In this video, I want to discuss my experience with the story of FFXIV’s Expansion Dawntrail. Overall my experience has been positive, but during some parts I felt like it needed some tidying up and more extensive exploration or gameplay elements. Let me know your own thoughts about the story down below!
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00:00 Introduction
00:46 Zones
01:39 Duties
01:53 Soundtrack
02:42 Focus on Wuk Lamat
05:12 Filler Cutscenes
06:12 Pacing Problems
08:40 Gameplay Elements
09:52 Predictable Characters
11:34 Unbelievable Plot Developments
12:55 Unbelievable Characters
14:24 Scions as Mascots
14:50 Retreading Old Plots
16:08 Outro
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I thought the start to halfway was good (enough). But the ladder with alaxandria was interesting but poorly executed.. the end was disappointing, I felt nothing for Spheene and Khajiit queen weird disney need to save her..
Story was frustrating, lots of smart people in our team, none voices what we all think – why Graha only says at last second that the big enemy plan is just simply not sustainable… but not just this, lot of the times there were frustratingly obvious arguments to be had but instead we just either said "friendship wooo" or "fight bad booo"… come on. Gameplay is muuuch better than before, credit where credit is due. Tho the first extreme trial is not so much difficult but more like a dance dance revolution reaction game. Visual update causes a lot of lags to a lot of people. I put most stuff to low setting and i have i9 core cpu with 3080rtx gpu and i still have lag with extreme high resulted benchmark. I cant imagine what its like for other people with lower performing hardware.
Music: Big Dinsey Copy pasta… I did not like majority of the voiced musics and im sad that some ambient music can only be heard for few minutes. Like dungeon 2 battle music.
I am unhappy with Wuk Lamat's voice for 1 reason only, I think the direction was not well given to the voice actress because there are scenes where the voice is very underwhelming even though the body language would deem much more animated voice paired to the character. Like the last fight, she comes in, she speaks with very casual voice… compare it to how Thancred entered the Hades fight? And you will get what i mean. But I really liked how passionate Bakool Ja's voice actor was. I really believed at the start they are a bully and at the end the emotions come through, (look, his turning to good suddenly made no sense, but credit where credits due, the voice actor did best with what they had)
Thanks! Just unsubbed and quit playing to move on to other games
Otis dying was a Redemption. Otis biggest regret was "not protecting his queen" That is the reason for what he did. Nothing more nothing less
Balook change of heart was meant to be portrayed as a Bully. A Bully who picks on you because his home life is full of abuse.
He is not Evil. He was a victim of his situation.
The story started going downhill at the release of EW and post-EW imo. I have a suspicion Ishikawa was forced to change scripts at the last minute, hence the bad pacing and unfinished feeling of EW.
The writing and cutscenes had (bad) anime/manga tropes progressively crammed repeatedly into the game. They finally had me eye-rolling by 6.3 because the story became incredibly boring and predictable. FFXIV had elements of 'anime' in some of it's writing, but it was clearly doing it's own thing that worked. I haven't played the entirety of DT yet, but I have a sinking feeling i'll like it less than StB and EW.
At this point, I feel like ShB was the pinnacle of FFXIV's writing. It was basically lightning in a bottle that we won't ever see again for this game. HOPEFULLY the gameplay aspects will be DT's saving grace like StB's Expansion was.
Great video man, I agree with your review for the most part of course I have my own opinions.
I was fine with the WoL and the scions taking a back seat so that we had someone else leading the charge, and I love Wuk Lamat but I wish we got to spend more time with Koana and Zoraal Ja to really learn their characters and motivations. Zoraal Ja in particular was really disappointing out of the 3 siblings because they could have set up a much better character. It's shown towards the end that he seems to resent his father but at no point is this ever explored other than hinted at with kriles echo. It would have been so much cooler to see why it is he resents his father but no we just got him go evil sicko mode and die with no real resolution to his story.
And speaking of poor storylines. Some might disagree but I was extremely dissapointed with Kriles and Erenvilles story lines. I expected them to play much bigger parts and them finding their whole reason for coming along with us would be more impactful, but no. Everything is pretty much resolved in an hour between the two of them and it just felt completely pointless and empty.
