Sogekidan: Your problem is not trying to hurt people's feelings or make people feel bad. When you try to appeal to everyone, noone will be happy. If you have opinions and want to talk about it, then talk about it. You shouldn't feel shamed because you didn't like something. Not everything is made to appeal to everyone and that is fine. I'm upset that I can't do sick tricks on a skateboard but that doesn't mean I make people who can feel bad about it.

hockey1973: I said this in another video and I'll say it here. In a game with unforgettable writing, Dawntrail gave us writing that's ENTIRELY forgettable. That's the problem.

If ARR was written like DT, the Crystal Braves would have never betrayed Alphinaud and all that would've been needed for him to unite Eorzea would be a few well timed speeches. He would also have never progressed from the arrogant, know it all that we saw in the game's initial cutscene.

Raika63: It's wild the twins went to Tural to only find it was united by a charismatic leader. I'm sure that can't go badly for Garlemald. The raid story is so good, though. I feel like the concept could have been its own FF game.

KaiKouran: The scions presence felt force just for the trust or as a reminder that they exist

mustbeweird: Not commenting the story or its state - but seeing how scared Zepla is to say her mind is scary in itself. People should not be this scared to say their opinion of a freaking video game. Community needs to not make witch hunts out of opinions.

Lizard14: Most of what Zepla said is very relatable to me. I'm super attached to this game, and I love stories and storytelling. I spent a lot of my free time thinking about the characters, the lore. I've always enjoyed the MSQ, and it never crossed my mind I'd hate Dawntrail as much as I did. I couldn't enjoy it at all. I felt heartbroken going through many parts of it (not for the reasons the writers intended me to be), and I felt really bad about it. I felt depressed the next week after playing it, while some people told me I was being "overly dramatic" and "it's just a game". People told me I was "thinking way too much, I should just enjoy it for what it is", but I've been spending the past YEARS overthinking details and character interactions in this game, and it was never a problem.

Even scenes that I was "supposed" to enjoy, I couldn't. I have SO MUCH to say, and it feels like I've still not said enough about the MSQ. In the past, it used to be "I have so much to say about these things I've enjoyed" and it switched to "I have so much to say about how this is done poorly, how this character doesn't behave like themselves, how this situation makes no sense, how this breaks the lore"...

The more time passes, the more I think about it, the less I like it. At the same time I want to keep putting my opinions out there in hopes the devs would hear it and fix it, I feel like I should avoid talking about it and trying to pretend it didn't happen because it's exhausting. Yet here I am venting about it again.

Even today, I still think about Shadowbringers and Endwalker and remember it fondly. It's not been even a month since Dawntrail released, and I wish I could just forget it.

I'm really looking forward to Zepla's video on it. It's reassuring to see her spending so much time and care making sure it's said in the most constructive way possible, and I hope it makes a difference in the future of this game's story.

...or we might have to learn to deal with the "the sundering". Back in the days of paradise, we had good storytelling and compelling characters, now the characters are 1/14 of what they used to be and the world feels small and shallow for those that were here before.

The4thHorsemanIT: The fact that Alphinaud is not himself is that if he was, with all he went through, he would have commented against some actions and opinions of Wuk Lamat and as you noticed there is no way, in this whole expansion, that someone does not love or disagrees with Wuk Lamat.

CombativeMedic: I agree with the chat too, don't worry about being "gentle" with your criticism. Don't feel bad for how you feel or for how others will react.

WikiED: I've found Preach's video to be a super fair take, highly recommend watching it as it might give you an inspiration to how you want to phrase your points.

NewAnderL: They just droped the ball HARD with the MSQ. It was promissed a refresh and simple new adventure. Not a cheerleader simulator. About Wuk... Every single time SE try too hard in make a character likeable its horrible backfires.

crashzone6600: If you have to turn your brain off to enjoy a story, then it wasnt a good story. It is not possible for me to do so anyway, unless im doing a monotonous task, or trying to go to sleep.

