When I completed Final Fantasy XIV Dawntrail I had many thoughts and feelings along with a deep need to share them with you all. Thankfully many of you wanted to know what I thought and felt so this worked out perfectly for me.
Learn more here: https://na.finalfantasyxiv.com/dawntrail
Having defeated the despair of the Final Days, the Warrior of Light and their comrades had resumed walking their respective paths. Yet fate would see them reunited for a mission unto another reflection, and now an unexpected petition has arrived beckoning them west─to the faraway continent of Tural.
Answer the call, seek new horizons, and embark upon an adventure the likes of which you have never experienced! Dawntrail sees the stage of adventure shift to the western continent of Tural. In this land whence the legend of the golden city originates, the rite of succession will soon take place, and your involvement may well determine who next rules the diverse peoples of the nation of Tuliyollal…
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Chapters
00:00 – Where do I start?
01:45 – The DBZ Problem
04:10 – My Expectations
05:41 – What is a Hero?
07:51 – What is Dawntrail?
09:09 – The Problem
10:14 – Stormblood and Dawntrail
11:00 – Pacing and Lore
13:49 – Quick Side Tangent
14:49 – No Scions
16:42 – Changing Up Zoraal Ja
18:11 – Sphene and the Endless
21:55 – Theorycrafting to the End
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I think the problem, as it was explained, was that they took you on entire mini multi-expansion in one expansion. It really feels like this could have been told in at least 2 expansions, and let a lot of story and characters developed more. I assume, they did this knowing there would be hang ups about a new story anyways, and it was more of a testing grounds to see what made people excited the most, to properly lead for future story.
I don't quite agree with the story editing portions of the video. In fact those segments in addition to all the story criticisms coming from all over the internet, is giving me a 'I can write a better ending to Mass Effect 3' feeling, and it leads to some people taking seriously the fan idea that Shepard had always been Indoctrinated. And to me, that idea has always been a lousy one compounded by the fact that no one actually had to professionally use that idea and write something about it. It smacks of end-user arrogance. The point is, while people are arguing over the story, it's still rare that anyone can come up with anything actually better. But I agree that DT's story could have used more polish, not the massive rewrites that seem to have been suggested in this video. Like for example, the problem with Zoraal Ja is that his motivation is very murky right up until the end, which is puzzling considering that most of the story is spent with him. All he needed is one scene with Gulool Ja Ja to explain his militaristic mindset and how he strayed so far away from the life philosophy of his father. It would still be the same character and same story, but basically elaborated upon. Sphene could tell her story in one chapter and then set up the story of the next expansion too, but somehow the important parts of Zoraal Ja's background are just glossed over, making him even less compelling than Zenos' initial appearance.
Speaking for myself, I want the scions gone from the story entirely for a while. If you read yoshi p's interview regarding them, it seems like they are considering that. Which is good and something I hope they do
I enjoy your breakdown of the story and talking points throughout for your thoughts on the expansion. and we have similar theory's for where the future is going, I think that the future holds us becoming heroes like in the first and then having every ones hopes for us to stop a big threat affect us with dynamis just like in Ultima thule but on a larger scale.
When we get to the middle of DT and realize this is another SB scenario where it's split between 2 different "stories" I started to lose interest. I've never played any other FF game ever so the fact this was all FF9 related had no value to me. However, after hearing you put it the way you did I can see how DT is using tricks from every expansion not just SB. I still don't like the FF9 areas and wish the story focused almost entirely on the first half which would have made it take longer and given it the time needed to flesh things out like how you said. Granted, what's done is done and I am just as excited as you are for any and all details we can get about Azem and the Ancients. We're the traveler damn it. Let's get travelin!
I think if the dawn servant story was 7.0 then solution 9 was .1-.3 then it would have gave the story room to breathe.
I get where you're coming from about being Wuk Lamat's mentor, but the execution was just not there. With Ardbert, he was forced to watch the repercussions of dooming his world and the people he loved, despite thinking he was saving it. If he could interact with Novrandt, he would have. That was proven with him trying to save people from the sineaters. That's what created some heartwrenching moments that everyone could relate to on some level.
