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Val the Moofia Boss
Scholar
- Joined
- Feb 3, 2022
- Messages
- 1,228
I have reached the Mamooja village.
My engagement has fallen off somewhat. I was engrossed in the story up until the first trial. The problem is the lack of tension. There is no feeling of danger, no feeling that we might lose. The story is now also indulging in the usual writing issues that have plagued prior expansion stories.
We've been cleanly winning every single keystone. And then Bakool Ja Ja sets loose the most powerful Tural Vidraal ever, Valimarganda the Skyruin. The expansion hyped up this Vidraal so much, with how it breathes everlasting fire with its massive firey claw marks still burning on the mountain 80 years later, and how the even the Dawnservant couldn't slay it so he had to trick it into freezing itself into its own everlasting ice. And then the giant elder on the top of the mountain took us to the gravestone that was made in rememberance of those who fought against the Vidraal. Then Bakool Ja Ja frees Valimarganda from its prison, and apparently it unleashed a firery conflagration upon the giant's village... which doesn't kill anyone, or evaporate the fountain water, or burn any grass. We then run back to the Giant's village, and they start talking about how the Skyruin is going to kill countless people and how they must send messengers to nearby villages and tell them to evacuate. But then we just walk up to Valimarganda and kill it just like that. The most powerful Vidraal ever. The cool monster advertised on the cover of the game. And it didn't kill anybody or wipe out any towns. No heroic sacrifices required to stop it. What a let down. Even the Vidraal in the Viper questline actually managed to kill some nobodies offscreen.
We then go to the Hrothgar village and get into a cooking competition, where each claimant as to pair up and only the winning team gets keystones. I was hoping we would get paired up with Zooral Ja or even Bakool Jaja, but we get paired back up with Koana and the other Scions. Then I was hoping we would lose the competition (finally! A setback! Some tension!), and then have to be confronted with the awful reality of having to rob another claimant of their keystones in order to win, or having to persuade another claimant to pool both our keystones together and the tension of there being a betrayal. Then we go to the Mamooja Village, and Zooral Ja and Bakool Ja Ja get ejected from the succession competition, so now it's just between do-gooder A and do-gooder B. Boring.
It's a shame that the cooking challenge did not happen in gameplay like in GW2 or WoW's cooking quests where you have to run around the kitchen and quickly toss the chef the correct ingredients. You just click on an NPC to watch a cutscene and then get told that you won the cooking competition, quest complete. Aw. Actually, this seems to be a recurring issue with these feats. The story is about accomplishing seven feats, but aside from fighting the Vidraal, the completion of these feats happens in a cutscene you watch rather than you actually doing something.
The cooking competition was total bullocks. You have to cook the Hrothgar village's local dish, but they don't tell you the recipe. Except there is blatant favoritism as you go around and the villagers talk about ingredients *wink wink* and conspicuously point out their underground ovens. The recipe calls for wrapping up the meat in banana leaves and the cooking it in an underground oven, but said banana leaves were impossible for the other team to procure because the road to the forest at the bottom of the canyon below was blocked (again, why don't these princes having flying mounts?). Except a conspicuous Hrothgar elder walks into the village, takes us out to a spot in the middle of the forest, and gives us a history lesson, where a basket of banana leaves "just happened" to be buried nearby! It is also a stretch that we perfectly cooked the dish on the first try, but I digress. And then the elector has the gall to accuse the other team of not being interested in their village's history, when no one without prior knowledge could have known how the dish was the result of a specific event. If you are asked to race against another person to cook enchilada, do you stop to go around researching the deep lore of Mexico? No! You are going to be trying to acquire hard facts on what it is made up of and how to cook it! The Hrothgar elector called out the Mamooja for being biased, but he is just as biased as them given how he rigged the feat in favor of his daughter so that the two Mamooja claimants would lose. At least the Mamooja elector was upfront about who he wants to win.
I can see an argument that the Dawnservant is supposed to serve all of Tural and that's why the elector expected a potential Dawnservant candidate to take an interest in the people he is supposed to serve, but we see the current Dawnservant in the capital ruling like an emperor from his rich, grand palace overlooking the city and issuing decrees, and evidently doesn't leave his capital to go visit local towns and villages. It feels like a thinly disguised title for a ruler like "First Citizen", rather than an indicator of being an actual servant. If the Dawnservant lived in a more small, humble house, then it might make more sense.
Another issue is that the narrative keeps pretending that because Wuk Lamat wants "peace", that automatically makes her a better candidate than Zoraal Ja, who has the strength to actually keep the peace, or Koana who wants to industrialize (and thus gain the strength to maintain the peace). Simply saying "please don't attack us!" isn't going to maintain peace.