25xxfrostxx: The amount of concern trolling in chat was sadly unsurprising. "Do you think you should be talking about this before releasing the video?"

All of the people that tied their self worth into other people enjoying the game and validating their feelings with praise but can't handle it when people don't like part of it is crazy.

First it started with "Oh, she's complaining again" then moved into a slimy "for your own good" angle.

The MSQ was badly written and not just the overall narrative but nearly every character present as well. Full stop. You can voice complaints to try to guide the course of the game or you can fake enjoyment, get nothing but slop and then blame everyone else but yourself when the game dies because the player base moves on.

lukapitkanen3333: You could really feel the change with the writers this expansion. Most of the old characters felt almost unrecognizable to me. I wish they just dropped the scions out of the main story and focus on new characters, if these writers are going to continue writing for the game (tho preferably I want new writers since this msq is a slog to get through. The dialogue itself is often pretty bad and uninspired).

Dronex1: Well, when you release that video, Wuk Lamat will want to talk to you

superherofan1701: Dawntrail is the story skipper’s expansion. If you don’t play for story, it’s great. But if you do play for the story, Dawntrail is a disaster for a lot of people. I was tempering my expectations for the story, but I wasn’t expecting it to be outright bad. I’m waiting if there is some acknowledgement from Yoshi P before I get back in the game (other than to sporadically log in to keep my house). I hope they get Ishikawa back as the head writer, or if not, get someone else.

kutlumzrak2689: Can we go to meracydia already?

Im ready to meet Australian dragons.

Zantetsudex: It is disheartening to realise that Creative Studio III has their own Steve Danuser.

ezequielalves879: Dawntrail was the expansion that made me consider looking for a new MMO to play

BiscuitsV2: My favorite part of this entire expansion was having people tell me that I'm overreacting and shouldn't care so much about a story that I've been following for ten years, in a game that has conditioned me to pay attention to every detail. Real fun stuff.

FoxHoundUnit89: I wish content creators didn't have to be scared of being canceled for sharing their real feedback.

nizizumi: Whoever said, "the same criticism loses effectiveness" is way wrong. If everyone complains about something it is way more likely you're going to fix it.

ASackOfPotatoes: These toxic positive DT defenders are even more obnoxious than the toxic criticizers. If you dont say anything and let the game go to shit then everyone suffers (DT has objective problems, sorry that's just the reality). If you do speak up, even with the extreme flaming, the devs are going to get the message that something is wrong. These people that want to shut down discussion and live in their perfect little safe bubble of delusion are the reason why it took so long for content creators to get comfortable criticizing the game. Makes me sick because this game can, and has been, so much more.

Jayceiscool: i honestly feel like we need an apology, so many things in this msq were just so far from even being close to an acceptable level of quality. people have a deep love for this game and that is why the reactions are ast strong as they are

Mrlaged: Honestly Dawntrail lost me after vanguard. Every expansion to this point has ratcheted up to a point where something clicks and you're just on a ride to the end. With Dawn trail that point happens and then they put the handbreaks on because they put their self in a position where they have to do world building. I honestly think they should have given more time to the dawn servant storyline and fleshed out the characters more. And made a lot of the solution 9 and memories end patch content. Also I loved wuk. But she was an insufferable butinsky

aspookyscaryskeleton1474: I very much enjoy the fact that to the twins Tural has basically 0 useful application related to Garlemald's relations with other nation-states because:

A. Every single one the the united factions of Tural basically consist of a single town or a handful of tiny villages and so have none of the issues of complexity that often come with vast, culturally diverse places like Doma, Eorzea, Ala Mhigo or Bozja.

B. The only reason said factions were able to unite and cooperate is by agreeing to be assimilated into a single kingdom following the Dawnservant as their leader basically saying the Garleans kind of had the right idea to form a single global nation with the Garlean Emperor at its head.

C. The supposed given reason for like 2 of the factions most hostile to one another even cooperating was directly a result of the Garlean Empire's existence of which they were warned about by Gulool Ja Ja.

