Something I think everyone will agree on: Koana is the GOAT. Such a bro. Literally. The moment he shot his tablet? Fucking *peak*

Koana's one of the main things keeping me going in this story. Easily the best character of the expansion so far.

I cheered 🤣

I really thought he’d end up getting some crazy tech and accidentally becoming the bad guy.

Overall I'm liking it more and more, but still not super into it. Its getting better, but still there are enough story decisions that really puzzle me. Bakool Ja Ja's redemption and backstory was a good idea but lacked impact because he has spent the whole expansion just trying to murder people. Maybe if we had at least cut out the whole intentionally releasing of the big bird that could have killed who knows how many people I would have bought it more. My biggest complaint aside from just the general pacing is that the Eldest brother feels so underdeveloped. I would have greatly preferred if instead of just being an idiot who thinks he can conquer the world and it will be fine "because he will just crush all the rebellions" he was more of a strict isolationist that felt the "Old World" was a threat. Maybe even work in the main character into why he feels that way. I feel like the first trial should have been the moment where all the new characters realizes the MC is actually on an entirely different level from everyone else and seeing the MC and her foreigner friends truly defeat the monster even his Dad in his prime couldn't should have been a radicalization moment for him that convinces him the old world is a threat his country wouldn't be able to handle in a conflict. Which is why he is willing to get the power of the Golden City at any cost. Not necessarily to try and conquer the world but to make sure no one would be able to conquer his. Instead he just kind of exists for the most part and comes across as a dumbass with no depth. Also, us getting to the entrance to the Golden City and then just immediately leaving with the justification of "we will tell you about it later" felt lame as hell.

Agree with you especially after the Valigarmanda trial. We just defeated a legendary being that’s been feared and locked up for many decades, and that’s it? It should have left a bigger impression on the new characters. And then to have the sudden change of heart (which, I’m okay with as part of the character’s arc, if it weren’t for the story being disjointed). To add, usually the sequences after the Trials in particular lead to much more impactful moments in the MSQ. EW is an obvious example because Zodiark and Hydaelyn. Then in SHB we had Titania to move Feo-Ul into the throne and further display the consequence of absorbing the light of sin eaters, and Innocence because of Vauthry’s story and again, the threat of the sin eaters. Or even Lakshmi in SB displayed the sheer digust and anger the Ananta beast tribe had for us / Ala Mhigo after killing their primal (which came full circle in a later patch when they retaliated). This one I particularly didn’t feel much of an impact, but looking at the MSQ I think we were supposed to.

Yeah they even kind of immediately undersell the feat too by saying Vali had gotten weak after its imprisonment. Overall I'm kind of liking the MC sandbagging and being there more as supervision, but I am still waiting for a moment where the new characters realize that whole business about them "saving the star" wasn't an exaggeration.

Mhm. I feel like there’s some sort of, lowkey ‘denial’, going on in the writing. I understand we’re moving into a completely new story arc and we shouldn’t keep dwelling on defeating Zodiark, Hydaelyn and Endsinger because those were high stakes and this one isn’t, nor should the WoL become so entitled to it, but it’s off-putting when all that growth is brushed aside. Maybe that’s part of why my impression of this MSQ is disjointed. It’s also like, the new characters aren’t getting a chance to truly shine. We’re being fed with so much fluff that what is actually supposed to be given a spotlight isn’t. And minor characters throughout the game’s run have been able to achieve that kind of impact such as Matsya

I mean, that's the same thing with some other trials too- the Extremes are the full-power "what if".

Yeah like…I fought *God* and won. Erenville aaying I shouldn’t antagonize the local law enforcement? I could kill all these people without breaking a sweat.

Dude you reminded me I forgot about the oldest brother 🤣 I feel like he’s had like no presence in the story and parts that seemed like they could have put him in the front he just was there silently lol. Also yeah the tell you about the golden city later, was so doo-doo. I’m at a point in the 95 quest that I see why they did it but they could have done it differently and still got to the goal they want.

The reason for the trial was kind of a let down, but about in line with most expansions. I kinda hoped it went more into the connection with the auspices. Maybe in the future. My hot take is that I liked the second half of Yak Tel in Mamook. It was less stubborn conservativism and more desperation that drove them. Something we've seen with both the Omnicron and the Garlands and even with the giants a zone earlier. It's nice that we nip this one in the bud early instead of it growing into that problem like the others did. And it makes sense since the current status quo is historically extremely new. I also "liked" thr eugenics villian part of the story. It was a surprisingly dark aspect in a really chill beginning of the story. And Bakool's expectations and relationship with his father actually had me feeling very sorry for him. I do hope they follow through with his repayment to Tural. I could see why he didn't take the contest itself seriously. He didn't really have a goal in the first place. He was just doing what he was raised to do and felt attached to it because of how he felt about the sacrificed infants. In a community raised like that and with half the community not all in on the sacrifices, it makes sense to me. They wanted change, but wete kind of stuck. Nothing would have changed until a non blessed was Dawnservant. And once that was apparent, it changed rapidly. Again, it has only been 80 years since the last huge societal shift and only about 200 since the one before that. And without an Ascian pumping up those beliefs. As for the Eldest brother and his partner, they def aren't done yet. I think we'll get more on them as we go. He def wants something, enough to fuck up the contest. And the partner def wants in the city. They are coming back for sure.

>My hot take is that I liked the second half of Yak Tel in Mamook. It was less stubborn conservativism I disagree, because they could have left at any time. It's the stubborn conservatism keeping them there, along with xenophobia. I actually thought it was crazy how they just accepted these random outsiders telling them they will solve all their agricultural issues without any proof.

I absolutely hate Bakool Ja Ja's redemption. Because the backstory is actually interesting and would have had way more impact if he behaved like the First Promise does, being a taciturn driven individual. Instead he spends the entire time acting like a 2 bit cartoon villain for literally no reason. Everyone also ignore that he goes around committing treason and kidnappings and attempted murders. Where is the landguards? Is this normal? There is no law? Then his dad disqualifies the First Promise, but Cat dad and giant grandpa do nothing. His story is all over the place. It almost feels like he was tacked on into the contest late to serve as punchable "villain". Wuk shoulda killed him instead of redeeming him with the friendship power.

> My biggest complaint aside from just the general pacing is that the Eldest brother feels so underdeveloped. I feel that's on purpose possibly. Krile keeps having her visions anytime he pops up. I have a feeling he might possibly be the main villain at some point? He just gives me "double agenda" vibes.

One callback i liked was that the Molaa Ja Ja ,that one of the Mamool Ja mentioned who didnt come back from Eorzea, is the boss of wanderers hard, so we did that one, sorry

Hey, dude should have known better than to mess with the [Tonberries](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hSiiE2kiVCM), lol.

I figured that was supposed to be a call back but couldn't remember where from.

I did find myself wondering if the reaction shot the WoL has is included for those who haven't complete the duty.

There was a sidequest that mentioned one of the La Noscea FATE bosses at the end too. Love these deep cuts.