There is a lot of moral lecturing in this expansion. All of this talk about how "ignorance leads to strife", how you must learn the traditions and history of a culture to make peace with them, and so on. Curious how the heroes never afforded this to the Garleans, given that they too were also pushed out of fertile lands onto poor land and had to fight back to survive, but no one gave a shit about that, but now here we are going out of our way for beastmen stuck in their forest. Sharlayan is shipping species and trees all the way to this difficult to reach canyon forest, free of charge, while Garlemald is still a smoking wasteland.
My engagement has fallen off somewhat. I was engrossed in the story up until the first trial. The problem is the lack of tension. There is no feeling of danger, no feeling that we might lose. The story is now also indulging in the usual writing issues that have plagued prior expansion stories.
We've been cleanly winning every single keystone. And then Bakool Ja Ja sets loose the most powerful Tural Vidraal ever, Valimarganda the Skyruin. The expansion hyped up this Vidraal so much, with how it breathes everlasting fire with its massive firey claw marks still burning on the mountain 80 years later, and how the even the Dawnservant couldn't slay it so he had to trick it into freezing itself into its own everlasting ice. And then the giant elder on the top of the mountain took us to the gravestone that was made in rememberance of those who fought against the Vidraal. Then Bakool Ja Ja frees Valimarganda from its prison, and apparently it unleashed a firery conflagration upon the giant's village... which doesn't kill anyone, or evaporate the fountain water, or burn any grass. We then run back to the Giant's village, and they start talking about how the Skyruin is going to kill countless people and how they must send messengers to nearby villages and tell them to evacuate. But then we just walk up to Valimarganda and kill it just like that. The most powerful Vidraal ever. The cool monster advertised on the cover of the game. And it didn't kill anybody or wipe out any towns. No heroic sacrifices required to stop it. What a let down. Even the Vidraal in the Viper questline actually managed to kill some nobodies offscreen.
We then go to the Hrothgar village and get into a cooking competition, where each claimant as to pair up and only the winning team gets keystones. I was hoping we would get paired up with Zooral Ja or even Bakool Jaja, but we get paired back up with Koana and the other Scions. Then I was hoping we would lose the competition (finally! A setback! Some tension!), and then have to be confronted with the awful reality of having to rob another claimant of their keystones in order to win, or having to persuade another claimant to pool both our keystones together and the tension of there being a betrayal. Then we go to the Mamooja Village, and Zooral Ja and Bakool Ja Ja get ejected from the succession competition, so now it's just between do-gooder A and do-gooder B. Boring.
It's a shame that the cooking challenge did not happen in gameplay like in GW2 or WoW's cooking quests where you have to run around the kitchen and quickly toss the chef the correct ingredients. You just click on an NPC to watch a cutscene and then get told that you won the cooking competition, quest complete. Aw. Actually, this seems to be a recurring issue with these feats. The story is about accomplishing seven feats, but aside from fighting the Vidraal, the completion of these feats happens in a cutscene you watch rather than you actually doing something.
The cooking competition was total bullocks. You have to cook the Hrothgar village's local dish, but they don't tell you the recipe. Except there is blatant favoritism as you go around and the villagers talk about ingredients *wink wink* and conspicuously point out their underground ovens. The recipe calls for wrapping up the meat in banana leaves and the cooking it in an underground oven, but said banana leaves were impossible for the other team to procure because the road to the forest at the bottom of the canyon below was blocked (again, why don't these princes having flying mounts?). Except a conspicuous Hrothgar elder walks into the village, takes us out to a spot in the middle of the forest, and gives us a history lesson, where a basket of banana leaves "just happened" to be buried nearby! It is also a stretch that we perfectly cooked the dish on the first try, but I digress. And then the elector has the gall to accuse the other team of not being interested in their village's history, when no one without prior knowledge could have known how the dish was the result of a specific event. If you are asked to race against another person to cook enchilada, do you stop to go around researching the deep lore of Mexico? No! You are going to be trying to acquire hard facts on what it is made up of and how to cook it! The Hrothgar elector called out the Mamooja for being biased, but he is just as biased as them given how he rigged the feat in favor of his daughter so that the two Mamooja claimants would lose. At least the Mamooja elector was upfront about who he wants to win.
I can see an argument that the Dawnservant is supposed to serve all of Tural and that's why the elector expected a potential Dawnservant candidate to take an interest in the people he is supposed to serve, but we see the current Dawnservant in the capital ruling like an emperor from his rich, grand palace overlooking the city and issuing decrees, and evidently doesn't leave his capital to go visit local towns and villages. It feels like a thinly disguised title for a ruler like "First Citizen", rather than an indicator of being an actual servant. If the Dawnservant lived in a more small, humble house, then it might make more sense.
