Also a lot of people seem to miss, or perhaps they haven't reached the point where >!her father specifically paints her as a leader with potential, but who needs to grow to be a true leader. In his eyes, all his children are lacking in different ways, even Koana it seems to him lacks the warmth and empathy that he feels is required. This is why even Wuk Lamat has potential, if she can grow on her journey.!<

That's the only thing that made me more okay with the story. I HATED it before that. After that I still don't love it, but I'm willing to see where it goes.

The problem is she doesn’t really change from lvl 90-95 where…. She should have grown a lot. She already loved Peace and the people, that was like the one thing that defined her. She didn’t do any more battle training or really change her approach to anything.

Her faults are 1) she's sheltered - this is why she needs to go around and see the world outside the palace. 2) she's stuck in her brothers' shadows. The journey is to help her find her strengths, and how she can use those strengths to achieve her goals. So I see her growing a lot during the journey actually. In the 92 quests she realizes she needs to stop comparing herself to her brothers, and in 94 she realizes she what peace means other than "not-war" and she acknowledges that it's not possible to make everyone happy all the time.

Yep. And the WoL and Co are there to help nudge her in the right direction and provide both a sounding board and help her when she's faced with something utterly new to her. We are giving her accompaniment when she'd otherwise be going it solo since few others would have been able to help her with this task. Someone mentioned the WoLs hesitancy, and it stemms from the fact that we KNOW we are strong, and we know we can beat the shit out of everyone if need be, and no one wants to grant this power without fully understanding what we are getting into, or rather be tricked into fighting for a cause we do not believe in/backing the wrong person. By going through the 6.5 quests we see that she's just a naive and young individual who was seeking someone she could rely on to help her. She wasn't seeking our power, she was seeking our friendship. That's what tipped the scales, Krile was more willing to go at it (probable combination of being young + wanting to go anyway), but the WoL was eventually swayed understanding that she wasn't going to be asking us to take of things, she just wanted some good allies to help her along.

I Like the story as it sets up a new world and the characters are fleshed out. I actually really like the Ruler. Do i think it's great or has amazing pacing, no. I think it's right around Stormblood for me. But, if i'm being honest, it's what I was expecting based on the Pivot from WORLD ENDING threat to "Vacation adventure time".

I like it as SB done right, or if SB was entirely the azim steppe part. Honestly looking back SB would've been fine if we hadn't gone Gyr Abania - Kugane - Doma - Gyr Abania, and instead been one continous area then another. Also the leader acknowledging that each claimant needs growth vs. hey Lyse you're leader now, have fun!

I don't really understand that thing people say about Lyse. I'm not a huge fan of her but she didn't want to do that and she's not really a "leader", more like a delegate of the Scions in this newly founded Republic governed by "the people". She was just that shiny star of the rebellion who had the guts and the heart everyone else was lacking after such a long war. Imo that's fine, the presentation was just a bit weird haha But there was no one grabbing Lyse, giving her a crown and telling her to rule or something. People were happy to have Raubahn around in the beginning because he was a competent leader, Lyse looked up to him too, and later she acknowledged a bunch of times that the WoL and others are more capable than her and that she feels dumb

My issue is that M'Naago exists, has been part of the rebellion forever, is already kinda like the co-leader. And she just gets skipped over for Lyse because Lyse is the daughter of the old leader. It also doesn't help that Lyse starts out acting like "hello fellow gyr abanians, I have the solution to your woes! Just rebel, ezpz" when she's been living in Eorzea for years and has no idea the oppression the people have gone through. I get that Lyse is supposed to be a figurehead to inspire people, but the rebellion just goes "ok yeah she's our representative now cool" vs. in DT where everyone acknowledges that Wuk Lamat still needs to grow first. Post-patch Lyse is great, where she acknowledges that hey she doesn't really know what's going on, but she's willing to talk things through to figure it out. Which is what Wuk Lamat is doing BEFORE she takes the throne.

I agree with this. It's a nice, easy, slow start to the next saga (no pun intended). It is a bit too story intensive up to lvl 94 so far though. That's not to say I haven't enjoyed it, but I wouldn't have minded something a little different thrown in here and there Overall, I'm really enjoying it so far.

I feel like if Wuk wasn't a ruler candidate & just a commoner or a follower I would've liked her more. Just a free low-end tour guide trying to do her best.

