minaeru: A lot of people seem to have a hard time putting it into words but I think the frustration is a culmination of things. She was introduced in 6.55 at a half patch and was the entire focus of the story in the game after that. Historically 14 has had more of a slow burn when it comes to character introductions. They get introduced early on and you get to know them a bit before they have a focus in the story like Yugiri, Aymeric, G'raha, etc. and even then they don't dominate the screen time but add to scenes and plot points as needed. Tonally it was a little jarring when compared to previous entries.

As a result because of that she didn't really feel like part of the team yet, just someone you're working with. During the early parts of the game it feels like you're doing tasks to help her fulfill her objectives but that she (for the most part) didn't earn what was being given to her leading her towards a role she shouldn't have. Avoiding spoilers as best as possible but the 6th test stands out as glaringly bad personally. All that kind of compounded player frustrations to be a little adverse to her presence. While most people felt like the second half of the game was a breath of fresh air, the issue was only worsened by her still being there constantly giving little breathing room to the rest of the new (and old) cast and I think people resent the fact that there was solid story happening in the second half but we kept having to be reminded of her presence. Her power scaling was also questionable with her background and everything we had been shown.

In closing, there was some really good stuff this expansion and I think frustrated players felt like she constantly got in the way of that. If you like her character a lot though and are just living in the moment scene to scene then you probably enjoyed it and that's fine too.
m0o0ntecrist08: From what i gathered from all social media and streams and content creators
DAWNTRAIL: STORY it depends if you like Wuk lamat you gona enjoy it if you dont you gona hate it intil you hit the second part . and they did the same with LYSE BTW WUKLAMAT is not special for getting haters and people get anoyed by her
DAWNTRAIL: DUNGEONS / TRAILS / EXTREMS every one is enjoying them and they said they never been happier with the battle content and they cant wait to do Savage .
baseballfan4877: I disagree that instanced housing will create more social events. I just think of Garrisons from WoW.
barisaxman2: I generally liked the themes, zones and overall plot of the MSQ. I agree the writing and pacing could have been better overall though. Hopefully, Ishikawa gets more involved with the writing process. I feel like we aren't getting enough of her writing as she had more of a supervisor role for the story in DT.
georgeisalegend2009: Just realized that we didn’t get a free adventure glam outfit before entering dawntrail ._.
FARSHOOTER3: I think the expansion MSQ would've been better if we traveled with Estinien on his random side quests instead of Wuk Lamat. Estinien looked like he had much more fun than I did in the MSQ.
zolmation: One of the beauties of ffxiv is that theres virtually nothing you can't do if you pickup a job. They won't do this "only 10 people on your server can craft this thing" It goes against the system they've built
Andy-tu1qo: I think if we had more Erenville there would be much fewer complaints. His story had a ton of nuance and I loved seeing bits of him shine through as we explored the new continent. Sadly his character development felt super overshadowed by Wuk Lamat. When she took a backseat in the final zones I really did enjoy it.
206Zelda: The biggest flaw with the MSQ is Wuk Lamat and the inability to do anything wrong for the right reasons. She's written like a self-insert character; not a Mary Sue, but forcibly liked to the point where she becomes more annoying the more forced our WoL responds with "You can do this!" and "Show them who's boss, Head of Resolve!". She got overexposed while other characters that served to support the story were underexposed and given very little depth. Bakool Ja Ja's dilemma didn't come to light until the very end of the Rite and did a complete turnabout that would make Phoenix Wright blush with envy, Zarool Ja's dilemma didn't actually generate any sympathy UNTIL HE WAS ON HIS DEATHBED, and Koana's was the only one who got any amount of screentime to improve at a decent rate because he supported Wuk Lamat in general. She's a golden child furball and does not want to pry herself away from us and I feel betrayed by the writing team.
XiaosaGaming: Whatever your opinions are on the MSQ is one thing but we can all agree the music and fights were pretty enjoyable right?
Chaoskoch: Wuk Lamat has more lines of dialogue than the entire
incognitofoxo1559: I am the WoL, Wuk Lamats trusted purse chihuahua.
coryaustin7379: MSQ doesn't really bother me, it's a one and done thing, but I'm ready for the real content. The raids, the bozja/eureka like zones, etc.
FuyuYuki92: I did enjoy my time with the MSQ, but I absolutely agree with some of the negative sentiments. What I'm wishing for in the MSQ moving forward:
More Erenville, more focus on the Warrior of Light (as in, I want to be actively involved and not just stand there on the sidelines and then still getting praise for no reason), I would LOVE LOVE LOVE more Azem lore! And looking at the "Key", that might be a realistic wish. And I want to see the "constant" threat we will be facing and finding out about going forward, something that gives us things to look forward to and a sense of mystery.
pastaboy1338: Taking 1 shot every time Wuk Lamat said she will be THE Dawnservant and protect her people.
I'm drunk af. I want Lyse back.
pedromoreira6218: Ngl I feel like at some point someone in the writing team fell in love with Wuk Lamat and it shows when an opinion of an explanation revolves around "if you like this character or not" then they have essentially over exposed said character
LivvieLynn: Dawntrail's issue wasn't the story as much the writing quality. The plot made sense and could have been great if not for the poor execution - even taking into account that a lower key storyline is much harder to write for.
Giltia: My complaint about Dawntrail isn't that the story is bad or the content isn't fun or Wuk Lamat is a bad character.