Another issue is that the narrative keeps pretending that because Wuk Lamat wants "peace", that automatically makes her a better candidate than Zoraal Ja, who has the strength to actually keep the peace, or Koana who wants to industrialize (and thus gain the strength to maintain the peace). Simply saying "please don't attack us!" isn't going to maintain peace.
There is a lot of moral lecturing in this expansion. All of this talk about how "ignorance leads to strife", how you must learn the traditions and history of a culture to make peace with them, and so on. Curious how the heroes never afforded this to the Garleans, given that they too were also pushed out of fertile lands onto poor land and had to fight back to survive, but no one gave a shit about that, but now here we are going out of our way for beastmen stuck in their forest. Sharlayan is shipping species and trees all the way to this difficult to reach canyon forest, free of charge, while Garlemald is still a smoking wasteland.
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Val the Moofia Boss
Scholar
- Joined
- Feb 3, 2022
- Messages
- 1,228
I reached the fourth zone (I think it's a level 95/96 zone, but I am 98 on Viper), and then kinda lost interest in the story and began levelling up samurai. Another FF14 expansion where it loses steam in the middle, though this is the first one where I became so bored I abandoned progressing through the story entirely. There isn't any tension right now. You're just kinda meandering around doing sidequests while waiting for the other shoe to drop. I'm surprised that the writers who wrote Stormblood which had an engaging middle section with you fighting a guerilla war in Doma can't write interesting middle parts anymore. It also doesn't help that this fourth zone is a boring, flat area with nothing visually interesting going on. FF14 has been going on for over a decade and the map designers don't seem to have learned from WoW or GW2 in how to make zones that are actually fun to play in. I do enjoy the first two zones (and the third zone a little bit) and am somewhat looking forward to playing around in them as a beastmaster (hopefully it isn't several expansions behind like Blue Mage is?), but once you finish the sidequests, the only thing to do is Fates where you just spam your two AoE buttons over and over, which isn't very engaging.
- Joined
- Oct 28, 2020
- Messages
- 4,588
Frankly, if I could go send a message back in time I'd tell myself to skip the entire first half of the msq. As for the second half it remains to be seen if it's worth anything.
Kinda like you, I lost patience at the fourth zone, started skipping irrelevant cutscenes. But at least the dungeons and trials are better than ever. People who did the first 2 extremes say they're very good as well.
Kinda like you, I lost patience at the fourth zone, started skipping irrelevant cutscenes. But at least the dungeons and trials are better than ever. People who did the first 2 extremes say they're very good as well.
I have met best girl
10/10 expansion, trash writing forgiven
You're supposed to kill her though
- Joined
- Oct 28, 2020
- Messages
- 4,588
I have met best girl
10/10 expansion, trash writing forgiven
You're supposed to kill her though
She did nothing wrong / I can fix her
I have met best girl
10/10 expansion, trash writing forgiven
You're supposed to kill her thoughShe did nothing wrong / I can fix her
Heh, they might add a redemption arc for her in patches.
Val the Moofia Boss
Scholar
- Joined
- Feb 3, 2022
- Messages
- 1,228
Did the 2nd trial, about to finish up the final melee DPS rolequest and then go to the last zone. Thoughts:
Welp. This expansion is turning out to be Endwalker 2.0. electric boogaloo. Same writing problems with abysmally slow pacing, no tension, repetitive empty speeches about happiness and togetherness, egregious protagonist hypocrisy, nihilistic worldview being passed off as optimism, etc.
Once I finish the story, I'm probably going to resume doing 400 Dawntrail fates to get the city music rolls for my house. Hopefully the new Eureka zone and Beastmaster comes in the next patch in November.
Hold up. Krile is 20 years old? I thought she was in her mid to late 20s. And that was when she was introduced as Alphinaud's teacher in Heavensward almost a decade ago. She should be in her 30s by now.
Not fond of this "No! We can't execute the murderous bandits who just tried to slit our throat and sell us into slavery, we gotta find out why they became bandits and then fix the problem so they don't need to be bandits anymore!". This game doesn't believe in accountability or that people can be evil. Everyone has to have a sob story that gets them off the hook.
I was peeved that Koana threw away his claimant status for Wuk Lamat. Well, at least he became co-ruler with Wuk Lamat, though that is rather weird that they aren't married. Sounds ripe for conflict.
The sudden gospel music is... something. Secularized too.
We already have powerhouses who can defend the city. We are the ones close to the sphere, we should go to the sphere and see if we can get in and relay information back to HQ.
Krile's new retconned in backstory is intriguing, but it's starting to feel silly how special everyone in the Scions is turning out to be. I preferred when they were simply top students who joined this organization and then just so happened to get taken on a wild ride, rather than them turning out to be super special even before they joined the Scions.
