Here’s my two cents
spoiler
The plot suffered greatly by overly focusing on Wuk Lamat in the first half while not fleshing out the side characters. Her character development arc definitely took longer than it should have, and really the player’s enjoyment of the story in the first half of MSQ completely hinges on whether you like her as a character or not, since you are literally glued to her hip for most of it. (Some of my FC mates were dying to finally spend some time for Erenville, for example. It was more or less a running joke since whenever the group was about to split up, the WOL always went with Wuk Lamat)
Zoraal Ja had more or less zero build-up for his eventual villain-reveal, and you couldn’t really sympathize with him. All you knew beforehand was that his entire existence is extremely rare among Mamool Ja and that the people’s expectations were high. And, that for some reason, he wants to engulf the world in war which like, you must have some deep-seated resentment or something to want that, why? But later he drops that he was treated differently from his siblings by Gulool Ja Ja which, like, how were we supposed to know that? Until then, Gulool Ja Ja was presented to us as the perfect hero-turned-king and a pretty chill guy. Just…Zoraal Ja’s entire plot fell flat because we didn’t really get to know him before he became king. (Also, the whole Gulool Ja plot just doesn’t sit right with me)
Koana had his own little arc in the first half, but I wish we could have seen him interact with Wuk Lamat a bit more. We get told by Erenville that they tend to bicker with each other like proper siblings, but we never see it on-screen :/
Same thing with Krile, Erenville and the Scions. Krile had it worst, since she was hyped up as a main character in this expac, but basically did nothing except chime in with a question once or twice and eat ice cream with her parents.
The Scions took a complete backseat this time, only offering Koana and Wuk Lamat some advice here and there, I expected a little more of that supposed rivalry :/
On top of all that, the plot just…didn’t make sense a lot of the time. I’m surprised that Bakool Ja Ja got away with all the stuff he did. Sometimes, rules that were established before were ignored completely not long after. Hey, remember when we were told that contestants who attack or kill the judge for a challenge will be disqualified? Never mind, have BJJ kidnap and threaten one, whatever.
Spoilers below obviously if you haven’t played DT yet.
I enjoyed it but I feel some areas were wasted. The first half where we went around learning about all the different cultures, while it got pretty predictable by the end (we find a new group, they have a problem, Koana tries to solve it with technology, Zoraal Ja tries to solve it with brute force, Bakool Ja Ja tries to be underhanded and Wuk Lamat talks to the people), it serves as a good introduction to the new world and the different races there. You have to remember that this is as much about setting up breadcrumbs for the next couple of expansions as it is the current one.
The second half of the game felt rushed though. Shaaloani feels like it exists for two reasons; to create a moment like in Shadowbringers where everyone came together to build the golem to get to Mt Gulg, and to remind you who Wuk Lamat’s nursemaid was to set up the way death is treated in Sphene’s realm. Heritage Found feels like an extended entrance into Solution Nine, especially since its main storyline with the resistance carries on into the main part of Solution Nine. And Living Memory feels like it’s tying up loose ends too quickly, since we learn pretty quickly the whole point is to shut the area down (and then it looks so drab afterwards!)
I’m not saying I felt it was bad, I just wanted some more time with it. Hopefully the patch content addresses it to some degree.
The Arcadion raids however have been amazing 😊 And I absolutely cannot wait for the FFXI themed Alliance Raids.
I agree. I feel like the Alexandria plot was really wasted overall. It was finally a good opportunity to let Krile shine in the story and to keep the stakes somewhat high after Endwalker, but it all just kinda went nowhere in the end.
All Krile really did was have awkward conversations with her parents, but other than that there was no significance to the fact that she was born an Alexandrian. And the whole Sphene/Alexandria plot just felt like a weaker version of Emet-Selch (I need to sacrifice your people to save my people). But Sphene was also just less charismatic and less sympathetic than Emet-Selch overall, so it was weird every time Wuk Lamat kept trying to make nice with her after her multiple mask-off villain betrayals.
And what hurt most for me, I think, is that Final Fantasy 9 references also just felt wasted. I hated that the expansion ended in a (literal) theme park. Turning a beloved installment in the franchise into a sequence of sideshow attractions just felt like a slap in the face. I was about to overlook that in the final dungeon when I thought “Hell yeah, at least we’ll finally get to see Beatrix in here, right?” but that didn’t even happen either.
