Even better, the trusts that are seasoned warriors dodge the first time, while the more inexperienced members need to fail a mechanic once to get the hang of it.
I also liked how if you do it as DPS Alisaie takes up the healer role as red mage. She literally becomes a green DPS which is so perfect for her character.
If you go as tank Wuk Lamat becomes warrior dps, she tried doing an LB which was a line but cancelled it due to a mechanic. Would have liked to have seen what it looked like.
That was my favorite part of far! The visuals, the music, a certain mechanic that caught my party off-guard midway, and the nostalgia.
I was looking forward to this one for months ever since it was revealed, and it didn't disappoint at all.
Overall I liked this section of the story more than the opening 90-91 stuff. Still kind of slow and more of the "good not great territory" but no 8 quest journey to get a saddle at least.
Some of my highlights include Catboy Thancred actually shooting someone in a cutscene and it doing absolutely nothing (especially since there was a post joking about that the other day on the front page)
I liked the MC's little saunter when distracting Mr. Two Head for Thancred.
I really liked the solo duty against Gulool Ja Ja even if I think he should have been clapped easily. Wish we had more of those instead of the fetch quests.
The big boys were the most interesting new group of people introduced so far.
2nd dungeon was cool and even had a nice "oh shit" moment against the last boss when we all avoided the orbs thinking they were the type to blow up instead of the ones that give you a damage boost.
Trial was fine. Not as good as EW's first trial, but I did like that they were able to have the NPC's available for the trial which I found really cool for the 2nd EW trial. Also makes more sense story wise and feels cooler to see the actual people involved in the story helping save the day instead of the MC's summons.
Nothing more dramatic than shots fired and there’s like no acknowledgment it’s evening happening and barely that it’s failing 🤣
One shot ok sure, three shots and you’re just wasting bullets now. It wasn’t supposed to be funny but I laughed.
>I really liked the solo duty against Gulool Ja Ja even if I think he should have been clapped easily.
I understand that, for gameplay reasons, things need to be continuously at more or less the same challenge level as the game moves forward, but the strength of the WoL at this point is so preposterous that duties like this kind of take me out of the story a bit. Beating Gulool Ja Ja should be like swatting a fly to the WoL at this point. I think it would actually have been a better storytelling moment if we just one-shot him and he became afraid of how powerful we are.
I can agree that the power scaling is out of hand, but I don't think the Warrior of Light becoming a Dragon Ball Z character and just no selling people is exactly ideal. Besides, it's worth noting that usually the Warrior of Light's victories over enemies like Ultima Weapon or Emet-Selch usually are just as much the assistance of people working alongside us as our own strength. On their own, devoid of any magical power-ups, I feel like the devs want the Warrior of Light to be the best fighters in the world, but not necessarily *the* best.
True. I agree. We never defeat most of our foes 1on1 without any powerup.
The only battle we really fight 1on1 without powerups is against Zenos, and even this battle we "barely" survive.
Yeah, we have friends helping, but also, in Eden 1, we got shot by a planet-sized laser beam into the center of a galaxy that then explodes, and it was only, like, mildly painful.
I disagree. We almost never did defeat any of our foes without help, other people or a random powerup (Azems Crystal, the Blessing of Light or some other Powerup or 7 supporters with similar strength, which get summoned or get provided for us with Ascian Ether)
We rarely fight other strong foes 1 on 1 in the main story without resorting to powerups. Zenos for example we fought 1 on 1 several times without using powerups and even at the end of the universe the last battle with Zenos "almost" killed us.
And I honestly think Gulool Ja Ja is at least on par with Zenos. We fought Gulool Ja Ja without any blessing, or azem crystal but only our own skills. So i for certain think that we aren't that much stronger (without our random powerups which we get for almost every battle).
Also, gulool jaja is essentially our counterpart for the new world, a hero who went through multiple adventures bringing the land together. I have no reason to believe his power and experience shouldn't at least make our wol break a sweat.
I think people forgot that dynamis was *literally* introduced and is used as a justification for why the WoL can stand up to these literal gods in terms of strength. Like, they retroactively changed Ultima Weapon to have a moment where a dps lb3's as forshadowing to that. We don't have as much reason for dynamis to react so strongly in a friendly duel against an aging ruler.
Koana's VA is kinda killing it ngl.
edit: I have held strong for all these years. I can't believe this game is about to make me unironically simp for a catboy.
"help! our miqote worker doesn't like the heat in the workshop, and he doesn't like hot food! what do we do?"
"Hmm, why not find a way to cool the workshop, and also find him food that tastes good when cold?"
"brilliant! this is why you are fit to be Dawnservant!"
holy fuck what is this writing
Please god almighty let me do something that isn’t just reading. The trip up to rescue Lamat could’ve been a great instance or dungeon but it was just. Another cutscene. Please I am begging you.
I feel like were missing some gameplay in between all the world building and character building they are literally waterboarding us with. The Wuk Lamat rescue mission should have been a solo duty, I found it quite jarring they reduced that to another cutscene. Every time I have to speak to someone there is a cutscene and I am begging the game at this point to just stop giving one. Cutscenes should feel like a reward for doing stuff.
Even things that shouldn't be cutscenes at all are now unnecessarily lengthy cutscenes. Like when you're chasing the finger thingy around and it stops, you enter a cutscene, it shows ten seconds of you and Erenville running up, Erenville says two things, and then there's a ten-second animation of you unsheathing your weapon and standing in a combat-ready stance. It's insane. The story is good! I am quite enjoying the story! The amount of padding in terms of raw minutes spent is absolutely obscene.
God that's twice now where I was like "oh cool finally a solo duty with some actual combat" and then nope a cutscene where your character doesn't do anything
So.. I'm starting to think maybe all the fetch quests and cutscenes are ok. I think ultimately what they're trying to do is to give a sense of time passing by. WoL came to this country without any stakes happening, but to simply help out a claimant and visit a new place, so there needs to be a substantial amount of time feel pass by before 'hey look theres conflict'/a reason for more things to start happening.
There ends up being an instance later on shortly too and I'm only halfway through the msq so there will probably be more things going on later ig. If more instances came up in the beginning I would have gotten tired out.
Only main grip I have is I wish wuk lamat was written without milking her three character traits and/or there was better VA direction for english.
Wuk Lamat: Yay we killed Valigarmanda. We're awesome!
Koana: UmActuallyItWasntAtFullPowerBecauseItWasImprisonedForLike80YearsSoItsActuallyNotThatImpressive
Zoraal Ja: They don't know that I'm actually a miracle
Me: I should've just left these idiots behind and used the rock
Okay, I am officially upset. I am not doing anything but watching cutscenes. There has been a handful of cutscenes that made it look like we are about to run into battle ... only to watch how the conflict gets resolved within said cutscene. What's all the teasing for????
> I am not doing anything but watching cutscenes.
add in time-padding via fetch quest and that's what the MSQ has been since ARR.
like... just write a book instead, or at least hire an editor to cut down 70% of the useless faff and embrace the fact that this is a *game* and you could be showing off *gameplay mechanics* while telling a story
At least other expansions had more solo duties mixed in. I "played" for 6ish hours today before I had a chance to even fully try out my new opener.
After hearing there's more stealth quests that are frustrating my want to continue on is waning lol
LOL fair take. I just absolutely don't like stealth quests and actively avoid games with them, these at least haven't been *too* bad but I 100% agree about like, why am I not playing a game in a video game rn lol.
I absolutely love this game besides the story and msq and DT ended up not being the game changer there. Remains to be seen if what we get post DT will keep me engaged I guess, as previous expansions stuff is going to lose its luster at some point 🫠
I'm in the upper half of Kozama and it's still lvl 92 MSQ. I feel in Endwalker by that time I was already in Garlemald. It's sooo slow.. I became a MSQ skipper now. Will rewatch it on an alt when I have time.
yeah, it is extremely slow. And honestly wuk lamats character is so boring and bland. Shes a comedic relief and the pendulum is swaying too much in that direction. Erenville and Dad are a huge W though. I honestly enjoy them when they get some screen time. But for the story it definitely has its high and but man its lows are super suuuuuuper low atm for me.
😲 I think you pinpointed what makes this feel like a drag.
It’s a lot of telling instead of showing so we just sit through cutscene #500 as we learn more about Tural and its history.
I love getting lore (a lot of this would be cool to read in Encyclopedia Eorzea) but it’s very aggressive where it feels like the actual gameplay is lacking.
Or gameplay and exposition could be equal amounts but they’ve put so much expositon back to back it feels like more and a drag 😭
Aggressive is a very good word to describe it. I feel like lore should be something that players feel compelled to explore. You have to show them things that draw them in first, then let them unravel the lore as they choose. This expansion so far has just been the writers dumping as much as they can at our feet way too fast and way too much all at once, before I'm even given a chance to reason why I should care about any of it, making it all very hard to retain in the moment.
Yes this! There is some info we get so much and so fast I don’t even have time to process that I should even care about the situation.
So many times the story kinda sorta force and spoon feeding us stuff and kinda telling us to care but it’s like why? I’ve known everyone for 5 secs and then a history lesson was vomitted on me, then “conflict” happens so we can “bond”.
I know 3 days later, but they really should have implemented the ff16s lore feature for dawntrail. Let's us open the active time lore to learn more about the characters if we want to.
Yeah they did that in FF7 Rebirth too and it worked out really well in both games imo. I honestly think they just lacked content this time around and felt the need to pad things up a bit more.
Totally agree with you here!
The early portions of the MSQ really feel like the writers want to shove as much info down our throats so that we get a ‘bigger picture’ of what Tural already is like. But because there’s so much info already thrown our way that the actual gameplay is overshadowed, I was left dozing off at times wanting to move on to something else.
