Відео

So let's talk about Amon/Fandaniel for a sec and how he relates to one of the overarching themes of ShB amd EW. In both games, a core theme is what do you do when faced with an existential crisis. Do you accept it or defy it? Most of the cast relevant to the story, whether protagonist or antagonist, chose to defy it. But there are 2 who chose to accept it: Hermes and Amon. We all know what Hermes did, but Amon was broken by Xande. Amon was already unstable, and Xande shattered all that was left by telling him there's just nothing after death when he got revived. For Amon, a mad scientist essentially, this was all the proof he needed that nothing mattered. He no longer saw anything as having consequence since in the end, they were all just gonna fade to nothingness and he had proof of it. He accepted his fate. Later we more or less see that's not entirely true. We find out souls get revived. We see it implied that even those with no energy left (Venat) are still there in the nothingness. But for the Scions to even learn this required staring the end of existence in the face and giving it the middle finger. They defied their fate. So while Zodiark's usage feels anticlimactic, Fandaniel's actions fit thematically with the story. He eas faced with the ultimate answer to his mortality and completely lost it. It's honestly fitting that later Asahi would show up to give him the ultimate end. Becuz Amon was powerful even without the power of being Fandaniel, amd he was sooo sure of the impending nothingness after death. Yet here comes this incredibly weak man in life to drag him down when by Amon's own logic, should have not existed in a meaningful form.

I used to be a huge ff enjoyer before all this woke exposition!!!

Woketrail!

This was the first expansion I hit skip with. I hate woke Lamat

The raids and dungeons are good, Theres that.

I know upon next expac the story skip potions will sell out so much it'll crash the mogshop. Good gooodddd this is the first time since playing i skip the cs's

"the goblins are as stereotypical as the ones in eorzia" Kinda how these "latino inspired" folk are stereotypical hispanics in the english casting :) Thancred and Urianger were literally there to go 🙁 👎 or 😊 👍 to koana's actions.

The msq was boring

It legitimately felt like they handed off the writing to some intern who felt "promising" but it fell flat. And now I'm incredibly confused by all the people on Twitter screeching that i can't have a problem with it because it was "her story" not mine and how it's "literally thier favorite and best one ever!" Bro what?

The problem I had aside from the mediocre story and gameplay was how my FC simply spewed constantly how "amazing." Everything was as I was sitting here skipping terrible cutscene after terrible cutscene running around talking to npcs and just not actually playing the game lol

Lol, hearing the English voice acting still makes me happy I swapped to Japanese. Dawntrail was so bad, yes had moments it was somewhat good, but as a whole, I just felt like back with ARR leading up to Heavensward. I can't recommend this expansion

DT was just very amateur, as if the failed theatre kid writer kept rewriting until it was just a patchwork mess of stereotypes and ideas, written with only the drive to implement as many of his OCs as possible and have them take all the screentime with WoL shoved to the side. And that's not necessarily a terrible thing, theoretically, because the Warrior of Light being a supporting role is *fine* for the start of a new adventure, but actors are supposed to exit stage left before they overstay their welcome--actors which include the Warrior of Light. Some scenes would have had greater impact if you actually just weren't there, like the final part of the Invasion pt. 1. Perhaps you were out cleaning up some of the enemies, perhaps you went to pursue a suspicious individual, or you fell into an Echo-induced coma. Either way the narrative should have kicked Wok out at that point and shifted to Krille and Erenville making them the central characters for the next part of the MSQ, because goddamn they got robbed.

Story is optional for an MMORPG. Content and Gameplay are way more important.

I agree 100% The general story idea is good. The way it was written and executed was a crime against humanity. How on earth we came from the last two expacs to now will be a question Yoshi will have to contend with. (I read somewhere that the writer for Dawntrail is a different person this go-round, and it SHOWS) It was the first time I skipped CS and brute forced my way through a MSQ in the whole history of the game. I came expecting more story about Krile and that one gleaner (arg, name fled my mind just now), exploring with them, and learning about their histories and the cultures of this new place. Instead we got....Wukface. Enough said. I disliked her so much that when I got to the dungeons, I rather would have Graha tank for me (I'm the healer) just so I could get away from her insufferable aura. Don't even get me started on the last trial. That Emet wave at the end was gold, btw Had me thinking of Critical Drinker "That's all I have for today. GO AWAY NOW." 😂

I just couldn’t agree more and happy to see in not the only one being massively disappointed.

Hopefully the Patches are better for dawntrail and god willing that the next expansion will be good like Endwalker Shadowbringers

Endwalker and Shadowbringers are the best expansions

I did the alpaca quest, currently doing the boat festival quest and I give up. I do not hate myself enough to play this.