And finally Sphene…I liked Sphenes motivation for the most part. Much like Emet she thinks that her people are what important and the end justifies the means. However we've ALREADY had this storyline and it was so much better the first time around. Which makes Sphene just come across as a bit of a joke overall. Travelling between reflections is a neat idea and certainly opens up future possibilities for content, but it just falls flat in this case. Nothing about it is explained at all they could just said oh yeah it was Ascian voodoo or something since the chalice thingie originally came from the 6th or something but nah just smart potatoes? I like the edition of Sphene and Alexandria but it just could have been executed in a much better way that wasnt something we've already done.
Overall though I did enjoy Dawntrail for all its shortcomings. I do rank it below Shadowbringers and Endwalker but right now just based on pre-patch expansions I do rank it above stormblood and probably equal to heavensward. It's probably around an 8/10 for me and I am really looking forward to what the future holds for my beloved FFXIV.
Christ, you people in the comments have the attention span of a flea.
I had thought that in EW, the scions should've stayed gone. Let the WOL deal with hope and doubt in their own way in the new expac. But it seems they brought them all back for.. someone else to kinda take over anyways? Perhaps the patch content will correct, but I'd say narratively this is my least favorite since ARR. Disappointing.
I share your sentiment about the story, Wuk Lamat and the concept of rule and happyness. What left a sour taste more than the story itself though was the way it was told. This doesn't feel like our story anymore, or that of our companions. But someone else's. Which would be fine if people would act in a believable way. Something they did very well before, and in FF16 as well. Less Disney please. And more Final Fantasy.
I feel like they did Bakool Ja Ja dirty. The dungeon would have been a prime opportunity to face the horrors of his countless sacreficed siblings, and maybe lift his torment there. Instead we get another seemingly random temple with a fancy exit. Didn't they explicitly mention sealing those away for fear of danger?
Endwalker: SILENCE THE SONG OF OBLIVION!!!
Dawntrail: SEND THE NOT-LIVING MEMORIES INTO OBLIVION!!!
They were literal opposites. I enjoyed the upbeat first half of 7.0 even though we knew a threat was coming. I just wish we weren’t put in an impossible situation where none of our choices “felt” like a dystopian existential crisis.
its kinda like avatar the last airbender and avatar the legend of korra. im sure in later expansions it will skyrocket again. dawntrail is this arc's version of arr (i guess)
DT 8/10
too many re-used story concepts, and at times too woke (hot dudes through out most of the expansion, only near the very end did some hot chics show up, and all female viera caster pieces have flat butts / chests etc)
…
EW: 9/10
ShB: 10/10
I think you nailed it on why wuk lamat is such a badly written character at 4:48. She has all the qualities and personality opposite of a nation's leader. Throughout the ordeal of the rites, not one of the challenges teaches sacrifice or choosing the lesser evil.
yep, they should have added more action.., just send / force us to do big fates occasionally..
too many slice of life moments..
A cutscene should be a reward to watch, not being used to pad the story and tell us literally nothing. Wuk was very obnoxious and I could not stand her at all. There are a lot of writing inconsistencies and Wol while being presented as a mentor yet doesn't act as a mentor at all. A ton of answers we give all involve praising Wuk to heaven. It was nauseating.
Another issue is that they rehashed a ton of writing plots, the whole train part was just a copy of working with everyone on Talos in ShB. Zoraal Ja killing his father like Zenos killed Varis. Some scenes were straight copies. Sphene reminded me immediately of Myste and his excessive use of aether to keep memories alive. I can keep going on how unoriginal the story was.
I can't stomach even replaying this story on my alts.