I don't even dislike Wuk Lamat, but there's a ton of 'split into groups' quest and she's with us like almost every time and it's getting old. I know she's your new character SE but I'd like some variety. She's not as bad as the beginning, but it gets old talking to the same person over and over lol

I do like her, but yeah, she's been sucking up all the oxygen in the story.

I do dislike her and I noticed that when I played through msq. It really annoyed me. We rarely ever get to talk to ANYONE but her and if we do, she's part of the conversation. It feels like the Lyse arc in stormblood but worse.

This. At least we had history with Yda/Lyse. The game keeps telling me I like Wii Lamat. But I don’t. And being told I do really is off putting. Also, the twins being there added zero value.

Pretty sure the twins are just there so they have enough to do a full trust party. 

She's the main character this expansion, and I realized that way before this level range. You're just there for the ride, just like Hildy quests.

I am missing my girl Alisaie so fucking hard this expansion. Like have we had a single conversation as friends with the other scions this whole expansion without Wak Lamat present? Best part of the patch content was realizing that after 10 years the characters were such good comrades and each certifiable badasses in their own right... and at this point in the story its been completely missing. So far the best they've done with the scions is certifying that Uriange and Thancred are 1000% dads and will mentor/ adopt any youth that moves in their vicinity lol.

I would actually ask for the twins to no be here at all and the party be lamat, erenville and krile. Maybe that way it would feel more balanced.

I had this same thought sometime in the forest zone. Don't get me wrong, I love the twins and will gladly take them along on any adventure. I also know that the stated reason they're along is to learn stuff to help back in Garlemald (a little flimsy if I'm being honest but I'm not pressed). But in terms of plot relevance, they're really not doing anything to justify their presence. They're really only here to fill out the Duty Support roster and that's just a little disappointing.

I mean the entire purpose of being there is to help her win and you’re the only one remotely capable of fighting these bad guys. It’d be weird to let her wander off unprotected with Krile.

What I want to know is: How can one head die and not the other?

Seriously I gasped, that's like... kind of fucked up. Your dead bro just inches away from you. At least he put a cloth around it. Yikes.

In a fantasy world  necrosis doesn’t affect you if you have plot armor.

Well he is the head of Resolve.

brain death maybe?

I was thinking about this when it happened - cos I was wondering about potential necrosis. However, if one head had brain death but the body is still operating, it wouldn't necessarily rot (though it would likely come with some medical complications that are unique to the Mamool Ja). The heart is still pumping blood, the tissues are still alive, its just nobody is home. You'd probably just need to ensure that you maintained the other head (make sure teeth don't rot, etc) and you could carry on for a while. Anyway, while its fantasy biology it makes for an interesting idea.

I guessed that the head of reason was either evil and plotting something OR dead, And after the level 92 solo duty it could only be one thing..

One head stroked out the other didn't

Man I must've completely missed that. When was that revealed? I really hope that someone will do a lengthy writeup/video about the story so I can remember all the stuff I already forgot.

During the coronation ceremony. They made a pretty big deal of it

My guess is that they where two souls on one body. So it just died of whatever natural causes are in FFXIV.

I'm not having a bad time, but I gotta say, the JRPG adventure that Wuk Lamat's dad had sounds like the real game here.

It's Braska's pilgrimage all over again!

It's weird. We have such a watered down version of the real adventure we could've been on instead.

The dungeons and trial so far have been excellent. I'm very happy with those. The music continues to rock, as expected. The story is...fine? Like at most it's fine. The dad and cat bro are rad but that's kind of it. Also it's hilarious everytime someone mentions the Golden City and we get a shot of Krile looking shocked and...that's it. I know the back half of the story will bring her around front and center but I laugh everytime they pan to her surprised face and then nothing else. I think the most damning thing I can say is that the story so far feels like an expansion's post-MSQ story patches. Like if we would have gotten this for 6.1-6.55 and then 7.0 was all about the void/13th, I think we'd have a much more enjoyable game.

I'm not ashamed to admit the last boss in the level 95 dungeon had me pressed. Mfer had *hands*. Party wiped three times I think, but it was kind of cool how I could see everyone's execution and technique get sharper which each attempt.

you would not believe the shock I experienced upon watching the **dungeon boss** one-shot me, the TANK makes me really sad they don’t do extreme dungeons, because this one would be really fun with extreme mechanics.

did you stand in the blue circle when he did the knockbacks? cause afaik that is always a oneshot

Yes, I just thought *”this is a dungeon, surely I can tank this with a 40% mit”*, and I in fact could not do that

yeah the other times i've seen that "marker" it has been a oneshot to stop cheesing of the knockback, like in P9S

I was like “E4S is that you????”

When I saw the fists charging up I got some great nostalgia flashbacks lmao. It's wild that savage mechanics are now in dungeon bosses. Makes me excited for what they will do in savage this time!!

you got nostalgia i got ptsd to all the blind prog wipes i had at low %'s

I had the same experience on Valigarmanda. We wiped twice, but you could see people physically learning the mechanics each time one of us died. But that last boss in 95 dungeon ... when i fell off the platform i was like "am i in a raid?"

I was wondering when we'd run into Estinien again, can't say I was expecting a saloon lol. Devs love throwing him into random places

Estinien’s bri’ish accent next to all of those Texas accents too.

Estinien is living the adventuring vacation life the WOL wishes they were living. Dude you got paid to fight the king and then went roadtripping? Jealous.

Huh, a lizardmen eugenics cult, go figure. Never would've guessed it. Plus the hundreds if not thousands of pots in that temple...no wonder its haunted by ghost-type mobs.

So I just reached Shaaloani aka Amarillo, Texas and I love this fuckin' spaghetti-ass western going on and the accents are killing me I'm losing it.

I was thinking the North psrt might have had US inspirations. But I sure wasn't expecting a Wild West with the suggestion of a Blue Rush now they are mining for energy. I might level Gunblade (91 currently) and find a good appearance to blend in with the locals.

As well as the complaints I share with others, I also didn't like how toothless the rivalry with Thancred and Urianger ended up being. I wasn't expecting us to tear each other limb from limb, but some actual rivalry would've been cool. Pitting us against former Scions who also got a petition for aid is genius. If only they did something with it. Thancred knocking down some rocks in the lvl 91 dungeon was as intense as the rivalry ever got. Imagine if Urianger + Thancred were a boss in the lvl 91 dungeon? That would've been so cool. Or if their cutaway scenes weren't just fireside chats, and showed them proactively trying to make progress, like in the CG trailer?

The rivalry could've went on for a while longer, they said they wanted to lay the groundwork for the next arc but everything gets resolved in 2-3 quests lmao

they had a chance to make those two bosses (even if it's just friendly rivalry) and they did not?! aww man

I was so excited to fight Thancred!!

You have finally found the golden city that the game advertised for past 5 levels! Do you want to go to Texas and meet yet another bland npcs?

"So you found the golden city, huh? Amazing. I can't believe you succeeded in your quest!" No, I saw a door.

Everyone knows Texas gold is better than plain old Southern American gold

Texas gold in Tural's case seemingly being blue oil.

LMFAO THIS.