I think it’s too early to write it off completely. Like we now know as a result that we have another gateway to a different reflection (we don’t know which one yet obviously). Between Heritage Found now being in the weird position of being part of another reflection but now coexisting in our reality and Living Memory literally being a different reflection, we have plenty of options to explore in that space. Both in the fact that we now have an entirely new reflection to explore in the future as well as the fact that I have no doubt Y’stola will try and reverse engineer whatever tech they used to bridge their reflection with the source to try and get back to the First.
We have an entirely synthetic method of soul extraction that mimics the Aetherial Sea that as far as we know even the Allagans hadn’t been able to do. The ethical questions it’s raising aside, it presents some interesting narrative opportunities. We’ve seen souls be transferred into objects, we’ve seen artificial intelligence in the form of the system running Everkeep, and we have new methods for resurrection.
There’s still the patch content coming too. So there’s no reason that we can’t still get a Beatrix cameo in the future.
The Krile part I agree with, although I get what they were trying to do with trying to hammer home the point that everyone in your group was giving something up by going forward with their plan. Wuk Lamat lost the only mother figure she’d ever known, Erinville and Kruk’s lost their literal mothers (and father in Krile’s case). The incursion of Everkeep into the source has just cut out a lot of people from our companions and we’re not given time to process it because we have to keep going to make sure the same fate doesn’t happen to anyone else. The entire second act really is all about how you can have the best laid plans in the world but sometimes it’ll all go to shit regardless and you have to do your best to pick up the pieces.
The final fight against the Queen hits that point home; up to that point the WoL has been content to take a step back and let Wuk lead this show; you see this in the way they’ve set up duty support. This time you can use it for both the first and second trials. You’re not the main character here, Wuk is, and the game acknowledges that by letting you bring all your companions into both fights. But that final fight, everything really has gone to shit. And so the WoL finally steps in, pulls out Azem’s crystal and gets it done like they always do.
I guess what I’m saying is, comparing Dawntrail on its own to what came before isn’t a fair comparison. Endwalker was the culmination of a decade of expansions and story. Dawntrail is the beginning of a brand new decade of stories still to come. Things like Krile being Alexandrian have plenty of time to be explored further. In the context of how everything happened, our group really didn’t have time to explore what that means, not with the threat of Zoraal Ja and Sphene hanging over our heads. With those gone, I’m sure we’ll be able to take that step back and spend some time on what exactly that means (hopefully during the Dawntrail patches!)
I completely disagree with what YoshiP said about Wuk Lamat. Her problem was that she wasn’t confident enough? She wasn’t sure of herself for like the first zone, and then after that, nothing could stop her, and that was the problem. Her power up wasn’t believeable, and she kept going even when she should have stepped back. I would have vastly preferred an insecure Wuk Lamat, that comes to the WoL late at night by the fire because she’s scared and she needs support. Or really any depth at all for her
Trying to surpass Endwalker would be a feat. How do you go above flying to the edge of existence and destroying the concept of nihilism? Dawntrail wasn’t as grandiose in its story, but overall it was FUN, which is the important part to me. I read an article ago saying this was a better Stormblood which I’d agree with.
Certainly more engaging and cohesive than SB and yeah, we have to walk things back from EW. Overall I liked the story but the first half was a bit anemic. I think it would’ve benefited from playing up the competition/stakes of the succession some more - a bit more intrigue there.
Definitely think it’ll land towards SB where the story is hit or miss for people but the post patch stuff is really good.
I liked how Dawntrail played out, but I feel there are a ton of stuff in there that met the cutting room floor. I think Krile was supposed to be present more, Solution Nine feels empty despite bring vast, and I thought we were finally getting a rideable train. But anyway, I understand the mixed reception, still, the game had to have its next Realm Reborn world-building steps after Endwalker concluded ARR, and they couldn’t do much without being the slog A Realm Reborn was.
He has seen the kinds of things the complainers complain about so I wouldn’t be surprised if he just started ignoring the vast majority of complaints and trusted his writing team.
