ShakeyMac18: I dig these section-by-section reviews, but man I can't wait til you hit the later stuff Preach.
BenderUnit22x: The whole dawnservant trial has a bit of a kids show "lesson of the week" vibe where our main protagonist Wuk Lamat and her friends learn a little something about tolerance and other cultures. Personally, I didn't mind it, I actually enjoyed a lot of the characterization, even if it's very on the nose.
Beyond the story though, Dawntrail doesn't get enough credit for how beautiful the zones are and how the boss design in dungeons is quite a step up, even just for MSQ stuff.
RaddyC: Can we have Ishikawa back now?
Plasmacat1: Dawntrail story is really not bad at all on paper but it falls back on old JRPG and anime problems of “tell and not show” which can be serviceable but it’s clear that sort of thing doesn’t cut it for the quality that’s expected from the story of FF14.

Even if you take into account Wuk Lamat is 20 or probably 19 it’s kinda jarring and if you mix that with the “forced by your parents to take a tour” vibe a lot of the expansion has its no surprise people are mixed on it.
Paien75: Been playing since beta and this is the first time I’ve had to talk myself out of skipping cutscenes. MSQ is terrible.
ny4nk0: The story beats and overall concepts aren't bad imo, but the way they are executed is certainly less mature than previous expansions.
Satsubuya: You can feel that the writing team is not the same...
kaleiohulee6693: My overall impression of the early content was a heavy focus on world building with a bit of character development on the side. I was promised a great vacation so that's how I engaged the content, and that's what I got throughout the early sections of the story.
johnstajduhar9617: The Romans always justified their conquests in the name of "securing peace" for Rome, I found that part pretty credible. Excited to see what you think of the latter half of the story!
ASackOfPotatoes: This msq was written by either naive and young people or they're targeting a demographic that doesn't really exist. What child or even teen is paying for an mmo...the answer is not many. I feel like we were lobotomized story-wise. This is some low level shonen-esque writing. Its almost like SE demanded they pander to the youngsters with undeveloped brains for the story. Its baffling
ryanhatfield8602: I enjoyed wuk lamat and her positivity buy that’s just me
LadCarmichael: The 9 out of 10 loss due to disease reminds me of the fact that it's estimated that up to 90% of native population died due to the diseases and exploitation from when the European arrived. I think it was very much intended to be this reference.
arturius9715: The power of one. The power of two. The power of frieenddshipppp
shinkicker404: Friend and I were of the opinion the folks that did the Hildebrand quests were more involved with the MSQ. There is some serious stuff but then the joke bits pop up and they’re very Hildebrand. Not bad, but very “obvious” in how it stands out.

I did like this zone. Valigarmandas framing in the ice reminded me of Ghidorah frozen in the ice.

Agree with the bits about things just being unnecessary, they feel a bit ham fisted. A lot of naivety and stuff in the MSQ.

Dungeon and trial were cool though.
JJMomoida: Sorry for the long comment but... man, I'm just not feeling Wuk Lamat. I do think the voice acting is... not the best at times, but beyond that, I think her character just didn't see a whole lot of evolution. See, one of the reasons I really like Alphie, is that he was an uppity kid with dreams of grandeur back in ARR and he was humbled HARD. He was at his worst at the end of 2.55, and he slowly built himself back up through HW. This kind of character arc really grabs me. I want to see a character struggle with their inner turmoils, I want to see them grow. I just didn't feel much of it in Wuk Lamat. She starts off as the well-intentioned plucky character and pretty much ends the story the same way. She's a bit more toned down by the end of the story and that's kinda that. This isn't to say a character with positive ideals/outlook is necessarily a bad thing. I've seen people compare her to Luffy, and obviously a lot of the comparisons stem from the whole "I'm gonna be king of the pirates!/Dawnservant!" thing... but it's not actually that bad a comparison. Thing is, Luffy's is a rather static character, but you still get the sense that his character is nonetheless TEMPERED by the events of the story. I feel like I didn't see much of that in Wuk Lamat...

That aside, I also feel a bit of vindication regarding the Scions. Before this expansion launched, I groaned at the idea of having them around for it. I feel like their character arcs are pretty much DONE and while I don't think they ought to just vanish forever, I really rather have had them show up here and there as minor characters in patch content or something. They are just not all that interesting to me at this point, and it feels like no further development can be experienced. Estinien, Urianger, and Thancred really were there just to have a good time... The twins are just.... there.... and that was that, but the thing is, as mentioned just now, what else could you want?? These characters are DONE. Their struggles surmounted, their arcs resolved. Oh, sure Y'shtola is still trying to get back to The First, but that's not really much more than just a goal. It doesn't reveal anything new or interesting about her that we didn't already know. The exception to this is Krile. I think the devs did a great job in providing her closure regarding her origins, but I feel like she still has room to grow as a character, considering how little we'd had of her in the time before Dawntrail.

