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Hello everyone I am Jmulls of Jmulls Gaming and welcome to my little corner of the internet!
Walkthroughs, First Impressions, Critique and Reviews for all things video games, by someone who loves video games!
In today’s video, I talk about my opinions on Wuk Lamat in Final Fantasy 14 Dawntrail !
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Japanese players also hate it too
When the trailer had her say three lines and ALL THREE were a variation of "I am Wuk Lamat and i want to be Dawn Servant!!", i knew she'd be a garbage character.
She's a worse Naruto voiced by someone who clearly was not prepared for such a huge main role.
I actually would of rather had Wuk meet some one like zenos, some one unabashedly evil just for evils sake. Because by the end, I still felt that Wuk would be an unfit ruler, the way they tried to teach the lesson of peace and friendship was hollow to me and childish. I feel Wuk never actually had a hard choice to make in her story, she did not really grow after a certain point, she just stayed the 'peace and love' person throughout it all. As for character development? I only really saw her getting over her dislike of Alpacas and getting a bit more confident in herself, that is what I saw personally, maybe you saw something different. But to me, a leader needs to make difficult choices, maybe force Wuk into a position where she has to choose who lives and who dies amongst her people, throw her hard choices that leaders have to make. Because how she is currently, I still see a very Naive character who would be taken advantage of greatly in any political sphere.
Took me two weeks to finish MSQ because I couldn't stand her. I think she's worse than Lyse for me. Hope they never mention her again. Yuck, so poorly written.
My thoughts on Wuk Lamat mostly come down to the skill of her VA and the director.
Sena Bryar lacks the experience or vocal range to emote properly while holding her accent. To me, many of her more emotional scenes fell flat because her emotional reaction was subdued to maintain the accent. I could understand if they were subdued to present her belief that she needs to be stoic. That would be a good message that being stoic hampers your QoL as your emotions get suppressed.
Compare this to Lily Cooper who in "Respectless" in Hazbin Hotel, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bOarXIWBtWk manages to emote while singing and maintaining her accent. Lily Cooper is from the USA and was born and raised there. In that song, she manages to signal more emotional depth than Wuk Lamat does in the entire MSQ while sounding British and conveying the accent flawlessly while singing, which is one of the most difficult things to do in acting.
i initialy typed a lot of points but unfortunately i accidentally clicked on another video and my comments were gone, now i just have to say that i kinda agree with every point but i never ever want to see Woke Lmao ever again, just let her be Dawnservant on Tuliyolal with Koana and call it a day, i seriously don' want to play another arc with her where they try to fix shit, and if i see her or the name of the new writer they got in in the next patch or even expansion rhen i'm done with ffxiv, i can't stand this cringe disney anime shit.
She's Lyse done better. We actually see her develop into the leadership role rather than just have others telling us so and she more than carries her weight in both battle and politics
But I can see why players feel that this shouldn't have come at the expense of completely sidelining everyone else
She is a one dimensional character, is ok to have them Zenos was one, but the real problem with her is that she show up and cant stop talking in almost every cutscene! It was literally "Wuk Lamat the Game' It was driving me mad..
They focus on her way too much, I don't have that much of a problem with them focusing on a different character but it feels like they dropped the ball here because the warrior of light might as well be a nameless henchmen for how little of an impact we have on the actual story and even Wuk's development. It also felt like Krile and Erenville suffered from it and didn't get many good character moments until the very end.
Wuk is the worst character ever created in the entire FF franchise
Now see THIS is a meaningful discussion, in a way that the early bombardment of "bleah it sucks, the writing's terrible, yadda yadda" we were getting, was not. I'm as friendly to Dawntrail (and Wuk Lamat) as they get, but even I can agree that her story is kinda undercooked (and Bakool Ja Ja's even more so—people don't go from sadistic bastige to laughing himbo just because one person said something nice to them once). If anything, I feel like the writers were overcorrecting from the doom and gloom of Endwalker—in their efforts to make things light and punchy, they veered too far into "Let's have fun with tropes!" But at the end of the day, for me at least? Still more fun than Heavensward or Stormblood. So I'll take it. 🙂
I dont like how there were so many times that stuff could have been prevented and the warrior of light justbstands there and does nothing.
