Wow, Final Fantasy XIV really did it again! That was amazing! I love Wuk Lamat! Oh, and did you see when she did that flip? That really cool flip that she did, did you see it? What an incredible – just an amazing character, I’d do anything for her. Wuk Lamat, man – just, DUDE, what a rock solid, ten-out-of-ten, totally radical character. Thanks for coming through one more time, Final Fantasy XIV.
#finalfantasyxiv #finalfantasy14 #mmorpg
TIMESTAMPS:
0:00 Introduction
1:31 Chapter 1, Part 1: The World of Tural
3:51 Chapter 1, Part 2: The Soundtrack
9:09 Chapter 2, Part 1: The Story of Dawntrail
16:51 Chapter 2, Part 2: The Sequel to Dawntrail
21:18 Chapter 2, Part 3: The Voices of Dawntrail
24:39 Chapter 2, Part 4: What is Dawntrail About?
28:04 Chapter 3, Part 1: Let Me Play the Game
30:03 Chapter 3, Part 2: Wrestling is Fake
33:15 Finale: Closing Thoughts
SOCIAL MEDIA:
https://www.patreon.com/embersarcade
https://www.twitch.tv/ember_arcade
https://twitter.com/Ember_Arcade
MUSIC:
This section usually says, “I make all of the music you hear on the channel.” In my channel’s short life time (just over a year of uploading), I’ve never used anyone else’s music but my own. Today, for the first time, I break that rule by borrowing the talents of Soken-sama in order to directly reference the pieces in the discussion.
source
Valigarrrrrrrmanda.
Hey man, not really a FFXIV player here but this was a pretty good video. Your delivery is really good, so good job man. You claimed to be an MMO "slut", have you given GW2 a try? There was another FFXIV player who's played through the game and seems to have loved it. Think his name is megamadvlad.
I would recommend it (given the base game is free) and a new x-pac is launching next month that includes player housing which is geared to beat FFXIVs take on housing, I think you might enjoy it. Just a recommendation, and if you ever did, I would love to hear your thoughts and experiences in the game.
Diversity, Marry Sue, I smell Star Wars here.
I thought Cauchia was an alright voice actor. The issue was she had like what… 2-3 minutes worth of voiced lines to "get used to the character" while Wuk Lamat got 8 hours? All those pivotal scenes involving her and Erenville earlier that mostly went unvoiced. Don't forget half of Cauchia's lines were also supposed to be spoken through an AI robot monitor with a slightly modified voice. Could be some bad direction and coordination there not letting the VA know which line is for what part of the character. Wuk Lamat had no excuse though. She had some voiced lines in Endwalker, had an entire expansion dedicated to her, I honestly felt like she got worse as time went on. I didn't really find her that offensive in Endwalker.
As for the most awful voice of dawntrail… that goes to some random viera that Erenville knew from his childhood. When the two meet in Solution 9, I couldn't tell if the viera was male or female… the voice didn't help much either. But it was bad. Like someone must have gotten their family member or a random intern to do this random side character bad.
Great review! I was honestly shocked at how little I was enjoying the story but the encounter design almost makes up for it. I know I had to set my expectations low after EW concluded that saga but damn :/
Pls no man not that final Steal Kill Scene. The cringeee. Thank the community for helping me switch to Jap dub during Vanguard onwards. I can close my eye for ALL the Negatives of Dawntrail except for that Steal Kill in eng VA after my jap switch. Everything was getting good until that shyt killed it. Now ill look towards the ex trial to wipe off that scene and just make it as MY CANON just pure badass Sphene as the last boss fight of the MSQ.
I have to agree with most of the points raised in the video. I liked fantasy Texas though, if only because it gave me a breather from Wuk Lamat. It's probably the worst part of the MSQ because it made me keenly aware of how much more I enjoyed the narrative when she wasn't around. Even if the plot was nonsensical (rubber bullets? REALLY???) I didn't really register it as bad because of how relieved I felt.
speeeeeeeeeeeen
Worst expansion
Heres hoping post is better
great video.
I will say, I liked the Texas part of the story just because it was goofy and actually felt like an adventure again. It was nice to get away from Wuk for a bit.
