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Just thoughts while listening, in no particular order
I'd assumed the Azem symbol appearing on the portal-macguffin was our little wish-stone preventing it from doing whatever she was wanting to use it for. It doesn't make sense (to me) for Azem to have made it, since by the time the world was sundered, they were dead and sundered with it.
There was a spot in Heritage Found around the Gomphotherium, where I fell into a pit and had to teleport to get out.
One thing I don't get, is why the (700) Neo Kingdom weapons/outfits exists, when the 690 job sets could be upgraded/augmented to be 700 gear via tomestones instead.
I know they always do it, but what's the benefit of having a new outfit which replaces all out cool job outfits so quickly? Feels like a waste.
This part became a bit of a rant, sorry.
Wuk's background of living in the palace and not knowing the local culture, is about the same as Ron Weasley living with magical parents in a magical house and not knowing the first thing about casting spells.
Though it's kinda worse for Wuk since she's older than 11, because it implies: She's never had any lessons in all her years. Never interacted with palace guests. Barely attended festivals, local or external. And hasn't spoken with her father, brothers, the guards, or pretty much any of the people in her home town, besides the taco vendor.
There's sheltered princess, and then there's locked in a cupboard princess.
Yet somehow (without leaving the palace) she managed to be a very competent warrior by the time we meet her.
I'd honestly have found it more believable if, during the storm on the boat, she'd bumped her head and gotten selective amnesia.
I love the dungeons, but I hated the story telling, and the stakes where non-existent, and then suddenly there is this bad, unoriginal retelling of the Ardor; Didnt we just get done dealing with someone trying to bring back their dead, at the expense of your living, and across all the reflections? Sphene just admitted to agreeing to the attack on Wuk's city, but Hey… Lets learn about their crops and go make snacks?! Everything about it was engaging with people locked in a concentration camp for me and monstrous, robbed of their lives, with thermostats on the head instead of slave collars, and writers forced WoL and party to be awkwardly upbeat about all this? And Living Memory… I don't care about these people, they are already dead and even know it, and certainly not at the expense of Eorzea's living I just defended for the last 10 years. However, wasn't it weird how we rejected Emet's argument that "But yes, moral relativism and all that. Case in point- I do not consider you to be truly alive. Ergo, I will not be guilty of murder if I kill you." However, its okay when we do it (cause living memory are not alive for us, but sometimes are like Namika/Nursemaid)? A 30 year time skip that suddenly and conveniently stops when the MC shows up? Just a lot of forced reactions with manufactured pity/sympathy/concern that isn't earned. I cleared every side quest before moving to the next zone because I REALLY wanted to see the slow, paced groundwork of the new story being built, and instead of discovering and exploring a new world, I got a weird field trip with lecture.
no rook, uh oh
One thing to correct, the amount of required FATEs is the same; the original final 60 tier has just been broken up into a 20 tier and a 40 tier
And in regards to the new Turali race names, it's said early on when you first get off of the ship that they're actually using tribe names. It's just that usually all the people of the tribe are of a particular race so one is used to describe the other. Like in the south how all sodas just get called "coke"
For Erenvilles accent doesnt Lyna from the first have the same one?
Edited to agree that I havent touched the role quests since probably Shadowbringers. I too miss the job quests.
No Rook?
I did all the side quests in the first two areas but it's so much easier to do them after you unlock flying because the areas are so large and sometimes the quest objectives are really spread out.
The milala did not leave from Meracydia, they left from AloAlo island.
As far as the story… I absolutely adore the previous arc. I have played through it twice with a third planned next year. Dawntrail was the first segment of the MSQ that I actually wanted to end. I can't describe how much I disliked what I played last week. The dialogue, pacing, and structure were below amateur, I have no idea how this got past any internal story review. Wuk Lamat was the literal embodiment of the "modern western culture" Mary Sue. These characters don't have a developmental journey. Rather than facing a seemingly impossible task, a character should progress, learn, improve, adapt and overcome. They struggle to succeed.
The, for lack of a more contentious term, Wuk Lamat stule character type's entire "journey" is coming to terms with the fact that they've been awesome from the start. The character had no flaws or failures so they tacked on a half dozen instances of sea sickness, Alpacaphobia, and fear of balloons to give a facade. She succeeded at everything she attempted, her only blocker was lack of confidence that comes from seemingly nowhere. As the issues and scenarios change going into the second half, her naive lack of development becomes more and more glaring.
The character herself was fine and I thought the VA did excellent. It was just terrible writing.