Infectedjohn: I don't agree (with Yoshi P.) on this one, ARR for example was a bit slower and a little bit boring at points but it was NEVER divisive. Being a new arc has nothing to do with the quality of the story and the clearness of direction the game must have.
Remend1: Yoshi P expected a mixed response... WHY? He delayed Endwalker because of dialogue he wasn't satisfied with, so why would he push out content that he KNEW wouldn't get a good reception with Dawntrail?! His response about Wuk Lamat was concering to me. The lack of mention of her excessive screen time was certainly a problem. Even pushing Wuk Lamat aside - The dialogue was very poorly written, and the ENG side of voice acting was total garbage! The voice acting of Cahciua, all of the voices in the 4th zone? Painful. I'm dissappointed by the HUGE drop in quality from End walker. You can start a new story without it being as painful as this. The Arcadion so far is turning into a greater story, even as side content than the MSQ has been so far.
steakdriven: Dawntrail suffers from what I call an idiot plot. It was only able to move forward because of certain characters being idiots. Case in point, why was the key left unguarded? Why didn't Gulool Ja Ja console his son after his big loss? And last but certainly not least, the warrior of light just stood around thinking about Y'shtola's bosom while Gulool Ja Ja got ganked.
Massacari: The English VA for Wuk had no range the other VA's portraying her all sounded light years better.
blackdragoncyrus: You can start a new narrative arc AND make it good.
Mesarthim: He knew damn well what the community does or does not like. We've been here for a decade .

Yoshi-P is just doing PR talk. He can't openly be critical.
TajinQ: I don't mind at all that Wuk has character flaws such as being insecure and ignorant. What frustrated me is how easily she "solved" her character flaws. she barely struggled, and got a MASSIVE power up in just one quest. Never had to question her beliefs (which are bare bones to begin with). Even with her character arc completed, she still has the belief system of an 8 year old.
Seth6097: Wuk Lamar English VA is atrocious
Tinandel: The longer I've had to think about it, the more certain I am that Dawntrail is - to me, at least - easily the worst campaign XIV has ever done. Now, that's not to say it's godawful or has no redeeming virtues. It does, and I have been enjoying it. That being said.... I still think that I'd rank it dead last, and I plan to take a break from the game for at least a couple months since there's just.... not much to do right now anyway.
Kairax: Yeeee, That response from Yoshi P was kinda bullshit.
There is "low stakes" with new story.

But this wasn't it. It was a total wash and DROP of quality. If YoshiP meant by "low stakes" = "Less budget, less money, less quality". That would be what we got with DT.
ZethN64: It's not just Wuk lamat taking up all the spotlight, the scions were as useful as background character playing a tree in a stage play. They offered nothing of value to the story despite their experience across the expansions. Alisaie struggled with feeling weak in comparison to the WoL and her brother, even feeling like she failed to live up to her grandfather but grew through her struggles. Yet she doesn't share any of this with Wuk Lamat who is weaker and not as knowledgeable as her brothers. Alphinaud formed the Crystal Braves and at its height,it fell apart, learning the hardest lesson of his life. Even working with the Garleans to rebuild from the Ashes and the hardships that come with it and yet he does not convey any of this despite Wuk's naivety and lacking of leadership. G'raha gathered survivors into a thriving bastion in a world on the brink of destruction, his struggles and sacrifice were never once a topic to Wuk or Sphene. And finally we get to the point of going into Living Memory and the one person who has a thirst for visiting other shards, crossing between realms and we end up leaving Y'shtola behind because "Someone has to babysit the gate". At that point, it felt like they brought her, Thancred and Urianger back just for fan service and nothing more. I understand they are starting fresh, wanting a new story after the 10 year journey but you can't just erase the experiences and lessons learned from the character's lives. That is what makes the characters who they are.
Geekezf: The more i do the MSQ(yes i'm that kind of crazy person who have 8 characters) the more i'm wondering:
We have our friend we knew since Heaven Sward, who's in search for her parent, her past, her life, everything.
WHY DA FUQ she's not more in front of the story?!

WHY SHE'S NOT THE MC?!

After we helped Queen "talk 148 times to" Wuk Lamat, we should have focusing on Krile and Erenville..
MalganisLefay: mmhh.... not that satisfied with how yoshi p addressed a good amount of the critisism...
TheWickedWizardOfOz1: Wuk Lamat's lack of confidence is certainly an issue, and so is the checklist nature of the MSQ and lack of battle content. But the real issue that all the others stem from is the simplicity of Tural. Gulool Ja Ja talking about his children being unready for the throne and using the Rite of Succession as a testing ground is good stuff, but we never see how Wuk Lamat learns anything
rodimus580: This one just wasn’t it Yoshi p.
hypnotic13371337: I literally had NO EXPECTATIONS for DT despite being a 1.0 player. Literally none, I was expecting this whole storyline to be a tournament arc or some filler stuff before they even started a "New arc". The Story was alright, like a 5 or a 6 personally. But holy fuck the bad parts of it HURT
hypnotic13371337: I REALLY dislike the whole "Story told over 10 years" for ARR-EW. Sure, it took 10 years to get EW, but we literally got storydumped in the last 40% of the story.

How many references to Zodiark and the ancients did we get from ARR-Stormblood, barely fucking anything. We met Emet selch at the last 0.01% of SB and diddn't learn about the backstory of himself, the other Ascians, Zodiark/Hydelyn/Hythlodeus/Elidibus/Lahabrea until SHB and EW.