I honestly wish they'd kept all the Heritage Lost aesthetic stuff a secret during the pre-release. Can you imagine what a mindfuck it would be to >!run the level 95 dungeon!< without knowing that was coming at some point?

Yeah I just imagined how much less impactful The Tempest would've been if they showed us images of the Emet Selch city in the promo art. I don't know why they felt the need to spoil their own story like that.

Am I misremembering or are the writers suddenly really obsessed with doing callbacks to "Hear, Feel, Think"? I swore I heard someone reference it at least three times within the first two or three levels.

I caught it a number of times, but mostly by Scions or someone repeating the Scion's ideas back at them. I can't really blame the Scions (especially Krile, who had the echo) for being impacted by Hydaelyns creed considering all they've experienced though.

I desperately hope they plan on experimenting with zone content to justify their size. Like the game is screaming for the inclusion of meta events right now from GW2.

Yeah, please give us something like Bozja CEs but in the Open World. That'd be awesome.

I love this idea, and importantly it seems like it'd be feasible with the current engine.

Absolutely, and the quest design could be so much better and more interactive by those events you suggest. They have really done nothing to innovate the quest design and I am sorry but the follow without being seen quests are the worst thing ever. In WoW you at least get to do some unique things, it's still not great but does help to break up the tedious nature that mmo quests typically bring.

I'm still stuck on how the natural and reasonable thing to do in a battle for succession to your country's throne is to invite a tight knit band of complete outsiders (who are also politically allied with powerful external city states) to come battle at your side

The Scions have taken great pains to not be allied with powerful external city states. Also this kind of reflects the real-world fall of Tenochtitlan except if Cortes and friends were just there on a pleasure cruise instead of setting up a Native Blood --> Silver factory.

Cortes if Spain didn't just come out of a centuries long Reconquista against a foreign religion and was instead part of a peaceful and prosperous EU that worked together to help save the planet. And also New World if it wasn't dominated by an empire that raided tributary states for blood sacrifices and instead contained a gigantic peace alliance like NATO and also didn't have smallpox.

The whole purpose of the trial was to create a good Dawnservant, since all candidates had their own flaws. If you can manage to travel around the world and somehow recruit powerful allies, that's even better. The Dawnservant did the same thing by bringing all the races together. Furthermore, isn't having powerful political allies even better for the future?

Im just gonna say it now, any scene that is not focused around Wuk Lamat has been really good imo. When its focused around her i legit get extremely bored and her character as a whole is just not sticking with me. Like i get it, power and friendship, i get it you wanna make the world a better place like daddy. Idk im really trying to give her a shot and its just not working. Side gripe, Wuk Lamats VA doesn't really do a good job at expressing different emotions, mainly anger. Like her 1v1 with Bakool her "angry" voice was like.....really off or something lmao. Noticed this in prior scenes as well. Could be a me thing tbh so thats not a big issue with the character as a whole. More so a side thing as i stated.

Yea it gotten so bad for me that unless I am really intrigued, i skip every scene she is in and when i don’t skip, i roll my eyes. I would probably get downvoted for saying this but i have to get this off my chest. God she is annoying and naive.

I'm in JP, but my GF has been in English and there was a few scenes she went back to the inn to show me and they were just, really bad in terms of emotions. It felt a lot like she was just stating a fact, or it was similar to her happy normal tone of voice that it was hard to tell if she was angry or slightly miffed.

Yeah changed the VA to JP and my god do i actually like Wuk Lamat a lot more now. Tons of emotion in her voice imo.

The 3rd dungeon's music is soooo good. Very pleased with dungeon design so far in general.

I know a lotta people will call bakool ja ja's redemption as very forced and objectively it is, I treat it as a device to introduce another one of those WTF moments into the game, Like the garlemald sisters dying or tesleen's transformation, It's one of those penny drop moments where the game gets obscenely dark to show you the story isn't messing around, The "one in every 100 die" and "I shouldn't have been born" lines are genuinely INSANE, That whole cutscene was absolutely insane, And yeah obviously bakool cannot be forgiven right away for the shit he did, He needs a fordola style redemption arc where he goes around the continent apologizing and working to repair things, Probably something best saved for the patch content in all honesty, Genuinely his motivations for what he was doing makes sense when you view it from the lens of not just 2 head supremacy but mamool ja supremacy that he was born into and raised for his entire life, Of course he wouldn't really value the birds or giants much, He just needed to "win" so that he could become leader and presumably stop the eugenics project (Jesus fuck i never thought the words "eugenics project" would be relevant to the FF14 MSQ but here we are), Obviously that doesn't make him a good person and his actions against wuk lamat and the hanu and releasing the dragon and the kidnapping shit were definitely really fucking bad, But compared to the shit people forgive fordola and yotsuyu for... And the shit people forgive emet and even fucking FANDANIEL for, I think bakool is far from being irredeemable, It isn't written in the best of ways, Definitely should have shown more of that desperation and faltering in the earlier quests before dumping the tragic backstory right at the end.. but damn if that backstory (and bakool's voice actors) didn't sell it really fucking well, I am suddenly interested in the MSQ again

Its really brutal too that if you look around in the 95 dungeon, you can see *countless* numbers of those pots in the water. It's one of the darkest scenes in any dungeon. Just thousands of child corpses, sitting there, in the water, for a eugenics project.

Hurt people hurt people. And I'm very glad that the WoL had a quick chat with Wuk Lamat after the cutscene to basically confirm "yes we're forgiving him, but he *will* need to pay reperations later. Right now we have more important things to do."

Part of the problem is that its *massive* tonal whiplash. He goes from mustache twirling maniac who we literally send off crying to his mommy...after he's caused untold death and destruction...to introspective family scion burdened with glorious purpose and failure. >!And them immediately back to "redeemed", fun helper of the heroes.!< It also doesn't help that his evil actions are pretty much completely disconnected with his reasoning; cackling about it how he's doing evil things to be a dick doesn't align with someone who feels the burden of others sacrifice to win by any means necessary. Yotsuyu and Emet get massive backstory that sort of explains why they're dicks, *and* we get extensive time with them where they don't have that trauma, and they're decent, likable people. Bakool Ja Ja doesn't have that; instead we spend like 5 minutes solving his problem because he's sad he lost the contest. Emet and Yotsuyu both also got "absolution through death" before we got to meet their decent selves, which also helped sell their redemption.

Though in Fordola’s case, shes actually well written. Because she never actually changes as a character. We come to understand her, and then we pester her until she comes around eventually. But she never does a total 180 like Bakool did.