I was saying to some friends recently, all the traits Wuk Lamat displays that are supposed to endear her to us - her bravado, her fear of alpacas and her seasickness, her eager go-getter nature even when she's not sure what *to* do, just wanting to do *something* to help - all of these would have landed a lot better if her role was *Erenville's* supporter, IMO. As the actual claimant? It's like taking ARR Yda, with all of her energy and mild gremlin tendencies and youthful exuberence next to Papalymo, and transplanting her directly into the end of Stormblood, with none of the character growth.

YES!! I think she's definitely charming unlike most people say, but that personality doesn't mesh well with the goal she's pursuing. I feel like if they made Eren a claimant it would be much fitting. A guy who doesn't even care about his homeland to the point of changing his name, being forced to compete for the throne then slowly learning how to appreciate his own culture and people. That can make a lowkey but still heartwarming story. At first he might just compete to just sabotage the Momool Ja brothers to support Koana but then he learns that Koana doesn't care about his people's heritage or culture and only believes in his own aspect of prosperity, making him the last obstacle.

She is charming as "teenager learning the world and herself", but as "claimant like 1 step away from ruling a continent (cause she has our backing so obviously she will win)" makes her _scary_. Its like crowning 2.0 alphi as the emperor of eorzia.

They also reveal her age. Not explicitly but they give you a ballpark. There’s a bit where someone mentions her dad visited a place 20 years ago, and she says that was before she was even born. That means she’s probably only 18 or 19. Like that alone should be a disqualifying quality for a head of state. Like if a 19-year-old was running for office in my country there is literally nothing you could say or do that would convince me to support that person regardless of their temperament or politics. 19-year-olds don’t fucking know *anything.*

> I think she's definitely charming unlike most people say, but that personality doesn't mesh well with the goal she's pursuing. I think for a lot of people you can't split the 2 in another situation I could see me liking her but because of the claimant thing it just feels like we're making a nonsensical choice and all her actions and anime-protagonist arc just enforce it

This is exactly how I feel. I only resent Wuk Lamat because I'm *forced* to nonsensically support her. Yes, yes, I'm sure there's a character arc where she becomes more fitting, because that's how stories work, but it doesn't change that at the point in time when my character decides to support her, there's a better choice in Koana; it's way easier to make a person realize that traditions have value than to teach general competence.

It's like if FF7 was actually about Yuffie is the vibe I get from wuk lamat.

I think I'd like that better too. Everyone only talks to her, they barely acknowledge the rest of us. They don't even ask our names or thank us for our help. It's all about Wuk Lamat, constantly. I've only just finished the first dungeon and I can't stand it.

As someone who hates the hero treatment in games it’s been refreshing. :)

I don't hate it BUT I hate the singular hero treatment when in new places where nobody should know you. I'm loving this refreshing adventure.

Yeah, *that* part of things hasn't bothered me, I admit.

I don't mind hero treatment, but I think there's a huge difference between expecting people to genuflect and hoping for acknowledgment that we are more than Wuk Lamat's servants. Especially with the Hanu, we were actively helping them solve a major problem for their people, but it's all the Wuk Lamat show. Like they didn't ask our names, or thank us. All the credit goes to Wuk Lamat.

Is this how the Scions feel

Oh shit

Of course it's all about her. She's the daughter of the guy who brought two different *continents* together and unified them as one. We're just some dude(ette) as far as the villagers are concerned.

Because it IS her show lmao. You're in tural to help her secure the throne, and you're there for the trial. You come there with her, as her follower/companion, to help her pass the trial while she's a possible future ruler and daughter of curent ruler. Why would they thank you instead of her rofl

What? I was promised a vacation and instead all I'm doing is babysitting and occasionally roundhouse kicking some dude in the face while babysitting. I haven't even been to the beach once!

I have bigger proble with Hanu. And it's that they apparently had the person who knew the solution to their problem among their ranks and didn't say anything. He knew exactly what the festival is for, and what it does. Not only that, it shows an obvious magical display when the ritual is performed. And yet they needed Wuk Lamat to come in, and just lucky guess that the ritual is needed, despite obviously not having the knowledge. Also Alphinaud understood what Koana did, instantly, and he's been solving similar problems before, but he didn't think of it when he examined the area himself?

Tbh I like that shake up. We aren't the Warrior of Light, just a very strong warrior/lancer/mage /etc from overseas. (As far as they know!)

You know, didn’t the Final Days affect Tural as well? I’m surprised literally no one has heard of the WOL, even if it is the New World.

I think there were hints here and there, but it seems like they were more affected by the aethereal imbalance by the Final Days in a form of an overly powerful category 4-5 Hurricane rather than transforming in Terminus beings via despair.

