Forum - View topicGAME: Final Fantasy XIV: Dawntrail Video Game Review
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Konopan
Posts: 399 |
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I think they forgot how to write anything shorter than Endwalker. Dawntrail suffers a ton for it since there are a ton of cutscenes that could have been better served up as gameplay instances, and I'd argue the second half of the story is where this is the biggest problem. Wuk Lamat is an unfortunately overexposed character but I feel like the imbalances of the script aren't simply a quantity problem- both of the final act villains are imo insufferable, either from having too much of their story sent to the chopping block behind the curtains or constantly flipping between willing antagonist and unwilling victim of consequences that are seemingly completely under their own control. The "callbacks" to Final Fantasy IX are also pretty poorly implemented, between very surface level references, glaring sound direction and music choice (unedited rips of the original soundtrack far outnumbering the maybe 2 better contextualized covers) misfires, and what feels like a complete disregard for the themes of the title it all just rubbed me the wrong way, like fanfiction about a kids coloring book version of the story (with every page just being completely covered with neon purple and almost nothing else to boot). A significant step down from stuff like Doma being thematically tied to FF6's country of the same name or FF3's Crystal Tower serving as a major plot device across the game's overarching plot, yet it takes up a significant bulk of rather miserable storytelling.
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wolf10
 Posts: 928 |
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I enjoyed the story more than most, apparently, but I did wonder why Lamat'yi was playing at being a PSO2 heroine in FFXIV. I felt like I was babysitting Hitsugi all over again. There's some stuff lost in translation (like Sphene quoting the Japanese lyrics to "Melodies of Life") that tells me the uncanny funhouse-mirror vibe of the back half was definitely intentional, but probably needed a little more time to cook and a bit more commitment. Hopefully the .X patch story improves things in hindsight like it did for Stormblood. If nothing else, we'll get more Kuiyki with the role quest finale. (spoiler[/spectacles])
It's a shame about Astrologian. It seems they can never leave it alone. Even Viper managed to get a near-total rework just four weeks after its release. I always wonder exactly whose feedback they're listening to when making big changes like that, because the Japanese side of the fanbase is just as confused as everyone else this time.
(The Vanguard set is definitely my favorite of the new gear designs. The Scouting variant looks almost exactly like Aoba from DRAMAtical Murder...) |
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Theozilla
 Posts: 144 Location: Oakland, California |
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While I can understand and concede that whether the amount of focus Wuk Lamat has in the narrative feels smothering or not is ultimately a very subjective thing, I can't really agree with the assertion that Krile's character doesn't grow in any way this expansion.
Anyways for now I’d say I liked base Dawntrail more than base Stormblood/4.0 and that it’s almost tied with base Heavensward/3.0. (ShB & EW are still my top favorites, with EW slightly edging out ShB). And to clarify when I say that base Dawntrail is almost tied with base Heavensward, I mean that more in terms of overall game/expansion experience/enjoyment, if I was just talking about central plot engagement, I can more easily say I prefer base Heavensward (though I would also say Heavensward is also more dependent on its 3.1-3.3 patch MSQ to make it a complete story than the other expansions), but the age of Heavensward and some of its more tedious gameplay-story linked elements makes the overall enjoyment closer to a tie with Dawntrail. Now this isn’t to say that Dawntrail’s MSQ isn’t good or even great at times, but I also wouldn’t say it’s amazing and regularly great like ShadowBringers and Endwalker were more regularly, though Dawntrail also certainly isn’t trying to reach the same heights as the previous two expansions either. I figure Dawntrail being the lowest rated FFXIV expansion (not counting 1.0 Legacy) is largely due to it coming off and after the extremely strong story showings of ShadowBringers and Endwalker and seeming more comparatively lesser in quality than it actually is, as I think it can be confidently stated to be better than ARR’s story (and I say that as someone who likes ARR and its story overall, like it is a solid -B levels of enjoyment) and at least as good as Stormbood’s (and I personally find Dawntrail solidly better than it). |
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Doubleclouder
 Posts: 77 |
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My post will have spoilers for everything in the story so far.