Please review wuk lamat replacing a lightbulb

Very accurate and amazing review. As much I may have missed out first few weeks of DT's launch, I'm rather saddened as what it became. It is no secret why I eventually felt not only underwhelmed but lackluster with EW as well. Even after 3,000 hours of playtime before my sub ended around in March, I found myself quite burned out with it and had no desire to re-sub the game for a while until maybe, Dawntrail can give me another chance? I didn't think so for the time so, I had more fun with other games such as Baldur's Gate 3 (then 1st and 2nd in the series) and you know what? it was worth it. I'm just glad that I watched the dumpster fire but at the same time, do I even want to suffer the torture of boring as hell MSQ or do the easy way out by skipping all of the cutscenes and enjoy the combat instead? The latter sounds preferable at best and it would only save some of my sanity and not feel sleepy all the time as if it would retain my last bits of enjoyment with FFXIV nowadays.

The things you didn’t like about the expansion, I loved about it. Especially that the Scions aren’t that important. We’ve got several expansions all about the Scions. I was ready for something different.

Wuk Lamat should have fucked off once she became Hokage, she became suffocating and would never leave. We couldn’t even have the final trial to ourselves.

The Watcher turning his attention to the planet and spotting remote locations for us to explore sounds like an awesome idea, I'm sure there would be enough for at least for an Alliance/Raid/Trial series. And the locations don't have to be large continents, just single maps where the point of interest is. Heck, he could continue the post-Endwalker story by spotting spacetime-rifts on the planet surface that might lead to other reflections or even completely other locations.

Great video. Fantastic critique! Very much looking forward to the second part. And to be fair, with a list this long, it sounds to me like you're ready to move on. It was fun while it lasted.

Yeah this was a massive miss. Wuk Lamat is bad.

"Why are the scions even here?" To be close by for the trust system.

so many characters deserve better such as Krile, I liked Wuk Lamat at first but the MSQ ruined her for me. Don't get me started on her involvement in the last MSQ raid. Silver lining, Highlanders are 10x hotter with the new update

If Wuk Lamat accomplished anything it was to get me to apologize to Lyse. I didn't realize how much worse it could get.

Good video, i still enjoyed some of the story and the fights but Wuk Lamat sours the whole thing for me. Hope she doesn't return in the patch stories...

Estinien got the vacation we were promised

well said, similar feelings. It should be put on BLAST after we had 2 great story MSQs. The writing and certain characters/VAs were shit. Ppl that disliked your video are probably Woke LAMEt fans.

i slept for 3 days avoiding the game and still finished the dlc in 1 week also krile is dead according to the lore her parents should have been dead and same with her they were in there for thousands of years and are memories they are dead fix the damn story line square

What a pile of hot garbage was this expansion. Well put video!

I only have one thing to say: That was the best and most accurate review I've seen of Dawntrail. I have nothing to add and no desire to subtract anything from Dawntrail. You were perfect in your assessment. It's just a shame that I very much doubt that things will get any better from now on. Meteion and Hermes were right all along. And we thought it was in Endwalker that despair would catch up with us.

I very vividly remember that when she came to recruit us, and fought that dumb bird, she was shaking with fear. I was really hopeful to be something of a mentor to her, with us given more dialogue to help her. Instead we do two fifth of fuck all. She does it all herself, with us just standing there nodding. The WoL and the Scions, including Krile who had a massive story reveal, were reduced to nothing more than silent nodding side characters. Had we and the Scions had a more supportive role, I wouldn't have cared as much. Edit: "her" being Wuk Lamat. Second edit: The other major issue was that it felt like the only reason Zoraal Ja was even a threat was because of the stupid "honor" bullshit Wuk Lamat insisted on keeping. Had we been allowed to, he would've died a lot sooner. They are running into the issue of having us being God-killers; there's no threat that feels real.

Thre's A LOT of problems with DT but the initial "hook" doesn't even do it for me. "Hey, help this privileged cat that came out of the blue to become queen, she says she loves her people but in fact, she rarely steps out of her city and instead of getting to know them beforehand to find fierce warriros amongst them, she decides to go and look for one outside of her country" This makes NO sense, aren't there any worhtwile warriors over there? Koana goes and does the same, but in his case it kinda worked with his backstory of studyin abroad. And let's not forget "Hey, you SHOULD come and help because one of the other competitors wants to invade Eorzea with sticks and stones!!!!" That is just fucking stupid, not even after getting 23rd century technology could the "villain's" army stand a chance against a single dragon, and we were supposed to take HIM serioulsy? All of this is why the initial motivation sucks, my character has no real reason to go there, and adventure isn't it, main difference with ARR is that, yes, it could be boring but the entire world was open to you after the first hours and you coul get lost and explore on your own if you wanted to, which could be cool if they actually implemented something similar this time around instead of the same old formula, but I guess they are just way too comfortable to shake things up a bit. (And don't get me started on wuk lamat...)

idk i liked the first part story of dawntrail was chill and didnt hurt that i actualy like wuk lamat as a character (reminds me of a friend of mine, gets lost every other quest, 0 common sense in some situations) i found the second part partly boring (the wild west area) and the other parts just felt like an episode of black mirror, but yea i can see how the first part would be annoying or boring if you dont like wuk lamat

and once again people blame Wuk instead of blaming the narrative direction. its honestly disgusting for blaming the VA the game isnt about you we had our time its time to move on grow the fuck up. The expansion just came out relax its a vacation you just saved the star from a intergalactic calamity why would you need to do more then that this time around. You obviously didnt pay attention

What puzzled me the most is that this story has nothing to do with FF14 at all, ok we are on teh opposite side of the world but seems they mentione that the worst threat they faced is Valigarmanda 80 years ago, and what about the Dispair of the Endsinger? Shouldn't have this involved all the planet? Feel like we played another game with another main charcter which they had no money to found so they used the FF14 base to set it up but yes this is annoying and unpleasant and not a vacation at all, it is unpayed babysitting.