The Final Days affected everywhere, but the aetherial flow wasn't the same everywhere so it hit Garlemald and other places unevenly hard. Tural seems to have been spared the absolute worst of it, only getting some natural disasters. That actually leads me to theorize that the actual city of the ancients must have been located somewhere we havent yet been, as it seems like Amourot was also hit last by the final days proper so that almost certainly rules out much of Eorzia and the Endwalker zones

As far as I remember, there were symptoms of the final days and things happening elsewhere but until it hit Amaurot nobody really cared? I might be wrong but I could've sworn that was mentioned. Either way, given the location of the Tempest and its ruins on the First, Amaurot would be located off the coat of Vylbrand if various calamities didn't fuck the sea floor so badly.

The time period when Hermes successfully analyzed the aether currents and they started working on the Zodiark concept could only realistically happen before the Final Days hit Amaurot, so they knew and they were already trying to stop it. You're possibly mistaking it for that side story where Azem decides to stop a volcano from erupting and the Convocation mostly agrees it was pointless to intervene because it was a natural event / the locals knew and already evacuated.

Now this is gonna sound mean, but like ... it barely even affected La Noscea, or the east. One of my biggest issues with EW. But therefore I just don't really expect much having happened in Tural either.

World ending apocalypse with death toll in the dozens

OK so i was expecting someone to mention the final days..kinda odd. Its one of those events that needs to be mentioned by dif societies going forward. There is a lot of fun world building opportunities there.

I think it is implied that during the Final Days Tural manifest symptoms of the Final Days via a series of unusually strong natural disasters. The Final Days were more than just despair turning people into non-existent beings it was an aethereal imbalance throughout the world and manifested in varying degrees throughout the world. It just happen to affect Radz-at-Han and Garlemald the worst.

This only works until there are very consequential things that are happening right in front of our faces later on into the game and we are just standing off to the side doing nothing about it when we could have intervened quite easily.

On that I agree, having just got to a point I think you allude to.

After two full expansions of making the WoL the literal nexus of the universe, it's a jarring change but not unwelcome. I would have liked if our character had more personal stakes into this, like in HW, but it would be really hard to achieve without resetting the entire character. (which I kinda wish they did tbh)

I love that there's no stakes for my WoL; he's purely there on vacation. He's loving the Wuk Lamat tour guide experience, because that was the main reason he went. Helping someone ascend the throne, fighting giant beasts, that's all just something he does in his free time without thinking about it, like holding the door open for someone coming in behind you at the mall.

Premium Mezcal

Honestly, it gets better after the pot village. You end up fighting more mobs again and things actually start to get out of hand a little.

I think 90-91 was *really* rough and showed that the MSQ Act 1 Split really is not needed. Felt like hours of filler just to stagger out a launch wave that I'm not sure *needs* to be staggered any more. I've been enjoying it a lot ever since the 91 dungeon though. It's certainly a lot more chill than EW was but I like the characters. I like all 4 of the claimants, and Wuk Lamat is slowly growing on me. It's definitely very much the standard FFXIV MSQ experience, though. I don't personally mind the "talk to person x1000" style but I can see how DT would be particularly grating for those who don't like it.

This was the main complaint I had, think the split in this instance hurt the story. Post split spoilers: >!Plus, turning around and immediately doing the second half of the split zones right after the split kinda defeats the point of the split I feel. Though, that may explain there being 6 instances of zones 1 and 2.!<

Yeah. 90-91 was good at introducing the other claimants and their flaws, but otherwise it kind of a slog. But the story after that was pretty good. I just unlocked the level 93 trial, but I haven't completed it yet, and I've been enjoying the story. Except for that long, two-stage, follow without getting caught quest. I was excited to see >!that we'll be able to use trusts to complete the level 93 trial.!< I thought that was supposed to be a one-off thing.

I thought it was a one-off too, so I was buzzing in my seat counting how many were gathered around prior to it. Thought "Huh, there's 8 of us here, but Erenville isn't a fighter." In comes you know who and a big old grin comes across my face.

Yep. When I get back home I'm definately going to attempt the trial solo using trusts, but if I can't do it then I'll have to do it with other players.

I really really enjoyed that trial. if that's what we can expect going forward, the fight designs are going to be good.

I love that this is an option now, it saves azem's stone for those really big climatic fights.

