Just sharing some thoughts on this as I procrastinate weekend working.
I am a relatively new player to FFXIV. I started earnestly about a year ago, after getting to around level 35 in the MSQ way back in 2015. Before FFXIV, my main MMO was Guild Wars 2 for around 9 years and prior to that WoW for around a similar amount of time.
As I progressed through the earlier expansions I was assured that the story was fantastic, even if major leaps in logic
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such as the construction of the huge Talos to reach Mount Gulg or Varis suddenly believing in the need for rejoining or Zenos turning up at the conclusion of Endwalker
were prevalent in all expansions.
I was also lead to believe that Dawntrail was going to be absolutely awful with terrible writing and a slog on the level of post-ARR. But, honestly, that hasn’t been my experience so far. I have just finished the level 91 journal and I am finding the story of Dawntrail quite refreshing after how WoL-centric the previous expansions were and I am enjoying the world building being a bit more subtle and delivered via small character interactions rather than being beaten over the head with exposition for cutscene after cutscene.
I have been warned that there are moments where the narrative tension is sapped, but that was also really prevalent in Shadowbringers (as a Viera player, Rak’tika Greatwood was beyond disappointing) and Endwalker
spoiler
(much of Elpis and Ultima Thule)
I’ve also heard so many complaints about the balance and game design that I am just not really understanding. Perhaps I really need to dip my toes into Savage to understand this, but looking at the concerns it seems very quaint compared with the balance issues in other MMOs (looking at you Guild Wars 2)!
Maybe things really will get monumentally worse and I won’t enjoy DT by the end of it, but I am enjoying DT considerably more at this stage than the other expansions aside from Shadowbringers.
I will try to remember to come back and share thoughts when I am done!
I don’t hate dawntrail either but I am sooooo sick of this discourse. This kind of crap is why I left all the ffxiv communities on reddit. I’m tired of seeing it.
The way I feel about Dawntrail is somewhat similar to how I feel about Stormblood - a great story from 100 feet up, good themes, etc. but very clumsy execution. Wuk Lamat is a fine character, but ends up oppressively tied to you the entire MSQ, minus one obvious bit. If they’d have split things, eg. Wuk for the first half, Koana for the second, I think it would have obliviated a significant fraction of the complaints.
Additionally, the voice work is all over the place. I have no idea how many rewrites were involved or what the voice direction situation was like, but this is far and away the expansion with the most inconsistent line read quality and quantity (in English).
That all said, the encounter team fuckin’ cooked, holy crap. The dungeons & trials are all great and the first extreme is damn inspired. I love all aspects of The Arcadeon and Jueno, and an very excited to set where things go with them.
Some of the voice acting is indeed all over the place. Krile is very up and down in quality, Alphinaud sounds like he’s have his first hangover and Thancred is stuck in Metal Gear mode! Urianger and Alisae have been great, I’m enjoying Erenville a lot more in DT and Wuk Lamat’s English VA has been excellent imo.
The endwalker dungeons were like “yeah this is pretty good” and I just came back after a year break to do dawntrail and the dungeons have been amazing. Great visuals and fun mechanics.
I felt that the story was slow until the lv 97ish zone. I get that it happens when you start a new plot line, but it shouldn’t have taken that long.
A lot of hate I see is from people who are used to being the main character and didn’t like being in a supporting role.
There were also bigots who hate Wuk Lamat because her VA is trans.
I… really quite Wuk Lamat so far and I think the English voice acting for the character is one of the stronger examples of good VA in FFXIV.
Not entirely sure what happened with Thancred’s voice though since EW. He now seems to be stuck in the Metal Gear Thancred mode from the stealth quest section of EW!
I am quite enjoying the pace of the story line, but I am expecting it to become a bit more of a drag at one point since there is generally at least one section of the X1 to X7 story in each expansion that just feels there for the sake of being there.
The entire Stormblood expansion felt like a drag to me. 😅
I enjoyed the Steppe section but everything else (aside from Lyse doing some fun stuff every now and then) was just not enjoyable in the slightest. Post-Stormblood was really good though imo!
Y’shtola’s burn was the best line in the expac.
“I am…not interested little sun. Try again when you become a man.”
Then Sadu picks up and runs with it. 🤣
One of the moments that made the Steppe section in Stormblood the best the expansion had to offer until Tsuyu!
Honestly, it’s just kinda how things go. Long-running games typically hit a ‘hate point’ where the fan base becomes more whiny, hyperbolic, and entitled. It happens with all media, in fact. Not just games.
I always joke with friends that game specific communities are where you go when you hate a game. FFXIV has faired quite well. Poor Destiny didn’t stand a chance, though. Destiny fans fucking hate Destiny.
That’s not to discount criticism. Obviously, everyone has their own tastes and whatnot. I thought the Dawntrail story was fine, if a little disappointing. Interesting and timely philosophical themes, though. Loved all the FF9 references and look forward to more! Battle content is great. Class changes are becoming a bit meh. In saying that, I mainly play PLD and love it.
I think you have a point about game communities being somewhere to vent. I know I did that so much with Guild Wars 2. There isn’t really anything I feel the need to get super annoyed about with FFXIV yet - the balance is nowhere near as glaringly bad as GW2 or at points when I played WoW and really the biggest sin it has is a lot of boring (but very good for an MMO) story.
I can’t wait for the FF9 references to hit. I loved Eden so much for the callbacks to 8!
- On a scale of 1-10 the previous two expansions were 10 and 11. Dawntrail is “only” a 9
- Anti-trans hate brigade
- You aren’t the main character and some people don’t recognize when a game does that. They post online about how the story sucks or the hero is boring. FF12 went through the same thing
Yes, came here to say this. You play second fiddle to someone else in Dawntrail. People with Main Character Syndrome have a tough time with it. They’re also the loudest about their dislike.
DT is fine. It is less good than Endwalker and Shadowbringers, but is still good.
The WoL smirking the whole way through the MSQ like “yeah this is just a vacation for me, I could solo every mofo on this continent” is hilarious.
“I’m not going to 1v1 any gods this month unless it’s absolutely necessary. Everyone get into the boss arena and pull your own weight”
I have the opposite of main character syndrome when it comes to MMOs. I do not want the world to revolve around my character, so perhaps that is why I am not finding the same faults!
That’s probably entirely it. 😊 There is plenty to enjoy.
