FFXIV: Dawntrail | BRUTALLY HONEST REVIEW

Wow, Final Fantasy XIV really did it again! That was amazing! I love Wuk Lamat! Oh, and did you see when she did that flip? That really cool flip that she did, did you see it? What an incredible - just an amazing character, I'd do anything for her. Wuk Lamat, man - just, DUDE, what a rock solid, ten-out-of-ten, totally radical character. Thanks for coming through one more time, Final Fantasy XIV.

#finalfantasyxiv #finalfantasy14 #mmorpg

TIMESTAMPS:
0:00 Introduction
1:31 Chapter 1, Part 1: The World of Tural
3:51 Chapter 1, Part 2: The Soundtrack
9:09 Chapter 2, Part 1: The Story of Dawntrail
16:51 Chapter 2, Part 2: The Sequel to Dawntrail
21:18 Chapter 2, Part 3: The Voices of Dawntrail
24:39 Chapter 2, Part 4: What is Dawntrail About?
28:04 Chapter 3, Part 1: Let Me Play the Game
30:03 Chapter 3, Part 2: Wrestling is Fake
33:15 Finale: Closing Thoughts

SOCIAL MEDIA:

MUSIC:
This section usually says, "I make all of the music you hear on the channel." In my channel's short life time (just over a year of uploading), I've never used anyone else's music but my own. Today, for the first time, I break that rule by borrowing the talents of Soken-sama in order to directly reference the pieces in the discussion.

[FARSHOOTER]

I wish we could've traveled with Estinien on his random adventures instead of Wuk Lamat. That man looked like he had more fun than I did in the MSQ.

[tomonium]

When I finished Dawntrail, I simply thought: "Alright, Dawntrail is over. I can finally begin my own adventure."

[RicardoSantos-ozuj]

The worst part is that the tacos place does not have a seller of tacos.

[Sunshine-tucm]

IT WAS SUPPOSED TO BE KRILE'S TURN

[TeamAPS]

All very well said. I think far too often Dawntrail seemed to not want me, the player, to actively play the game. I think more combat encounters and minigames could have gone a long way in fixing the gameplay to cutscene ratio. Why was the train attack on Vanguard not a playable instance or minigame? What about a cooking minigame? Or having us actually fight during the assault on the capital?

[kfitz]

After rolling credits and spending some time in the endgame all I can say is that I really wish they just made Arcadion a giant anime tournament arc and focused on that instead

[speham]

The fact that Krile, a main character, got like two voiced cutscenes with her parents, not only fleshing out Kriles goals and ambitions and reasons for going forward, but also dropping huge Source-lore about Lalas is fucking crazy. Wuk got SO MUCH voiced screentime and they throw away so many interesting story-beats by sidelining Krile like that.

[Tamari]

You know, Erenville's "reservations" about Wuk Lamat in 6.55 take on a whole new meaning now that we know the 7.0 story.
Unintentional I'm sure, but it still works out.

[matthiasvancauteren]

Simply put, the entire story needed a big rework. The rite of sucession arc would have worked way better if several narrative changes where made:
- keystones completely removed, the only goal to win is to find the golden city. Now the reason the promises visit the towns is mostly to research on Tural history hoping to find clues to the golden city.
- make the WOL asked to be an independant judge instead (this way the WOL can be put off the leash Wuk puts around them and actually have interactions with the other candidates).
- Have the WOL and Krile and Zoraak Ja get dreams about the golden city (Sphene subtly goading us into looking for the golden city, for her advantage off course) The plot twist would be that Sphene was manipulating Zoraal Ja with these visions. We know the Yok Huy got these visions so it's not a lore break.
- Make the Mamool plotline a slowly building up focal point of the first arc. Mamool had a lot of potential but it all felt so rushed, which hurt especially when the zone after is complete filler.
- Remove the Disney train building song entirely. Your Dawnservant just got killed why are you singing?!?
- Make it so Sphene is just an ai putting up a front to manipulate people (the queen's personality is just a front for the cold calculated software behind it). If you want you can still have the queen's personality seemingly clash with the ai (blame it on Dynamis or some such).
- Have Sphene.exe actually try to stop us in the last zone from shutting down her primary directive.
- Make it clear that Sphene.ai's plan had no chance to ever work. We just shut her down cause her attempt would still cause a lot of damage.
- Have Koana join us into the final zones instead of Wuk