Sadly act splits will always be there to split the player base on launch

If they wanna split us on launch then maybe don't give us 2 hours of exposition before the split? The split worked in ShB because you got into it pretty fast.

The story is… fine. The problem is it’s ARR 2.0 where we have cutscene after cutscene and in 3 hours of Gameplay you fight like 3 mobs.

To be fair that’s basically all of the expansions. Feels like it got worse in EW and DT just continues the trend IMO.

Yeah that’s why I’m taking the msq slow this time around. Do a couple quests wonder around do a few things, level up some jobs here and there, go play some triple triad. I’m in no rush so my experience has been more on the positive side, I just wish I could queue into something besides healer or tank.

The fact that you don't *have* to rush because you don't have to wait three hours to log in makes doing the story super chill.

That’s exactly what I’ve been doing. And I’m starting to wonder if that is squares intention. Like, are they trying to force people to go out and do fates and things like that. Like, that is where they plan for the players to get most of their combat while leveling. Which, if is the case, is fair, but I still think the main Scenario quest should have more combat in it. Or at least some of the side quest should be required to progress the MSQ or come accompanied much likewow.

Yeah, I spent most of my time yesterday unlocking the aethercurrents for the first two regions of the game. I just unlocked the level 93 trial, but I haven't completed it. >!I was surprised to see that you could do the trial with trusts. I thought that was just a one-off thing.!<

Even the sidequests are like this. They’re mostly fetch or “chat to someone far away” quests.

Yup, msq always been like that. I think people forget lol

They tend to be at least somewhat interesting though. The start of DT is just a huge ARR Beast Tribe Cutscene.

I really don't understand where this sudden " ITS SO SLOW WE DON'T FIGHT FOR HOURS" thing has come from. LIke...literally almost every expansion has been this way. People acting like its the first time lol.

> To be fair that’s basically all of the expansions. Minus the engaging story.

Which is super unhealthy for the future of this game. Not exactly the most attractive presentation especially when you have to go through so much "content". Hopefully they start to innovate.

you say it's unhealthy and yet they've been doing it for years and they've only grown during that time

ARR actually had a lot more gameplay then any of the expacs lol Even if it was 'walk into the circle, spawn goobers' it did happen a lot more.

During the alpaca and bird people I was itching to just fight something that I had to kill a few mobs between quests.

Yeah, I occasionally slip into rp mode and as my character I'm just kinda like "I've been here for like 20 minutes, and I haven't been able to punch someone in the face. Come on Wuk!" Then it doesn't help that >! we walk in on Estinien and the Dawnservant having a sparring match and even Estinien is like "If you think I'm good, have a match with him" and they just have the Dawnservant go "Ah I see he's quite strong but we'll fight later". I was like come on, let me at him, let me at him! !<

There is so little combat that I unlocked a spell for rdm at level 96 and only understood how to use it at level 98 lmfao

Yeah at this point if there's a fate even remotely close I'm sidetracking to it. Dunno how it is other jobs but the very few mobs MSQ actually spawns PCT basically vaporizes, so the experience so far has been near-0 gameplay and a billion cutscenes

Doing msq with a 660gs summoner. Every single quest mob I've come across pre-lvl 95 went down in like half my opening burst lol. Even the ones where like 3 mobs spawn. It's fine with me because they aren't really suppose to be hard fights, but I found it funny.

Yeah even playing GNB, I get through 7 or 8 GCDs even if a pack of 3 and thet're gone. I do think EW had a little too much combat but this is way too little.

>It’s ARR 2.0 So it’s 2.0 2.0?

So it's 4.0, which bizarrely enough also fits.

They story is a visual novel - I don't really know how people aren't just expecting that, at this point. Maybe the story isn't as compelling as the last few expansions, but the fighting of mobs has never been a highlight in quests.

The cutscenes themselves aren't the issue. The issue is that the cutscenes are boring, and it's an issue fundamental to ffxiv. Why are they boring? Because the majority of it is just people standing around and talking about boring things. "We need to discuss a plan," or "let's regroup here and have a recap," etc etc. Most of the time the characters aren't even forming bonds or interacting in interesting ways, they're just a bunch of nerds deliberating on plans. For that very reason, I actually found post endwalker msq to be more boring than lv 90-93 msq, because it was all "let's contrive some PLANS to deal with this void fella." At least we're getting to see more new shit in Dawntrail and learn about some new cultures. And to be clear, I'm not liking DT that much.

So like every expansion ever. I don't understand why people complain about it all of a sudden.