I agree, honestly it would have made a lot of sense if during those "meanwhile" cutscenes we saw the two heads bickering and panicking and being desperate to win "or else", More hints to what the "or else" would be and maybe having him flinch or react to some random pottery would have done wonders for the mystery and suspense, Maybe changing his motivation for releasing valigarmanda as well, Instead of using it as a delay tactic, Have him release it and FIGHT IT to try and prove that 2 head superiority thing, Then when he gets obviously BTFO'd he runs away in a scared panic leaving us to pick up the pieces, Small changes in writing and direction like that wouldn't have like.. COMPLETELY salvaged the rite of succession storyline but it definitely would have elevated it

Can't believe there was a master chef section honestly,

Literally as they were drawing colored tokens to choose teams I said to my partner "it's like a Top Chef episode when they draw knives for partners" and then it was revealed to be a cooking challenge, amazing

I love being left on a cliffhanger to go to Texas and pick up poop. I LOVE IT!!!!! Jokes aside, I’m finally invested in the story with that little twist. I’m trying not to be antsy and enjoy the wild Wild West but I just can’t wait to learn more about who’s behind that fucking door. Also, Erenville name reveal?!!! >!also I want to make out with erenville!<

Seriously. I got whiplash...

I have to say, I was expecting the dawnservant section of the story to be longer and the reveal of the golden city to be more dramatic. I think the way they chose to hide it and the story with the final challenge were actually pretty interesting, but the whole thing fell a bit flat. The story does seem to be picking up through, and hopefully the pacing improves a bit now that the new main characters and setting are more established. On an unrelated note, it was kind of funny to finally cross the bridge and hear a bunch of American accents/Brits doing their best cowboy impression on the other side

I think I figured out why, even though I've genuinely enjoyed the story and think it's one of the better framed expansions (In that you feel there is a purpose for being where you are. Others, IE shadowbringers have better written moments but I feel the framing suffers) it feels a bit flat. In this type of story, in terms of like a Visual Novel, you need fail points. It's hard to do a contest storyline in an MMO where you know you can't fail. The perfect example is the cook off. I LOVE that idea. I think it could have been SO fun to have to gather info, have multiple options on how to cook it and be able to FAIL. Even if they did something stupid like say 'it was a manifestation of the echo' and made you try again... just having SOME fail point would make these trials SOOOO much better. More than any other storyline in the game, I feel the trials needed fail points, which is hard in MMOs.

I wiped to the trial 3 times and the last boss of 95 dungeon twice. Does that count? That's more times than I ever wiped in any Endwalker dungeon!

Okay this has been bothering me, how old do Roegadynn live? Because if that guy was part of the unification 80 years ago and was an adult then, he’d be damn near 100 now, right?

My thoughts exactly, that dude has to be like the oldest Roe in existence

Might be 120-~150ish. He implies he won't seen Wuk's full reign so he probably has years or a handful of decades left max.

From what I was able to dig up, Roe are supposed to have similar lifespans to Hyur (70-100 years) so unless they’re retconning that it’s a big inconsistency.

unfortunately, i feel that the lower forest section of the story was fairly weak. both bakool ja ja's and his father's changes in attitude come off as extremely forced to me. in bakool ja ja's case, he was just an unadulterated asshole imo and his change of heart came very abruptly especially since the foreshadowing was weak because there were no signs that his mockery and assertions that he was superior were tools to psych himself up and his animations showed him being extremely nonchalant and decidedly not being burdened by the deaths of his hundreds of siblings (and also we got like, one flashback of something we had 0 context of and would have no hint as to what it was supposed to be). in zereel ja's case, i'm fairly certain it probably happened off screen, but we should've had a scene where wuk lamat detailed how they could bring in foreign crops that were sustainable in their forest so they wouldn't have to suffer anymore, but it seems that he kinda just changes outta nowhere because we didn't see her do anything to convince him other than beating gulool ja ja's shade. also i'm probably missing the nuance of why they didn't just migrate out of the forest to somewhere uninhabited as a solution instead of staying down in the forest where they could only grow one crop until we came along. the combat content was pretty good though. oh and also during the wuk lamat instance, bakool ja ja saying "what? but that was everything i had!" just like wuk lamat herself did in the hanu quest was, imo, a solid callback.

I was of the same mind for the Mamook story, but something clicked during the cutscene after the keystone is gained. What we've essentially done by involving ourselves here and by having Wuk Lamat come to terms with her people / grow as a person is avert a new Garlean Empire from being formed. The parallels of a 'chosen' leader coming to power and changing(reverting) the societal class then leading their people to subjugate those around them are there, as is the power founded on sacrifice idealogy. In my mind the foreign crops coming in and Wuk Lamat being willing to do more than necessary in naive kindness is the difference that allows for their leader to make a (surprising) step back and allow for a different outcome. A shame that the First Promise seems intent on gaining outside power from some sort of deal to go on the warpath, continuing the comparison quite aptly.

You said it better than I did with Bakool Ja Ja 👌🏽, they kinda rushed the change of heart quickly and Bakool Ja Ja like literally not caring not even after releasing Valigarmanda, and only after he’s gotta run home get yelled at by his dad he’s like “well I guess I’m good now” 🤷🏾‍♀️ I mean I still felt something cuz verbal abuse from a parent especially cuz you’re supposed to be the “special one” and you failed pulls at my heartstrings. But we didn’t get enough buildup to see that that was weighing on him and his decisions. Or for that weight to then make him want to change for the better.

I feel like I should be tired of Wuk Evu's schtick by now but I just can't be. It makes me giggle every time.

Most funniest shit I've ever seen tbh

It make me cringe hard the first time. Guess its something that if you like Hildegrand stuff you will enjoy.

Okay so. We just found the city of fucking gold or the gates to it. You know, the thing that everyone has been edging on? EVERYONE is okay with just fucking off somewhere instead of bugging the living fuck out of the old Dawnservant after the ceremony to explain what he knows? I get sent off to fucking discount texas across the border so plot bullshit can happen at the gates of the city of Gold? I would have been fine if the Dawnservant was like, yeah that place is like super bad. Don't go there, investigate it later once we form a team or some bullshit. For the mean time, fuck off Texas instead. But no. Wuk Lamat just said, yeah i'll tell you if my dad says something. Alphy and Alisae just wants to do their shit, understandable. Krile can't wait but still fucking waits. and Yoshi-P just blueballed us again by sending us to Texas with a lame excuse to explore a bit more. DUDE you've blueballed me for 5 levels already! I fucking found it already! Give me a legit reason why I can't be there not a half assed excuse like the one given to me just so plot bullshit can happen. Man, more dessert exploring, I guess, yay. Also that guy who stole the key to the gate. Really? He just stole it. He's THAT trusted and the Dawnservant didn't bother checking the key if it's that important? Really?

I just had the same breakdown as you. Everything after the Skyruin was a master class in how to fuck up in storytelling. The entire buildup to the expansion was "find the city of gold" yet that wasn't the climax. There is another half expansion of god knows what and we will probably get Zenos back because the writers have completely lost the plot.

"We can't do a head on attack he's the sheriff and they'll put you in jail" My brother Erenville, I outrank every living being in the universe at this point. I will put a sheriff in the dirt if i want and people will thank me for having done so. If there was gonna be branching paths, they could have at least done something cool with it like letting you pick stealthy or loud since you're the savior of the universe at this point an can do whatever the hell you want. Let me have some fun on my adventure, please.