Why aren't Wuk Lamat and Koana being accompanied by and conferring with some Landsguard generals/captains, the military warriors and leaders of Tural? Why are they exclusively hanging out with us foreigners?
Too bad the train turret defense section didn't happen in gameplay.
A cute feminine girl. Nice. Kinda looks like a Xenoblade 2 design, though. Too bad she inhabits a consumerist futuristic sci fi city. Solution 19 looks nice, it's just not what I want out of Final Fantasy, much like how I liked FF13 but it shouldn't have been branded as "Final Fantasy" as that comes with certain expectations as to what it will aesthetically look like.
"This society destroys people's souls, but let's not be judgemental! We have to understand their culture! (Unless it's Garlemald)". Feels like this was written by a redditor.
Not fond of this "we're not related by blood, but we are just as true brothers!" no. God didn't allow Abraham to pass on his inheirtance to some pretender. He gave him a true flesh and blood son.
Same stupid existentialist spiels as Endwalker.
There is far too much standing around and talking vs actual stuff happening.
All of this stopping to stand around and quip during battle deflates the tension.
Goodness gracious not yet another cringey insert song.
Missed opportunity to have some dragoons on those dragons. Ancient Ishgard (encompassing Dravania, not just Coerthas) had man riding on dragons, and Heavensward ended with the men of Ishgard and the dragons beginning to reconcile. Even if these aren't Dravanians and are just dragons from the area surrounding Thavnair, you would think at least one of them would have bonded with a human who would have tagged along.
Zoraal Ja's ordering the bombardment of Tuliyollaland the following solo duty in Solution Nine was the tipping point for me. I muted and started fast forwarding through dialogue. I don't like these characters, there is no tension, I just want to get my new job armor and go do more fates.
The Otis scene holds little weight when he is defending just one of many different robots that a central computer can take control of, and Otis him self can likely be brought back.
Why on earth are we stopping our pursuit of Zoraal Ja to play therapist for a half dozen civilians? Countless more people are dying this very instant. We should be killing Zoraal Ja to prevent that.
You've known him for 10 minutes.
The choir for the fifth dungeon's music does not sound good.
Thancred's and Y'shtola's voices do not sound quite right. Different microphone setup or mixing?
Not fond of this "No! We can't execute the murderous bandits who just tried to slit our throat and sell us into slavery, we gotta find out why they became bandits and then fix the problem so they don't need to be bandits anymore!". This game doesn't believe in accountability or that people can be evil. Everyone has to have a sob story that gets them off the hook.
I was peeved that Koana threw away his claimant status for Wuk Lamat. Well, at least he became co-ruler with Wuk Lamat, though that is rather weird that they aren't married. Sounds ripe for conflict.
The sudden gospel music is... something. Secularized too.
We already have powerhouses who can defend the city. We are the ones close to the sphere, we should go to the sphere and see if we can get in and relay information back to HQ.
Krile's new retconned in backstory is intriguing, but it's starting to feel silly how special everyone in the Scions is turning out to be. I preferred when they were simply top students who joined this organization and then just so happened to get taken on a wild ride, rather than them turning out to be super special even before they joined the Scions.
Why aren't Wuk Lamat and Koana being accompanied by and conferring with some Landsguard generals/captains, the military warriors and leaders of Tural? Why are they exclusively hanging out with us foreigners?
Too bad the train turret defense section didn't happen in gameplay.
A cute feminine girl. Nice. Kinda looks like a Xenoblade 2 design, though. Too bad she inhabits a consumerist futuristic sci fi city. Solution 19 looks nice, it's just not what I want out of Final Fantasy, much like how I liked FF13 but it shouldn't have been branded as "Final Fantasy" as that comes with certain expectations as to what it will aesthetically look like.
"This society destroys people's souls, but let's not be judgemental! We have to understand their culture! (Unless it's Garlemald)". Feels like this was written by a redditor.
Not fond of this "we're not related by blood, but we are just as true brothers!" no. God didn't allow Abraham to pass on his inheirtance to some pretender. He gave him a true flesh and blood son.
Same stupid existentialist spiels as Endwalker.
There is far too much standing around and talking vs actual stuff happening.
All of this stopping to stand around and quip during battle deflates the tension.
Goodness gracious not yet another cringey insert song.
Missed opportunity to have some dragoons on those dragons. Ancient Ishgard (encompassing Dravania, not just Coerthas) had man riding on dragons, and Heavensward ended with the men of Ishgard and the dragons beginning to reconcile. Even if these aren't Dravanians and are just dragons from the area surrounding Thavnair, you would think at least one of them would have bonded with a human who would have tagged along.
