stellasky4950: Rarely felt the need to skip scutscenes of an expansion. Last time was in Stormblood and I didn't, fearing to skip major scene. Here I was upset by Lamat, the endless cycle of "let's go to that village, for talk and learn how these people make her food, monuments, for like.... 3 hours without a fight, dungeon or trial.
kfitz387: After rolling credits and spending some time in the endgame all I can say is that I really wish they just made Arcadion a giant anime tournament arc and focused on that instead
theztav: "I do not consider you to be truly alive. Ergo, I will not be guilty of murder if I kill you".

Emet-Selch lied. I felt like a genocidal during the Living Memory bit.
Ea_Rapture: I completely agree with all you said here, minus one thing. Shaaloni was actually the best part of the expansion because wuk lamat wasn't present.

And the fact that I felt her presence so overbearing, that I actually enjoyed the low point simply because of her absence, you know it's kinda of a shitty character.

Also mate, fantastic video!
Galbergoth: They should have called it Dawntrope. Whoever wrote the MSQ must think Nartuo is the peak of storytelling.
jamesbubu: When I heard that Smile song I immediately thought that it was a song that belonged in a movie like The Greatest Showman or something.
yakdeculture9761: SPHEEEENEEEE LISSSSEEN TO MEEEEEEE
texanjoecoffeehouse8141: DT has introduced two new ways for me to play. One: Skipping cutscenes and story. Two: learning how to switch to Japanese voice acting

The train scene should have been playable as well as the invasion ala the lunar primals
nny156: "We cant have a world ending threat every expansion" Puts a world ending threat at the very end of the expansion.
paulmd7747: Dawntrail's story = wuk lamat brainless nonsense followed by a redo of Emet selch and Shadowbringers.
RicardoSantos-oz3uj: The worst part is that the tacos place does not have a seller of tacos.
ratherbill: I hear a lot of my friends absolutely coping about "This expansion was never gonna measure up to Endwalker" As if thats an acceptable excuse for why the msq is absolute garbage. As if its some kind of obvious rule that a new saga has to be painfully boring, horribly paced and childish before it can be interesting and exciting. Frankly I was embarrassed at quite a lot of the cutscenes, especially when smile played. Also Wuk Lamat sounds like my Prison girlfriend
mismismism: The MSQ was baffling to me. It felt like they hired writers from a morning cartoon for children aged 3-7. The way things were framed and executed, almost every major plot point falls apart if you just think about for a minute or 2 or think back to other plot points that contradict them and should not be possible if other plot elements and characters exist as the story presents them.

And the audio problems, from the very glaringly bad voice acting from Wuk Lamat even though they know she has like 95% of all the screen time in the story and enjoyment of the MSQ very heavily was on her shoulders to carry as a result, it felt like no care went into the voice acting and direction. And I love Soken, most of the music was great, but for the main theme to be so jarring with terrible vocals and mixing, I just cannot wrap my head around how that could even happen. That woman singing the verses sounded insane, there is no world where that does not sound awful, it was pitchy AF and it's the main song, it closes out the MSQ and it's a disaster.

I'm so mixed on DT because it's like half of it was amazing but arguably the biggest thing they needed to nail, in the MSQ, almost couldn't have been worse. I could forgive it if there were some plot holes that you really had to seek out to realize but so much of it was nonsense. It felt like the writers and whoever decided how to set up the scenes, didn't care or even try to make it make sense.
JL-GHK: Koana was the rightful Dawnservant, he just needed a course in social interaction. Kinda like how Ascians should have invented Mental Health support and counselling for Fandaniel.
stonedruid: Wut Lamats voice lines sound like they were read with no idea of what was happening in the story or on the screen.
shh532: A big problem in DT as well I think is it cribbed too hard into XIV's own tropes like 'friendship is power', as well as severe weaknesses in its MSQ gameplay flow such as poor cutscene pacing and lack of interactivity. Probably the BIGGEST issue is it's just... too damn long. It has some not bad parts but as a whole I do not want to play it on my alt, which is crazy.