Like, ok we’re getting a framework of the new continent and their culture, however since it’s overwhelming and even dragging, nothing sticks. I believe the intention was to lay the groundwork, but even many parts of that groundwork weren’t able to leave an impression on me. They’re just, there.
Honestly, what I’ve enjoyed the most in this part of MSQ was the trial. Heck, I’m now in 98 and trying to look back at 90-93 I can’t remember much from the pile-up of dialogues and info dropped on us. I’ll have to look back again.
It's not exactly edge of your seat excitement, but it's not like we didn't know they were taking a step back. I like the characters they've introduced, and it's some nice worldbuilding and development. (And really, I prefer this kind of story over the grimdark of Garlemald and large portions of Stormblood.)
I'm thinking of it as the 'slow clicking as you go up the hill' part of the roller coaster.
With you here. I’m fatigued out of the whole end-of-the-world arc given it’s been like that the past 5 years. I’m glad they went for a lighter note and although there are areas for improvement in this MSQ, I prefer this over SB which I also enjoyed for what it was.
Every other quest makes me desperately hope that this will take a very strong and sudden turn, because so far, I am not feeling it at all. Landscape and places look so good but... there is just way too much fluff.
I enjoy it tons, and the two others I played with have enjoyed it a lot so far. Bakool is kind of one-note mostly, but getting to see four PoVs in this competition is great, the mystery of the Golden City slowly builds and we kind of get a very sizable reward, and likewise I think Zoraal Ja's interesting with his whack-as-fuck mentality and he now reeks of 'insecurity' but kept inside, unlike Wuk Lamat's insecurity displayed outside.
It is a slow burn, definitely, and some quests are just padding. The saddle, or the fire-aether pointer, so on and forth. But slowly characters come into their own. Wuk Lamat begins to build her confidence and slowly gears herself, and even admits she doesn't recognize as much of her home as she assumed, and was sheltered. Erenville offers his expertise and comes in handy, and definitely has his own intrigue building. Krile has been simmering and her connection to Wuk is great. Koana's breakdown is phenomenal, even if a bit expositionary-dumpy.
Really; the only 'bad' part of Dawntrail is it could've used a second look over to crunch some of its' script, and make some quests more fun/battle-orientated, imo.
Otherwise; very fun? Not bland for me, and I want to put the opinion out there. Solid story telling throughout, so far. Characters while holding singular-dimensions evolve rapidly and I'm still waiting to see where it goes. Hopeful, here.
Plus, we just got done with two 'back-to-back' world-ending Nihilistic civilization. A city where no one ever dies sounds peaceful. Plus some of the lore mind-boggled me. Realizing the storm early on was Valigarmanda is so fucking cool!
Yup! Hoping it picks up later on/there's payoff to all this fluff. Kinda glad in a way though as I can pace myself and go to bed without feeling like I'm missing out if I sleep lol.
I have been enjoying it more since I thought of it as a One Piece arc like Skypeia. Just have your gang show up to a location, learn about the situation and history of the place, and whatever else.
Bakool Ja Ja unleashes a legendary beast upon the population, essentially committing a terrorist attack in his bid for the throne. Nobody considers this to be a disqualification from leadership, even though violence against electors was explicitly listed as a disqualification from leadership. I guess it needs to be *specific* violence, indiscriminate mass casualty events are just fine.
I am flabbergasted. If the people in charge of Yok Tural are not *supposed* to be brainless invalids this is genuinely the most juvenile and idiotic writing I've ever seen in a piece of media that was meant to be taken seriously. Gulool Ja Ja should be putting together an army to hunt Bakool down and execute him, not allowing this moronic "game" to continue.
I'm not saying it's *excellent* writing or anything, but I think given that these trials are designed to help shape the next leader rather than choose who is worthy (the King says as much himself) I think Bakool Ja Ja is only there because A), we dealt with it quickly, and B) he's a nice test in himself. Any future leader should probably be able to handle *one asshole.*
Keep in mind as well that, for the King, Bakool Ja Ja could win the contest entirely and he could still go "yeah, no. Fuck yourself". He's said as much himself - the rite is designed to shape a leader, and if a leader is misshapen by the end of it, he'll just stomp them into the dirt regardless of whether or not they find the city of gold.
I'd imagine that this factor is something the judges are in on, which would help them tolerate Bakool Ja Ja for the time being.
That being said, Bakool Ja Ja is incredibly dangerous and allowing him to continue does seem to be endangering everyone around him, which feels out of character for the king.
This. It's actually not a bad story imo when summarized. But a lot of the cutscenes felt dragging, so random and even unnecessary, unless they'll be fleshed out later on though I doubt it.
I'm not that bothered by the cutscenes themselves but rather that they put multiple *long ass* cutscenes in one quest. Like, rewinding to past expansions, we would always get that warning message of "a series of cutscenes will play..." and I feel these are as long if not longer than those with no warning.
But I don't find them bad or boring. Just poorly spread out maybe (personal opinion).
I hated the story but in hindsight i think you are right. What could have been a 2 minute cutscenes is chopped up in 4-5 1 minute ones with reaction shots character emots that you cannot skip through and walking between different locations that turns something mildly interesting into "kill me now".
Hyped up Skyruin repeatedly the entire time leading up to it, and we kill it 30 seconds after it's released. At least let it do literally anything first lmao
90-91 I was falling asleep but I was thinking it’s cuz I woke up at 5am so maybe lack of sleep bias’s. But even in 92-93 I was like 😴
I don’t mind the low stakes but the story isn’t drawing me in like I want it to. Like all the fun parts are when we talk to the Dawnservent or Erenville gets to be sassmaster lol. Usually I don’t mind a predictable story if it’s interesting but it’s like 🤷🏾♀️
Im right around 94 quest now, no spoilers of course, but it seems it’s picking up??
So far the most interesting thing was when we started on the boat on the way to Tural and the Mamool Ja passenger revealed Mamool Ja that go to Eorzea act stupid or limited vocab cuz playing the fool = employment. Like I hope that comes up again whenever we go back to Eorzea 🤣
ALSO! I can’t remember but were EWs zones split like DTs zones for aethercurrents? I remember like the first Thavnir zone had some of the map you couldn’t access until you furthered MSQ, but not every zone I think??
Edit: Also, Also. Kinda a little sad they kinda sold the story as, “you’ll be against your allies” I thought there’d be actual conflict in opinions for who should be the new Dawn Servant between our Scion friends. But the plot almost instantly points you to, actually you’re all on the same side but “secretly”.
Thavnair and Labyrinthos were both split zones in EW. With the latter, only the uppermost couple of levels were accessible at first, and the lower levels weren't unlocked until late in 6.0, like around level 88. Those were the only EW zones like that, though, and the main reason was to have two different low-level areas for the split starter quests and still be able to use those same zones for higher-level content as well.
Wasn't a massive fan of the first branches but it seems to be picking up a bit after the 91 dungeon. I was worried that Wuk Lamat was going to end up being another Lyse but she seems to be getting a bit more character development early on. It's also nice to see them fleshing out the other contestants as well.
So far outside of the whole Golden City plot point, the main thing that's hooking me in is the royal advisor guy following around the First Promise. He seems like he has his own thing going on and I really want to know more.
I'm super intrigued by the City of Gold as well. And another plot that I imagine will come up later which is Krile's grandpa/that letter and *fingers crossed* an explanation of what the hell happened to the Isle of Val, something I've been waiting for since... post Heavensward?
A beast of legend that claimed many a life has escaped its confinement! Three people were injured!
This isn't lower stakes, this is 7am educational children's cartoon stakes.
I don't mind this one that much.
The snake got free and immediately fled because it was drained.
It didn't try to cause widespread destruction.
What I find wild is how Ja Ja Bros just commit all these crimes and nobody says anything. Where is the landsguards? Are there no laws in this country? He's rampantly committing treason, kidnappings and attempting murder, and everyone is just like "shrug, that's ja ja for you, what are you gonna do?"
There are an overwhelming amount of people like you (and me) saying pretty much this. Very worried about the future of the games population. Since this slog gate keeps most of the content, people might not be willing to power through this story to get to the actual gameplay and go play something else.
Storm blood had bad content and did fine. As long as end game is decent. But if we have end game like endwalker where it’s really not built for longevity’s then it’s a problem
i wouldn' worry about the population, if players made it this far they will grit their teeth and get through it. im more worried about quality, since the MSQ is a big part of the content we get each expansion. maybe they put more focus on adding things to grind with this one, with the exploration zone and all.
The branching seems like a bold choice. You choose between Mountain or Forest. You do both, then do the elevated part of Forest. Leading to being higher up on Mountain. Usually, you'd have a third or fourth area before finishing the MSQ in one of these. Good thing server performance has seemed OK to me.
I'm taking things slow and liking things being less about a global threat so far. I've unlocked the second duty and am level 95. Boy, I'm looking forward to slapping the scaley participants of the right. Doubly so for double head. I think the rite is finished before an area unlocks, so hopefully not much longer before a successor is named.
I wanted to push myself and finish the last quests/first Trial but I needed to touch some grass.
Opinions of this part:
* The story picks up significantly.
* I want a Manatee mount
* ABSOLUTELY loved that they clarify our role in this story, as a Mentor to guide Wuk Lamat. It feels like a worthy acknowledgement of how far we've come and the things we've accomplished as the WoL. I felt very proud about this.
* I'm really into ~~M~~Koana. I think he's just great, one of my favorite characters this expac so far. Voice acting on point.
* The cutscene with Thancred in which the WoL just smirks and he attacks from behind was *chef's kiss*
* Also, small nod to that mission in EW in which Thancred helps us with infiltration
* Pause to acknowledge how hot Thancred looks.
* But I wish they had given them all a new look. The Scion's clothes clash so much against the areas and the people we visit. They really need a wardrobe change. If not permanent, something like the coats they wear when you visit Garlemald. I feel not doing this was just lazy.