Also as a side note it is absolutely painful to see them abusing dynamis like that meaning so far the only time dynamis has been used is by (Godbert omitted):

- Hydaelyn's chosen champion and shard of Azem who has at this point has defeated countless enemies, fought in multiple wars, braved innumerable dungeons and slain a myriad of progressively stronger and more dangerous foes in order to grow more powerful.

- A handcrafted being created by an eventual member of the Convocation of Fourteen and one of the only ascians ever to have been aware of the existence of dynamis, to which he also devoted himself to its study.

- A hyper-advanced, super-intelligent weapon created by a race of humanoid machines who went on to conquer all other civilizations they encountered in the universe including the dragons. Said weapon only finally being able to comprehend the existence of dynamis in an alternate timeline after pushing itself passed the absolute limit while directly analyzing the Warrior of Light as they fought and eventually merging with Alpha.

- Wuk Lamat who had basically no prior experience fighting any sort of actually challenging opponent and who also spent most of her life sheltered inside of a palace just because she just really wanted to be Dawnservant a lot.

If I'm missing any others feel free to add them below. I don't consider Elidibus limit breaking during The Seat of Sacrifice to be a true use of dynamis because by Endwalker's own logic ascians shouldn't be able to directly manipulate it being as aether dense as they are. Unless I'm missing something and he's somehow using the summoned Warriors of Light to do so.

stef-w5j: I am a full blown wuk lamak hater.

I hated how annoying she was in endwalker. I overall hate characters like naruto, main character syndrome always having the last saying.

The fact she is the main focus of the Expansion made it much much worse.

The voice acting of her is just the cherry on top.

Foxkey: - Give Wuk Lamat a break from 7.1

- Give twins new babysitter or send them home to grow up

- Bring back the banter with Y'shtola. She promissed we will talk later but we never did.

irishsage2459: Listen up.

Even if feedback is negative, even if it's ranting and hurtful to some (it's a game, shouldn't be, but you know, people do be sensitive) it's perfectly fine as long as it's constructive and comes from a place of PERSONAL HONESTY.

Stop trying to please everyone, or you'll end up pleasing no one.

Like it or not, big voices in the community need to be honestly heard or nothing improves. If you dislike this, it needs to be out there or this just keeps happening. Pretending everything is fine HURT'S EVERYONE in the end, it DOES NOT help.

Thank you for coming to my Ted Talk.

soluslunares6682: I know how you feel. This generation hasn't been great for valid feedback and facts

natebroadus8474: This is so much like Stormblood, it's spooky. The people who disliked it, dislike it, and you'll never convince them otherwise. The people that liked it, liked it, and you'll never convince them otherwise.

A lot of this is because so much of the discussion centers on a specific character: Lyse in Stormblood, and Wuk Lamat in Dawntrail.

If you liked Lyse, Stormblood was a fun ride. If you didn't, you were pretty fucked, because she's the center of the whole story. Hell, we even saw the Scions take a back seat just like in Dawntrail (until the post-patches). Y'shtola wasn't there, Krile was in the background, Alphi was just kind of there, so too was Alisaie, and Estinien showed up for his 5 minute cameo and broke out.

If you liked Wuk Lamat, Dawntrail was a fun ride. If you didn't, you were pretty fucked, for almost the exact same reasons as above.

Just like with Stormblood, I think the criticism is valid. I also think the love is valid, because, again, it all depends on what you think about the centerpiece character they chose to roll with.

spacecat278: I replayed Shadowbringer after finishing Dawntrail and I'll tell you, that really puts alot into perspective. Its just one point in a sea of complaints but I really hate how DT threw out all that development they gave the WoL in shb and ew, I like how they let it shine through a bit in the pre train Shaaloani arc but still

Reinstated5: don't cater to people. state your opinions and how you feel about it. you have a right to your own opinion. you're not going to please everyone. that's virtually impossible.

AustinParkerKillulotz14: Im sorry Zepla but if you pull punches and sugar coat your coverage of the DLC.

Its helps no one dilutes your credibility and perspective.