Zoraal Ja's ordering the bombardment of Tuliyollaland the following solo duty in Solution Nine was the tipping point for me. I muted and started fast forwarding through dialogue. I don't like these characters, there is no tension, I just want to get my new job armor and go do more fates.
The Otis scene holds little weight when he is defending just one of many different robots that a central computer can take control of, and Otis him self can likely be brought back.
Why on earth are we stopping our pursuit of Zoraal Ja to play therapist for a half dozen civilians? Countless more people are dying this very instant. We should be killing Zoraal Ja to prevent that.
You've known him for 10 minutes.
The choir for the fifth dungeon's music does not sound good.
Thancred's and Y'shtola's voices do not sound quite right. Different microphone setup or mixing?
Welp. This expansion is turning out to be Endwalker 2.0. electric boogaloo. Same writing problems with abysmally slow pacing, no tension, repetitive empty speeches about happiness and togetherness, egregious protagonist hypocrisy, nihilistic worldview being passed off as optimism, etc.
Once I finish the story, I'm probably going to resume doing 400 Dawntrail fates to get the city music rolls for my house. Hopefully the new Eureka zone and Beastmaster comes in the next patch in November.
Val the Moofia Boss
Scholar
- Joined
- Feb 3, 2022
- Messages
- 1,228
Finished the expansion's story.
This is the third expansion in a row where the story ends with you pursuing the villain to a fake recreation of a long dead civilization with the aesthetics of a modern urban city. They just held back Alphinaud/Alisaie/Thancred/Urianger/Y'shtola to make it not as blatantly obvious.
(The art looks good, the story just isn't landing with me)
Is it? In this universe, there is no God who dictates right and wrong. Without him, there is nothing to anchor morality. It's just preferences. And in this world, "souls" are actually just aether. If the "denizens" of this world are memories impressed upon aether, then they are effectively people just like the in the Source who are memories and aether. The "living" people of the Source aren't magically more "alive" than the Endless given the metaphysics of the setting. Endless Cachiua doesn't have the "soul" of the original but in the end, its just aether and they are both people regardless. Sacrificing the "other" for the sake of "our" own people is what everyone in this setting does, including us. We waged war against other countries and killed other people because we preferred that our own people would survive. We wiped out the Amaurotine civilization and any hope of humanity returning to its original form because we preferred our present fallen civilization would survive. Sphene is no different, preferring to kill others to keep her people alive. Not seeing what's so wrong about that in this setting.
I fail to see how in this setting, that being "born" because your aether was taken from other people is any different from being born because your tribe wiped out another tribe and took their food which allowed your parents to support having a child.
"We'll stop the empire's leaders from waging war against us by massacring all of their people! Then they won't have any motivation to fight!" do you realize how backwards that sounds? You could try killing Sphene without wiping out her people? And it's not like the memories she uses to impress upon aether to create new people is being lost, so she isn't really losing a motivation to continue fighting here.
You had no issue killing Imperials or Amaurotines before, but now it's hard?
Empty words when there is no true Heaven or resurrection in this setting, and you just reincarnate over and over as different beings until your planet's lifestream dies and that's it.
No! You're not meant to die! Death is unnatural! In the beginning, all men lived forever! Stop trying to pass off the fallen state of humanity as "normal"!
It's a shame you can't actually ride the zipline to different parts of the Unlost World. You talk to an NPC and then get a fade to black as you get teleported around.
Come on Krile! Let's go murder the clones of your parents together! This story is hillariously psychopathic.
Who says this is twisted? Your own arbitrary moral system based on your feelings at the moment? Alexandria simply replicates how the lifestream it works. Who is to say what is "natural" and "unnatural"?
Did we just manipulate a guy into murdering the clone of his mother? Wow.
Lmao we are doing the exact same final dungeon for the third time in a row of running through a recreation of the downfall of civilization while said villain narrates.
Cool final boss design. Too bad it's the fourth final boss in a row that is some thing floating off of the platform, rather than a boss that the tank can manuever around on top of it. Then again, FF14 sadly doesn't do WoW-esque boss fights where you have to drag the boss around away from ever increasing amounts of lava on the floor. I also have to wonder why the boss doesn't just teleport the player over a pool of lava and kill him just like that. Inb4 "the Sphene was ackshually trying to hold back from the inside!" retardation.