[texanjoecoffeehouse]

DT has introduced two new ways for me to play. One: Skipping cutscenes and story. Two: learning how to switch to Japanese voice acting

The train scene should have been playable as well as the invasion ala the lunar primals

[MrSilvart]

I have to agree with most of the points raised in the video. I liked fantasy Texas though, if only because it gave me a breather from Wuk Lamat. It's probably the worst part of the MSQ because it made me keenly aware of how much more I enjoyed the narrative when she wasn't around. Even if the plot was nonsensical (rubber bullets? REALLY???) I didn't really register it as bad because of how relieved I felt.

[nny]

"We cant have a world ending threat every expansion" Puts a world ending threat at the very end of the expansion.

[mismismism]

The MSQ was baffling to me. It felt like they hired writers from a morning cartoon for children aged 3-7. The way things were framed and executed, almost every major plot point falls apart if you just think about for a minute or 2 or think back to other plot points that contradict them and should not be possible if other plot elements and characters exist as the story presents them.

And the audio problems, from the very glaringly bad voice acting from Wuk Lamat even though they know she has like 95% of all the screen time in the story and enjoyment of the MSQ very heavily was on her shoulders to carry as a result, it felt like no care went into the voice acting and direction. And I love Soken, most of the music was great, but for the main theme to be so jarring with terrible vocals and mixing, I just cannot wrap my head around how that could even happen. That woman singing the verses sounded insane, there is no world where that does not sound awful, it was pitchy AF and it's the main song, it closes out the MSQ and it's a disaster.

I'm so mixed on DT because it's like half of it was amazing but arguably the biggest thing they needed to nail, in the MSQ, almost couldn't have been worse. I could forgive it if there were some plot holes that you really had to seek out to realize but so much of it was nonsense. It felt like the writers and whoever decided how to set up the scenes, didn't care or even try to make it make sense.

[Solidus]

The game aside, I just wanted to say how much I appreciate how well you articulate your points. Whether one agrees with your purview or not, the depth and construction of your critiques leave only room for real conversation. That's a skill I wish other content creators for this game took more seriously, but sets you apart. Thanks for the video and look forward to more from you.

[Ea_Rapture]

I completely agree with all you said here, minus one thing. Shaaloni was actually the best part of the expansion because wuk lamat wasn't present.

And the fact that I felt her presence so overbearing, that I actually enjoyed the low point simply because of her absence, you know it's kinda of a shitty character.

Also mate, fantastic video!

[JL-GHK]

Koana was the rightful Dawnservant, he just needed a course in social interaction. Kinda like how Ascians should have invented Mental Health support and counselling for Fandaniel.

[大-gb]

I like how the prevailing sentiment was exactly that, that we can't have a universe-ending threat for every expansion, and then Hiroi did it anyway.
Your review actually got me thinking again about WoL's duty as a side character and low stake threats, since it did happen quite a few times in DT, it's just that it was in the side quests.
The quest that stuck out most for me was the quest with Shunye and Uvlo, the mining/botany role quest givers. You were presented with a problem to solve, and then that problem led into a more personal problem for the involved characters, and you were also presented with reasons and background lore for why the characters are there in the first place, and ON TOP OF THAT it included nice touches to make it personal to your character if you were also a Viera. It stayed focused and didn't overstay its welcome. It was genuinely wrapped up like a nice little package.

[panzerexe]

One thing that still blew my mind was after following Cahciua while she's controlling the outrunner, we don't know anything else at all about her except her distinct voice and cheery personality. Later on when you see her in Living Memory for the first time, that cutscene isn't voiced and really dulled the moment. Sure, you've probably figured out that's where she was, but it felt like a completely different character after getting to Living Memory. Any cutscene after meeting her, there's zero personality that she had before and comes off almost monotone and dull. And also, it felt like her audio was just way louder than everyone else overall.

[ReveredDead]

We need Ishikawa back. This is a wake up call for Square Enix.

[XenusSerathiiIcelon]

I actually liked Shaaloani when playing through the expansion, but in hindsight I think that's mostly because it felt like I was finally free of the ball and chain that was Wuk. That part of the main quest was mostly just filler until they could throw the actual plot at the player.