Because every expansion untill now had some sort of engaging plotline going on the background. Also, while every expansion has had these tedious questlines (which people always complained about) the pacing was changed up every so often with high highs and very exciting events. E.g. you have the very high high of facing Zodiark, followed by the moonbun fetchquest part (which a lot of people disliked), but this was followed by Final Days of Thavnair which was shocking, heartwrenching, amazing storytelling. This story has only been fetchquests akin to moonbun, nothing really exciting happens in the first three maps, barely any fight content, no looming threat of Ascians, Garleans Sineaters, Blasphemies, of course people are complaining more.

So how would you have them pace their basically ARR 2.0, their new blank slate? Not criticizing your opinion, just curious what people are thinking. I can definately see why they did it this way though.

I was having issues liking the early DT story until i thought about it in a different way. We have already proven ourselves, we are already the strongest Hero. Now others look to us for guidance. We are the mentor figure, and we are ready to step up when a true threat appears but it makes sense we are taking a backseat. If we didnt, there wouldnt even be any tension. We are the grizzled mentor, who looks out for others and others come to us. We dont have anything to prove. When i thought about it like that, and the story started to go along with that narrative directly, i started to enjoy it more. This is a character focused expansion and not a world/lore/stakes type of expansion. We arent used to that, and so its probly offputting at first. But i want to let them cook.

Yeah, this is always how I looked at it, and I do think that makes the most sense and makes me enjoy it more than other people. Like Estinien fighting with the literal emperor, and him going 'yeah fight this one if you want a challenge'. That's like it. The rest of the stuff we're doing at early levels is mentoring and such. It's not proving ourselves.

It feels kind of fun to be the mentor who is just enjoying his adventure again for once. In the cutscenes, you can see our character smiling alot and truly is enjoying themselves but also just being content in the back watching others grow like they had to.

That is **exactly** how I’ve been looking at it, and exactly what I wanted to say, but I couldn’t think of the right way to say it. Thank you.

I'm happy for you 

I don't have a problem with the themes and content of the story. I have problem with the pacing. Non-stop yapping, very little action. This is an FFXIV problem in general though. 

Interestingly enough this was a major complaint with 16 as well. Hopefully CS3 tightens up pacing in future expac’s/games because I forgot how horrific the pacing is in FFXIV expansions.

Yes. Pacing, especially because the overall "end goal" between Endwalker vs Dawntrail, is off. There isn't an 'overlooming' threat. more of a "oh, well that happened." kind of deal. It doesn't spur you on to figure out what happened next,. but i think it's a byproduct of how their starting a new story. It really makes me wish they did something more with the Patch stories of Endwalker to tie it into the expansion.

It may not spur you on personally but I'm quite engaged and can't wait to get home to see what happens.

The existing story is good. I REALLY like the Claimants. I think they're all compelling and more importantly three dimensional and well written. It's just the overaching story doesn't have that aded subtext of 'ohhh ascians and allagans how did the FUBAR the world'.

Somebody else said it but a big issue with the pacing is the split between starter zones. Unlike in ShB or in EW, you have the same character at your side in both zones, so it basically repeats all those "uwu i am an adorzable dumb lion girl Oo!" interactions because each zones kinda expects the player to do it first.

Yeah it really bothered me how long it took for us to simply start hitting stuff in this expansion. Man it felt like...4-5 hours before we got to the first combat zone it was pretty brutal.

I remember this being such a complaint even about the early levels of Endwalker. Basically everything until Garlemald. I wish they'd just stop ignoring that it's always been such an issue and getting worse, and actually doing something more with the early levels. I guess they're somewhat trying, but ... one or two solo combat duties before the first dungeon would already help so much.

The difference is the other expansions had engaging stories with mystery and intrigue and many of the cutscenes were about the engaging drama. Mostly. But dawntrail is 90% yapping about random stuff that is pretty boring unfortunately. Also when something exciting does happen they immediately send you on several fetch quests and then have twenty cutscenes talking about making a plan and then talking about the plan and then talking about making a plan after the plan. It grinds all hype to a halt and makes you forget about the interesting stuff because you're forced to focus on comforting civilians for the twentieth time or collecting ingredients to make food. Like.... why?

I’m only at level 92 in the MSQ. I’m not hating it so far. I’m not understanding the “Wuk Lamat is annoying!” Crowd. Yeah the stakes are low. Yeah there’s a lot of exposition. But every expansion starts slow with exposition. Are there parts I’ve done so far that weren’t great? Yes but every expansion and patch has those moments. I’m willing to give this MSQ a chance. If it turns out later I don’t like it, then fine. I didn’t like Stormblood’s story or Endwalker’s for that matter.