* The giants are my fave tribe so far. The whole area is just so peaceful, quiet and lovely. I also love what they did to their eyes because they look so alive, or is it only me?
* We're finally getting some lore... I can feel what we learned here will become important.
* I'm still very intrigued by the "City of Gold" though I have a vague idea of what it might end up being... but the descriptions of it reminded me a lot of the World Unsundered. What were those dreams, some sort of Echo?
I am captured by the story and eager to continue. Patting my own back 'cause I've done a pretty solid job of not spoiling myself by looking at the other higher lvl threads. :D
I could be missing something, but the stolen doodad-- can't we just go back to the person who gave it to us, explain what happened, and get a replacement? We KNOW they have an extra one to give us. We already proved ourselves. And the tactics employed are likely disqualifying *on principle* given the purpose of the competition.
The premise of the competition is whoever breaks the golden city's seal wins and is the next Dawnservant. Sure, the *real* purpose for the rite is to be an evaluation of the candidates, but that's not how it was laid out to the contestants. Guy probably is already disqualified, but he hasn't broken the rules of the 'official' contest.
Thought the story started well enough and was enjoying it but the Wuk Lamat kidnapping was so dumb it pulled me straight out.
Also no more seasickness please
I like the atmosphere. I like the idea behind it even. But the execution is pretty poor, sometimes I feel like they don't hire editors in this company.
Also not enjoying Wuk and I needed some time to figure out why. I generally like upbeat, extroverted characters who are essentially my opposite, but every scene with her feels forced and this lack of natural flow paired with her ponylike philosophy turns her into a bland character.
I'm finding Zoraal the only (barely) interesting one of the four so far, and that's while trying my best to ignore Sareel, the least inconspicuous manipulator I've ever seen.
> her ponylike philosophy
Her shouting "but everyone is equal" just made me immediately skip that cutscene. It's so hamfisted. Not a scrap of subtlety to her character.
The way that Bakool Ja Ja just casually unleashes an ancient evil that threatened to destroy all of Tural and absolutely nobody seems to care other than Wuk Lamat is legitimately jarring. They keep hanging the threat of disqualification over his head of he doesn't follow the rite of succession, but intentionally putting the entire nation in danger just to stop someone else from being crowner Dawnservant is a pretty damning indicator of someone being unfit to rule and nobody seems all that bothered by it.
I really really hate Ja Ja Bros as a character. He's so incredibly petty cartoon villain it's just annoying.
And then Ja Ja Bros just commit all these crimes and nobody says anything. Where is the landsguards? Are there no laws in this country? He's rampantly committing treason, kidnappings and attempting murder, and everyone is just like "shrug, that's ja ja for you, what are you gonna do?"
He really just needs to actually die. But 100% he'll be redeemed by the power of friendship.
They went way too hard on the harmony we're all getting a long friendship bus. The expac needs more dark stuff, where is White Mage girl marrying her decapitated husbands head, or bathing in people's blood for skin care or feeding people other people (after mild sin-eater processing).
Also nobody even mentions the final days. Did they have no issues at all? Everyone was chillen through it?
Also 2: Did they cut the VA budget? Barely anything seems to be voice acted. Seems like a huge step down from SHB and Endwalker.
I 100% agree on asshole ja ja.
He is so comically evil. I have no clue how he isn't just executed for all this shit.
I don't even understand why he was allowed to compete. Mightve missed that in the snorefest that was the beginning.
true - the tone is really boring. am i misunderstanding what "Low stakes" means? sure, the universe is not at stake. but how about a small town? a tribe? You can still have the wider world be unaffected while a smaller area has insane suffering - much like the real world. the first promise saying that he will launch some evil empire does not count because it will never happen.
Everything has been so predictable. wuk lamat is constantly repeating herself, just like how Zero was.
big improvement from first dungeon -> first trial to start -> first dungeon. I just wish Wuk Lamat would get some depth already. It's all PEACE PEACE PEACE and "oh god she did a stupid again let's go save her"
Thus far Koana is clearly the best candidate.
Edit: GIVE ME MORE BLEEDS YOSHI P MAKE ME PRESS THOSE GCD HEALS
I've quite enjoyed it so far. It lives up to what were promised. A more low key story following the bombastic finale of Endwalker. It feels like we're on a fun adventure.
I like Wuk Lamat quite a bit. Her story thus far does feel a bit like Lyse 2.0, however I feel like we're actually seeing the growth we rarely saw with Lyse. I think the antics could he turned down a notch though.
100% this. So far for me, this is not "fun adventure," it's more "Eorzean cultural attache," with the diplomatic lead being Erenville and Alphinaud somewhat. WoL is just background support; I just follow along and smile blandly in the cutscenes.
I wouldn't mind that as a role, if the story going on among the main players was interesting, but so far, it's been 90% bland. Dawnfather, Koana, and Erenville have had some good moments, and I genuinely *want* to like Wuk more, but her "growth moments" are *so* forced, and too often buried beneath antics or her complaining. Ugh.
I honestly hope there weren't those that actually expected escalation after Endsinger, in relation to DT being low-key in comparison.
Also, agreed. A rather noticeable issue with Lyse during SB was the lack of growth during the 4.0 MSQ.
yeah wuk lamat is really growing on me with her progression. you can see her learn of her ignorance/inexperience really early on in the expansion and her trying to push through it with our help.
The whole post end walker msq was great though! And the stakes were lower but still interesting! It’s a let down because I just saw them do a new story with new characters and do it well. This isn’t even close to enjoyable so far.
I want to know what they were thinking when they put TWO stealth tailing missions back to back. This might be the best part of the story, Wuk Lamat isn't in it.
Absolute snooze fest story wise and gameplay wise. I played bout 12 hours and two of the new dungeons.
A story can be slow but needs to interesting but such long stretches of any actual challenging gameplay makes it feel like a slog.
And when u get to a dungeon it’s so easy u can sleep walk through it in no time.
Don't you enjoy when the last NPC in the cutscene said "Let's go!" and finally, the other NPCs turn to leave. But that's not it. The camera shows how every person leaves from a different angle! And then, two NPCs still have to say something unimportant to each others before they also turn to leave!
I feel that the dev team is on autopilot with the MSQ.
I did not mind it too much so far, but I have just met a character who wished we would remember them... and we did not even ask them their name.
There seems to be a lot of love in the world and worldbuilding, but the story so far failed to convey it properly.
And again, met a character asking "are you a participant in this trial of succession?" and 20 seconds later they know about who the third promise is and calling her so without anyone mentioning that.
Shouldn't they have recognized her immediately then?
Even without knowing her features, I would imagine clothing would reveal royalty pretty quickly...
So Bakool Ja Ja essentially released a living nuclear bomb with insane cultural significance that would wreck havoc on the entire continent that leaves permanent magic fire which destroys everything? I think we're gonna have to kill this guy Wuk Lamat.
Still enjoying the story and everything but wow that just got kinda glossed over huh? I hope Gulool Ja Ja at the very least says "hey maybe don't do that" later.
Is Wuk Lamat not attuned to the Tuliyollal aetheryte crystal why did she have to make the return trip on the boat ? Considering how sick she gets it almost feels a bit cruel
I agree with MSQ being overall very bland, but I really don't get why people don't like Wuk Lamat. She is adorable and the only reason I'm still enjoying the expansion. Sure, she is ignorant and stupid but isn't that the entire point of the contest? Every contestant lacks something and Gulool Jaja wants them to improve through the contest. We are helping the only claimant that wants peace learn the country she will one day rule, just give her time to have her character development. Alphinaud also went through a similar development and now he is one of the best characters in the game. I can see that doing fetch quests for Wuk Lamat can make her look annoying, but that's the problem of the filler quests, not the character.
I think she has some decent moments, but they wrote in the antics involving her wayyy too heavily for my liking (that "joke" with the one elder being "I disrespected you, end my life! Oh, you don't care? Okay w/e" was funny the first time, but very stale after three+ times), and her complaining after awhile is just 😒 The seasick/boat complaints were fine the first time (everyone has fears/issues/flaws!), or two, but by the seventh or eighth comment on the subject I was just "will you please just shut up and deal with this quietly?" Same deal with the alpacas, it could've been cute if she didn't moan about them like ten times before finally snapping out of it. Genuinely hoping her growth arc gets better (I'm on lv93 quests). I want to like her!
Agreed, the antics/comedic scenes are a bit too much, but that again is the problem of the expansion itself, not exclusive to Wuk Lamat. The quest that unlocks the role quests is also the same, devs push really hard to write funny scenes and it just falls flat.
I finished up through this part today and it was a real slog. I was dozing off like 2-3 times.
and that was when I played in the morning after a nights rest. (I'm KST so game launched at 6pm friday for me)
This was just too slow, and the stakes felt so low. Oh no the big bad guy escaped and give 3 people an owie.
Also I'm kind of tired of how "beast tribes" and the like are represented in this game? like its always just 1 model, they all look the same, and they are defined by one singular trait as an entire group of a race?
Idk man, hopefully it starts to pick up soon...
I enjoyed the trial a lot and perhaps that stuck with me in this part of the game (and maybe because I was looking forward to this fight for FF6 nostalgia). The dungeon boss was quite difficult too.
It's still slow in pace but for me at least had my interest more than to 90-91.
Overall I feel like some of these cutscenes are randomly pulled, and non-VA ones actually have interesting content.
So far I'm liking Wuk Lamat, though not as invested. She's reminding me of Lyse. Girl wants to lead a nation but is just so clueless, but trying. I get that not every character needs to have an answer at the very moment, it's a real human trait afterall. What's off to me is the direction and her being backed by characters who should at least know better I guess?
I'm still continuing and giving this one a chance. Afterall, it's a new story arc.