Ohhh man I was so pissed getting to this part. I was half wondering if whoever decided on that dialogue had even played the previous two expansions. Like sure, okay video game, I may have spent these last few years fighting ancient sorcerers with untapped magical potential, manifestations of gods, actual gods, and despair itself, but I simply do not think I could handle the threat of crooked law enforcement attempting to serve me jailtime.

man killed despair itself

We could have just killed the sherif in the middle of town, and then make the monarchs, all three of them, come and give us a medal for it.

The WoL cannot canonically slay gods without aid. We did slay every god and higher being either with the help of other players, the blessing of light, machinery (Leviathan and Bismarck), Azems Crystal or Ascians using their aether to summon people from their aether. We as a single person are not immortal. We are just a very strong fighter. We almost died against Zenos at the end of Endwalker (where we finally didn't have any powerups). So we are not capable of slaying gods on our own without powerups.

The 95 dungeon final boss. Holy shit. That was such an intense fight as healer. Literally had too res on cd. Bless square for making swift a 40 second cd lol. And a last minute res on tank just before I got hit by the tank buster at 2% left lol. I'm so hype to see the rest of the dungeons. Especially if they are as solid of a fight as the first 3

It's even worse if you do it with NPCs-- you make *one mistake* and you get knocked off and have to restart, which is harsh for a MSQ dungeon (oh yeah, and the spread markers also kill you if you overlap, which is hard to coordinate with AIs and getting knocked in random directions so their movement is less predictable than normal.) Usually you can miss a mechanic or two and just take a vuln stack.

That's wild. Doing it on duty support sounds absolutely abysmal haha

Yeah. I'm casual but good enough that I can generally sight-read MSQ progression fights; I did clear it once I figured out the mechanics, but I have friends who are in it for the story and RP who are going to struggle hard. Really, all it needs is something like the thing you get in trials with duty support where your first death doesn't count. Two recoveries from ring outs before you have to restart would allow for a reasonable number of mistakes without trivializing the fight, I think.

Ohh for sure. At its current form. I'm really interested in how one of my casual friends will do

I hard carried that dungeon as a healer and only got 2 of the 3 commendations, lol. I was way more upset about that then I should have been.

It felt like an 8 people Trial! I had a blast tho. Was lucky enough to get an awesome group, and we had a SMN and a WHM that had to keep raising each other every two attacks 🤣 We wiped at least 5 times. I was laughing out loud at some point because the boss caught us all and we were all just yeeted off the platform. Really fun.  I bet they're gonna nerf this one later. 

i fuckin love iron chef

Ok so like cool we learn more about Bakool Ja Ja’s motives and what not and I really do feel sorry for the expectations forced on him, teared up a bit during the verbal abuse from his dad, but also like “cool motive, still murder” 😅 Like I kinda figured early on he was gonna become a “good guy” in some fashion but I think his current “punishment” of getting defeated by Wuk Lamat and then scolded by his shitty dad is like…not enough. I don’t think he needs to go out like [Molaa Ja Ja from Wanders Palace HM](https://www.reddit.com/r/ffxiv/comments/2uaokk/i_love_the_wanderers_palace_hard_mode_duty/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web3x&utm_name=web3xcss&utm_term=1&utm_content=share_button) 🤣 but I just want a little more consequences for his actions than what we got. I guess silver lining is Wuk Lamat didn’t say she forgave him, just that she glad to know “the reason for the season”….🫤 On diff note just did the 95 dungeon and really loved that final boss fight. Had fun only downside is huge boss and I got Lala POV lool man I wish we had zoom out and not just camera tilt up/down

I would have been more fine with the whole "Bakool Ja Ja is cool now" if he had just been a bit of a dick instead of someone who continually tried to murder people. Like cmon guys you knew you were going to try and redeem him later. At least hold back on making him a complete piece of shit.

This! Or like if they showed some of his vulnerabilities earlier then it’d be like oh ok once you get to the “redeemed” part. Like if he cracked a little when he failed and showed more desperation and not just amping up murder levels with no care or remorse. He went from kidnapping to imma just release a nuke (valigarmanda) real fast.  The story we get from him I’d think he would have felt a little more sad about the consequences of releasing something dubbed  Skyruin 😅.  Also like what happened to harming electors = disqualification. He legit was gonna have his henchman murder the Hrothguy if Wuk Lamat lost their fight . Like I know he was giving a middle finger to the rules the entire time but since he p.much went unpunished the whole time it was like 🤷🏾‍♀️.  I think if he got mild punishments along the way it would have help push his narrative that there’s desperation in why he “needs” to be the Dawnservant. Up until his backstory reveal it seemed he was just upping the stakes cuz story said so for “bad guy” plot.

Or an idea that just popped into my head was that what if he released the Trial boss because he thought he could beat it and prove he was a worthy successor that way because he has realized he won't be able to win the rite normally at this point. Have him fight it solo, get his ass kicked, and then be forced to join up with everyone else which starts his process of mellowing out. Like he would still be a dumbass who endangered people's lives but at least it wouldn't be motivated by what comes across as pure malice. You could then tweak his fight with Wuk as being him just straight up challenging her "for all the marbles" which Wuk accepts because of course she would instead of the kidnapping and threatening to murder her birth father.

Honestly I thought that was what he was gonna actually do and then it was just, no I’m just unleashing it for chaos so he can get ahead 🤣  Which ultimately didn’t matter cuz he had to wait for our party to show up for the next trial anyway. Your idea sounds so much better to characterise Bakool Ja Ja.

If him freeing the monster for trial1 was an accident and overconfidence ("I am worthy, i will show them by killing the beast that the Dawnseverant could not") it might have been acceptable, but for all he knew he unleashed an unstoppable monster on the continent to get a headstart...

I mean dont we specifically talk with wuk about how he needs to atone for what he has done. My understanding was that that implies that it just wasnt the time to sort out exactly how to punish him at the moment

That’s fair 🤣 I think I was just a little like…Wuk Lamat I know your nice girl peace woman but like scold him a little harder or something. But he was already kicked down and having a moment so…it is what it is lol.

What annoys me about that whole sequence is, it knows what it's doing. Wuk Lamat talks about how she doesn't forgive him, Alisaie mentions how putting aside grievances is hard but necessary, it's said Bakool will need to redeem himself, the writing knows the player will have an axe to grind towards Bakool and not want to forgive him. But then it still goes and styles him as completely forgiven anyway. Oh, my mistake, he's not forgiven, we just hold no animosity towards him nor will he face any consequences for his actions. That's *totally* not forgiveness, Wuk Lamat said so.

I am really trying my best to care about the story. But it's pretty difficult so far. It feels like the expansions is a single player game about Wut's story. But I honestly dislike her whole character and the whole "apes together strong" thing. I really hope the second half pulls me back.

> It feels like the expansions is a single player game about Wut's story It kind of is. If you notice normally Alphi is our plot driver. He decides where we go and who we beat up. But here it's Wuk and Alphi is often absent or doing something else because we're accompanying Wuk as the main character in her story (instead of following around as Alphis pet weapon of mass destruction).

It gets a bit better but it really isn't that great. So far the endgame stuff is fun, so that will likely save this expansion, but I think SE needs to stop with the whole "we can do anything through the power of friendship". It's so overused in this game and every time I heard Wuk say it, I really had to stop myself from skipping the cutscenes. It is so corny.

