I completely disagree with what YoshiP said about Wuk Lamat. Her problem was that she wasn’t confident enough? She wasn’t sure of herself for like the first zone, and then after that, nothing could stop her, and that was the problem. Her power up wasn’t believeable, and she kept going even when she should have stepped back. I would have vastly preferred an insecure Wuk Lamat, that comes to the WoL late at night by the fire because she’s scared and she needs support. Or really any depth at all for her
He has seen the kinds of things the complainers complain about so I wouldn’t be surprised if he just started ignoring the vast majority of complaints and trusted his writing team.
Trying to surpass Endwalker would be a feat. How do you go above flying to the edge of existence and destroying the concept of nihilism? Dawntrail wasn’t as grandiose in its story, but overall it was FUN, which is the important part to me. I read an article ago saying this was a better Stormblood which I’d agree with.
Certainly more engaging and cohesive than SB and yeah, we have to walk things back from EW. Overall I liked the story but the first half was a bit anemic. I think it would’ve benefited from playing up the competition/stakes of the succession some more - a bit more intrigue there.
Definitely think it’ll land towards SB where the story is hit or miss for people but the post patch stuff is really good.
Spoilers below obviously if you haven’t played DT yet.
I enjoyed it but I feel some areas were wasted. The first half where we went around learning about all the different cultures, while it got pretty predictable by the end (we find a new group, they have a problem, Koana tries to solve it with technology, Zoraal Ja tries to solve it with brute force, Bakool Ja Ja tries to be underhanded and Wuk Lamat talks to the people), it serves as a good introduction to the new world and the different races there. You have to remember that this is as much about setting up breadcrumbs for the next couple of expansions as it is the current one.
The second half of the game felt rushed though. Shaaloani feels like it exists for two reasons; to create a moment like in Shadowbringers where everyone came together to build the golem to get to Mt Gulg, and to remind you who Wuk Lamat’s nursemaid was to set up the way death is treated in Sphene’s realm. Heritage Found feels like an extended entrance into Solution Nine, especially since its main storyline with the resistance carries on into the main part of Solution Nine. And Living Memory feels like it’s tying up loose ends too quickly, since we learn pretty quickly the whole point is to shut the area down (and then it looks so drab afterwards!)
I’m not saying I felt it was bad, I just wanted some more time with it. Hopefully the patch content addresses it to some degree.
The Arcadion raids however have been amazing 😊 And I absolutely cannot wait for the FFXI themed Alliance Raids.
I agree. I feel like the Alexandria plot was really wasted overall. It was finally a good opportunity to let Krile shine in the story and to keep the stakes somewhat high after Endwalker, but it all just kinda went nowhere in the end.
All Krile really did was have awkward conversations with her parents, but other than that there was no significance to the fact that she was born an Alexandrian. And the whole Sphene/Alexandria plot just felt like a weaker version of Emet-Selch (I need to sacrifice your people to save my people). But Sphene was also just less charismatic and less sympathetic than Emet-Selch overall, so it was weird every time Wuk Lamat kept trying to make nice with her after her multiple mask-off villain betrayals.
And what hurt most for me, I think, is that Final Fantasy 9 references also just felt wasted. I hated that the expansion ended in a (literal) theme park. Turning a beloved installment in the franchise into a sequence of sideshow attractions just felt like a slap in the face. I was about to overlook that in the final dungeon when I thought “Hell yeah, at least we’ll finally get to see Beatrix in here, right?” but that didn’t even happen either.
Here’s my two cents
spoiler
The plot suffered greatly by overly focusing on Wuk Lamat in the first half while not fleshing out the side characters. Her character development arc definitely took longer than it should have, and really the player’s enjoyment of the story in the first half of MSQ completely hinges on whether you like her as a character or not, since you are literally glued to her hip for most of it. (Some of my FC mates were dying to finally spend some time for Erenville, for example. We had a complete running joke going since whenever the group was about to split up, the WOL always went with Wuk Lamat)
Zoraal Ja had more or less zero build-up for his eventual villain-reveal, and you couldn’t really sympathize with him. All you knew beforehand was that his entire existence is extremely rare among Mamool Ja and that the people’s expectations were high. And, that for some reason, he wants to engulf the world in war which like, you must have some deep-seated resentment or something to want that, why? But later he drops that he was treated differently from his siblings by Gulool Ja Ja which, like, how were we supposed to know that? Until then, Gulool Ja Ja was presented to us as the perfect hero-turned-king and a pretty chill guy. Just…Zoraal Ja’s entire plot fell flat because we didn’t really get to know him before he became king. (Also, the whole Gulool Ja plot just doesn’t sit right with me)
Koana had his own little arc in the first hal, but I wish we could have seen him interact with Wuk Lamat a bit more. We get told by Erenville that they tend to bicker with each other like proper siblings, but we never see it on-screen :/
Same thing with Krile, Erenville and the Scions. Krile had it worst, since she was hyped up as a main character in this expac, but basically did nothing except chime in with a question once or twice and eat ice cream with her parents.
The Scions took a complete backseat this time, only offering Koana and Wuk Lamat some advice here and there, I expected a little more of that supposed rivalry :/
On top of all that, the plot just…didn’t make sense a lot of the time. I’m surprised that Bakool Ja Ja got away with all the stuff he did. Sometimes, rules that were established before were ignored completely not long after. Hey, remember when we were told that contestants who attack or kill the judge for a challenge will be disqualified? Never mind, have BJJ kidnap and threaten one, whatever.
I liked how Dawntrail played out, but I feel there are a ton of stuff in there that met the cutting room floor. I think Krile was supposed to be present more, Solution Nine feels empty despite bring vast, and I thought we were finally getting a rideable train. But anyway, I understand the mixed reception, still, the game had to have its next Realm Reborn world-building steps after Endwalker concluded ARR, and they couldn’t do much without being the slog A Realm Reborn was.