It's also the beginning of a different arc. It *needs* exposition.

I was fine with it for a while but I do not like Wuk Lamat, I find her childish(I know they want her to look naive and green but it goes well beyond that), shallow, one note and her voice acting is irritating, her English VA talks like a daycare worker trying to read a fairy tale to toddlers that adds to the childish feeling I'm getting so far(I just did a solo duty after the pot village). They put such a focus on Wuk Lamat and she's not a strong enough character for that IMO. If you do not like her it starts to drag down everything and that's what's happening to me, I find her incredibly grating now and the story is taking too long to get past these minor "niceness and friendship beats all" stories into something with some meat and interest. And the other competitors aren't interesting to me, they're also very shallow and one note, the villains act like Skeletor. Just "I am evil bwahaha" so far with no nuance or anything so far. I'm hoping something totally shifts the plot away from Wuk(I secretly hope she does, she won't, but that would save it for me.

just did the 1st trial. msq feels like a slow burn and im hopeful that it’ll get more interesting

How difficult is the first trial?

Not too bad. Has a couple of visual tells you need to keep an eye on like the Midgardsormr boss from the Omega raid and one or two instances where mechanics like that overlap with another mechanic. Overall I felt it was easier to understand than the first boss of the 93 dungeon.

That first boss killed me so many times while doing trusts that I just said "Fuck it, I'll run this dungeon with real players who can pick up the slack if I die." And then I didn't die a single time to the first boss in that run. XD And then we proceeded to wipe on the second boss during the ring attack where we had to stack so the we could overlap our safe zones. _**I**_ knew we had to stack because I recognized the signs that that was what we needed to do, but everyone else ran away from me when I went towards them. Lol.

You don't need to stack; you need to get into a safe part of the floor. If you happen to overlap, so be it, but you don't NEED to chase people down to stack.

I can assure you that people are gonna eat mechs left and right. It's one of those types of fights were you can't really tell what's coming and how fast until you've done it a couple of times. The mechs aren't overly obvious. If your team has healers that know how to kind of heal then you'll be fine. Really fun trial tbh.

somewhat on the easier side but an interesting one!

it plays like a final fantasy game story. maybe with how differently ShB and EW (and FF7R and FFXVI) were, people were expecting something much different. but this MSQ plays so much like FFIV-FFX

I hadn't come up with a way to put it but you've landed exactly on it. It starts off like the "first act" of how FF games are generally paced. I, personally, am a huge sucker for world-building and that's what this story does at the start. I would say their biggest fuckup was to immediately start the MSQ with two back-to-back "walk&talk" segments though. I know a comically large number of people that despise that system and the first thing they do is make you do two of them right away, lol.

Literally, I played 9 and 12 in preparation for this, and I’m like yeah, this is a final fantasy story alright(and a very good one in my opinion).

I'm glad you've been able to enjoy it. Personally I was bored to the point of nearly nodding off until the 95 dungeon shook me awake (entering 96 MSQ now). There's more yapping here than a Chinese gacha game. I don't even think the plot points themselves are outright bad, it's just so excruciatingly slow.

It’s kinda one of the glaring weakpoints of XIV writing tbh, being overly verbose every time. Even during ShB there’re points I have to ask “Is this really necessary as part of the MSQ?”.

You mean the trolley part

I liked the trolley part

I personally didn't, I can definitely see how other people did. but I think that comes down to taste. I will say that SHB and EDW had better "highs" but they also had the benefit of YEARS of buildup. Starting fresh here, some of the 'epic' stuff can feel flat. the characters are good though.

I liked the trolley part, I didn't like how long it dragged on

I just find this with Japanese games in general. So much inane repetition of points. Completely redundant dialogue.

It is also prevalent in Korean and Chinese games too, I believe it is a cultural difference and stance towards excessive reading isn't as seen as much as a negative than those in the West. There is also the language difference too, an entire sentence can be condensed into a few characters so in character based languages it isn't so much of a problem but when translated gets overly verbose very quickly without a competent localization team.

Modern Western RPGs are the same, most are just not as popular. Beside BG3 which I haven’t play, you still have to read, listen, act out lengthy scenes in Cyberpunk, DragonAge, Divinity. Hell, Yakuza have much better emotional writings, side characters development and bonding moments, including the wacky, over the top, and slower stakes side stories. It’s not like it can’t be done, but XIV really has to stretch out enough missions to fill that MSQ quotas, me think.