The fun was frontloaded with the succession competition and the Vidraal. Should've just been about that, not that would have fixed the lack of tension and the abysmal pacing. I liked some of the ideas and designs later on, but it just never matriculated into something I really liked. As hard as Endwalker dropped the ball, at least I was invested enough to rage about it, and it had some interesting twists like Thavnair turning out to be ruled by a dragon, or the high tension bodyjacking scene, or the fun Elpis arc. But here, I finished the story and just didn't really care all that much, aside from the poking holes in the philosophical conclusions in the final zone. After the first trial, the only thing that piqued my interest was the turning point at level 96, and then that was it. Biggest problem with the final act is that it is beat for beat the 3rd rehash of Shadowbringers/Endwalker and the same issues. I don't mind the rehashing so much as the execution and the bleak worldview.
The things I like about Dawntrail are other than the story: the new city of Tulliyollal, how the first two zones look, some of the music, the new Viper job, the new Samurai outfit, and... I guess that's it for now. The first two trial fights were kinda fun (haven't done them on extreme yet), though I don't really like doing the same scripted instanced fight over and over. And overworld content is disappointingly easy, even the S-ranked Vidraal notorious monster was zerged down in seconds. Should have been a critical engagement.
EDIT: forgot to mention that I liked Tural as seen in the first three zones. A fantasy land based on South America with fat bird people and two headed lizardmen and bug eye giants and little people in duck masks was something I hadn't seen before. Also, I enjoyed the sidequests.
This is the third expansion in a row where the story ends with you pursuing the villain to a fake recreation of a long dead civilization with the aesthetics of a modern urban city. They just held back Alphinaud/Alisaie/Thancred/Urianger/Y'shtola to make it not as blatantly obvious.
(The art looks good, the story just isn't landing with me)
Is it? In this universe, there is no God who dictates right and wrong. Without him, there is nothing to anchor morality. It's just preferences. And in this world, "souls" are actually just aether. If the "denizens" of this world are memories impressed upon aether, then they are effectively people just like the in the Source who are memories and aether. The "living" people of the Source aren't magically more "alive" than the Endless given the metaphysics of the setting. Endless Cachiua doesn't have the "soul" of the original but in the end, its just aether and they are both people regardless. Sacrificing the "other" for the sake of "our" own people is what everyone in this setting does, including us. We waged war against other countries and killed other people because we preferred that our own people would survive. We wiped out the Amaurotine civilization and any hope of humanity returning to its original form because we preferred our present fallen civilization would survive. Sphene is no different, preferring to kill others to keep her people alive. Not seeing what's so wrong about that in this setting.
I fail to see how in this setting, that being "born" because your aether was taken from other people is any different from being born because your tribe wiped out another tribe and took their food which allowed your parents to support having a child.
"We'll stop the empire's leaders from waging war against us by massacring all of their people! Then they won't have any motivation to fight!" do you realize how backwards that sounds? You could try killing Sphene without wiping out her people? And it's not like the memories she uses to impress upon aether to create new people is being lost, so she isn't really losing a motivation to continue fighting here.
You had no issue killing Imperials or Amaurotines before, but now it's hard?
Empty words when there is no true Heaven or resurrection in this setting, and you just reincarnate over and over as different beings until your planet's lifestream dies and that's it.
No! You're not meant to die! Death is unnatural! In the beginning, all men lived forever! Stop trying to pass off the fallen state of humanity as "normal"!
It's a shame you can't actually ride the zipline to different parts of the Unlost World. You talk to an NPC and then get a fade to black as you get teleported around.
Come on Krile! Let's go murder the clones of your parents together! This story is hillariously psychopathic.
Who says this is twisted? Your own arbitrary moral system based on your feelings at the moment? Alexandria simply replicates how the lifestream it works. Who is to say what is "natural" and "unnatural"?
Did we just manipulate a guy into murdering the clone of his mother? Wow.
Lmao we are doing the exact same final dungeon for the third time in a row of running through a recreation of the downfall of civilization while said villain narrates.
Cool final boss design. Too bad it's the fourth final boss in a row that is some thing floating off of the platform, rather than a boss that the tank can manuever around on top of it. Then again, FF14 sadly doesn't do WoW-esque boss fights where you have to drag the boss around away from ever increasing amounts of lava on the floor. I also have to wonder why the boss doesn't just teleport the player over a pool of lava and kill him just like that. Inb4 "the Sphene was ackshually trying to hold back from the inside!" retardation.
The fun was frontloaded with the succession competition and the Vidraal. Should've just been about that, not that would have fixed the lack of tension and the abysmal pacing. I liked some of the ideas and designs later on, but it just never matriculated into something I really liked. As hard as Endwalker dropped the ball, at least I was invested enough to rage about it, and it had some interesting twists like Thavnair turning out to be ruled by a dragon, or the high tension bodyjacking scene, or the fun Elpis arc. But here, I finished the story and just didn't really care all that much, aside from the poking holes in the philosophical conclusions in the final zone. After the first trial, the only thing that piqued my interest was the turning point at level 96, and then that was it. Biggest problem with the final act is that it is beat for beat the 3rd rehash of Shadowbringers/Endwalker and the same issues. I don't mind the rehashing so much as the execution and the bleak worldview.