Dawntrail has easily been my least favorite in terms of story, characters, and overall impact. I felt the split-storyline worked in Stormblood because both the Doman and Ala Mhigan plotlines tied into the same overall plotline of fighting Garlemald and Zenos much better than the Tural contest and Alexandria storyline did. I could have seen the Alexandria stuff being the post-expansion storyline like the 13th storyline was in Endwalker. I didn't hate Wuk Lamat like a lot of people did but I did find her not very endearing and she ended up overstaying her welcome by the end. If her plotline and focus ended with becoming the new ruler along with Koana and the Alexandria portion focused entirely on your journey with Erenville and Kururu looking into the Golden City I felt she would not have been disliked nearly as much. I have to agree it's a shame Kururu did not get a lot of focus in her own expansion and if they made her Sphene's foil instead of Wuk Lamat it would have been nice given Kururu's legacy also being tied to Alexandria and she was going to preserve her heritage and legacy differently than what Sphene was trying to do. Unlike some people I actually liked the laid back first half and just exploring Tural and didn't mind the low-stakes approach. The problem is the second half tried to be 'high stakes' but it never particularly felt that way. Zoraal Ja was not a very good villain in terms of motivation and effectiveness. Seeing his forces decimated by a handful of cowboys with rubber bullets and some nomads with spears really highlights how ineffective he was and shows you if he ever made it off Tural and tried to invade Eorzea or Othard proper he'd have gotten slapped down almost instantly given the level of power and technology the rest of the world has at this point. Vritra taking down his airship fleet alone was nice to see and probably the highlight of the expansion for me. As Thancred said in one line the Garlean Empire he was not. I'll end this by saying I am interested to see the future now that we have the plot device artifact that will let us travel between dimensions. Although I feel like unless they try to go bigger and better 14 is a bit of a 'solved game' at this point. I don't see how anything can really pose a threat in the story anymore without it seeming extremely contrived. I'm glad Zoraal Ja wasn't another Zenos/Ranjit who was somehow powerful than us and constantly defeated us at every turn but at the same time the opposite was also pretty anticlimactic. The only thing I can think of is extra-terrestrial threats that we don't know about. We still have those Ultima demons who were strong enough to corrupt even the Anicents like we saw with Athena in Pandamoneium so the possibility of a bigger bad is still out there but if we just go around solving problems on the other worlds and on a smaller scale I would be fine with that |
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varmintx
 Posts: 1232 Location: Covington, KY |
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I'm more sick of hearing peoples' opinions of Wuk than I am of hearing Wuk.
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bleachj0j
 Posts: 926 |
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Then don't look? she's has the most focus out of everyone in the story so you're going to hear takes about her. |
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Aezreal
 Posts: 30 |
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Spoilers for Dawntrail.
Personally, I rather enjoyed that the focus was entirely on someone else, and I like Lamaty'i quite a bit as a character. I did not resent her presence, and in fact found myself wishing she was still around for the story portion she was missing. Completely understand that people's enjoyment depends on how they feel about the character. I'm a bit anxious that the FFXIV team will take the complaints (both the fair ones and the questionable ones) to heart and slash her content in coming cycles, because I think she was being set up for a lot more to come. I love the Scions, but need some time away from them to continue loving them. Their presence detracted from the feelings of "a fresh start" that I thought we'd have here. In that sense, the less the Scions contributed to the plot, the happier I was. I feel this way despite knowing that from a writing point-of-view, it would be hard to find explanations for their absence that wouldn't feel contrived given certain story beats in the later half. I loved the first half. I do enjoy world-building for its own sake when it's on a videogame I've already invested this many hours, that I have emotional attachment to. If the expansion had not reached for what it did in the latter half, it would have lined up with my expectations and cravings. I love seeing vibrant landscapes inspired by real vistas, laughing at inspired dialogue choices and little aesthetic flourishes during gameplay ("excellent trade!"). Did not have that great of a time with the second half. Both the zones have a big "oomph" factor when you first enter them but become extremely unappealing to revisit. I do not enjoy Heritage Found's largely static skybox (pun intended) and dreary look, it reminds me of Azys Lla which I similarly avoid. Living Memory stands desolate and depressing and I prefer to not visit, even if I appreciate the message behind it. I have not played FFIX, thought the classic songs they lifted from there clashed massively with the rest of the expansion's musical scoring, never connected with Sphene more than superficially and thought Zoraal Ja's potential as a character was misused in the 2nd half of the story.
I can sympathize, though I liked Wuk. I've been avoiding most forums and conversations about the game entirely. This thread is one exception, as I use ANN regularly for anime-related reasons, I got caught off-guard
I felt the same. I would add that the fact they boiled down his motivation in the 2nd half to just feelings of inferiority and parental abandonment was a disservice to what he could have been. All that characterization was good in a vacuum but they shouldn't have waved away his ambition as an extension of that. He was supposed to be a good military leader... He could have had depth and more than one reason for doing everything in his life.
That's fair! I would personally rate them like EW > ShB > DT > HW > SB > ARR. I do not enjoy the setting of HW and that undermined my journey there, so DT easily topped that with its vistas and cultures. If I removed HW and SB patches from the equation I would even place SB above it. |
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