Meanwhile, there was no moment like that with Wuk Lamat. It felt like we were babysitting a shounen character that never really dealt with any kind of hardship. Almost all of her trials were basically solved for her by the WoL, and her "power spike" when fighting Bakool Ja Ja felt super unearned. Then she became the leader and everyone was happy. The end.
Not to mention, the scions being used as supporting characters in a way that betrays everything we've come to know about them in the past 10 years made this story go from falling flat, to feeling insulting. There is no reason Yshtola and Graha wouldn't be begging to get back to the portal to study it the moment we discovered it. There is no reason Alphinaud should be helping seat a clearly naive person as the leader of a continent after the crystal braves. And most importantly, there is no reason our WoL wouldn't have jumped at Zoraalja the moment he "cheated", or at the very least, tried to attack him the moment after he impales his father. Dawntrail was a betrayal of all of the characters we've fallen in love with over the years.
There is nothing wrong with taking a backseat, hell, I welcome it. I would've embraced an actual laid back ARR arc, but Dawntrail did not do it well.
no problem in being Wuk Lamat's side character, as long as she pays my sub
People who complain about this game's pacing should be forced to replay Heavensward at gunpoint IMO. That game was an absolute masterclass in deliberately tripping over it's own momentum.
Sphene's crown was revealed as a suppressor with a different form. i.e. She has a auto-rez incoming. The question I have is which form of Sphene we'll get.
Where is Skyrim?
My theory is that using the new McGuffin, we're going to do "Rejoinings" without actually doing an actual "Rejoining".
Pretty sure Alexandria is a section of a shard that got "Rejoined" to The Source.
The WoL being a mentor could of easily worked, but we really needed more moments actually mentoring.
Ontop of it, it would of helped of Wuk was a more likeable character. Wuks intro in Endwalker I actually liked her personality and how she seemed like she would be, but getting into EW they really made her grating and annoying. She loves her people but she doesn't know anything about them? It just makes no sense at all. If they wanted that angle they would of needed Wuk that her words were empty and she would actually need to learn about her people before she could claim she really cares for them and understands their troubles with her changing to reflect that, or given they wanted her personality the way it is, have her already knowing about her people with her shown to be far less ignorant and effectively teaching us showing she really does care about them which would make her come off far more genuine at least about her cause.
That doesn't fix the side with Sphene at all, and it doesn't fix her flaws and I still think she would be an overall disliked though perhaps far more tolerated character, but still how she was approached at first really did a good job of destroying any and all care I had for her as a character and I'm not someone who cares even if the WoL takes a backseat, hell I'm the person who thought it would be better if the Scions were mostly absent the entire story besides those more directly involved like Krile or who were supporting the other heir.
wuk lamat BAD
the biggest thing I feel like dawntrail fumbled was that we should have spent a zone with each of the claimants, some of them are under developed interms of their character or story
So the most exciting thing about the expansion for you is the possibility there might be a good story later?
I'm glad you enjoyed it but my bar for storytelling is a bit higher and i know they can do much better than this. They've shown it for years
Those weren't the scions, those were cardboard cut outs with speical guest graha on a boat.
This is the most level headed review I’ve seen of the expansion. It’s not perfect of course but the people saying it’s worse than ARR have their head so far up their ass they look like the 96 viper skill.
ive listened to Jesse for over 10 years now and have had my own opinions about FF14 for almost as long, but I LOVE listening to him because he seems to always look at it from a larger perspective, "whats the big picture here?". So many other opinions i read are so nitpicky and negative to be negative but Jesse is always speaking from the heart and drive to find out whats more, whats really going on here (and not afraid to be silly with it).
I want to stay on Jesse’s side of ffxiv. Well edited and very well done video on DT. It’s honestly how I feel about this expansion.
my take with the way wuk lamat responds to the mamool ja vs sphene and alexandria is that the mamool ja were vocal about how much it was hurting them, how they needed the cycle to end, while for the alexandrians, their culture was still being perceived as normal and had been brought about through necessity. wuk lamat bringing an end to the mamool ja's fixation on the blessed children was because the people there had needed it, outright requested it, while the alexandrians didn't feel any particular way about the endless and the memory wiping and whatnot.