Do you honestly think sci-fi purple new york and yellow sci-fi venice are areas that actually stand out or are you just blowing smoke? Oh you are that kind of reviewer that talk alot of word salad but doesnt actually say anything
Dawntrail would have been a better story if the WoL was not present. It feels like a story that would have benefitted from a new character so the stakes wouldn’t feel small in comparison to former struggles. At no point in this expansion did I go “damn… how are we gonna beat this?” Because we have travelled through time, dimensions, seen the end of space, killed god beings, ancient evils, the concept of entropy, and many more. It feels as if this story should have been made for FF17
While i do agree with everything you stated, i actually really enjoyed the mid western voice acting they went with Shaaloani. Maybe because it was the boomer in me, but it really reminded me of thee old cringe acting during the slew of mid western films we had back then.
It's sad that the side quests in DT are better then the MSQ.
I think one of my chatters said it best when I streamed the msq, "square enix is just a small indie company" when it came to all of the blatant missteps. Also consider this: Fallout New Vegas is 10 years old at this point, and nearly every one of the character interactions are voiced while Dawntrail has barely any voiced cutscenes.
Did they let the most active forum poster voice this?
Horrible MSQ and still 10/10? What?
I think your enjoyment of dawntrail is tied to how much you enjoy shounen anime.
This is by far the worst MSQ in 14. Wuk Lamat was obnoxious and unfit to rule (peace and happiness is not a basic domestic or foreign policy) and NO we were NOT her mentor but her yes man. I think Koana should have been focused on more who had more flaws and grew over time and showed leadership skills (signing a trade agreement with Vitra and defending Tuliyolal) and Zoral Ja's views and motivations were stupid. So overall the Rite of Succession was cringe and shallow.
2nd part should have heavily focused on Krile and Erenville but surprise surprise the low IQ clown lioness shows up and sucks the life out of the story again. Sphene was weak sauce, her plan was dumb cause if she absorbed the source then that would shatter other reflections and then what? no energy source. I am a huge FF9 fan (my fav FF ever) and they way they used 9 was kinda cheap, I felt nothing when I finished the MSQ. The final fight was ruined by Wuk Lamat and her disgusting voice (that voice actor definitely got the job through nepotism, no doubt).
I never want to see Wuk Lamat ever again, send her away like Poochie the Dog. The writers need to be demoted, get some forward thinking, convicted writers that understand basic things like 'Show don't tell'. The music overall was great except for the opening song and Smile (that song makes me cringe into a pretzel), the dungeons/ trials and raids are fun. The locations are coo, I love Shaloani the most cause of the music and just love the western setting. Overall if the devs/writers don't course correct, this game will collapse, never seen the community so pissed off.
They should fire the writer, the localizer, the voice director, and all of the voice actors. After that's said and done, take the existing MSQ content and rewrite, revoice, and redirect the whole thing. As it stands, Dawntrail's story is the lowest the game has ever been, and it doesn't help that it follows the worst patch quest series as well. The MSQ hasn't been in a good place since pre-6.1, over two years ago. The Arcadian story kicked off really well, so I hope 7.1 will take the MSQ in a better direction. I just hope that they take all of this feedback and make the needed changes. As it stands, I tell people not to bother playing after the first Endwalker credits, because the rest just isn't worth the time.
I was putting up with it right up to the major scene which leads to you heading to the Night City location. That one scene where no one does anything for no reason literally killed all ability to take this expansion seriously. There was no explanation given to letting HIM walk away after that event. Not even the flimsiest of excuses. Not one.
C'mon, you can't possibly say that Shaaloani is the worst zone/arc ever created in the history of XIV when stuff like Brayflox's the quest for cheese exist in ARR.
I'm so glad I played dawntrail in my native language. Wuk lamats german VA does so much better of a performance than the english one.
I found the story boring at first but i did get really invested in it when we got to the Alexandria part. Wuk Lamat is boring but i really liked Zarool Ja, Otis and Sphene
I'm currently struggling my way through Dawntrail, skipping more scenes than I thought I would, suffering at the thought of reading ALL THAT TEXT… I've never been this indifferent to the story before. Koana is a highlight and the free Fantasia was nice. That's it. So far everything else is such a chore, such a bore. Even travelling is painful. Slow mount, slow walking, no flying… man… it's just a PAIN.