I d enjoy it more, if Sphene became a big baddie, or had someone controlling her, some "hidden leadership"… Her people talk with Wuk Lamat made me often cringe inside. I badly wanted to get new permanent baddies, these Alexandrians were made for it, but we dealt with it in 7.0 and whats next? Plus they really invaded just cuz Zoraal was butthurt x)
Tbh, in the moment the dome appeared and invasion started, Wuk shud have took backseat, scions shud have do a little "takeover" and tell her "this is existential threat for entire planet so u are no longer capable of dealing with it, leave it to us" and WoL shud have taken front seat
Imagine a scene where we fight armies of those sentries in some solo instance and u see all those ships from around tuliyolal leaving and heading for us…
In the end, proudest I felt was when Queen Eternal removed Krile, Wuk and Graha and kept us as the sole biggest danger to eliminate, that was first time we got proper recognition since end of 6.0 x) from an antagonist
What a stpid decision it was to suddenly have our char to a back seat to thay disgusting thing Wuk.
I've been sub'd to ff14 for 6 years. I took 11 days off from work to play ff14 as I have with pasy expansions.
I played for a few days, then I cancelled my sub. This wasn't just not good. I'd say it was worse tham bad even. This was filled with terrible decisions and even seems agenda pushing in some regards.
I'm already playing other games during my vacation. I finished the story and realized whatever direction ff14 has decided to go in isn't for me. They made this for a small degenerate group of people. They can have it then.
I love this game and world for a long time. How easy it was for them to kill it.
Voting for Wuk Lamat like Biden
Well put good sir.
I've posted pretty much the same feedback on the forums. Hope we can reach SE with this feedback. I wonder how the japanese audience reacted to the MSQ.
I can only do 30 minutes of the MSQ before I have to log off and play another game.
This expansion is a straight up chore, I hate it.
Lastly…the graphics update is SUPER underwhelming.
Every New beginning has to start smoth and slowly and for a start of a compete New Part dawntrail is amazing. The problem is that most players wanna a top of the endwalker/ shadowbringer but you cant start like this. In my eyes dawntrail is doing complete a Good Job in Story telling Charakter bilding. And that is the first Step for a long nice journey.
Prob the worst expansion ever imo I have 15k hours in this game and after completing the MSQ I logged out deleted the game and canceled my sub, ffxiv has lost its way big time.
I feel like a lot of people need to remember that 2.0 story was dreadful. Was this the best exp? No. Was it the worst? Not at all.
"I thought the voice acting for her was really well done" uhhhh…
Everything you said was spot on. I also had issues with the story in the 4th area. We wasted so much time in the whole stolen bracelet thing. It really felt like filler. I had issues with how they handled Bakool Ja Ja as well.
Despite all the issues I still enjoyed the MSQ and had a good time overall. But it is one of the weaker one for me for sure. Still better than Stormblood.
feel like cant be too upset with the lukewarm story, not enough stakes to make a crazy engaging story, need more building towards a new saga
I agree with most of this EXCEPT for Shaaloani. That has my absolute favorite music of all the zones in Dawntrail. My biggest complaint if I had to make one is that the mount height in Shaaloani is barely higher than the ARR zones for some reason.
4/4 locals disagree with this video 😂
It's incredible how removed you are from this expansion. You do absolutely nothing as you watch Wookie Lamat do everything and even take credit for the few things you actually do. It's a strong 1/10.
Something that really bothered me is how we spend all this time talking about the belief of not dying unless you are truly forgotten, and then you get to this shard where developments have lead to the last of its society being kept alive by their memories. Bunny girl is like "Hey, I don't like that we're being kept alive from lives from other worlds, so I want you to wipe out everyone in this world permanently" and there is absolutely zero moral implications on anyone's mind, everyone unanimously immediately accepts that you need to wipe out everything that constitutes as "life" in this world. Not only does this baffle me in a story sense, but the fact that you permanently make the zone an ugly mess also baffles me in an MMO sense.