And your then lieing to yourself when we can see your live reaction at anytime.

Peoples feeling over this game arnt your problem. If you want to be a authority on 14, someone people can look up to even a little in terms of someone who knows alot about 14.

If you get squirrelly over people being butt hurt over your personal opinion then its not worth making the video.

Its a personal opinion your review your thoughts.

Thats all it needs to be its not lost on any of us you didnt like a majority of this expansion story elements.

oonue: Dawntrail feels rushed.

MSQ feels like they wrote an outline to be fleshed out later, then were told a date it had to ship by.

Voice acting is first take only with Yshtola being on a webcam.

The choice in cutscenes feels like they were trying to put in as many as possible before a cut-off date.

The zones are absolutely massive, but with all the action taking place within the small towns next to the aetherytes.

The trading quest in the Pelupelu village adds in a new UI element for that quest only, which makes me believe they intended for the quest to have more interaction before getting scaled back, and I suspect they were going to add activities to each of the other trials as well before turning them into just walking to marked NPCs.

iPlayOnSpica: A friend who missed launch asked recently if he should re-sub for the msq (can raid but not currently interested). I said no, don't come back, and I'll see what 7.1 has in store before considering recommending the game again.

That friend was the very person who brought me into FF14 in the first place, back in the end of shb, and he eventually took a long break after catching up and experiencing ew launch. Now I feel like I'm on a sinking ship without him, and the only things that's making me not ditch yet are some other friends I made over time (though they don't raid).

cbltex: Like some others have mentioned, I'm very surprised Yoshi-P and the senior staff were okay with releasing the MSQ in the state it's in. What were they reading? What where they doing? Or not doing? Sometimes you have to let the new folks stumble their way to success, but also can't let them wreck the train! In a story with a train wreck, no less!

I have hope with that Japanese poll of favorite 7.0 characters - where the developer's favorite Kitten, who they seemed sure would be the player's favorite Kitten as well, wasn't even Top 10. If CS3 truly has a bias toward their home fans, that's a message they will not ignore.

I look forward to Zepla Deconstructing Dawntrail :)

jaahman0098: By far my least favorite expansion. At least in terms of the msq. You and no one should feel bad about not enjoying this expansion. As well as giving your honest opinions. This expansion just wasn’t it.

alenivan1908: Getting the final trial in roulette and seeing the wuk bit again without the build up really highlights just how misused her character was. She would have been better used having something keeping her away from the fight and let the player have the cinematic moment. The weak delivery of her lines with the contrived reviving of Sphene just ruined the impact of Sphene deleting herself and focuses on a bond between them that wasn't well established.

mismismism: I identify with the feeling so much. I fully felt so deflated for a couple weeks after the MSQ because I hated it and I'm not gonna pretend I didn't even though I wanted to love it so bad. Up until launch, I was constantly talking about the game to friends telling them how great the story is. I had 2 friends that I know love story games and the tone the story takes, struggling to play through ARR being very slow just trying to convince them that the world building pays off with an amazing story only for DT to drop and I was actively forcing myself to do the MSQ fighting the temptation to skip, that didn't even happen to me in ARR.

Then you add in the people on both sides trying to make any criticism or defense about the personal life of Wuk's VA when I just care about the game and how I felt about the writing, sound, etc, I don't even know any other VA in the game but her because people kept making it about her gender and being nasty and transphobic or dismissing valid criticism as bigotry, then again with Smile and people somehow making it a race war.

DT has exhausted me and I'm so sad about that.

jamesrusselleriii8284: If FFXIV 1.0 was released today, you would have toxic positivity defenders shouting at you at Twitter if you had anything negative at all to say about the game.

OuchXXI: Hiroi and Kate need to be fired, or 8.0 will be the same thing. Also, the reason the forums and everyone is talking about it, is because it's a big deal. I get not wanting to upset people, but some people have really bad opinions and like really shitty things, like the Dawntrail MSQ.

user-qh6sg1dp1o: Don't worry, just air out all your grievances. Don't hold back.

Aug 28 2024

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