This is a very well done review, it touches on points that have been criticised a lot but not with this level of eloquence – and I have tried my hand at making my own brutally honest critical review in the Lodestone blogs as well. Very well put.
I will however disagree with your points regarding Living Memory and genocide. I will say that while the zone does invite discussion and philosophical debate, the story is not explored in a very thorough manner to erase any doubts in players that the Endless are in fact not living beings. The fact that so many, myself included, still eer on the side of moral relativism and see the Endless as nothing more than simulations of people who once lived, and sustaining them is too high a price to pay, is what makes the entire philosophical exploration of this last zone as divisive as the DT MSQ as a whole.
the story is – for me, with all good will – a 3 out of 10.
and i dont know where i should start…
first i feel betrayed. i was ready for a chill fun story. and i didnt get it. promoted as a summer vacation with no world ending theme. i didnt get a vacation and after half the story we have a world ending theme.
the first part is bad written but had potential, but at the end we get lyse and hiens story all over again put in one character and in not even half the time… but with intended more to learn. solution to every problem: food and friendship. a question i couldnt get how: wuk always runs around ALL OF TURAL!! and she never visits 2 of the 5 zones? for the rite of succession she doesnt need the approval of texas and the bunny tribe? they simply obey? so she wins because she has 3 of 5 region voices? yeah i know the plot has to happen, but…
the second part was worse for me. shpene is far worse than wuk. she is a disapointing boring copie of emet selch and at the end meteion. the theme of the last 1-2 zones is amarouth and ultima thule all over again and mixed up. maybe its a me thing but the second half of the story is: we have it better at home! zoraal ja is a discount zenos , fixated on wuk and even with around 50years a bratty brat; sphene is discount emet+wants to be meteion; koana (which i like) a cheap graha; wuk is naruto+lyse+hien without the deept; the endless are the discount ancient; catciua is a discount venat; the boy from texas ist vermillion from hero academia; the zones and themes are cheap copies… and they even started to say oh that is from there, that is like from that world, no crativity, copy and paste. it feelt like: here we used all that you liked before, so you will like it again, right?
and i would argue that they overused certain camera shoots and copied again from past stories. or that unfunny boat builder… one time fun, two times ok, but 12times wtf? when i have to see wuk clenching her fist one more time…
i couldnt care less about the people of heritage found, solution 9 and living memory, because i dont get any attachment. i dont care about voice actors or messages they may put in the end… i was so bored and in disbelive, that i just dont care.
my experience in this story was 90-95 cringe, but where do we go? 95-98 pure boring stupidity… and i hate the cyberpunk setting, 98-100 cringe + so boring i had to stop and do it on 2 days.
and then the attempt(?) to ff9 nothing worked. i love ff9. i dont know if they even know a unze of ff9. beside the names alexandria and lindblum and some music here and there was nothing there. i couls see some trys where they may have thought about something and then it was gone. and most: spehen is princess ashe from ff12, she has nothing to do with garnet from ff9.
and the end where we get the holy grail to dimension travel… i dont like it.
dawntrail was in a long time, a game, where i had to force myself to play the story. if i wouldnt know, i like the fighting part of the game, i would have it refunded
thats not even all of what – for me – is wrong with this story, but for now lets end here.
edit: i didnt skip anything, because there COULD have been something good starting. at the end i think: skip it all, you lose nothing.
I don't have an issue with having American (or Southern) accents, but maybe idk hire Americans to voices them? Or hell at least people who can do it well! Cuz it sounded like they gotten people from different countries to try and mimic southern accents.
SpHeNe LiStEn tO Me
Im retired from this game since i already finished The Endwalker
What i miss from this game is
Heavensward
The vibe when you first step into Ishgard and then the music at the night is really calming
Also the fact i buy the plot in Ishgard because i can enjoy the music they got.
Also Heavensward is the expansion that makes me spent $150 just to buy every expansion with the bonus hahahaha
I'm noticing that bigger content creators are afraid to criticize DT or even address the bad reviews. Why is that? It's very obvious that this expac fell flat in so many ways. The music, zone design, dungeon fights and attention to Latin American culture are the only things that save DT from collapse.