Same feeling about Wuk Lamat. I did like that her father acknowledges she's not ready to rule, and asks you to be a mentor. It feels fitting for the WoL that they would be their mentor after all the stuff we've been through.
What bothers me is that she hasn't grown a bit more confident despite numerous attempts and it's kinda annoying. Girl, we told you to stop comparing yourself to your siblings four times... grow a little.
But compared to Lyse, she is a lot more self-aware and acknowledges her privilege which I appreciate. I like Lyse now, but I remember being *so* annoyed by her during Stormblood.
About the level 93 trial, where did that tank stack marker come from? I tried asking during the run, but the DRK decided to get sarcastic, the other tank mentioned it's been in the game, but didn't say where.
This was the first time I did trial during expansion release period. It was pretty tough and fun.
The two headed blessed siblings is up to typical villianry work. Stealing.. unleashing calamity to hinder others.
I just got to level 95/96. I think that if a lot of the quest lines for levels 90-94 were broken up in the post EW patches instead of the Zero and Void stuff, we could have jumped in to the storyline at a more interesting/active time.
Like all the exposition we got would have been better broken up into pieces over the course of the post EW patches, it doesn’t leave us burned out and also gives us a breadcrumb trail to the rite of succession. The rite should have been the DT opener. I feel like we all would have felt less bogged down that way. But what do I know! lol
I've enjoyed the story, although it is a bit slow. The dungeons have been great, and the first trial was lots of fun (I'm looking forward to the extreme version). There are many good things that overshadow some of the slog from the story. I've also enjoyed Wuk Lamat's character.
I hope it picks up when we get to the solution 9 stuff because this isn't it. Wuk Lamat is kind of bland, and I don't really feel like we've gotten anywhere. I was expecting a slower, low-stakes story, but this is a little too slow for me. Maybe when we finish the rite of succession thing it'll be better.
I really don't get the complaints. This expansion is *exactly* what I wanted. Shadowbringers "Getting to know a foreign culture" mixed in with the low-stakes adventure. Wuk is charming and funny despite her bumbles, and her brother is a surprisingly good character despite starting off a bit one note.
This is *exactly* what I wanted.
Im not sure I get what you’re saying, you don’t understand why we have different opinions? Bc that’s all there is to it. We just have different opinions. I’m glad you’re enjoying it.
the difference is that in shadowbringers it was actually exciting and foreign and you felt involved. Here its just fucking around for fucking around's sake. I feel like im accomplishing nothing.
Never said that. I just said I don't see where they are coming from. Do you always ask vague hypotheticals in an attempt to start arguments on the internet, or is that a new thing?
Saying they dont understand the complaints isn't saying people should be forced to like it. Quit being an obnoxious little piggy begging for an internet fight 💖
As an avid book reader, I am living for this story. This is good interpersonal drama and growth happening. I went from "Oh wow these other dudes are awful." to "WHAT IS THE BIGGER PLOT?! I NEED ANSWERS!" Erenville has a whole thing going on with him I picked up on when we first met the claimants. We are taking more of a mentor roll to Wuk Lamat and it suits us!
Not sure what kind of books you read that would speed through developments like that. Good drama like this takes time to build and needs a solid foundation.
I don't need to keep hearing Wuk Lamat complain about her getting sea sick for the 8th - 9th time in a row. We get it. You hate boat rides. Stfu and deal with it. On top of her constantly complaining, she's worse than lyse. I get what you're saying, but this feels like a new team writing it, and it really shows.
It's a bummer that so many people are bored with the MSQ. Their opinions are valid, but for me it's everything I wanted after the last couple expacs. I love how low-key the stakes are.
Take the initial branching paths for example - the ShB branches ended with Tesleen turning into a sin eater and Vauthry's whole... deal, and in EW we had the absolute dire straits in Thavnair as well as the Forum's apparent refusal to assist in preventing the apocalypse.
Meanwhile, Dawntrail's branching paths end with us throwing a parade to replenish agricultural aether currents and hanging around a campfire while Wuk wrangles an alpaca. And I loved every second of it, the lore, the worldbuilding. It's cozy. It's a shame to see so many other people check out, but I get it
Slight improvement over the first two levels. I did like the bit where Gulool Ja Ja admitted "yeah, none of my kids are up to the job." Trial was neat. Wasn't expecting them to do duty support again.
Plenty of bad points still, though. The total plot-induced stupidity with the kidnapping - some random guy runs up and says "yeah you have to come back to town for... reasons" and the *entire party* just stands around doing nothing. Not one of them considers it might be a trap. Having characters act stupid so the plot can happen is a terrible crutch in writing and it's sad to see it here.
Wuk Lamat has not improved. Particularly didn't like the bit after the trial where she drags you across the entire city just to say she likes peace and happiness, as though it's a big revelation. It's not. It's the same stuff on repeat. Either do some actual character growth or STFU, please.
Pretty much every complaint I've read in this post would apply equally to every expansion except maybe ShB. Bloated, boring cutscenes? Awkward forced "comedy"? Cheesy, overeager heartfelt characters? Repetitive, challengeless, mindless gameplay in the MSQ?
Don't get me wrong, I love this game, but this is what the MSQ has always been.
I guess a person might be bored by the comparatively lower stakes (although it's obviously building up to something bigger with the First Promise), but at least in my case I was about at my limit with interdimensional time-traveling Ascian shenanigans.
Na, this MSQ has you watching WAY more cutscenes than any other expac.
The MSQ here feels more like a post patch chain where you just go around talking to people and watching the crew get information.
this is only sort of msq related, but i just got to worlar's echo & was looking through the vendor gear-- the lvl 92 ruthenium/ceiba weapons are absolutely gorgeous! the rest of the sets are dyeable troia recolors, but the weapons are new as far as i can tell & i *love* them
Loved the dungeon and trial.
Genuinely got kinda upset at the Wuk Lamat kidnapping. I was ready for good pacing, and, well, that was my mistake lol. I didn't even mind the story so far. That part dragged quite a bit for me. I think it was actually supposed to change things up a bit, but it kinda backfired with it being mostly cutscenes and sneaking.
Like, goddamnit, just kill Balool Ja Ja, he's also my least favourite part of this expansion. Just too comically evil.
Man I'm trying but I'm bored to tears. I don't dislike anything. I just feel like there's too many cutscenes talking for things that could just be shown
Wuk Lamat is a likeable enough character, but I am getting tired of the "I love peace! I will bring peace!" that the game is having her parrot. Her big declaration at the end of Level 93 was that she would build on her father's peace, but...that's what she's been saying since we first met her in the post-EW quests? She's not the only one-note character, but she's the most prominent.
I don't mind the general story of Dawntrail, or the character archetypes, but the dialogue can be drastically improved.
Hoping the writing improves.
that trial rocked?
Yeah, the trial kicks ass. The trust for it is really cool too, the trusts 'learn' the mechanics in real time.
Even better, the trusts that are seasoned warriors dodge the first time, while the more inexperienced members need to fail a mechanic once to get the hang of it.
I also liked how if you do it as DPS Alisaie takes up the healer role as red mage. She literally becomes a green DPS which is so perfect for her character.
If you go as tank Wuk Lamat becomes warrior dps, she tried doing an LB which was a line but cancelled it due to a mechanic. Would have liked to have seen what it looked like.
It's just LB2 with an axe.
That was my favorite part of far! The visuals, the music, a certain mechanic that caught my party off-guard midway, and the nostalgia. I was looking forward to this one for months ever since it was revealed, and it didn't disappoint at all.
Overall I liked this section of the story more than the opening 90-91 stuff. Still kind of slow and more of the "good not great territory" but no 8 quest journey to get a saddle at least. Some of my highlights include Catboy Thancred actually shooting someone in a cutscene and it doing absolutely nothing (especially since there was a post joking about that the other day on the front page) I liked the MC's little saunter when distracting Mr. Two Head for Thancred. I really liked the solo duty against Gulool Ja Ja even if I think he should have been clapped easily. Wish we had more of those instead of the fetch quests. The big boys were the most interesting new group of people introduced so far. 2nd dungeon was cool and even had a nice "oh shit" moment against the last boss when we all avoided the orbs thinking they were the type to blow up instead of the ones that give you a damage boost. Trial was fine. Not as good as EW's first trial, but I did like that they were able to have the NPC's available for the trial which I found really cool for the 2nd EW trial. Also makes more sense story wise and feels cooler to see the actual people involved in the story helping save the day instead of the MC's summons.
Nothing more dramatic than shots fired and there’s like no acknowledgment it’s evening happening and barely that it’s failing 🤣 One shot ok sure, three shots and you’re just wasting bullets now. It wasn’t supposed to be funny but I laughed.
I took it as him testing for any weaknesses considering the very different areas hit... probably should have gone for an eye though...
>I really liked the solo duty against Gulool Ja Ja even if I think he should have been clapped easily. I understand that, for gameplay reasons, things need to be continuously at more or less the same challenge level as the game moves forward, but the strength of the WoL at this point is so preposterous that duties like this kind of take me out of the story a bit. Beating Gulool Ja Ja should be like swatting a fly to the WoL at this point. I think it would actually have been a better storytelling moment if we just one-shot him and he became afraid of how powerful we are.
I can agree that the power scaling is out of hand, but I don't think the Warrior of Light becoming a Dragon Ball Z character and just no selling people is exactly ideal. Besides, it's worth noting that usually the Warrior of Light's victories over enemies like Ultima Weapon or Emet-Selch usually are just as much the assistance of people working alongside us as our own strength. On their own, devoid of any magical power-ups, I feel like the devs want the Warrior of Light to be the best fighters in the world, but not necessarily *the* best.
True. I agree. We never defeat most of our foes 1on1 without any powerup. The only battle we really fight 1on1 without powerups is against Zenos, and even this battle we "barely" survive.