The silver lining of DT's very 'divisive' response is that so many of these issues which have existed for so long are now so squarely in the spotlight that, hopefully, they will finally be addressed and we can move on in patch content to better stuff. I'm PARTICULARLY glad that there has been such a strong (although 'relative') rejection of how sidelined the WoL was in the story. Hopefully they re-discover their courage to put us out there again in 7.X and 8.0.
Solidus510: The game aside, I just wanted to say how much I appreciate how well you articulate your points. Whether one agrees with your purview or not, the depth and construction of your critiques leave only room for real conversation. That's a skill I wish other content creators for this game took more seriously, but sets you apart. Thanks for the video and look forward to more from you.
Arnveld: Honestly great work. I share pretty much same sentiments. I started to skip everything right before end because I just couldn't handle it no more. It was awful. I liked the first part a bit more, and felt like second part is Amarout 2.0

There is so much weird writing choices, lackluster voice acting, weird chosing of Ost, that it was enough to make me just skip the story asf as I could, get to the end.
For story I will just focus on side-quests and hope the later patch stories are better.
panzerexe: One thing that still blew my mind was after following Cahciua while she's controlling the outrunner, we don't know anything else at all about her except her distinct voice and cheery personality. Later on when you see her in Living Memory for the first time, that cutscene isn't voiced and really dulled the moment. Sure, you've probably figured out that's where she was, but it felt like a completely different character after getting to Living Memory. Any cutscene after meeting her, there's zero personality that she had before and comes off almost monotone and dull. And also, it felt like her audio was just way louder than everyone else overall.
redcpt3791: You say that Smile plays after a genocide. But the game refused to even entertain the moral complexity and themes of transhumanism it itself sets up, so it doesn't even consider what we did a genocide at all. These memories can hear, feel, think. They can experience new things and even turn against their own creator. BUT THEY'RE NOT ALIVE SILLY, THEY HAVE NO SOULS. It's just a cemetery. It baffles me how people can just go along with this idea so easily, after playing Shadowbringers and Endwalker. Are we
phutton: Fantastic review and felt it summarised my feelings.
user-qh6sg1dp1o: I like how the prevailing sentiment was exactly that, that we can't have a universe-ending threat for every expansion, and then Hiroi did it anyway.
Your review actually got me thinking again about WoL's duty as a side character and low stake threats, since it did happen quite a few times in DT, it's just that it was in the side quests.
The quest that stuck out most for me was the quest with Shunye and Uvlo, the mining/botany role quest givers. You were presented with a problem to solve, and then that problem led into a more personal problem for the involved characters, and you were also presented with reasons and background lore for why the characters are there in the first place, and ON TOP OF THAT it included nice touches to make it personal to your character if you were also a Viera. It stayed focused and didn't overstay its welcome. It was genuinely wrapped up like a nice little package.
SilverNightbane: Your review pretty much mirrors my own sentiments about Dawntrail so far as a whole. There were flashes of brilliance peppered in the MSQ and the locales were pretty nice, but story is a literal make or break because it has to bend over for the narrative black hole that was Wuk Lamat. Also, in terms of VAs, this is the reason I stuck to using JP voices since ARR.

The other problem I've had is that the story beats Dawntrail tries to tread were things we already went through.

Our WoL sets foot in a brave new land, giving us a chance to learn of the cultures and people? Shadowbringers.
A new female character introduced that is thrust into a role of responsibility they probably aren't the least bit ready for? Lyse.
A new male character who wants to do what is best for his people in his country? Hien.

There's also the fact that when we later find out about Sphene's "immortality" it feels like a bit of an odd choice to have Otis sacrifice himself. It feels like a cheap ploy for tugging at our heartstings.
hypersleep9336: call me weird but i pretty much stopped caring when i got to the quest to pick up bird shit. i dont know why but after that i just gave up on DT altogether, like there was a button that just switched on or something
paulmd7747: Insane that they forced Wuk Lamat to be part of the story after the rite of succession. How could they not see how trash Wuk Lamat was as a character?

Her VA could have been Scarlet Johansson or Dame Judy Dench and it would have been terrible.
SkepticalChris: Wuk Lamat, is Dawntrail's Mary Sue character.
She does everything right, everyone loves her, and she always gets her way.
MrSilvart: I have to agree with most of the points raised in the video. I liked fantasy Texas though, if only because it gave me a breather from Wuk Lamat. It's probably the worst part of the MSQ because it made me keenly aware of how much more I enjoyed the narrative when she wasn't around. Even if the plot was nonsensical (rubber bullets? REALLY???) I didn't really register it as bad because of how relieved I felt.
jazamix5941: "This is wuk lamat she is my original OC DO NOT STEAL" -the writers probably

Jul 29 2024

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