Moving on from the old cast, Erenville was great, to be honest, and his characterization, his coming to terms with..... what happens in the second part of the expansion, was handled very well. A comparatively minor thing, but I also really like how little he kisses your ass in this expansion. He really comes off as a chill dude who KNOWS you're strong as all get out, but just kinda... lets you be. It's an element of his character that stands in stark contrast with how much G'raha slobbers all over you. It's refreshing, honestly. All in all, I really do wish the cast had more fresh blood in it.
cressposting: Its written like a shonen anime for 10 year-old kids except the playerbase are all adults.
Reinshark: You're not wrong that this section of the game hits players over the head with certain themes, but despite that it's surprising how many players totally miss thematic elements as they reoccur throughout Dawntrail's story.
UnstoppableSmooze: I think wuk might actually be a teenager, like 16, her Japanese va is really high pitched, and she's minimum height for a hrothgar
Frankthetank302: The giants caught covid
freeshot16: Wuk lamat is just poorly written and the voice actor didnt have enough range(or direction or both) for a character who was clearly supposed to have very high highs and very low lows. Its a shame and it really doesnt help that its a lyse 2.0 story again, they didnt change the naive ignorant would be ruler story at all in premise. IMO HERE if they absolutely wanted to try doing the lyse story again but better they should have done it with a male character and have the idealism not be colored by stupid childish flaws
DBellBoi: He says that it feels like it's aimed at 8-11 yr olds. Well funny enough Anime has this Genre called SHONEN which literally translates to "Young boy". lol
serenitynow606: No Brofist to us all…
thesunthrone: Even the most complex of cultures and characters can be turned into caricatures and parodies on a dime, and a lot of chatters and commenters are doing exactly that, even Preach here in this video. The whole point of the red-armored faction of giants acting like stubborn gatekeepers and us needing to practically force to help them is BECAUSE PEOPLE ACT LIKE THIS, especially people in highly isolated communities that had once been mighty conquerors. It is a documented antrophological fact shared across many, many mountain tribal cultures that they are very honor-bound and distrustful, and quick to offend and hold grudges. It looks silly but only because we do not live under the same paradigm where scarcity of resources make honor and holding grudges something commonplace. In such communities the only way to even try and win them on your side is to sacrifice for them, something they still might reject.

These giants literally ruled the entire continent in the past, but are now reduced to hiding on the hillside of their ancestral graves, are lorded over by some outsider lizard king that now sends random tourists into their sacred places for a rite that chooses who is their next ruler. They might as well spit in their faces far as they're concerned, and the fact that they still go back and forth on accepting their aid after Wuk Lamat and Scions helping shows just how distrustful they are. Even then, after this scene is over, they scurry off and warn not to go into their lands, because this DOESN'T make them friends, contrary to what Mike is saying - and the red-armored giants are enemies that will attack you on SIGHT.

I swear, content creators sometimes just make a mockery out of the things they talk about, because they're paying more attention to entertaining the stream audience than actually paying attention to what is going on in whatever it is they're playing. Anything feels worse to experience when you have an audience jeering at every turn, and some of these streams are extremely grating to sit through.
shadow11636: I didnt mind the msq until about halfway through where my patience was gone. Theres no real deeper meaning to things, wuk lamat is used way too much for a mmo that is great at showing off multiple charactera stories and opinions, like almost none of the other characters do anything. At the end i just wanted it to be over since a lot of reasonings where missing or disnt make sense, very pre-heavensward writing
heylookitsnana: As hamfisted the message was in this section, I really enjoyed it more than the Hanus, but I think it would have been better if we got more Zarool Ja Ja time. How does he reject the conclusions of the giants? How does he reject the dumb giants he knows he will rule over?
nguyentrung-ui4mf: Where did the brave, confident, but naive Wuk lamat of 6.55? I went back on my alt recently, and they don't even feel like the same character. The short time I knew Wuk Lamat in Endwalker, I loved her character and was the main reason I look forward to DT. This feels like the case of dumbing down the character to fit the story.
AdemirZX: I think the ffxiv team made it very clear that they wanted to get away from the dark stories for a bit.
asyme9717: Seeing you play it and react with a lot of 'I'm sure this will pay off later!' reminds me what a come down this story is compared to every other expansion (even ARR and Stormblood). This entire thing is a Naruto filler arc. Nothing more.
rllove016148: Just bad writing all around for the most part. Very disappointed so far in the MSQ.
CielBlanche: so what i'm getting is that 14 used to be deep writing for 16 year olds and now it's deep writing for 12 year olds

Jul 14 2024

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