When your main character makes the player want to take breaks from the game and do something else, there's something wrong.
Msq was a snorefest, filled with cringe and wtf. They really made an xpack where the wol is the sidekick to some fanfic oc. The scions are pointless and serve only to shower wuk with praise even when she fails. Second half is all jangling keys and member how good FFIX was. This xpack was a waste, all we got was a cup, a tiara and a new clingy friend with an emotionless VA.
I liked her, eventually. She had growth. We're not used to that with female characters anymore because they are all Mary Sues who can do no wrong and are always perfect. Wuk Lamat comes to realize she knows nothing about her home and is eager to learn about the land and the peoples on them. She doesn't always win, but she keeps fighting. I gave the expantion 10 out of 10 until Thunderdome and then it went to 5 out of 10, and none of that had one thing to do with Wuk Lamat. After Disneyland I was just done with the whole expansion. A great disappointment. However, Westworld was the BEST area ever.
I play with Japanese/subtitles and her voice wasn't as bad as the EN version from what i've heard of it briefly. The Japanese version has more emotion to her voice even during the parts of the story that were very slow & plodding. Before the reveal happens her character was OK, wasn't as invested with her compared to other 'travelling' companions in past expansions like Ysale or Crystal Exarch. I'd say she was very much like Lyse in Stormblood, didn't really care as much but as subsequent patches are released i'd say Lyse was a decent character by the end of it. It remains to be seen if Wuk Lamat will have the same character arch when more patches are out. For now she was OK.
I was more invested in Bakool Ja Ja than her early in the story. His redemption arch was probably one of the better parts of Dawn Trail.
Many good points here. Interesting point about wishing there was more one on one time between WoL and Wuk Lamat, though. In theory I agree, because yeah, we really were just basically a glorified escort for her to sound off at, and we could have had more of a mentorship role in teaching her and training her. On the other hand, we have lots of one on one time with her because almost every single time the party splits up, they tell you to go with Wuk Lamat. Its just the wrong kind of one on one time. Also on the subject of the taco test, I think the idea was a good one, they just partnered her with the wrong person. Instead of Koana, who did nothing but gush over how great Wuk is, she should have been paired up with Zoraal Ja, which would have made for tense moments as he challenged her ideals, and offered more insight into his motivations as a character.
Like I said in your other video, I do think Wuk Lamat is to blame for a lot of the bad pacing and story issues, though, and they could have been improved upon by simply taking some of the attention away from Wuk and giving it to someone else like Krile, Erenville, Zoraal Ja or Sphene. She was an ok character, but definitely not good enough to have so much focus put on her. First half of the expansion, fine, that's Wuk's story. Second half, though, she should have taken a back seat.
Oohhhh be careful, don't you know that you're not allowed to hate this character for some reason? That you're not allowed to have any criticism no matter how legitimate.
One lil disagreement I have here 7:21 Is I think having a vidraal beat us would've made the story even worse, because not only has Wuk been an overwhelming focus but it would just hurt the powerscaling more. I'm not inclined to believe a Vidraal would be anywhere near as strong let alone stronger than for example Eulogia, the Endsinger, even Zenos. They shouldn't be presenting things that can beat us this early in the new 10 year cycle of storytelling. Stakes can be raised without enemies that are simply stronger than us.
Amongst all the Wuk Lamat hate going on, this is the fairest and best take I've seen so far.
I think the "Show, don't tell" theme you mentioned would have also applied well to the repeated theme of diversity and multiculturalism this new land had. My first thought when they talked about their diversity of cultures and races was that the entirety of FFXIV has had this.What is so important about this new place, other than trying to shoehorn modern real life political messages into the game. It felt like Square Enix's Ethics Department at the forefront.
god here we go.
hit the wrong button and lost my paragraphs worth of response. i dont feel like retyping that part T-T
I totally/mostly disagree with every point so far.