We spent dozens and dozens of hours being given tours and performing menial tasks, just to get to an interesting concept and not discussing it at all or seeking alternatives, like stopping sphene and letting people move on as they wish using the last energies in the world. Instead we just wipe out this world because erenville's mom says its okay. We spend the last moments of the game quickly going from zone to zone, being forced into these awkward reunions that end with us wiping them out along with making the zone look like a black turd permanently. But hey, it's soooo thematic… you'll always have the memories of the 10 minutes in each area before wiping it out forever. It's totally worth it for the forced sentimentality of "LOOK ITS KRILES PARENTS, DO YOU REMEMBER KRILE IS IN THIS EXPANSION TOO AND NOT JUST WUK LAMAT– OOPS THEY'RE ALREADY GONE SO SAD." And it's not like you'll ever come back to this zone for any reason, this makes complete sense in an MMO.
im happy that the square enix website is so messed up and i actually was trying to re-sub and I gave up due to the website not letting me give them my money. This looks absolutely horrible lol. I wasnt a fan of endwalker but at least there was a point to that. im happy i didnt resub after watching this. thanks! great video. and if im being totally honest. the graphics update is underwhelming. it still looks like a 10 year old game and everyone already uses mods that make it look better anyway. meh
I hope Square-Enix sees this/is aware of these points. I liked the expansion quite a bit, but it could have been so much better story wise. The trials and dungeons are great.
The problem is, questing in ff14 is so ancient that the story HAS to be good or there’s a problem
I think you absolutely nailed it with this review. It mirrored a lot of my own complaints amd highlighted the ones I hadnt fully considered. Excellent review!
Guilty Gear Strive has a more interactive storymode than this.
The second half of the third map is where it blew my mind away. The story started to be very interesting around then.
The reason DT failed is because SE went after those sweet ESG loans. That's why Wuk Lamat was forced into the story so much and that's why they chose that VA for the English version. That's also why they hired that red flag for the localization lead.
The story simply had too much Wuk, her arc should have wrapped up after winning the contest. Second half of the expac should have been WoL, Krile, and Erenville focused.
14:06 speaking of Y’shtola – why was she even there? I’m so tired of her at this point. She’s just conveniently there to figure out all the mysteries that the rest of us are too stupid to figure out apparently.
What makes her appearance even worse is that she fucks off for a lot of it while she’s with us to “investigate” something. So it just feels like she’s shoehorned in without any real thought of what she should actually be doing other than being fanservice.
I really wanted her to leave us alone for JUST ONE expansion.
I'm praying for them to bring back sphene and with her the unlost world area, it's so bad right now, both the creepy music and bleak colors is depressing. The story is like written by amature writer with incoherent plots. Such a shame. Was so excited for the release…
There are 4 that disappointed me: 1. It about Wuk Lamat (not to mention VA so they are fine as they are for my opinion) basically the story is about Wuk Lamat tale and not our character story becuz we being supportive to her and I agree that we can help her and believe she can win with everything she got but what she should've have done is let us fight with her expectantly fighting Zoraal Ja during the the fight cutscenes. 2. The story are somewhat complicated (didnt finish the story yet but will do it later so forgive me if I have a little spare to say) like we know about Electrope and everything but Sphene being endless and being the real final boss break my heart plus I dont like the fact about the soul collecting to become one with soul to gain power which make me very angry than seeing 120 dead children in Skydeep dungeon so what Im trying to say here is it just not right with the story.
3. The scions should have bigger role than short like Thancred, Urianger and Estinien if they can be more helpful like before and they could have included Raha and Y'shtola becuz they are part of the story too since the trailer of them appearance so that way we all can enjoy and laugh but in the end it was always short becuz like I said about the 1 part is always about Wuk Lamat, they should have let us play as Scion and heck even Koana becuz it would be so much better than Wuk Lamat. 4. Two dye slot and most of DT I would discuss: they did stated two dye slot but didnt say it would be limited becuz for starter I thought two dye slot meant for all current gear which I hoped to dye and understandable if they will make more room but a lot of ppl complain about it and say it would limited for only attire and gear of lvl 1 and DT which is true but I don't mind waiting for future if they make all current to have two dye slot. Anyway the attire of DT are fine but weird becuz the attire of Bard is like HW and some of them seem alright but weird, I dont know about the rest of classes but the bard and stuff are off
I know literally nothing about FF14 but it sounds like this is the same situation as with Destiny 2 Lightfall. Looming threat gets left on the back burner for a side story revolving around a new character that showed up out of nowhere that many people probably don't like