The things I like about Dawntrail are other than the story: the new city of Tulliyollal, how the first two zones look, some of the music, the new Viper job, the new Samurai outfit, and... I guess that's it for now. The first two trial fights were kinda fun (haven't done them on extreme yet), though I don't really like doing the same scripted instanced fight over and over. And overworld content is disappointingly easy, even the S-ranked Vidraal notorious monster was zerged down in seconds. Should have been a critical engagement.
EDIT: forgot to mention that I liked Tural as seen in the first three zones. A fantasy land based on South America with fat bird people and two headed lizardmen and bug eye giants and little people in duck masks was something I hadn't seen before. Also, I enjoyed the sidequests.
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As the general opinion goes (even for JP players), the MSQ is crap, everything else are ranging ok to good.
For an expansion that is supposed to be about Krile, Erenville and Wuk Lamat, Krile and Erenville is criminally underused while focus is 90% on the writer's pet furry.
For an expansion that is supposed to be about Krile, Erenville and Wuk Lamat, Krile and Erenville is criminally underused while focus is 90% on the writer's pet furry.
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Isn't this the final Expansion?
Vyvian
Educated
- Joined
- Jul 11, 2023
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- 337
No, it's the beginning of a new series of expansions really. That's the plan anyhow.
I'm also enjoying how worldwide sentiment seems to be against Wuk Lamat as a character, even the Japanese are shitting on her in great numbers. The only people trying to astroturf support for the character seems to be twitter.
I'm also enjoying how worldwide sentiment seems to be against Wuk Lamat as a character, even the Japanese are shitting on her in great numbers. The only people trying to astroturf support for the character seems to be twitter.
Val the Moofia Boss
Scholar
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- Feb 3, 2022
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- 1,228
I like how the new raid doesn't start with long winded exposition dumps or character introductions, and instead gets you into two fights almost immediately, and then only after the second boss does it take a moment for characters to talk. Prior raids had more appealing premises (saving the world with the Scions, more Ancients) but were hamstrung by slow pacing as you're hanging out with academics who talk talk talk and has loads of exposition.
The monster transformations are neat.
The cityscape backdrop of the fourth fight looks great. Too bad this wasn't a Garlemald zone.
The monster transformations are neat.
The cityscape backdrop of the fourth fight looks great. Too bad this wasn't a Garlemald zone.
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- 4,588
I realized I forgot to write my thought about the expansion here. First of all the story is garbage... a total dumpster fire. Writing is bad, much worse than previously, or that's my impression at least. The furry queen gets more and more annoying as the story goes on, eventually I just wanna erase her from existence with mods. Another grating thing is, we spent 10 years as the protagonist, savior of the world, whatever. But now the wol is just a sidekick at best, right until the very end. And by very end I mean when the credits roll, there's not a moment where you feel as the main character. Other scions are more used as props than anything else. The overall theme they were going with is ALRIGHT! It just doesn't impress me much because the writing is bad. I rate the story as "probably worse than stormblood".
But that's where the bad news ends because everything else is the same as EW, or BETTER. The new zones are inspired by North, Central and South America and they look nice, with good music. Dungeons are unfortunately still boring between bosses with the trash pulls but the bosses are noticeably harder. Trials as well are harder, it's massive incline. The first two extremes are really fun and refreshing to heal, with lots of damage incoming. Often I felt like I had to use every single oGCD I had to keep the party alive although nowadays it's more comfortable to play after everyone got more familiar with it. As for the new jobs I haven't played viper much and not really a melee player but the pictomancer feels like peak caster design. We just got the new raids and they're a lot of fun too. Really looking forward to the new savages, alliance raid, extremes, and the potential new eureka/bozja that may come out. Don't care about the story, people who play for the story should stop paying a subscription and just watch someone else play on youtube. So overall, the expansion has been excellent so far.
But that's where the bad news ends because everything else is the same as EW, or BETTER. The new zones are inspired by North, Central and South America and they look nice, with good music. Dungeons are unfortunately still boring between bosses with the trash pulls but the bosses are noticeably harder. Trials as well are harder, it's massive incline. The first two extremes are really fun and refreshing to heal, with lots of damage incoming. Often I felt like I had to use every single oGCD I had to keep the party alive although nowadays it's more comfortable to play after everyone got more familiar with it. As for the new jobs I haven't played viper much and not really a melee player but the pictomancer feels like peak caster design. We just got the new raids and they're a lot of fun too. Really looking forward to the new savages, alliance raid, extremes, and the potential new eureka/bozja that may come out. Don't care about the story, people who play for the story should stop paying a subscription and just watch someone else play on youtube. So overall, the expansion has been excellent so far.