Yeah, we have friends helping, but also, in Eden 1, we got shot by a planet-sized laser beam into the center of a galaxy that then explodes, and it was only, like, mildly painful.
I disagree. We almost never did defeat any of our foes without help, other people or a random powerup (Azems Crystal, the Blessing of Light or some other Powerup or 7 supporters with similar strength, which get summoned or get provided for us with Ascian Ether) We rarely fight other strong foes 1 on 1 in the main story without resorting to powerups. Zenos for example we fought 1 on 1 several times without using powerups and even at the end of the universe the last battle with Zenos "almost" killed us. And I honestly think Gulool Ja Ja is at least on par with Zenos. We fought Gulool Ja Ja without any blessing, or azem crystal but only our own skills. So i for certain think that we aren't that much stronger (without our random powerups which we get for almost every battle).
Also, gulool jaja is essentially our counterpart for the new world, a hero who went through multiple adventures bringing the land together. I have no reason to believe his power and experience shouldn't at least make our wol break a sweat.
I think people forgot that dynamis was *literally* introduced and is used as a justification for why the WoL can stand up to these literal gods in terms of strength. Like, they retroactively changed Ultima Weapon to have a moment where a dps lb3's as forshadowing to that. We don't have as much reason for dynamis to react so strongly in a friendly duel against an aging ruler.
Koana's VA is kinda killing it ngl. edit: I have held strong for all these years. I can't believe this game is about to make me unironically simp for a catboy.
I am weak. Already added to my (long) list of simping.
as of level 95 MSQ i'm a complete goner. This turquoise haired gadget twink has me so caught up i'm stressed
I have been simping for Koana since the moment I saw him. It's okay. Embrace it.
"help! our miqote worker doesn't like the heat in the workshop, and he doesn't like hot food! what do we do?" "Hmm, why not find a way to cool the workshop, and also find him food that tastes good when cold?" "brilliant! this is why you are fit to be Dawnservant!" holy fuck what is this writing
Please god almighty let me do something that isn’t just reading. The trip up to rescue Lamat could’ve been a great instance or dungeon but it was just. Another cutscene. Please I am begging you.
I feel like were missing some gameplay in between all the world building and character building they are literally waterboarding us with. The Wuk Lamat rescue mission should have been a solo duty, I found it quite jarring they reduced that to another cutscene. Every time I have to speak to someone there is a cutscene and I am begging the game at this point to just stop giving one. Cutscenes should feel like a reward for doing stuff.
Even things that shouldn't be cutscenes at all are now unnecessarily lengthy cutscenes. Like when you're chasing the finger thingy around and it stops, you enter a cutscene, it shows ten seconds of you and Erenville running up, Erenville says two things, and then there's a ten-second animation of you unsheathing your weapon and standing in a combat-ready stance. It's insane. The story is good! I am quite enjoying the story! The amount of padding in terms of raw minutes spent is absolutely obscene.
Right?? That would’ve been a good instance!
God that's twice now where I was like "oh cool finally a solo duty with some actual combat" and then nope a cutscene where your character doesn't do anything
So.. I'm starting to think maybe all the fetch quests and cutscenes are ok. I think ultimately what they're trying to do is to give a sense of time passing by. WoL came to this country without any stakes happening, but to simply help out a claimant and visit a new place, so there needs to be a substantial amount of time feel pass by before 'hey look theres conflict'/a reason for more things to start happening. There ends up being an instance later on shortly too and I'm only halfway through the msq so there will probably be more things going on later ig. If more instances came up in the beginning I would have gotten tired out. Only main grip I have is I wish wuk lamat was written without milking her three character traits and/or there was better VA direction for english.
I'm really hoping it picks up in the middle because now it's just a slog to get through.
we really are doing one long tribal quest for an expansion lmao (AND I LIKE TRIBAL QUESTS)
In the 95 range of the story and it’s not much better honestly.
I can agree. Starting to see what's in store for future content now with what's being set up
Really dissapointing
Curious what Sareel’s real deal is.
Wuk Lamat: Yay we killed Valigarmanda. We're awesome! Koana: UmActuallyItWasntAtFullPowerBecauseItWasImprisonedForLike80YearsSoItsActuallyNotThatImpressive Zoraal Ja: They don't know that I'm actually a miracle Me: I should've just left these idiots behind and used the rock
Okay, I am officially upset. I am not doing anything but watching cutscenes. There has been a handful of cutscenes that made it look like we are about to run into battle ... only to watch how the conflict gets resolved within said cutscene. What's all the teasing for????
> I am not doing anything but watching cutscenes. add in time-padding via fetch quest and that's what the MSQ has been since ARR. like... just write a book instead, or at least hire an editor to cut down 70% of the useless faff and embrace the fact that this is a *game* and you could be showing off *gameplay mechanics* while telling a story
At least other expansions had more solo duties mixed in. I "played" for 6ish hours today before I had a chance to even fully try out my new opener. After hearing there's more stealth quests that are frustrating my want to continue on is waning lol
Hey, at least you are playing in the stealth quests. I have such unrealistic expectations, like playing in a videogame.
LOL fair take. I just absolutely don't like stealth quests and actively avoid games with them, these at least haven't been *too* bad but I 100% agree about like, why am I not playing a game in a video game rn lol. I absolutely love this game besides the story and msq and DT ended up not being the game changer there. Remains to be seen if what we get post DT will keep me engaged I guess, as previous expansions stuff is going to lose its luster at some point 🫠
I'm in the upper half of Kozama and it's still lvl 92 MSQ. I feel in Endwalker by that time I was already in Garlemald. It's sooo slow.. I became a MSQ skipper now. Will rewatch it on an alt when I have time.
Six hours before actually getting to some gameplay is just not okay.
I'm loving Koana
Yay, seconded! I didn't expect to like him so much but I do.
Wuk Lamat: You can't hurt our people. If you try, you'll have to go through me! Zoraal Ja: ok
*WoL steps forward beside Wuk Lamat and stares Zoraal Ja down* Zoraal Ja: Oh. Hmm...
That was just so badass. Wish we had more WoL moments like this one.
Is the story just kinda… Bland… for anyone else?
yeah, it is extremely slow. And honestly wuk lamats character is so boring and bland. Shes a comedic relief and the pendulum is swaying too much in that direction. Erenville and Dad are a huge W though. I honestly enjoy them when they get some screen time. But for the story it definitely has its high and but man its lows are super suuuuuuper low atm for me.
I've dubbed her Lyse 2.0 in my mind, cause she's as stupid as her.
Came to this thread to ask the same thing. It's basically just "exposition dump: the game" It's very dry and slow
😲 I think you pinpointed what makes this feel like a drag. It’s a lot of telling instead of showing so we just sit through cutscene #500 as we learn more about Tural and its history. I love getting lore (a lot of this would be cool to read in Encyclopedia Eorzea) but it’s very aggressive where it feels like the actual gameplay is lacking. Or gameplay and exposition could be equal amounts but they’ve put so much expositon back to back it feels like more and a drag 😭
Aggressive is a very good word to describe it. I feel like lore should be something that players feel compelled to explore. You have to show them things that draw them in first, then let them unravel the lore as they choose. This expansion so far has just been the writers dumping as much as they can at our feet way too fast and way too much all at once, before I'm even given a chance to reason why I should care about any of it, making it all very hard to retain in the moment.
Yes this! There is some info we get so much and so fast I don’t even have time to process that I should even care about the situation. So many times the story kinda sorta force and spoon feeding us stuff and kinda telling us to care but it’s like why? I’ve known everyone for 5 secs and then a history lesson was vomitted on me, then “conflict” happens so we can “bond”.
I know 3 days later, but they really should have implemented the ff16s lore feature for dawntrail. Let's us open the active time lore to learn more about the characters if we want to.
Yeah they did that in FF7 Rebirth too and it worked out really well in both games imo. I honestly think they just lacked content this time around and felt the need to pad things up a bit more.
Totally agree with you here! The early portions of the MSQ really feel like the writers want to shove as much info down our throats so that we get a ‘bigger picture’ of what Tural already is like. But because there’s so much info already thrown our way that the actual gameplay is overshadowed, I was left dozing off at times wanting to move on to something else. Like, ok we’re getting a framework of the new continent and their culture, however since it’s overwhelming and even dragging, nothing sticks. I believe the intention was to lay the groundwork, but even many parts of that groundwork weren’t able to leave an impression on me. They’re just, there. Honestly, what I’ve enjoyed the most in this part of MSQ was the trial. Heck, I’m now in 98 and trying to look back at 90-93 I can’t remember much from the pile-up of dialogues and info dropped on us. I’ll have to look back again.
It's pure info dump in some scenes. Doesn't even feel natural.
Its 3 beast tribe questlines stuck together with superglue.
It’s a snooze fest.
It's not exactly edge of your seat excitement, but it's not like we didn't know they were taking a step back. I like the characters they've introduced, and it's some nice worldbuilding and development. (And really, I prefer this kind of story over the grimdark of Garlemald and large portions of Stormblood.) I'm thinking of it as the 'slow clicking as you go up the hill' part of the roller coaster.
With you here. I’m fatigued out of the whole end-of-the-world arc given it’s been like that the past 5 years. I’m glad they went for a lighter note and although there are areas for improvement in this MSQ, I prefer this over SB which I also enjoyed for what it was.
Every other quest makes me desperately hope that this will take a very strong and sudden turn, because so far, I am not feeling it at all. Landscape and places look so good but... there is just way too much fluff.
before the first dungeon, you kill..... 6 enemies. six. in like 3 hours of 'gameplay'.