Before then, we barely KNEW anything about them or their motives besides "Dark robed guys behind everything ever to bring their god back" It wasn't until SHB that we got 98% of the context for them and why they do what they do..... and that was like, 4 years ago
ChannelRaznoff: I've played through ARR 3 times. Once was at launch, once was when NG got introduced, and once before Endwalker when I NG the story just before launch. I'll never play Dawntrail in NG
thehurricane6767: If wuk lamat will be following us into 8.0, im going to be an msq skipper
thevoxdeus: It's a little frustrating hearing YoshiP's answer.

Speaking only for myself, I enjoyed most of the culture and history stuff. I liked learning about the Hanuhanu and their ritual and their relationship to their reeds. I liked the idea that cultural traditions often have a very practical origin, which gets revisited later with the cooking contest. I liked learning about the Yok Huy and their very unique view of death and afterlife via a tangible history to keep a legacy alive. I liked it twice as much when I started connecting the dots between the Yok Huy and Alexandria.

I wasn't a huge fan of the Pelupelu quest for reasons that would be too lengthy to get into, but I loved the zone and the style of the Pelupelu and I thought the style of their quest was presented in a unique way, which (to me) was still interesting.

I loved the cooking quest because it again touched on the idea of the history behind a cultural staple food, and it was a good natural lead in the the mamool ja and their less optimistic view of that conflict.

In other words, I mostly liked all the cultural and historical stuff, and if I had a complaint about it apart from Wuk Lamat, it was mostly that some aspects like Galool Ja Ja's companions and the fight against the Valigarmanda got glossed over too quickly.

Nonetheless, I feel that the story has a lot of garbage that mysteriously all seems to revolve around Wuk Lamat. I hated the time-wasting "kidnapped" quest which was frustrating and terrible from start to finish. I hated the fact that Wuk Lamat was the driving character for the MSQ in the first place (instead of Krile or the final words of Emet Selch or a general lust for adventure, all of which are a better, more logical cause than the fate of a furry bimbo that we met 5 minutes ago).

I hated the fact that Wuk Lamat was weirdly involved in every conversation and made all of the decisions despite being the weakest of all the main characters. She's a person that no accomplished or capable person would ever follow, which brought me back mentally to the bad old days of the wonder twins "leading" the Crystal Braves in 2.0.

In short, I didn't hate the world-building. I hated Wuk Lamat and specifically I hated the way that she was shoe-horned into a story that didn't require or benefit from her presence AT ALL.

Oh yea, and I hated the fact that I didn't touch a single button except to interact with NPCs and inanimate objects for the first two hours and I didn't get into a dungeon until 4 hours into the story. A 4 hour sequence of fetch quests to kick off an "adventure" is garbage and there's no excuse for it.

"World building" isn't the problem. Badly executing a formulaic approach to storytelling and characterization is the problem.
eternaljohhny4908: Alright, How I would write/do Dawn Trail. (Also Yoshi.P response is probably just a PR move since he can't criticize it too badly due to the fans and can't give it too much credit, again due to the fans.)

1 Make Wuk more sheltered and Naïve, have her human caretaker when she was young be her retainer who follows Wuk to Sharlayan when Wuk first meets us and show the Nana lady being very protective and overly caring due to how she lost her bio children and now is afraid of losing Wuk to make it make sense. Have Wuk to have never left the main city as Galool JaJa was afraid another assassination attempt by a mammol ja might happen as said by Wuk’s Bio dad, which would explain why Wuk does not understand a lot of the cultures, as she primarily would have lived in the palace and always having her Nana and Koana who in this version would be more protective too and kept any bad stuff from happening to Wuk prior to meeting us.

2 When we get to the main city, Wuk’s retainer again shows to do most of the things for Wuk and shield them from anyone who might cause problems. Also remove Bakool being a dick and stepping on her food at this moment. I’d also lower how dickish Bakool is, still show him to being aggressive and push away people due to the burden placed on his shoulders, but not be needlessly horrid. Then change the rite of succession so it forces the contenders to go place to place together so their personalities can play off of each other more and help grow all four of them as they learn off of each other by seeing how each other tackles the tasks that happen in each of the places they go. Also here have Wuk’s Retainer say she cannot accompany Wuk on their trials due to old age, and have Nana one on one tell us the player to take care of Wuk.

3 Right away have Wuk get taken advantage of in the Pelupelu Area and have Wuk actually lose money before anyone notices, then have Krile and Erenville teach her how to Haggle and Alphinaud that night tell Wuk what to look out for when it comes to shady people. Also have Koana come over right at the start to show his good relationship with Wuk and also show him being a little stand offish with the Warrior of light as he would not trust us yet and it would show his protectiveness of Wuk. Here I’d also have him talk about Zarool and why Zarool is the way he is, maybe explain that the advisor always beside Zarool was the one who raised him like Nana did Wuk, that the advisor slightly poisoned Zarools mind from a young age.

4 HanuHanu area, remove the trial they had, put in a different one, maybe having them show how they can improve their lives and judging the candidates by who comes up with the best innovation. Which would allow Koana to show his skills and also make Wuk show how inept she is and require to ask for help from Alphinaud and Erenville since one has gone all over the world and the other is a brainiac. Still have Bakool steal ideas from others, have Thancred try to do a little sabotage, but we kick his butt off to the side.

5: For the first dungeon, have it so the four contestants made a personal challenge to see who could make it to the goblin area first, making it a personal stake and fun one. This would also allow us to grow closer to Bakool as Bakool with his always eager for a challenge persona would be up for it. Then have us and Wuk actually train together and get spotted by Bakool who after overhearing we are a champion across the sea, challenges us to a duel, we fight him and win, and have him train with Wuk, having the two grow together and still retaining his dickishness in a charming way like Nero, this also would allow later for Bakool to open up about what his people are doing without just dropping in on it and when Bakool is ready to ask and sees Wuk as a better leader then himself and is humbled by us more then once, it would make sense.

I'd make it more like this and that is only the first bit.

Aug 30 2024

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