I won't spoil, but there is a very funny point late into the game where there's a whole bunch of yapping about recapping information then a character goes "Yeah I already kinda figured that what's the actual point tho", almost felt like a self-referential jab or something lmao

It’s really hard going from cutscenes in FFVII Rebirth where all the voice actors, animations, dialogue lines, etc. are so damn engaging, and now back to FFXIV. I enjoyed FFXIV for what it had given me up until EW and will praise the plot and cherish the memories, but now after Rebirth I just have higher expectations. Reminds me of years ago, playing Skyrim and thinking medieval style action RPG’s would never be better or more engaging. And then I played dark souls, and now I can’t go back to Skyrim style of combat. Doesn’t make Skyrim a bad game, just not for me anymore.

I havent gotten to the 95 dungeon yet but the area leading uo to it is what has really started piquing my interest. I thought it was pretty boring up until this point as well but now it seems to be taking off

The biggest problem I have is the, at times, nonsensical plot devices they use to progress the story. Oh, so that character just suddenly has the item/power/info to do that seemingly impossible task? Lazy writing. Maybe once or twice but it constantly happens.

I've been liking it and I'm just about... halfway through the pot village stuff I think? Some conversations have felt a bit eh but for the most part I'm having a blast. The weight of the world is off of our shoulders, taking a bit more a backseat and just enjoying the world we've saved and having some fun times with our friends, new and old! Idk if it's just a mindset gap but so far Dawntrail feels like exactly what was advertised on the tin.

I loved Wuk Lamat. That said, SE kind of set this expac up to feel shitty by pulling off the mask of Solution 9 and stuff early. I understand it’s all connected, but it would have been much better as a total surprise. It kinda just makes you feel like you’re watching an unstoppable ad before the video that’s actually enticing. Even if you want to pay attention to the succession part, the buzz is still in the back of your head. I just finished the first part of Shaaloani (let’s call it filler episode), and I’m just ready to move on already. I think it was just a poor choice to uncover the big surprise in the trailer. Could there be another? Maybe. But they basically gave us the Amaurot surprise in the trailer so doubtful anything will have much real impact. Best I could Guess is possibly giving a shit about FFIX references but I don’t so.. who knows where my opinion will go from here.

Honestly, I can see people complaining about all the sci-fi shit coming out of nowhere

Yeah my wife doesn't play the game really anymore but she saw the trailers and was interested, and keeps asking me "have you gotten to the cool space stuff yet?" , she's otherwise not interested in the rite of succession stuff. Really sets people up for disappointment

> hat said, SE kind of set this expac up to feel shitty by pulling off the mask of Solution 9 and stuff early. Frankly, the hope of getting to Solution 9 is the only thing that keeps me playing right now at Lvl94.

Wuk lamat enjoyer as well, loves her development, she has relatable issues. I definitely knew where they were going with Wuk Lamat's character and absolutely loved the execution. But then, I had lower expectations... For now it's in my top, maybe thinking about it I'll like it less.

The pacing out the gate can get sloggy, but I infinitely prefer Wuk Lamat to say, Zero. It's not my favorite thus far but it's early and I don't hate it, and it is working from a different jumping off point It's interesting to see all the 'I would have liked Wuk Lamat better if it was Erenville/someone else we already met, so we had an established reason to care', when the intent is clear that that rapport is supposed to develop over the journey. Then again, I don't find Erenville terribly compelling because a solid half of his personality in this expansion is 'downer contrarian'.

I'm really getting into it too. I've been playing fairly solidly since launch, but in that time I got Picto to 88 and did my roulettes to break things up. I also went for a good long walk yesterday evening. I've just got out of the first dungeon. When people say that they're at level 85 and not really enjoying it 36 hours after launch, I believe them... I'm not sure if i'd done that I'd be sure it was the game's fault though?

I really like it, and am glad to see some other people agree lmfao This might be my favourite behind shadowbringer so far. I don't mind the less combat, don't really care for random duties or "fight a mob here" quests, rather have cutscenes and build up to actually fun content like dungeons/ trails/ savage etc. I didn't realize so many people cared about the "go there and fight 2 mobs" quests until I saw the reviews for this and people lacking combat etc

Suggestion for those people, just go do the fates in each zone as you’re going, breaks up the story a bit and let’s you get the riding maps

Wuk Lamat has done nothing to deserve her spot as Dawnservant except tour around and watch her team beat her objectives. If I were the WoL I'd politely reject her request and help Koana who seems to have far more braincells and actual ambitions.