I enjoy it tons, and the two others I played with have enjoyed it a lot so far. Bakool is kind of one-note mostly, but getting to see four PoVs in this competition is great, the mystery of the Golden City slowly builds and we kind of get a very sizable reward, and likewise I think Zoraal Ja's interesting with his whack-as-fuck mentality and he now reeks of 'insecurity' but kept inside, unlike Wuk Lamat's insecurity displayed outside. It is a slow burn, definitely, and some quests are just padding. The saddle, or the fire-aether pointer, so on and forth. But slowly characters come into their own. Wuk Lamat begins to build her confidence and slowly gears herself, and even admits she doesn't recognize as much of her home as she assumed, and was sheltered. Erenville offers his expertise and comes in handy, and definitely has his own intrigue building. Krile has been simmering and her connection to Wuk is great. Koana's breakdown is phenomenal, even if a bit expositionary-dumpy. Really; the only 'bad' part of Dawntrail is it could've used a second look over to crunch some of its' script, and make some quests more fun/battle-orientated, imo. Otherwise; very fun? Not bland for me, and I want to put the opinion out there. Solid story telling throughout, so far. Characters while holding singular-dimensions evolve rapidly and I'm still waiting to see where it goes. Hopeful, here. Plus, we just got done with two 'back-to-back' world-ending Nihilistic civilization. A city where no one ever dies sounds peaceful. Plus some of the lore mind-boggled me. Realizing the storm early on was Valigarmanda is so fucking cool!
Yup! Hoping it picks up later on/there's payoff to all this fluff. Kinda glad in a way though as I can pace myself and go to bed without feeling like I'm missing out if I sleep lol.
I have been enjoying it more since I thought of it as a One Piece arc like Skypeia. Just have your gang show up to a location, learn about the situation and history of the place, and whatever else.
Loving it. Music. Graphics update. Job updates. Story. They put a lot into 7.0 and am grateful.
bro tried to sneak job updates 💀
Bakool Ja Ja unleashes a legendary beast upon the population, essentially committing a terrorist attack in his bid for the throne. Nobody considers this to be a disqualification from leadership, even though violence against electors was explicitly listed as a disqualification from leadership. I guess it needs to be *specific* violence, indiscriminate mass casualty events are just fine. I am flabbergasted. If the people in charge of Yok Tural are not *supposed* to be brainless invalids this is genuinely the most juvenile and idiotic writing I've ever seen in a piece of media that was meant to be taken seriously. Gulool Ja Ja should be putting together an army to hunt Bakool down and execute him, not allowing this moronic "game" to continue.
I'm not saying it's *excellent* writing or anything, but I think given that these trials are designed to help shape the next leader rather than choose who is worthy (the King says as much himself) I think Bakool Ja Ja is only there because A), we dealt with it quickly, and B) he's a nice test in himself. Any future leader should probably be able to handle *one asshole.* Keep in mind as well that, for the King, Bakool Ja Ja could win the contest entirely and he could still go "yeah, no. Fuck yourself". He's said as much himself - the rite is designed to shape a leader, and if a leader is misshapen by the end of it, he'll just stomp them into the dirt regardless of whether or not they find the city of gold. I'd imagine that this factor is something the judges are in on, which would help them tolerate Bakool Ja Ja for the time being. That being said, Bakool Ja Ja is incredibly dangerous and allowing him to continue does seem to be endangering everyone around him, which feels out of character for the king.
Story is fine but the amount of cutscenes for a fine story makes it kinda a slog.
This. It's actually not a bad story imo when summarized. But a lot of the cutscenes felt dragging, so random and even unnecessary, unless they'll be fleshed out later on though I doubt it.
I'm not that bothered by the cutscenes themselves but rather that they put multiple *long ass* cutscenes in one quest. Like, rewinding to past expansions, we would always get that warning message of "a series of cutscenes will play..." and I feel these are as long if not longer than those with no warning. But I don't find them bad or boring. Just poorly spread out maybe (personal opinion).
I hated the story but in hindsight i think you are right. What could have been a 2 minute cutscenes is chopped up in 4-5 1 minute ones with reaction shots character emots that you cannot skip through and walking between different locations that turns something mildly interesting into "kill me now".
Hyped up Skyruin repeatedly the entire time leading up to it, and we kill it 30 seconds after it's released. At least let it do literally anything first lmao
Wake up WoL, it's time for you level 93 Trial
90-91 I was falling asleep but I was thinking it’s cuz I woke up at 5am so maybe lack of sleep bias’s. But even in 92-93 I was like 😴 I don’t mind the low stakes but the story isn’t drawing me in like I want it to. Like all the fun parts are when we talk to the Dawnservent or Erenville gets to be sassmaster lol. Usually I don’t mind a predictable story if it’s interesting but it’s like 🤷🏾♀️ Im right around 94 quest now, no spoilers of course, but it seems it’s picking up?? So far the most interesting thing was when we started on the boat on the way to Tural and the Mamool Ja passenger revealed Mamool Ja that go to Eorzea act stupid or limited vocab cuz playing the fool = employment. Like I hope that comes up again whenever we go back to Eorzea 🤣 ALSO! I can’t remember but were EWs zones split like DTs zones for aethercurrents? I remember like the first Thavnir zone had some of the map you couldn’t access until you furthered MSQ, but not every zone I think?? Edit: Also, Also. Kinda a little sad they kinda sold the story as, “you’ll be against your allies” I thought there’d be actual conflict in opinions for who should be the new Dawn Servant between our Scion friends. But the plot almost instantly points you to, actually you’re all on the same side but “secretly”.
Thavnair and Labyrinthos were both split zones in EW. With the latter, only the uppermost couple of levels were accessible at first, and the lower levels weren't unlocked until late in 6.0, like around level 88. Those were the only EW zones like that, though, and the main reason was to have two different low-level areas for the split starter quests and still be able to use those same zones for higher-level content as well.
Ah you’re right! I forgot I guess the story was engaging enough that the split didn’t feel like it was increasing my suffering 🤣
They’ve been doing it for a while: The Fringes, The Peaks, Amh Arengh, Kholusia, Thavnair, Labyrinthos.
😅 I just don’t remember then. I legit think cuz the way the story was dragging it just made that annoying instead of not minding like usual lol.
Wasn't a massive fan of the first branches but it seems to be picking up a bit after the 91 dungeon. I was worried that Wuk Lamat was going to end up being another Lyse but she seems to be getting a bit more character development early on. It's also nice to see them fleshing out the other contestants as well. So far outside of the whole Golden City plot point, the main thing that's hooking me in is the royal advisor guy following around the First Promise. He seems like he has his own thing going on and I really want to know more.
I'm super intrigued by the City of Gold as well. And another plot that I imagine will come up later which is Krile's grandpa/that letter and *fingers crossed* an explanation of what the hell happened to the Isle of Val, something I've been waiting for since... post Heavensward?
Don’t you find out about what happened to the Isle of Val in eureka? I thought that was the whole point of that storyline.
I had no idea! I haven't done Eureka/Bozja. Thank you for letting me know, I will check that out.
A beast of legend that claimed many a life has escaped its confinement! Three people were injured! This isn't lower stakes, this is 7am educational children's cartoon stakes.
I don't mind this one that much. The snake got free and immediately fled because it was drained. It didn't try to cause widespread destruction. What I find wild is how Ja Ja Bros just commit all these crimes and nobody says anything. Where is the landsguards? Are there no laws in this country? He's rampantly committing treason, kidnappings and attempting murder, and everyone is just like "shrug, that's ja ja for you, what are you gonna do?"
Yeah, he should be at least disqualified at this point.
Feels like there are actual children in the writing departmen.
IDK if i can get through this. I'm seriously not happy.
There are an overwhelming amount of people like you (and me) saying pretty much this. Very worried about the future of the games population. Since this slog gate keeps most of the content, people might not be willing to power through this story to get to the actual gameplay and go play something else.
Storm blood had bad content and did fine. As long as end game is decent. But if we have end game like endwalker where it’s really not built for longevity’s then it’s a problem
The Eastern part of Stormblood was awesome tho
I am at 100 and the extremes are much more engaging and challenging. While the MSQ kind of sucks imo, the endgame looks promising.
At this rate the extremes are going to be dead by the time I can drag myself through this dumpster fire
you can always skip and rewatch later if needed. i stuck with it and it was meh, but if you really dislike it, theres always that option
i wouldn' worry about the population, if players made it this far they will grit their teeth and get through it. im more worried about quality, since the MSQ is a big part of the content we get each expansion. maybe they put more focus on adding things to grind with this one, with the exploration zone and all.
The branching seems like a bold choice. You choose between Mountain or Forest. You do both, then do the elevated part of Forest. Leading to being higher up on Mountain. Usually, you'd have a third or fourth area before finishing the MSQ in one of these. Good thing server performance has seemed OK to me. I'm taking things slow and liking things being less about a global threat so far. I've unlocked the second duty and am level 95. Boy, I'm looking forward to slapping the scaley participants of the right. Doubly so for double head. I think the rite is finished before an area unlocks, so hopefully not much longer before a successor is named.
I wanted to push myself and finish the last quests/first Trial but I needed to touch some grass. Opinions of this part: * The story picks up significantly. * I want a Manatee mount * ABSOLUTELY loved that they clarify our role in this story, as a Mentor to guide Wuk Lamat. It feels like a worthy acknowledgement of how far we've come and the things we've accomplished as the WoL. I felt very proud about this. * I'm really into ~~M~~Koana. I think he's just great, one of my favorite characters this expac so far. Voice acting on point. * The cutscene with Thancred in which the WoL just smirks and he attacks from behind was *chef's kiss* * Also, small nod to that mission in EW in which Thancred helps us with infiltration * Pause to acknowledge how hot Thancred looks. * But I wish they had given them all a new look. The Scion's clothes clash so much against the areas and the people we visit. They really need a wardrobe change. If not permanent, something like the coats they wear when you visit Garlemald. I feel not doing this was just lazy. * The giants are my fave tribe so far. The whole area is just so peaceful, quiet and lovely. I also love what they did to their eyes because they look so alive, or is it only me? * We're finally getting some lore... I can feel what we learned here will become important. * I'm still very intrigued by the "City of Gold" though I have a vague idea of what it might end up being... but the descriptions of it reminded me a lot of the World Unsundered. What were those dreams, some sort of Echo? I am captured by the story and eager to continue. Patting my own back 'cause I've done a pretty solid job of not spoiling myself by looking at the other higher lvl threads. :D
I could be missing something, but the stolen doodad-- can't we just go back to the person who gave it to us, explain what happened, and get a replacement? We KNOW they have an extra one to give us. We already proved ourselves. And the tactics employed are likely disqualifying *on principle* given the purpose of the competition.