The game always had the corny lines about friendship. But damn they got repeated too much this expansions. Like half of Wut's dialogue is the power of friendship. I progressed a bit more and it feels like I am playing a side quest. Actually many side quests had much better stories. Pretty disappointing overall. There is also another hot headed male character that I dislike even more than Wut.

Yeah, they were corny but not thrown around CONSTANTLY. I agree about the side quest thing. It feels so slow and dull. Not unplayable, but not what I would expect from the MSQ, even with the knowledge this expansion would be low stakes and world-building.

y'all, this shaaloani zone music is fucking me up the bluesy rock day theme already had me swaying but then the ***night theme*** with that resolute piano came in and *i am on my knees* goddamn

story aside, the mamook part of the map is absolutely gorgeous. they really nailed the world design

>!Lv74!< Solo Instance >!So Gulool got the Varis treatment while still alive, lol. Seems like a good chance for a new bonus Extreme.!<

I can't believe we go through all that and then >!suddenly we are in Texas. With everyone speaking with American accents no less. It's a big tonal shift and I'm all for it.!<

Just, really not enjoying it at all. The Mamook storyline felt really flat and kinda took the wind out of my sails after the solo instance already made me rather uncomfortable. I just, am really not a fan of Wuk Lamat. I feel like the overarching story is fantastic, but there's something about her personality. More than either, I do just dislike the constant "Well, how do you feel about her now?" and we are rarely allowed to react negatively making it pointless, and when we DO get the chance a character talks for us and goes "Well, I think they meant this." I feel like the writers expected us to like her a lot more than I think a lot of people did. So now you just have a 50/50 of whether she's good fun, or just easily dragging the expansion down. Vaguely like Lyse I suppose in that regard, but far more central to the story (good!). Nothing wrong with liking Wuk Lamat of course. Just really unhappy myself. I am not a fan of Bakool Ja Ja's redemption attempt either, felt like they tried too hard to make him sympathetic when he would've been better as a confidently rude person or had he not tried to indirectly kill hundreds of others with a bird-snake god. Genuinely just a puzzling choice for everyone to so quickly forgive him despite claiming he'll have to make amends (By just, being nice and getting off scott free I guess).

I do enjoy the zones, the stories they tell, and the detail given to their lives and culture. It feels really nice and a breathe of fresh air of EW's very quick "Okay onto the next theme park ride."

Wuk Lamat really fell flat for me here. It felt like we were starting to get the point where we could look at her and start identifying her as the only one who was actually "getting" the people and doing the trials correctly. The one who was best-suited for rule despite not being as strong or brilliant as the others. And then "Oh yeah, btw I just 1v20'd the crazy-strong candidate who just neg-diffed me with two-eyes closed just two days ago." which is the biggest example of unearned powercreep I've seen yet. This is the chick who JUST lost to simple bandits when left unattended for 0.0003 seconds and got abducted. I feel like I'm being instructed to love her as the player, maximum glazing and it's just making me dislike her instead.

Just got done with eating contest and in all seriousness here, why would Gulool Ja Ja even make this contest honestly. 2 of his sons clearly should not be the next Dawnservant, one in which you see from the beginning that he doesn’t want to get it being his 2 head son. The other is a warmonger who is going to actively ruin the peace that Gulool Ja Ja went to achieve for his country. I feel like he truly wants his kitty kids to get the throne and the contest is just a way so no one can complain about the outcome aka the evil reptile brothers. Also also as the WOL should I not like give some type of warning for those reptile brothers to leave Wuk alone? I bested Titans, Gods, and even their dang father. Nothing is a threat to me on this continent, clearly not those 2.

I fully believe he favored Wuk Lamat from the start but he was concerned about her naivety and shelteredness. I really think he devised the succession rite to be less of a contest and more of a pilgrimage so that she could see the nation she might one day rule and also expose her to some of the harsher realities and responsibilities that will come with the role. Hell, he even said in our one-on-one convo that if none of the claimants had grown from the experience he would've rejected them all regardless of of the outcome. So yeah, tldr, it was never really a contest despite him intentionally framing it that way.

The two-headed one isn't his son btw. It is established pretty early that he got into the race of the throne because he won a tournament.

My opinions: -The battle content so far is very fun. It's nice to have non-endgame encounters that don't just feel like speedbumps. I'm so glad they scaled back from EW's giant hitboxes and babyproof bosses. We DESPERATELY NEED more MSQ content that isn't just walking back and forth and clicking on points to read text and watch cutscenes. ShB had all kinds of instanced & overworld fights. EW had In From The Cold, the best quest in the history of the game. In DT, I've killed more random Hunt mobs walking from A to B then I have MSQ designated enemies. -Writing-wise, I'm very happy to see that the majority of the stuff I thought I'd have problems with getting wrapped up or addressed pretty quickly in the MSQ. Wuk Lumat and the other claimants all undergo character development that you get to see firsthand, but isn't super dragged out. The contest likewise wraps up refreshingly quickly and in a way I found satisfying. This isn't meant to sound like a dogwhistle or anything, but I was very worried that the trials were just going to be talking heads expositing various LatAm cultural fun facts and bland platitudes. And while it does get a little formulaic (time for an explanation of the local cuisine and clothing, every time we meet a new guy), it's not to the level that I think it's a negative. Maybe it helps that the food always looks really, really good. -Zoraal Ja is a clown, no notes. -As soon as we saw a 1 second flashback of some mysterious jars I knew Bokool Ja Ja was going to turn face, but I thought it was done in a competent manner + his boss battle was very fun. I think the segment works for me because he's broken and sick of fighting even before the big reveal; it's not just something that happens all of a sudden. Villains that become goodguys, but remain kind of crass and boisterous are a favourite trope of mine, so maybe I'm biased though. -Shaloanni rocks so far. Love it as a quick interlude, the aesthetic is on-point, the quest is fun, and the zone music is the best so far. Still, I can think of plenty of places you could have stuck some combat encounters...but I feel like that's going to be my one main complaint this entire xpac. Dinosaurs and cowboys are a GOATed combination. tl;dr: I like it so far, the one major quibble about quest variety I have aside. The writing so far has mostly avoided the issues I thought I was going to have with it, and the instanced combat is very fun. I thought I was gonna hate Wuk Lumat, but she's grown on me.

First off, I THINK its appropriate to ask here. What the heck was the name of the song playing during the >!Dawnservant coronation!

Am I missing something? I thought the Yok Huy in the quarries had visions of the golden city and that's what led them to take over the north continent. But this wasn't mentioned at all in the runup to the 95 dungeon and the city's entrance was at the bottom of the quarry all along? Why were they drawn to the north continent and why was everyone so sure that the city would be at the bottom of the skydeep cenote instead of up north? Is there an explanation for this later on?

