Dawntrail Proves Final Fantasy XIV Should Become an Anthology Story - The Eorzea Prospect | MMORPG.c

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Dawntrail Proves Final Fantasy XIV Should Become an Anthology Story - The Eorzea Prospect | MMORPG.com

The Warrior of Light has seen and done it all. They've traveled across time and dimensions, befriended literal gods, and even saved the very fabric of existence. Where do you go from there?

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Tiller

I thought Shadowbringers was great, Endwalker was good, but I wasn't as big a fan of this expansion to be honest. Two thirds of was slow and at times a snooze fest.

Valentina

I like the idea of the game being an anthology series, but part of the problem with removing the focus from the player character is that they have to make a character that the players feel strongly connected to and feel worthy of walking laterally to the Warrior of Light, and they did not manage that with Wuk Lamat. I'm not a bandwagon hater of Wuk Lamat, I think she's an alright enough character but she's not somebody I have any desire to see beyond this expansion, there was nothing compelling about her for me.

There are plenty of places the game can go, and I agree that the developers should utilize all potentialities of bouncing back and forth from the source, to other worlds with our WoL experiencing many different roles and lives. I had hoped Dawntrail would feel far more novel than it does, though. Shadowbringers was better at that than Dawntrail has been so far.

The world building in Dawntrail is bogged down by over-writing which lead to infinite non-voiced cut-scenes that droned on and on for ages. The developers should have used the opportunity with their graphics updates to lean much more heavily into environmental storytelling and world building to create the novelty that I believe Dawntrail to lack and I hope future expansions do this, and really bring in the imaginative and novel nature of JRPGs more to the front of the game as that's always been one of the primary strengths of the genre.

Neoyoshi

I wish i were one of those folk who could sink their hooks into any type of story and really give it the proper attention it needs, but Dawntrail has been a bit of a slow burn- I've really had to spread my time with it's story out into segments when i feel like i have the energy to really engage with it.

It hasn't been a terrible experience, but good lord do i wish it had more voiced dialogue.

chrisnyc48

Considering how divisive this expansion has become, how can you possibly state that THIS is a step in the right direction? I had no desire to deal with Wuk beyond the end of Endwalker. An entire expansion where she sucks up all the air in every single room she enters was not my idea of a vacation OR a good story.

More of this?

No thank you!

For me, Dawntrail, is by far the least enjoyable of all the expansions including the main game itself. I can't even see myself replaying it on any of my alts, so they'll remain in limbo until I can buy a skip. The writing and pacing of the story just didn't work for me. I haven't touched the game in months, whereas I replayed all the other expansions on alts multiple times.

Dawntrail was one and done for me. I wouldn't come back for more of the same.

Scot

Two words, good writing. If you don't have that consistently MMORPGs will struggle and with the gameplay led approach games naturally have they often fall short.

Akulas

I was bored with it but I thought that was because the previous expansion had a better location for the end game.

Wasselin

I really liked the format and the way the Warrior of Light in Dawntrail steps out of the limelight a bit. In Endwalker, the constant fawning over the Warrior of Light as the hero became a little grating at times. It feels like Dawntrail still suffers from this to a degree, as if the writers are worried that, without constant praise, players won’t feel important enough. It can come across as a bit patronizing.

That being said, I think it’s risky to focus so much on one character like Wuk Lamat. It’s a lot of pressure to put on a new character to carry the plot and win over most of the fanbase. I hope it doesn’t discourage them from trying this approach again in the future, though, because there’s potential in it!

JudgeUK

If they are going to have the Warrior of Light as more of a side character, they need to have credible reasons why.
In more than one scene our character just stood there frozen as though they had an internet issue and were about to dc from the game.
They weren't the only ones. The scions were shoehorned in, then doing tailors dummy impressions while all hell broke loose. Where they all in shock or something?

We can use what description we like for future formats, that won't make it a success or failure. What will have a major impact is the quality of story telling, an area Dawntrail really struggled with. I'm not sure what happened to the writing team of Shadowbringers, but blimey SE you need to bring that quality back asap.

Scot

Wasselin said:

I really liked the format and the way the Warrior of Light in Dawntrail steps out of the limelight a bit. In Endwalker, the constant fawning over the Warrior of Light as the hero became a little grating at times. It feels like Dawntrail still suffers from this to a degree, as if the writers are worried that, without constant praise, players won’t feel important enough. It can come across as a bit patronizing.

That being said, I think it’s risky to focus so much on one character like Wuk Lamat. It’s a lot of pressure to put on a new character to carry the plot and win over most of the fanbase. I hope it doesn’t discourage them from trying this approach again in the future, though, because there’s potential in it!

Welcome to the forums!

Arlee

I'm so happy you wrote this! I actually really enjoyed not being the center of focus for once. I also really enjoy Wuk Lamat so that probably helps me in some respects. Everything worked out exactly as it should have and needed to in relation to her journey and the rulership. The second half where we were more of the focus were a good bit less interesting to me because we were doing the same thing we've done in all the previous expansions and in most MMOs.

Hopefully, in the future, they can balance the two approaches and provide us a character more people will be excited to be helping. But agree it makes sense they took this approach, and it would be great to see more of this.

OnlytheLonely

I just unsubbed from Wow, gave it a shot because Dawntrail didn't seem to be what I wanted to play. That being said, is FFXIV worth coming back to?