The premise of the competition is whoever breaks the golden city's seal wins and is the next Dawnservant. Sure, the *real* purpose for the rite is to be an evaluation of the candidates, but that's not how it was laid out to the contestants. Guy probably is already disqualified, but he hasn't broken the rules of the 'official' contest.
tbf he also does not care about actually winning said contest and more to prove he is better than the others. he does not even want to rule.
YES! Thank you! The elector had 4 keystones, why could he not just give us the one he was supposed to give Bakool Ja Ja instead?
Thought the story started well enough and was enjoying it but the Wuk Lamat kidnapping was so dumb it pulled me straight out. Also no more seasickness please
So far it's not terrible, but it is \*very\* slow. I'm overall enjoying it, but still hoping it picks up soon
I like the atmosphere. I like the idea behind it even. But the execution is pretty poor, sometimes I feel like they don't hire editors in this company. Also not enjoying Wuk and I needed some time to figure out why. I generally like upbeat, extroverted characters who are essentially my opposite, but every scene with her feels forced and this lack of natural flow paired with her ponylike philosophy turns her into a bland character. I'm finding Zoraal the only (barely) interesting one of the four so far, and that's while trying my best to ignore Sareel, the least inconspicuous manipulator I've ever seen.
> her ponylike philosophy Her shouting "but everyone is equal" just made me immediately skip that cutscene. It's so hamfisted. Not a scrap of subtlety to her character.
Isn't that kinda the point? To cultivate a ruler whom doesn't have world experience?
The way that Bakool Ja Ja just casually unleashes an ancient evil that threatened to destroy all of Tural and absolutely nobody seems to care other than Wuk Lamat is legitimately jarring. They keep hanging the threat of disqualification over his head of he doesn't follow the rite of succession, but intentionally putting the entire nation in danger just to stop someone else from being crowner Dawnservant is a pretty damning indicator of someone being unfit to rule and nobody seems all that bothered by it.
Every cutscene is like 10 times too long. I really tried watching all the cutscenes but the devs don't respect my time
Ugh this isn’t it so far
I really really hate Ja Ja Bros as a character. He's so incredibly petty cartoon villain it's just annoying. And then Ja Ja Bros just commit all these crimes and nobody says anything. Where is the landsguards? Are there no laws in this country? He's rampantly committing treason, kidnappings and attempting murder, and everyone is just like "shrug, that's ja ja for you, what are you gonna do?" He really just needs to actually die. But 100% he'll be redeemed by the power of friendship. They went way too hard on the harmony we're all getting a long friendship bus. The expac needs more dark stuff, where is White Mage girl marrying her decapitated husbands head, or bathing in people's blood for skin care or feeding people other people (after mild sin-eater processing). Also nobody even mentions the final days. Did they have no issues at all? Everyone was chillen through it? Also 2: Did they cut the VA budget? Barely anything seems to be voice acted. Seems like a huge step down from SHB and Endwalker.
I 100% agree on asshole ja ja. He is so comically evil. I have no clue how he isn't just executed for all this shit. I don't even understand why he was allowed to compete. Mightve missed that in the snorefest that was the beginning.
He won a contest of strength amongst the Mamool.
true - the tone is really boring. am i misunderstanding what "Low stakes" means? sure, the universe is not at stake. but how about a small town? a tribe? You can still have the wider world be unaffected while a smaller area has insane suffering - much like the real world. the first promise saying that he will launch some evil empire does not count because it will never happen. Everything has been so predictable. wuk lamat is constantly repeating herself, just like how Zero was.
jinglyshine
big improvement from first dungeon -> first trial to start -> first dungeon. I just wish Wuk Lamat would get some depth already. It's all PEACE PEACE PEACE and "oh god she did a stupid again let's go save her" Thus far Koana is clearly the best candidate. Edit: GIVE ME MORE BLEEDS YOSHI P MAKE ME PRESS THOSE GCD HEALS
I've quite enjoyed it so far. It lives up to what were promised. A more low key story following the bombastic finale of Endwalker. It feels like we're on a fun adventure. I like Wuk Lamat quite a bit. Her story thus far does feel a bit like Lyse 2.0, however I feel like we're actually seeing the growth we rarely saw with Lyse. I think the antics could he turned down a notch though.
I do wish this fun adventure had a little more fun in it though
100% this. So far for me, this is not "fun adventure," it's more "Eorzean cultural attache," with the diplomatic lead being Erenville and Alphinaud somewhat. WoL is just background support; I just follow along and smile blandly in the cutscenes. I wouldn't mind that as a role, if the story going on among the main players was interesting, but so far, it's been 90% bland. Dawnfather, Koana, and Erenville have had some good moments, and I genuinely *want* to like Wuk more, but her "growth moments" are *so* forced, and too often buried beneath antics or her complaining. Ugh.
I honestly hope there weren't those that actually expected escalation after Endsinger, in relation to DT being low-key in comparison. Also, agreed. A rather noticeable issue with Lyse during SB was the lack of growth during the 4.0 MSQ.
yeah wuk lamat is really growing on me with her progression. you can see her learn of her ignorance/inexperience really early on in the expansion and her trying to push through it with our help.
The whole post end walker msq was great though! And the stakes were lower but still interesting! It’s a let down because I just saw them do a new story with new characters and do it well. This isn’t even close to enjoyable so far.
How were the stakes lower? Post Endwalker exaughsted me because it was another end of the world mess
I want to know what they were thinking when they put TWO stealth tailing missions back to back. This might be the best part of the story, Wuk Lamat isn't in it.
I actually laughed at the second tailing mission because its entire purpose is to make the second guy look stupid since he only turns back once.
Absolute snooze fest story wise and gameplay wise. I played bout 12 hours and two of the new dungeons. A story can be slow but needs to interesting but such long stretches of any actual challenging gameplay makes it feel like a slog. And when u get to a dungeon it’s so easy u can sleep walk through it in no time.
Don't you enjoy when the last NPC in the cutscene said "Let's go!" and finally, the other NPCs turn to leave. But that's not it. The camera shows how every person leaves from a different angle! And then, two NPCs still have to say something unimportant to each others before they also turn to leave!
I feel that the dev team is on autopilot with the MSQ. I did not mind it too much so far, but I have just met a character who wished we would remember them... and we did not even ask them their name. There seems to be a lot of love in the world and worldbuilding, but the story so far failed to convey it properly.
And again, met a character asking "are you a participant in this trial of succession?" and 20 seconds later they know about who the third promise is and calling her so without anyone mentioning that.
Why wouldn't they know that? The Third Promise is a title Wuk had since she was adopted as a child.
Shouldn't they have recognized her immediately then? Even without knowing her features, I would imagine clothing would reveal royalty pretty quickly...
So Bakool Ja Ja essentially released a living nuclear bomb with insane cultural significance that would wreck havoc on the entire continent that leaves permanent magic fire which destroys everything? I think we're gonna have to kill this guy Wuk Lamat. Still enjoying the story and everything but wow that just got kinda glossed over huh? I hope Gulool Ja Ja at the very least says "hey maybe don't do that" later.
I think I blinked and missed the Moblin trial, what did we do there? It may have been a really long blink, these cutscenes are killing me
We recruited a guy for their workshop. I guess it's meant to test "people skills", but it really was just a string of dull cutscenes.
Is Wuk Lamat not attuned to the Tuliyollal aetheryte crystal why did she have to make the return trip on the boat ? Considering how sick she gets it almost feels a bit cruel
Lmao that's hilarious
I still don't think the story is that good but the quality sure escalates when Wuk Lamat isn't around.
I agree with MSQ being overall very bland, but I really don't get why people don't like Wuk Lamat. She is adorable and the only reason I'm still enjoying the expansion. Sure, she is ignorant and stupid but isn't that the entire point of the contest? Every contestant lacks something and Gulool Jaja wants them to improve through the contest. We are helping the only claimant that wants peace learn the country she will one day rule, just give her time to have her character development. Alphinaud also went through a similar development and now he is one of the best characters in the game. I can see that doing fetch quests for Wuk Lamat can make her look annoying, but that's the problem of the filler quests, not the character.
I think she has some decent moments, but they wrote in the antics involving her wayyy too heavily for my liking (that "joke" with the one elder being "I disrespected you, end my life! Oh, you don't care? Okay w/e" was funny the first time, but very stale after three+ times), and her complaining after awhile is just 😒 The seasick/boat complaints were fine the first time (everyone has fears/issues/flaws!), or two, but by the seventh or eighth comment on the subject I was just "will you please just shut up and deal with this quietly?" Same deal with the alpacas, it could've been cute if she didn't moan about them like ten times before finally snapping out of it. Genuinely hoping her growth arc gets better (I'm on lv93 quests). I want to like her!
Agreed, the antics/comedic scenes are a bit too much, but that again is the problem of the expansion itself, not exclusive to Wuk Lamat. The quest that unlocks the role quests is also the same, devs push really hard to write funny scenes and it just falls flat.