feels like you entirely missed the point of the trials by thinking of them as "just menial tasks." I usually agree with your narrative opinions but disagree with you on that. maybe its a symptom of westerners not understanding Japanese people love sharing their culture and share it in similar ways; and having lived in a Japan for 6 years maybe im just in that more receptive 'listen to every word, understand every action, savor the experience of another persons culture." I dunno. So many westerners like anime and then spout off random incorrect bullshit about Japan and im like….THAT IS NOT HOW IT IS AT ALL. Thats kind of how this feels. People are bored by the story and im like, so youre that bored kid at the 1000 year old historically important shrine missing the entire point? I dunno. (Thats a general 'You' and not directed directly at you JMulls). It's frustrating, sitting in Living Memory doing the MSQ while people in chat talk about how boring the story is and how theyve skipped all the cutscenes. Why are yall even fuckin here?!
I rmbr going on a rant about how i agree that the Valigarmanda section was better than the others, in fact its my favorite part of Dawntrail, and i'm obsessed with Valigarmanda but no one else seems to give a shit about him, which makes me sad. But that's usually how it is. I get obsessed about something very niche and no one else shares my passion. But my agreement comes less because "interesting things were happening" versus the others being "menial tasks" and more I had a borderline clinical interest in anything to do with Valigarmanda, and I needed more like a ravenous beast needs meat. Then we got the trial and that music ive listened to on repeat for a week…….im sad hes dead, i wish we got more out of him.
Youre talking about the Yok Huys history being more interesting than the other four, and to that i completely disagree. but again, maybe that comes from my life experience and just wanting to know more about other cultures in general to begin with. to savor the experience of being in a special place to someone else, and understand that, internalize that. Like when I was standing on ancient stone steps of an ancient buddhist temple older than the United States, trying to absorb the moment and savor the weight of time and history. All the cultures had that. Im sad people didnt understand that.
i disagree with your very disrespectful view of WUk lamat just blabbering at you BUUUT….ok i kind of love with this idea of actively training WITH her (not training her, training WITH her; i dont htink im sold on our (my?) WoL being a 'mentor' just yet. like minor things sure, but a sage mentor training others as he walks the lands? i dunno, thats not my WoL's vibe, i dunno). Some more moments where you train with her would have been cool and helpul, Ill agree with that.
As for the power level topic….eh. I hate dragon ball power levelling. People who argue about that crap exhaust me. The entire point of her not matching Bakool Ja Ja at level 91 and then bodying him and his army was like. the entire narrative point of being the Vow of RESOLVE. He did NOT have the resolve, and she DID but she had to GAIN it by understanding her people and what Tural was and what she needed to fight for. You complain they hit this over your head constantly, so its so weird to need to type it out as an explanation. Its up to opinion whether this is satisfying, the whole " i win because I believe in myself" and tbh its not my favorite thing in ff14 when they do it; but to devolve this to dragon ball power scaling "how is Ranjiit stronger than Zenos?! the power levels dont add up" stuff is like……youre not meant to read it like that. I dunno. She gained the Resolve she needed; and he lacked it. That was the narrative point. I dunno.
I also dont think she "needed" a "training arc;" or even had one at all; I think thats a symptom of dumbing her down to "shes just a shonen protag" and then applying those expectations and tropes on to her. She's her own thing, she has her own story. I don't know why people need to do this to storys. "Wizard of Oz is an isekai." ok funny haha, but why cant you judge the story on its own merits rather applying this niche subgenre's rules on to it suddenly. I think it's kind of disingenuous. Her "training arc" is realizing that she didn't know her people at all, and truly learning about them hardens her Resolve to do what she has to do to see her dreams fulfilled and maintain her father's hard fought peace. She's not trying to become physically powerful, she's on a more mental journey. This isn't Dragon Balls' egregiously long "the Saiyans are coming" training arc. This is something completely different.