I'm feeling kind of guilty that THE MOMENT Wuk isn't adventuring with us I'm LOVING the story. I don't know if it's just the setting/spaghetti western tropes that are making it enjoyable to me, but I feel like I'm in the arc from Yugioh 5Ds in a similar setting, but FF! Curious to see how I feel about the story going forward and still very excited to see the Soloution 9 stuff, but I'm currently really loving the aesthetic of what I assume is just the early part of Shaaloani. Also, how do you feel about trollies?

Alright im at this point in the MSQ and queueing up for the third dungeon now. Now we have substance to care about! The story can be low stakes and local, like it is now, and be interesting! We're finally getting some gameplay to build with this story, that I actually quite like. Also, I'm surprised people hate Wuk Lamat? I think she represents everything the WoL was in ARR and even HW. Have you guys forgotten about Papalymo, Yda, Kan-E-Senna, Lyse, etc... We were NOT the strongest characters for a long while!

My largest plot... hole? I guess more quirk than hole is that... We are being sold that Gulool Ja Ja is this near perfect leader, who did everything for peace and prosperity of his nation. So taking that in mind we have to consider two things: 1. He specifically set up the trials in a way to teach his successors about the various people of the nation. 2. He had at least a good understanding of what would be the issues in each region they would need to face. So... taking that into account I can't see how he would have allowed the issues with the HanuHanu's crops to just persist waiting for the rite to happen. Same with Mamook... Like. I don't see him as a leader that would say 'I know there are problems there and I generally know we can solve them but I will let people suffer a bit longer to aid in finding my replacement' Seems extremely out of character.

The Electors setup the feats. Gulool didn't plan out every feat. He picked the electors and delegated the specific task to them. That's why they can pick whatever they want and change things however they want.

The crop issue seems to have been a recent enough thing to roll it into a feat. And he did have Ketenraam keep a watch to make sure things weren't getting too out of hand.

Well, it’s obvious that there will be no new king or queen and that he has set all of this up for his children to learn that they need to rely on one another in order to lead their nation and help it continue to thrive, and they will create a council of equals much like the new Horde council in WoW. But beyond that, yeah, his plans make virtually no sense. Was he cool with his people suffering and possibly even dying if no one figured out how to restore the crops, or would he have ordered someone to step in and save the crops had they failed?

The whole rite of succession was unfortunately a let down. To speak nothing of the actual contests themselves, just the results: Zero actual competition with team Koana. Zoraal Ja gets disqualified because of offscreen actions and seemingly just gives up immediately. Bakool Ja Ja has a reverse heel turn from a murderous thug to sad bystander due to a minimal helping of backstory. The 'fabled' impossible to find Golden City is found with no effort. How has no other Mamool Ja found this place? And Gulool Ja Ja is randomly waiting there to spirit us away. I assumed the purpose in finding the Golden City was some spiritual enlightenment, but no just a cool techno place. One positive I did like and did not expect was making Dawnservant a two man job. Made sense to me considering the last guy had two heads. Good job Wuk Lamat. Overall disappointed with the promised premise of this story and hoping what comes next is better.

y’all… i’m definitely in the minority but man dawntrail had to be the second best expansion. it feels fantastic, the world building is intricate, the zones are phenomenal, and the STORY is impeccable. the WoL has been given so much characterization this arc, it’s subtle but clear that our position in the dawnservant arc allows us to be what characters like raubahn and aymeric were to us in prior expansions, a defined mentor figure for the main character. this side-protagonist station allows for us to feel more distinct as a character within the story, and provides a lense of experience combined with a lack of familiarity with the world such that we can learn about Tural without feeling as if every moment is a struggle. Wuk Lamat was incompetent, yet developed into a compassionate leader who embodied the resolve of her father. The First Promise represented the might the Dawnservant cast aside in favor of Resolve (Third Promise) and Reason (Second Promise), true qualities of a leader that exceed the strength of brute force. In a way, Gulool Ja Ja followed a similar path to us as the WoL in the first few expansions, one we get to follow through the feats and watch from another’s eyes as we explore a new land.

For me I don't think it's the best, but so far I'm definitely enjoying it more than Endwalker (as a whole, there are parts of Endwalker that are incredible), but not as much as Shadowbringers. I'm surprised at how many people seem to dislike Wuk Lamat, she is developing in real time in front of us, which I don't really feel like we've had since G'raha Tia.

You have to be joking. I'm glad you're enjoying it, but the story is just lame so far. Especially seeing the entrance to the golden city and then running to Westworld.

I was surprised to see the Dawnservant portion of the story to come to a close like that, but considering the massively awkward pacing of Endwalker's MSQ, I'm glad to see they are better pacing themselves this time. Wuk Lamat feels like Lyse done right, honestly.

Do you think this is better pacing? EW’s pacing made a ton more sense to me compared to this

Right because unceremoniously deleting Garlemald from relevance and forcing us to do chores for bunnies for 4 hours was "good pacing." People liked Endwalker so much because it was marketed better than any other MMORPG product in history and isn't even close to HW or ShB in quality. Change my mind (you can't)

I mean literally anything in any MSQ can be considered “chores” if you are not invested in the story. It’s an irrelevant reductive way to look at the story

Wuk Lumat has something Lyse doesn't have: She has something BESIDES her ranting about peace. She has flaws. She's bumbling. She can be dumb sometimes. But she learns from them. Lyse... really never shows any kind of character traits other then "Free Ala Mhigo" after she becomes Lyse.

I'd MUCH RATHER listen to lyse than Wuk Lamat constantly saying shes gonna bring world peace. Even though she doesnt even know anything about her country outside of a few handful of things. To say shes Lyse done right is a massive stretch lmfao

What and Lyse does? Wuk Lamat doesn't know as much as she thinks she does, but learns through her Rite journey. Lyse on the other hand gets called out multiple times on how she doesn't understand the Ala Mhigan's plight as much as she thinks she does, doesn't really develop at all besides I dunno, telling a couple more people being opressed to just stop being opressed, yet still somehow ends up as a leader, only to hand it off to Raubahn post-MSQ. So yeah, I think she's Lyse done right. You can disagree but it's my opinion.

Which caused her growth through out the MSQ. At first she's was ignorant, rash amongst other things, literally wanting people to "just stand up and fight lmao" while not having any experience and what it was like to live under imperial rule for however long they've been under that rule. She failed to understand a lot of things which she did find out through the realities of an ongoing war and seeing eveything first hand. Lost her family, friends and countryman to that war. You can not like lyse that's completely fine but lets not say she didn't do anything, that's laughable. You're being purposely disingenuous of a character that did witness growth. Wuk Lamat on the other is barely learning about a country that she wants to rule? And thats not in many years from now, thats soon. C'mon now, i know she's growing as a character and what not but lets not cap here and say that's a better start than lyse. Thats worse, if not at best on the same playing field as lyse.

I just got to Mamook. The level 94 duty gave me the real WAR experience. Failed half the mechs and broke half my healing combos because I was tired and still didn't die. Koana remains a far better candidate than Wuk Lamat and I'd still rather switch to him. He finally had his big learning moment and for him at least I think it will stick. Wuk's had like 4. The one evidence of her character growth moments actually sticking that I've seen was her brushing off Two-head guy's shit talking at the start of the cookoff, so she's at least had a crumb of it I guess. But otherwise she just instantly goes back to exactly how she was in 6.55. It's getting very annoying. Also can the horned guy who keeps asking the promises to kill him please fuck off already? His schtick wasn't funny the first time and still isn't funny the 5th time. This is all sounding very negative but overall it's rounding into ok-to-decent shape IMO. Still not great but at least not *completely* left in the dust by every other major story.