It's that Wuk Lamat is the ONLY character.

I could forgive most other issues with the character if they hadn't given the shaft to the entire rest of the cast. Every single party member in Dawntrail, including yourself, exist solely to nod in approval whenever Wuk Lamat opens her mouth. Dawntrail is unrelenting in its attempts to forcefeed this character to its audience.

It feels like they finished the script, and then everyone sat down, poured over every line, and asked the question "can we have Wuk Lamat say this line instead of [Other Character]?"
godless1014: I always expected a mixed reception. Let's face it . . . The combo hit of Shadowbringers and Endwalker is a HARD act to follow. That aside, having played through the Dawn Trail MSQ . . . Yeah. I agree. It's a mixed bag. The first half was kinda boring and the writing felt kinda lazy while the 2nd half was pretty damned good. I wouldn't have written it like they did. The first half of the game I wanted a swash-buckling adventure and a neck for neck friendly rivalry. I wanted Goonies and Uncharted. Instead I got a one dimensional hero, a cultural lesson, and a conclusion that was so damned obvious I thought for sure they would NEVER actually do it. The second half of the MSQ was much . . . Much better. But I still would have written a few moments a bit differently. Ishikawa stepped aside as lead writer and boy can you feel it.
koopa299: Dawntrail is not for everyone. To talk about it without spoiler:

Although the battle design is by far the greatest out of all expansions, it is lack of playability/replayability in Dawntrail. For general audience, this is extremely hard to get through (unless you are skipping) Dawntrail. For XIV player, it is alright/ common thing to get into the first dungeon (battle content) after 3 hours of prologue. I read all dialogues and cutscenes and every character's line after quest, it took me 33.5 hours to finish the MSQ. The biggest gap between unlocking dungeon is 6 hours. There were moments I was craving some other contents other than just talking and this is not something everyone can handle. On top of that, there are heaps of unnecessary loading screens when you approach an NPC. You think it is going to be voiced but nope. I would rather having the usual dialogue screen instead of watching the black loading screens. Dawntrail, you can expect it to be 75% of talking and 25% of fighting. To be fair, I want them to bring back optional dungeons when they are building the second act of the story. That allows the players to actually "do" something.

Story-wise (without spoiler):
When it comes to story, it's always about if the story is related to you or not. Personally, I think, the first half of the story is strongly targeting the audience who leave their culture, tradition and their home for whatever reason, to remind them that "there's part of culture you could've taken with you. It shapes you to who you are today." Unlike Endwalker, people relate to the topic because of the lockdown/Covid which majority of the people could relate. In the second half of the story, it is more old-school FF story structure which people can just get back into it.

You have to be careful if you go through Reddit comments. As much as they like to claim themselves to be "story enjoyer", barely anyone can actually talk about the story structure and criticize the story in an objective view. The story narrative itself doesn't have much of an issue. However, there are scenes that are overexplaining/dragging, when it stacks up, it becomes problematic.

The major issue the FFXIV story needs to face is the "golden ratio" between telling the story and playable contents. In theatre, for an one-act play (1 hour duration), something needs to happen aronud 25mins in order to keep the audience sit through the rest of the 35 mins. An unexpected outcome, unavoidable drama, plot twist... etc. However, in gaming, they need to find a better strategy. There are reasons why most of the games now would get players to fight some bosses in the tutorial after 1- 15 mins of dialogue to make you "not to fall asleep". I am not saying FFXIV needs to do the same thing. However, the team needs to find the balance, when to drive the players to sit through the cutscene and when to release their desire to fight. If the team is able to achieve that, I think FFXIV would drive even further in the future expansions. However, right now, the story of Dawntrail only satisfies a minority of people.
Seedmember: If the game is mechanically at its best, both in game systems and server stability, a mediocre story can be overlooked up to a point.
From what I gather, we have another case of Stormblood and Lyse. Stormblood's post release story was some of the best imo, so hopefully they will repeat that.
crossorion2004: Housing has always been an interesting conundrum, but I don't think we will ever see instanced housing. I point out that the Islands are set up as hangout spots, but nearly nobody uses them for social events.
StormierNik: I think we don't exactly need another massive story arc. Even though I enjoy them. Personally, i've had the most impactful story experiences when it came down to smaller and more compact, but rich story beats. Stories like Tsuyu/Yotsuyu and exploring the idea of what makes someone responsible for their actions, justice, and what it means to have real retribution. Themes that really ask the player to think about what's right, human thoughts that really have no real answer.

I think of themes like in portions of endwalker delving into the thought of what it means to suffer, to struggle, and what comes out of it. Whether struggle is necessary in all life lest the door opens to apathy and complacency for the joy of life itself. While Endwalker's whole narrative point was to close up the Zodiark/Hydaelyn era and the story of the ancients, themes like those are FAR more impactful than large set pieces of long standing villains or narrative conclusion fights.

People loved Heavensward for its theme beyond simply the tale of dragons. Dragons are a dime a dozen in fantasy media, but exploring the consequences and the sins of the father in relation to the son, the cycle of vengeance and betrayal, that's what makes it more than simply about dragons. That's all the game really needs for its story. Focus on a theme or an area that a theme can be taken from. Build one for the other. Hell, even executing a common theme with the aide of set pieces in game would still be fantastic.

Most stories have been told in some way or form already, but FFXIV has the power to execute a story in a unique way with its own settings.

Jul 12 2024

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