New Yoshi P Interview

[Kozh]

I've been saying this all along. A very large part of DT's pacing issues (and why Wuk Lamat had to be in right up in your face every second) was because the Zero story took up all five EW patches. DT didn't get the EW .4/.5 patches to do all the initial prep. Instead, the DT leveling MSQ had to waste a HUGE amount of time doing very basic setup and characters introductions and stuff, that in any other expansion would have happened ahead of time.

I'm not so sure about "large part". I personally believe that even if 6.x do the traditional .3 - .4 split, DT would still be a very flawed expansion. If anything, I struggle to come up with what more they could introduce in 6.4 and 6.5 if they decided to start the transition to DT there. Unlike in previous expansions where things has been build up over the years (and especially by ARR laying the foundation), DT is kinda a "fresh start", which means we have nothing else except introducing characters (as they can't really show Tural at this time)
And honestly I think DT simply doesn't have enough substantial material for lengthy msq, which is why the first half of it comes off as being padded as heck, to me at least.

[Daralii]

I'm not so sure about "large part". I personally believe that even if 6.x do the traditional .3 - .4 split, DT would still be a very flawed expansion. If anything, I struggle to come up with what more they could introduce in 6.4 and 6.5 if they decided to start the transition to DT there. Unlike in previous expansions where things has been build up over the years (and especially by ARR laying the foundation), DT is kinda a "fresh start", which means we have nothing else except introducing characters (as they can't really show Tural at this time)
And honestly I think DT simply doesn't have enough substantial material for lengthy msq, which is why the first half of it comes off as being padded as heck, to me at least.

The entire thing is padded. "Lets spend a full zone familiarizing ourselves with the culture of these interdimensional soul vampires before we pass any kind of judgment" shouldn't have fucking happened. If the characters were actually being written as themselves, they should all have started formulating a plan and putting it into motion, because they should know that preventing souls from reaching the Aetherial Sea or dredging them up from it endangers the Source and all remaining shards even ignoring the morality of it.

[Selsix]

The entire thing is padded. "Lets spend a full zone familiarizing ourselves with the culture of these interdimensional soul vampires before we pass any kind of judgment" shouldn't have fucking happened. If the characters were actually being written as themselves, they should all have started formulating a plan and putting it into motion, because they should know that preventing souls from reaching the Aetherial Sea or dredging them up from it endangers the Source and all remaining shards even ignoring the morality of it.

Hard agree, honestly. My biggest issue with DT was the first half due to being a boring meaningless slog, but the second half was also absolutely horrid because of this. I couldn't even believe we were CONSIDERING humoring these people abusing souls like they were given everything the previous story had established about the cycle of souls and the Aetherial Sea. We aren't talking about "culture" here, we are talking about gluttony so extreme you are perverting the very cycle of reincarnation to keep yourself breathing or gain power. I was flabbergasted, the first thing we should have done was recoil in disgust and the second thing should have been to set all their trapped souls free and destroy the means of harvesting, not go comfort the populace and try to make them feel better about potentially dying eventually. That could all come later.

[Veritas-Ancora]

Hard agree, honestly. My biggest issue with DT was the first half due to being a boring meaningless slog, but the second half was also absolutely horrid because of this. I couldn't even believe we were CONSIDERING humoring these people abusing souls like they were given everything the previous story had established about the cycle of souls and the Aetherial Sea. We aren't talking about "culture" here, we are talking about gluttony so extreme you are perverting the very cycle of reincarnation to keep yourself breathing or gain power. I was flabbergasted, the first thing we should have done was recoil in disgust and the second thing should have been to set all their trapped souls free and destroy the means of harvesting, not go comfort the populace and try to make them feel better about potentially dying eventually. That could all come later.

That's how I feel about The Arcadion.

The whole thing is annoying that we're a fighter. We can't just meet these people outside of the arena and tell them their lives are at stake?

What is even the point of us participating?

If they don't listen to our heeds, go ahead and kill yourselves. Knock yourselves out. Doesn't affect us one bit.

[Selsix]

That's how I feel about The Arcadion.

The whole thing is annoying that we're a fighter. We can't just meet these people outside of the arena and tell them their lives are at stake?

What is even the point of us participating?

If they don't listen to our heeds, go ahead and kill yourselves. Knock yourselves out. Doesn't affect us one bit.

It's just bad writing all around, really. The entire expansion from start to finish is boring, nonsensical, poorly paced, and directly spits in the face of the previous story and the source material. Even the side content like the Arcadion, as you pointed out is pure drivel. I will honestly be very surprised if the guys who wrote it still have jobs come 8.0. I don't even know how they messed up this colossally considering this expansion was supposed to be FF9 themed and FF9 is my favorite entry in the series. They had a WEALTH of ideas to draw from with it and instead we got this slop, I have to wonder if the writers even played FF9 or just read a synopsis ChatGPT spat out at them. FF9 tackles subjects like thanatophobia and nihilism beautifully while DT just kinda says "People are afraid to die but if you're nice to them they get over it eventually, also yum yum tacos!". Like, are you kidding me? What?

Plus DT didn't even introduce the thanatophobia theme until halfway through which gave me EXTREME whiplash. Contrast this to previous expansions where the message they try to get across is introduced VERY early, sometimes even pre-expansion. Take for example how Endwalker was HEAVILY dealing with nihilism and the meaning of life, we got hints of that message in the Shadowbringers patches when Fandaniel declared he wanted everyone to die in an orgy of pain and suffering.

Honestly it felt odd to try and use 9 in general as nihilism is, as I pointed out, one of its central themes. We just dealt with this as a theme in EW, and they clearly didn't want to double dip there so they just half-assed it and went for the thanatophobia side of 9 alone which without the other piece for context really just falls flat as they chose to avoid nihilism at all costs here when it truly goes hand-in-hand with thanatophobia in the source material. They shouldn't have used 9 here at all and instead saved it for way down the road imo and should have picked another entry for DT, they shot themselves in the leg from the very beginning.