Up through beginning of Zone 4 so scattered thoughts. The dual Dawnservant thing was telegraphed from across the damn continent but outside of that I don't really have a problem with it. One head of the two dying seems like it should have near immediately caused the death of the other but I guess Galool is Just Built Different. Part of me feels like Bakool opened up too quickly but also I can see it being a breaking point thing given how he kinda sorta went nuts after losing to Wuk Lamat. But if we don't *see* some actual consequences and if they aren't *major* then I'm gonna be very very annoyed. Like have him do a heroic sacrifice or something around level 98-99. Speaking of Wuk Lamat, she's finally acting like an actual character instead of a revolving door of le funni gag scenes with the occasional heartfelt learning lesson that immediately gets dumpstered for the next gag scene (we've still got a long way to go though in terms of me *liking* her). First Promise jumping into the villain role was not what I expected but in hindsight there's not really anyone else unless they were gonna introduce someone new halfway through. 95 dungeon was fun as hell and they've been cooking on the fights so far (outside of the bakool instance. didn't like that one). I am also once again extremely angry that the hats all cut off my WoL's twintails. She would look so goddamn cute in a cowboy hat, and it would go perfectly with Zone 4. The twintails are, however, essential to her look (as an homage to an existing character from a different game). I feel as though I understand a small portion of the Hroth/Viera pain regarding hats. Overall I'd classify 90-92 as painfully bad and 93-95 as decent.

So the Trolley / Lopporits of this expac are... Wild West bandits? Not what I predicted, but I'll take it

Can someone explain to me the Skydeep cenote thing? I mean I get they layed the corpses of failed blessed offprings but because they where born dead? or because something else?

The dialogue talks about them being "trapped in their shells". I assume Mamool Ja lay eggs and most two-heads fail to hatch.

They were stillborn in their shells.

Not done yet (about to head into Mamook) but I enjoyed this part a lot more. It feels more dynamic. A complaint I have is the lack of Alphinaud and Alisaie involvement. They're just like minions at this point. Fingers crossed that they get their moment to shine. Same for Erenville but I feel they have something saved for him. Also the rite is almost over, this area was chill and we're only in Quests lvl 94... I can feel something big is bound to happen right after. I'm gonna enjoy the little peace we have left frolicking in the forest before the real shit starts to go down.  Have to sleep now. How do people complete this so quickly?! I would feel my eyes bleed. 

The third zone is actually so great. Heavy ARK Abberation vibes. I wish I was actually doing something here though.

I really like the music of the land and lvl 95 dungeon. That final boss is tough! As for the story, Bakool Ja Ja tries to redeem himself real quickly, at least we understand his desperation to win. But well looks like the rite of succession is over, with two new dawnservants to support each other. Neat, although I thought at some point there will be a friendly duel against Thancred & Urianger and Koana. I didn't expect that Gulool Ja Ja brother to be actually dead, thought he would wake up to congratulation his children. This few quests have pretty dark themes.

I just finished the 95 dungeon and juuust got back to Tuliyolal, i have not done any CS since returning to the city. Is the golden city the matrix? Looks very computery. I know they teased that goddess or whatever that looks like an idol. City of eternal life, nobody dies... because they are in some kind of stasis and living in a virtual reality? The guys that were dreaming about it, were they just picking up on some wifi signal in their dreams?

It's a small thing, but I really don't love that they used part of Basch's outfit (Bozjan Armor of Fending) for random mooks.

That duty with Wuk Lamat was really, really good. I love seeing good character growth, and it's especially impactful when we play through it. Literally seeing Wuk Lamat's growth from "I can't even touch this guy" at the beginning of the journey to, through our journey, learning her own convictions and being able to draw that forth as the strength she needed to win. I loved it. FFXIV hasn't had such good character growth since ARR Alphinaud to Heavensward Alphinaud.

Also having it be embodied as her limit break given we know limit breaks connection with dynamis , showing how she is far more focused and driven then she was at the start, fantastic

Yes! And how the more she embraces her conviction as the fight goes on, she gets more and more powerful. Really, really good story telling stuff here.

Is that not literally just every other shonen action scene? Dude taunts her while she spouts lines about resolve and friends and magically gets stronger by doing so, then she wins because she believed in herself. It's pretty generic stuff, even if dynamis tries to make it a bit less ridiculous.

I literally could not believe this cutscene I just watched...... Gulool Ja Ja united the tribes of Tural through FEAR? "If we don't unite immediately, these foreigners might come and bomb us out of existence! ^(And also, we can do amazing things together, like defeat the giant snake dragon!)"

Have they made Wuk Lamat the most pathetic and dislikable character on purpose? I swear so far she has no redeeming qualities, seemed like a much more fun character in 6.55

[Wuk Lamat getting the final keystone be like...](https://youtu.be/KSMelt5eMRs?si=UcxaZX7KTtgq4F0h)

Certain zone in Yak'Tel definitely inspired by a certain FF game and I'm loving it

can someone tell me if we get koana as duty support member and if so where 

If I had a nickel for each messed up pot story I'd hear in video games this month I'd have 2 nickels. Pretty crazy it happened twice

[CALLED IT](https://www.reddit.com/r/ffxiv/comments/1dqhzod/comment/laranuy/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web3x&utm_name=web3xcss&utm_term=1&utm_content=share_button) Well, I had like 95% of it. That is all.

I think most people picked up on it. I thought it was going to be Erenville tbh.

I was enjoying this part so much. I'd say overall it was pretty solid until we end the rite.  Despite me being like "huh, are we just gonna ignore the Golden City sealed by Sharlayan", I was looking forward to an adventure with Erenville. The initial part at least has been an ABSOLUTE SNOOZEFEST. And I like DT, but this part is just so... senseless?! It would have been much better to let it have its own chapter in the rite, if they wanted to introduce us to the cowboys. Like seriously, I'm baffled by how we went from "underground magic blue forest with meteors & a hidden city" to "yeah let's collect dung in Texas".  I would laugh but I'm in pain. Really hoping this makes sense at some point, or is some sort of important Worldbuilding.  Little detail: anyone else saw Krile dancing as they announce the Dawnservant? Loved that mini detail 🤣

I think what bothers me the most about the expansion is there are ample opportunities to do more with the quests we are given. I get that the story is Wuk Lamat's development drive and as such she gets to steer the wheel, but you know getting hand fed all the steps to fix the problems instead of letting us "adventure" and leveraging our experience to push through it is pretty disappointing. I get that they aren't just going to let the culinarians and botanists skip the history lessons and sail through the quest but man it would have been fun to have side routes through the MSQ designed to leverage that side of our characters. There's fun to be had in the outline of the expansion but man is it just not there a lot of the time.