I do like that idea tho of running into more tural vidraal over the course of the story….it feels like they built that concept up, and outside of Valigarmanda and the VPR quests, is literally just a justification for the Hunts. Running into a few in the MSQ would have been cool (also Estinien fighting one in the trailer and we never see that moment in game like…..?!) lmao
I dont think im sold on your idea to "fix" the Xbraal section, because i thought it was prefectly fine; but…………i dont hate it. I kind of like the idea of a tural vidraal having some aspect to play in that somewhere. Maybe to make the xibruq pibil requires an ingredient that a powerful tural vidraal has recently invaded and to finish the recipe, we have to fight and slay the beat or something. So an actual threat and a narrative conflict in tandem to surmount and gain the higher understanding. While "the historians talking at you" can stay there (perhaps knowing such a creature has taken residence nearby?). Im starting to rant so ill stop.
this isnt the point of the point youre making in the 1v1 and were just standing around when we shouldnt be….BUT TO BE FAIR……..HE lost to fully powered Galool Ja Ja 1v1, so I feel our characters didnt feel the need to interfere considering we fought him ourselves earlier BUT ALSO, Wuk Lamat herself says later on that she couldnt step on his honor by interfering (judge that however you want), so I imagine if wed tried to step in she'd have stopped us; AND Galool Ja Ja had been pretty much been constantly built up since the first quests to that point of pretty much being invincible generally speaking……..so…..BUT ALSO AGAIN……Zareel Ja DIED. and not only were we not expecting and had no idea he was going to resurrect, but this was also the first glimpse we get of using the souls of beasts to empower yourself that doesnt get explained to us until nearly several hours of real life time later. So. (again not really the point of this section but i thought to clarify my thoughts on it at least.)
again didnt have a problem with the pacing cuz i didnt think the quests were boring at any point. this MSQ was like the old days when I read an entire 1000 page novel in 4 days cuz i couldnt put it down. That is what the msq was like for me. (Also you have an alpaca on the screen and it reminded me of part of the response i lost, and how I TOTALLY AGREE WITH YOU THAT THE TAMING THE ALPACA PART SHOULD HAVE BEEN A GAMEPLAY SECTION, thanks for the reminder).
Disgaree about poor dialogue and ****heavily disagree****** about the voice acting being poor. I was CONSTANTLY impressed by the voice work of nearly every voiced character in this expansion; Wuk Lamat especially, where I had several moments where i said out loud "Damn the VA delivered that line PERFECTLY." (The scene with Wuk Lamat at the pier after the first attack, and she's showing her frustration as one example).
I dunno, calling WUk Lamat "cringe" by extending her hand in friendship and understanding is pretty fucked up., I dunno. Usually id rather spit in someones face who'd wronged me and wish they would die and never speak to them again. To extend friendship to someone who behaved as vilely as Bakool Ja Ja's father takes massive courage and is a much better person than I am; and is something i would aspire towards rather than cringe at. To put yourself out there like that? Admirable. But that's me.
I disagree she was "flubbed." Her getting powerful isnt the point AT ALL! At no point was she training to become stronger. This wasn't a training arc. This story wasn't about physical strength and power levels.
~~~~~~~~~~TLDR~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
All that being said, you put your reasons out there in a well thought out manner. And while i dont agree with most of them, I can sort of kind of understand them. It just feels like you had certain expectations and kept to them despite the story being something else entirely. It's better than most of the other discourse I've seen; most of it boiling down to base sexism/transphobia. I've seen her called "Woke Lamat" several times, which is anger inducing. Like, if you wanna go "shes just a shonen protag" argument, then shes just Goku/Loofy and if she was a male presenting character half these people wouldnt be complaining. WHich is another point that like….i see alleged dragon ball fans totally misunderstand the entire point of Goku and think of him as this street thug bad ass who'll beat your ass and curbstomp you and im like DID YOU WATCH THAT SHOW?!?!! THATS NOT GOKU AT ALL. A lot of the Wuk Lamat complaints feel like that, where they miss the entire point of her. (but half those people skipped the cutscenes so….not sure what they expected to get from anything.)
ANYWAY. ive typed enough.
(Also the comment section on this video depresses me.)
“More 1 on one time with Wuk Lamat” – NO THANK YOU
I actually preferred the first half of the story for all of its pacing problems and legitimate critiques because it did turn down the stakes and had a more lighthearted atmosphere. The stakes increase towards the end felt cheesy, arbitrary and like it was just pulled out of a perceived need to create more dramatic tension. The second half is where dawntrail really lost me.
I think you underestimate the DEI agenda that is probably coming down the pike. Hope I'm wrong, but I'm expecting this.