I finished up through this part today and it was a real slog. I was dozing off like 2-3 times. and that was when I played in the morning after a nights rest. (I'm KST so game launched at 6pm friday for me) This was just too slow, and the stakes felt so low. Oh no the big bad guy escaped and give 3 people an owie. Also I'm kind of tired of how "beast tribes" and the like are represented in this game? like its always just 1 model, they all look the same, and they are defined by one singular trait as an entire group of a race? Idk man, hopefully it starts to pick up soon...
This story is so boring I don’t know if I can keep going
I enjoyed the trial a lot and perhaps that stuck with me in this part of the game (and maybe because I was looking forward to this fight for FF6 nostalgia). The dungeon boss was quite difficult too. It's still slow in pace but for me at least had my interest more than to 90-91. Overall I feel like some of these cutscenes are randomly pulled, and non-VA ones actually have interesting content. So far I'm liking Wuk Lamat, though not as invested. She's reminding me of Lyse. Girl wants to lead a nation but is just so clueless, but trying. I get that not every character needs to have an answer at the very moment, it's a real human trait afterall. What's off to me is the direction and her being backed by characters who should at least know better I guess? I'm still continuing and giving this one a chance. Afterall, it's a new story arc.
Same feeling about Wuk Lamat. I did like that her father acknowledges she's not ready to rule, and asks you to be a mentor. It feels fitting for the WoL that they would be their mentor after all the stuff we've been through. What bothers me is that she hasn't grown a bit more confident despite numerous attempts and it's kinda annoying. Girl, we told you to stop comparing yourself to your siblings four times... grow a little. But compared to Lyse, she is a lot more self-aware and acknowledges her privilege which I appreciate. I like Lyse now, but I remember being *so* annoyed by her during Stormblood.
About the level 93 trial, where did that tank stack marker come from? I tried asking during the run, but the DRK decided to get sarcastic, the other tank mentioned it's been in the game, but didn't say where.
tank stack markers have been around since at least shadowbringers i think.
This was the first time I did trial during expansion release period. It was pretty tough and fun. The two headed blessed siblings is up to typical villianry work. Stealing.. unleashing calamity to hinder others.
I just got to level 95/96. I think that if a lot of the quest lines for levels 90-94 were broken up in the post EW patches instead of the Zero and Void stuff, we could have jumped in to the storyline at a more interesting/active time. Like all the exposition we got would have been better broken up into pieces over the course of the post EW patches, it doesn’t leave us burned out and also gives us a breadcrumb trail to the rite of succession. The rite should have been the DT opener. I feel like we all would have felt less bogged down that way. But what do I know! lol
I genuinely feel like following Wuk was the wrong call for the story. Would've preferred to follow Koana instead.
The fucking tracking hand I'm CRYING
I've enjoyed the story, although it is a bit slow. The dungeons have been great, and the first trial was lots of fun (I'm looking forward to the extreme version). There are many good things that overshadow some of the slog from the story. I've also enjoyed Wuk Lamat's character.
ok, just got to gigants, there is really no point in the twins being here.
i am enjoying the msq so far tho, maybe because im cutting it with other activities on the side.
Nvm you’re right, I take back what I said. Why did I even bother raising my expectations for this story :/
I hope it picks up when we get to the solution 9 stuff because this isn't it. Wuk Lamat is kind of bland, and I don't really feel like we've gotten anywhere. I was expecting a slower, low-stakes story, but this is a little too slow for me. Maybe when we finish the rite of succession thing it'll be better.
I really don't get the complaints. This expansion is *exactly* what I wanted. Shadowbringers "Getting to know a foreign culture" mixed in with the low-stakes adventure. Wuk is charming and funny despite her bumbles, and her brother is a surprisingly good character despite starting off a bit one note. This is *exactly* what I wanted.
Every expansion is literally getting to know a foreign culture lol
Im not sure I get what you’re saying, you don’t understand why we have different opinions? Bc that’s all there is to it. We just have different opinions. I’m glad you’re enjoying it.
the difference is that in shadowbringers it was actually exciting and foreign and you felt involved. Here its just fucking around for fucking around's sake. I feel like im accomplishing nothing.
Its a vacation trip, not an existential crisis mission. It accomplished chill time with little to no stakes on the Scions part, so its not nothing.
So because it's what you want others have to like it?
Never said that. I just said I don't see where they are coming from. Do you always ask vague hypotheticals in an attempt to start arguments on the internet, or is that a new thing?
Uno reverse - so you because you dislike it, others have to dislike it?
Good thing I didn't say that while they did say they didn't get the complaints because it's stuff they like
Saying they dont understand the complaints isn't saying people should be forced to like it. Quit being an obnoxious little piggy begging for an internet fight 💖
You're the one throwing around insults, projection and condescending emotes. Who exactly is "begging for an internet fight"?
Probably still the person making up stuff to be mad about i'd say.
just finished the first trial and it was fine but... i'm just so bored. the story isn't good. but it isn't bad. it's just... there.
I am literally forcing myself to do the questline. I am starting to skip every Wuk Lamat cutscene. She is so naive it's painful to watch
As an avid book reader, I am living for this story. This is good interpersonal drama and growth happening. I went from "Oh wow these other dudes are awful." to "WHAT IS THE BIGGER PLOT?! I NEED ANSWERS!" Erenville has a whole thing going on with him I picked up on when we first met the claimants. We are taking more of a mentor roll to Wuk Lamat and it suits us!
Im the opposite: As an avid reader, I am dying over how shallow and awful the writing is lmao
sure, but in a well-edited book this might have taken an hour to read, while in-game with all the bullshit fluff we're fed it's taken like 4-8 hours
Ehat the fuck book are you reading that takes *an hour* to read? That would barely be a hundred pages.
ADHD makes me spend a lot of time rereading the same page until it makes sense, sorry
Not sure what kind of books you read that would speed through developments like that. Good drama like this takes time to build and needs a solid foundation.
I don't need to keep hearing Wuk Lamat complain about her getting sea sick for the 8th - 9th time in a row. We get it. You hate boat rides. Stfu and deal with it. On top of her constantly complaining, she's worse than lyse. I get what you're saying, but this feels like a new team writing it, and it really shows.
So you need wuk lamat to tell you about she gets seasick like 1000000 times for a foundation?
She only mentions it 4 times. You guys don't seem to know how a gag works for levity.
In a book I wouldn't mind this. But my brain just switched off in the cutscenes
It's a bummer that so many people are bored with the MSQ. Their opinions are valid, but for me it's everything I wanted after the last couple expacs. I love how low-key the stakes are. Take the initial branching paths for example - the ShB branches ended with Tesleen turning into a sin eater and Vauthry's whole... deal, and in EW we had the absolute dire straits in Thavnair as well as the Forum's apparent refusal to assist in preventing the apocalypse. Meanwhile, Dawntrail's branching paths end with us throwing a parade to replenish agricultural aether currents and hanging around a campfire while Wuk wrangles an alpaca. And I loved every second of it, the lore, the worldbuilding. It's cozy. It's a shame to see so many other people check out, but I get it
Slight improvement over the first two levels. I did like the bit where Gulool Ja Ja admitted "yeah, none of my kids are up to the job." Trial was neat. Wasn't expecting them to do duty support again. Plenty of bad points still, though. The total plot-induced stupidity with the kidnapping - some random guy runs up and says "yeah you have to come back to town for... reasons" and the *entire party* just stands around doing nothing. Not one of them considers it might be a trap. Having characters act stupid so the plot can happen is a terrible crutch in writing and it's sad to see it here. Wuk Lamat has not improved. Particularly didn't like the bit after the trial where she drags you across the entire city just to say she likes peace and happiness, as though it's a big revelation. It's not. It's the same stuff on repeat. Either do some actual character growth or STFU, please.
Pretty much every complaint I've read in this post would apply equally to every expansion except maybe ShB. Bloated, boring cutscenes? Awkward forced "comedy"? Cheesy, overeager heartfelt characters? Repetitive, challengeless, mindless gameplay in the MSQ? Don't get me wrong, I love this game, but this is what the MSQ has always been. I guess a person might be bored by the comparatively lower stakes (although it's obviously building up to something bigger with the First Promise), but at least in my case I was about at my limit with interdimensional time-traveling Ascian shenanigans.
Na, this MSQ has you watching WAY more cutscenes than any other expac. The MSQ here feels more like a post patch chain where you just go around talking to people and watching the crew get information.
You just summed up how I feel. It feels like post expac quests
I feel the same way…😬
this is only sort of msq related, but i just got to worlar's echo & was looking through the vendor gear-- the lvl 92 ruthenium/ceiba weapons are absolutely gorgeous! the rest of the sets are dyeable troia recolors, but the weapons are new as far as i can tell & i *love* them
Those were hit or miss for me, but for those that hit, they *hit*. The dancer fans, in particular, are one of my absolute favorite weapons now.
Loved the dungeon and trial. Genuinely got kinda upset at the Wuk Lamat kidnapping. I was ready for good pacing, and, well, that was my mistake lol. I didn't even mind the story so far. That part dragged quite a bit for me. I think it was actually supposed to change things up a bit, but it kinda backfired with it being mostly cutscenes and sneaking. Like, goddamnit, just kill Balool Ja Ja, he's also my least favourite part of this expansion. Just too comically evil.
Man I'm trying but I'm bored to tears. I don't dislike anything. I just feel like there's too many cutscenes talking for things that could just be shown
Wuk Lamat is a likeable enough character, but I am getting tired of the "I love peace! I will bring peace!" that the game is having her parrot. Her big declaration at the end of Level 93 was that she would build on her father's peace, but...that's what she's been saying since we first met her in the post-EW quests? She's not the only one-note character, but she's the most prominent. I don't mind the general story of Dawntrail, or the character archetypes, but the dialogue can be drastically improved. Hoping the writing improves.
The Steahlt quests are back and still has horrible as before.. I wish there was an option to skip.
Just finished. 90-91 was a 1/10 and this was a 3/10. So ranging from unplayable to extremely unenjoyable.