The Zoral Ja vs Gulool Ja Ja fight was the stupidest thing I've seen in 14 lol not only were we just watching the fight instead of helping (yes I know Galool said he wanted the 1v1) but the moment Zoral Ja revives himself, that should have been where we step in cause all bets are off and not only did he kill Gulool Ja Ja, we ALLOWED him to walkaway LMAOO at that point I said yh this MSQ is dead in the mud. Dawntrail MSQ is shite! Also Wuk Lamat needs to just disappear, worst character in 14!

Honestly, Wuk Lamat is really the victim of this game's writing. Very repetitive, lots of telling and not showing, and draged out pacing.

My extensive time in FFXI made the first half fun for me with many familiar races and faces. They were jingling the keys in my face pretty well. Zoraal Ja alone made Dawntrail enjoyable for me, bringing edgy to the overly happy, trope-y narrative the first half was throwing at us. It's the second half that drove me up the wall with Sphene, so I'm looking forward to hearing your opinion on that, lol.

DT reminds me of JoJo part4: deadbrain till the end.

I love Talk to Wuk Lamat to start a question Find/Talk to 3 people Talk to Wuk Lamat Talk to Wuk Lamat Finish the quest by talking to Wuk Lamat The expansion

Yaaay! Thank you for comprehensively breaking down the pathetic excuses people use to defend this ridiculous installation of FFXIV. “You just don’t understand world building” or “You just aren’t used to being the main character”. Right, right cause we’ve never NOT been the MC in XIV before. The whole “well this is a reset, what were you expecting?” I was expecting a well written fuckin story, but this bulls*it snoozefest was a far cry from it. Estinien got a true vacation. What we got was to babysit teenagers and put someone on the throne that none of us thought was fit to rule. Ugh.

It took me a long time to get through the hanuhanu and pelu pelu quests because, like you, I kept falling asleep. If DT can be summed up in one word, it would be "boring."

Just makes me even gladder I chose EW to quit lol

Biggest problem I had with Dawntrail was Wuk Lamat. Ok, ok, so her being central to the first half was fine. 6.55 made it glaringly obvious she was gonna be a big deal and that helping her to stop her brothers was the real reason we're going. But towards the end of the rite when we found the Golden City and Krile is supposedly there to get answers for things about her parents and things that have been gnawing at her for her whole life? Yep, we just fuck off from that gate like it's no big thang to focus even more Wuk Lamat who has not only won the rite, but also won over the populace without the majority of the populace actually witnessing her or her deeds. IT MADE NO SENSE. There should have been stubborn Zoraal Ja loyalists. There should have been a questionable reaction from the populace. Wuk Lamat shoulda been so far out of her depth when Solution 9 stuff showed up, WE should have taken center stage and the SCIONS should have STOPPED being CARDBOARD CUTOUTS. Sure, she's the king now or whatever, but she knows jack shit about what's going on. It's a little bit of a mystery to us, at first, but we know what's going on. Weird stuff like that is our forte, our calling, our legacy. Why do I gotta watch this bargain bin Chewbacca with less appealing speech pattern take front and center for 85% of the the spoken dialogue and screen time?! Why are the Scions still following her about like ducklings, like we're still performing the rite for her. Shard remnants from the Lightning Rejoining are out of her depth, and she should have taken a FIRM back seat. But no, no one, not even Krile or Erenville in THEIR OWN ARCS can escape this stupid cat bitch's insufferable, overbearing presence. Finally, the final battle is at hand. The WoL is being told by Sphene that they are the greatest threat to her plans. We put her on the back foot such that she rips a hole in her computer generated reality, and in back in jumps Llama Tea to do more DPS than your entire Azem stone summoned party of WoLs in 1/3rd of the time. God I fucking hate Wuk Lamat.

I been playing the game with japanese dub and that took some of the edge off. The only part that gained my attention was the "alien invasion" part but it didn't last long. This is just another lore mess and pointless melodrama.

I did enjoy Dawntrail overall, but by the Twelve that first half was a slog! If we could have maybe left Wuk Lamat back at home for part 2, made that more a traditional WoL/scions adventure maybe? I dont even dislike her, just as you said, we needed a bit more focus on the others. Good battle content though! And as usual, Soken knocks it out of the park with the OST.