One small point of order: you showed clips of GW2 alongside WoW as an example of an "ever escalating threat" but that isn't really the case.
The level cap of Guild Wars hasn't gone up form 80 since the game launched all the way back in 2012, everything since then has been horizontal progression. That means that the big bads we fought since the Elder Dragon Zhaitan back in base game have been on a similar power level, in fact most of them were the other Elder Dragons. Not much upward scaling has occured. Maybe the Kryptis from the last expansion were bigger bads but I got the impression that was more MiB wizards being like "hey, since you're done with those could you maybe give us a hand with this now?"
But WoW absolutely is guilty of this and I'm glad they dialed it back a bit for Dragonflight before slowly ticking up again for the World Soul saga.
If Jesse is actually being critical of FF for once then you know it's dire.
The problem with us mentoring Wuk and standing back to let her make mistakes is that people are literally dying cause we are not intervening, she was written as a mediocre fighter then somehow becomes stronger than everyone but the player with no training or anything, one minute she is getting her ass kicked and the next she is a badass when I wish they just kept her a weak fighter but a good person who inspires others and gets help from those that care about her.
Also wish we had more time with Koana, was really hoping we would get time with him during the final two zones when it became about a society too reliant on technology and would have been perfect for his character development, instead we got more Wuk Lamat, I feel like it would have made more sense for her to be the one to stay behind, forge connections with nations and play to her strengths that she learned about during the rite of succession.
ngl, yeah, I felt like the WoL was basically the mentor/guide for the newbie this expansion and I was 100% okay with that, and i knew it was going to be the reason why a lot of people hated this one.
I want to see ALL the reflections. Next expansion better take us to the lala's island and do some reflection hopping.
I still think the kid is a clone.
Thanks for calling out the bad culture thing, because i felt super pissed and uncomfortable when Solution 9 just continued drinking peoples souls like a pepsi from a vending machine post DT, while Wuk Lamat was like "eh, it's their culture, the morals be damned" [Wtf btw]
I'll be honest. Dawntrail's msq almost walled me unlike ARR. The potential of the story/lore means nothing if it's told poorly cause every story can have amazing potential. And considering that the story is meant to be experienced over a video game, it simply won't work well for the player to have such little importance in the plot. Made worse when the plot only works because we sat on our asses doing nothing when by all accounts, we should.
I thought Wuk Lamat was silly, but a bit annoying at her introduction, and the sheer screen time alone made me despise her. And she's ultimately at the center of the problem because of the severe pacing issues, choices, and execution the two stories the game tries to tell.
But the biggest issue for me is that this expansion is filler. Of the interesting plot threads we got, they were resolved or answered almost immediately and have little impact on the overall story. With only the last 10% really being important. And all that did was effectively give us a boat in the ocean with no destination in mind with the Azem cup and crown.
The WoL plays the role of Brock Samson in Dawntrail. We’re a body guard with a ton of backstory who’s there to make sure the kids are safe on their adventure.
Getting my caps lock ready…
Zoraal Ja's companion is 1000% coming back. That dude fell into a pit of electrope. ANYTHING could happen with that.
honestly? i dont think it was too bad, it was defintely a downgrade from the last two expansions storywise but i can forgive that with the start of a new arc and the stakes being lowered. the first half of the story is fun but drags on hard towards the end, the last half is interesting and enjoyable. i thought wuk lamat was pretty endearing and enjoyed character, despite a few wonky lines. i cant help but feel like this expansion is getting far more hate than it actually deserves lol
The Azemgers is a fun idea but … what happened to the azem soul in the 13th? or the one in Sphene's world? Are they part of the crown or expended? Locked in a memoria? I don't know enough about the 13th and I think sphene's shard didn't rejoin or the barrier falling would've left a void sky, so where are those souls? I hope those questions get answered one expansion.
for what it's worth, as one who lost interest part way into Stormblood, I totally respect you. Keep the vids coming and I whish you the best. 😀