area. It is explained in the story how we are able to do it. The process of what she is doing to reprogram herself takes a lot of time and doesn't just happen at the press of a button.

Depends on if it was actually a computer program, but in the kind of programs we have it does take more than a few minutes to code something complex without AI (and even sometimes with it when it's not doing what you want).

It would probably have been of benefit for us just not to find or have the threat presented to us until nearer the end, and just shut them down anyway because they were consuming soul energy that didn't belong to them. But at least they explained the reason.

And the rest of the team is supposedly busting their ass to keep a gate open...

There is some reasoning to that. Portals have almost always been unstable in FFXIV so having experts like Y'shtola or Urianger watch it was reasonable. But it seemed excessive to have quite so many people stay behind. Estinien, Alphinaud, Alisaie, Thancred, etc.

They obviously just didn't want to make Duty Support available for the trial so they only sent enough for the dungeon.

And I've stayed optimistic in hopes the expansion would redeem itself and the negative reception was a bit overblown.

We haven't seen 7.2, 7.3 or 7.4 tbh. Usually they do good things by the .3 patch.

[Hallarem]

I will join my fellow FFXIV lover here and say, FFXIV can do no wrong.
If the writing was in your opinion "Bad" it actually isnt, I think we should be more thankful and not greedy and support ffxiv more.

The last zone was perfect, it was so we could enjoy our time and enjoy the work the devs put forth for our enjoyment, the plot doesnt matter as it is a time bubble, so you are wrong. Like Jeeqbit here said

And yes we had the portal experts there, DUH. Be more respectful to the writers room. Any criticism is actually wrong towards the MSQ, because how could they release anything bad with Yoshi P watching over it?

Please support FFXIV with money preferably, you can find ways to do it if you cant find the cash shop. Lets keeep smiling together towards the best MMO ever and not critique them, as they are the best ever and critique doesnt lead to anything good. Just praise them.

[ZephyrMenodora]

I can accept Wuk Lamat, the poor voice acting, and the lackluster cast of new characters,
:

You are more forgiving than me. I can't accept any of this. I expect more for a game I spend like $180 a year on + expansion fees.

My immense disappointment comes from a place of love. I want things to get better, and I know they can do better.

[Dorito_Burrito]

I wouldn't consider myself the Great Defender nor the Great Critic when it comes to ffxiv.

I've casually enjoyed the game despite it's flaws, accepting the things the game excels at and accepting also the other areas where it could really improve upon.

But boy was Dawntrail bad. :/

And I'm not going to re-iterate everything that everyone else has said, I think most critics are pretty valid. But Zepla put it well when she said this expansion's biggest flaw is that it kills every momentum it has.

Its bewildering how the game manages to hype you up at different moments just to let you down so hard. How come when everything is at stake and we're literally running out of time to save the world again, we end up talking to npcs about their favorite snacks, taking a gondola ride, having ice cream, put on a play, go to a museum, and ride on the back of a capibara... Like, are you for real?

We've just reached the absolute last quest of this expansion and all we did for the past four hours was casually talk to NPCs. While there's a ticking time bomb... And the rest of the team is supposedly busting their ass to keep a gate open... Astounding...

Not that it hasn't been varying shades of this for the rest of the expansion as well. And I've stayed optimistic in hopes the expansion would redeem itself and the negative reception was a bit overblown.

I can accept Wuk Lamat, the poor voice acting, and the lackluster cast of new characters, but the pacing... the absolute lack of any stakes... wow.

Dawntrail can only be considered as an interlude in the series of expansions. So many missed opportunities when it comes to tackling the 'next chapter' after the finale EW delivered.

I can only hope the devs deliver better with 8.0...

Wow... just really wow.

But Dawntrail isn't even over yet. It should be "is", not "was".

[Fatch38]

I can accept Wuk Lamat, the poor voice acting, and the lackluster cast of new characters

so you can accept what makes a story/show bad then. but yeah it was really the longest 30h of my life, i can't even count of many times i face palmed at most situation/dialog in DT. thing was written for 7 years old kids with less than 2 minute of focus.

But Dawntrail isn't even over yet. It should be "is", not "was".

with what we've gotten in 7.1, can't expect anything

[Xapapetsu]

This might be a bad take for some, but I don't think thr voice acting was all that bad for Wuk Lamat. My issue comes with how the character was written as well as the pacing of dawntrail. Wuk Lamat also overstayed her welcome, I would have liked to be rid of her after the first half, but that's coming from someone who didn't like the character even back in endwalker patches.

[Xapapetsu]

I will join my fellow FFXIV lover here and say, FFXIV can do no wrong.
If the writing was in your opinion "Bad" it actually isnt, I think we should be more thankful and not greedy and support ffxiv more.

The last zone was perfect, it was so we could enjoy our time and enjoy the work the devs put forth for our enjoyment, the plot doesnt matter as it is a time bubble, so you are wrong. Like Jeeqbit here said

And yes we had the portal experts there, DUH. Be more respectful to the writers room. Any criticism is actually wrong towards the MSQ, because how could they release anything bad with Yoshi P watching over it?

Please support FFXIV with money preferably, you can find ways to do it if you cant find the cash shop. Lets keeep smiling together towards the best MMO ever and not critique them, as they are the best ever and critique doesnt lead to anything good. Just praise them.

Please make donations in the form of mogstation mounts, outfits, and emotes. Word of mouth is nice but money is better.

[Barwara]

There is some reasoning to that.

I mean… the fact that there’s a reason why things happened the way they did doesn’t excuse the poor writing. Doesn’t make the gameplay fun. The devs could have written the same story differently but made it so the player feels more engaged with what they are doing. That’s just a writing issue. I consider the plot not uninteresting, just very, very poorly executed.