Val the Moofia Boss
Scholar
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I am fine with not being the main character of the story, and I am glad that new fresh characters got the spotlight instead of the tired Scions. However, the execution of the plot was indeed lackluster.
Vyvian
Educated
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- Jul 11, 2023
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- 337
I was until the end.
That was our moment to do our thing and it was still stolen by Poochie. It felt almost malicious by the hack writer of this MSQ.
I also think she had no business being a major focus in the second half. If they had to force one of them it should have been Koana. Making him face and understand the dangers of unchecked technological progress would've been far more interesting than Wuk Lamat being extremely naive regarding Sphene.
It's nice seeing his donut steel OC getting absolutely shit on worldwide. Even the Japanese hate her and they aren't being shy about letting Yoshida and SE know it.
You're the gopher of light, and you've been that ever since this turned into the Alphinaud and Friends show some 10 years ago back in ARR.
You've never been the main character, and always at best their accessory; Not because MMORPGs necessitate this style, but because this is just how squeenix does things.
Of all the reasons to dislike Dawntrail specifically, this is by far and away the dumbest justification of all.
Renfri
Cipher
- Joined
- Sep 30, 2014
- Messages
- 584
I finished Dawntrail story and here are few thoughts.
Competion for throne part was pretty bad, Wuk Lamat was annoying and when that furry wasn't around, it was just alright. Koana was boring and other two were just okay. When that part of the story was finally over, things got moderately more interesting, but I just wish Wuk Lamat would have been sidelined long time ago. I think I actually liked story after silly competion, Sphene and stuff were kinda cool to learn about.
Dungeons and trials were great overall, just one dungeon boss I remember being extremely lame, others were decent or great.
Competion for throne part was pretty bad, Wuk Lamat was annoying and when that furry wasn't around, it was just alright. Koana was boring and other two were just okay. When that part of the story was finally over, things got moderately more interesting, but I just wish Wuk Lamat would have been sidelined long time ago. I think I actually liked story after silly competion, Sphene and stuff were kinda cool to learn about.
Dungeons and trials were great overall, just one dungeon boss I remember being extremely lame, others were decent or great.
- Joined
- Oct 28, 2020
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- 4,588
I said it was grating to go from "savior of the universe" to sidekick. And saying you weren't the main character because you had to do fetch quests or because you were a part of a higher power's plan is retarded.
Thalstarion
Educated
- Joined
- Jul 27, 2024
- Messages
- 138
Speaking as someone who played the game from A Realm Reborn to Endwalker and who has since turned my back on the game alongside pretty much all of my friends? I would not recommend it these days.
I stand firmly behind the idea that the game was something special. It wasn't perfect by any stretch but it made an earnest effort to be something interesting whilst also serving as a love letter to the earlier entries in the franchise.
A growing number of players within the community are utterly insane. I don't say that lightly - but they're prone to unhinged purity spirals over other players liking or disliking the 'wrong' characters.
This is unfortunately a viewpoint shared by the equally nutty English localisation lead, who has basically hijacked the setting to be her own personal playpen shifting from a cool fantasy setting with grit to a low stakes adventure with obnoxious preachy characters, broken aesops and near constant lectures aimed at the player.
Here's some samples of her X (formerly Twitter) posts to showcase her idealogy:
https://imgur.com/a/d7WoRQc
Like many in the industry, she's terrible at localisation. Often making deliberate mistakes and needless changes to context. Some excellent examples of the consequences of that can be found throughout the following thread, for those curious:
https://forum.square-enix.com/ffxiv...f-English-localization-issues-is-unacceptable
I stand firmly behind the idea that the game was something special. It wasn't perfect by any stretch but it made an earnest effort to be something interesting whilst also serving as a love letter to the earlier entries in the franchise.
A growing number of players within the community are utterly insane. I don't say that lightly - but they're prone to unhinged purity spirals over other players liking or disliking the 'wrong' characters.
This is unfortunately a viewpoint shared by the equally nutty English localisation lead, who has basically hijacked the setting to be her own personal playpen shifting from a cool fantasy setting with grit to a low stakes adventure with obnoxious preachy characters, broken aesops and near constant lectures aimed at the player.
Here's some samples of her X (formerly Twitter) posts to showcase her idealogy:
https://imgur.com/a/d7WoRQc
Like many in the industry, she's terrible at localisation. Often making deliberate mistakes and needless changes to context. Some excellent examples of the consequences of that can be found throughout the following thread, for those curious:
https://forum.square-enix.com/ffxiv...f-English-localization-issues-is-unacceptable
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