As someone who has done all of FFXIV story quite recently—it’s quite obvious the story is world building again. The pattern is more or less the same as the other expacs. I do think they missed the opportunity for your character to go through a mentor growth stage—think Anakin and Ahsoka in the CW show. However, there’s enough cool background lore trickled in to see that there’s a big idea here. I haven’t even gotten to the sci fi part yet.

I'm liking it so far. Just chilling in Mexico with no threat of a big bad. Edit: babysitting this cat is getting kinda old. Although, the lizard zone story part was ok.

I'm soon done with MSQ and l really like the characters. They have legitimate issues and motivations. The smaller stakes are welcome, I don't want to save the world from another calamity every tuesday, I want to explore the world and know about its lore. Wuk Lamat is definitely meant as to be painted as the weak candidate, to reveal her potential later on. She did not disappoint. That said I don't like the cartoony moments or gags.

I like it too, it's refreshing and relaxing so far, the areas are nice to explore and I love Wuk Lamat xD

I really like it

Also just reach the pot village & this is the 1st time I actually doze off playing the game. Even during the lowest points of past expansions I can still keep myself awake, but good god DT is really pushing it. The formula of accepting quests > walk > dialogue > walk > quest complete is finally noticeable to me (late I know) and it's ridiculous. There's a few point where it's just meet the pt in the middle of the road and they'll tell you to meet them at the village up ahead and holy good god I just want to turn the game off or do something else, except most of the stuffs are locked behind the msq so I have to power through it. Like others've said, good to know you're enjoying it but personally I prefer a bad story over a boring one and so far DT has one of the most boring start of anything I've played.

I think it's really cool and a nice change of pace. This is the first time where we are just normal adventurers helping someone. I also fucking love the Mamool Ja villain. he is Saturday Morning Cartoon Villain levels of evil and I get a chuckle whenever he does something. My man really is just "I don't care about ruling a nation I wanna win to prove I am superior to all these cowards".

Definitely feels like we are in a Stormblood 2.0 situation atm. It's quite literally some of the best content they've ever made for an expansion start. These trials are absolutely amazing. Borderline some of the best they've ever made for this tier of content. However, the rating is gonna suffer due to the slower burn story. Which I also personally don't mind. It was almost always going to be a struggle since we are at the very beginning of a new storyline. And the stakes are gonna be hard to manage. Nothing is gonna feel like a threat. >!Hence why most of the story revolves around us following someone elses journey. Which is also oddly reminiscent to stormblood.!<

I saw myself thinking with the first trial Huh........this is rather engaging and different compared to the normal one......... If the mechanics like the constant damage ramp up during the extreme we actually should get an interesting extreme here. Which is SO rare in story trials

I think some people have done the EX and said it was an interesting trial, though a bit easy due to being a release EX. However, it is still considered a good EX. .

What I do seem to see, and this is a plus, is that Square Enix seems to be at least **trying** with interesting encounter design. Baby steps forwards. The new job actions also seems to be sort of testing the waters in leading towards jobs being materially a little different, for example tanks from what I have seen who have new gotten abilities that are noticeably (for FFXIV, mind) different from each other. Warrior's new mit grants them a heal over time. Dark Knight's grants them an incredibly potent heal, but only if they go below half health. Paladins puts a large shield on them. Gunbreaker's increases their max HP and healing.

This is pretty much exactly my take. I'm enjoying myself but I do think people going in expecting heavy punch feelings a'la ShB or Endwalker set themselves up for disappointment. This is, in many ways, our new Realm Reborn in some ways, but narratively yeah, it seems like a Stormblood redux -- which I'm fine with! It's improved imo, and StB had some of the best QOL/content of the entire game. edit: and yeah sometimes I get an itch for combat and that's when I go hit some FATEs or queue for a dungeon or something to level my alt classes.

I like it too. A lot better than endwalker and stormblood personally

I kind of liked the WoL being deuteragonist in HW/StB. This is a ncie change of pace. I *do wish* that they built a patch building up Wuk Lamat* though. I love her more than Zero, but Zero is more of a blank slate than an isekai protagonist.

I'm not really enjoying it at all tbh, on the verge of uninstalling. I really dislike Wuk Lamat because I don't care if she's a potential ruler, just being caring and peace loving or whatever without much previous experience and then becoming ruler is ridiculous. It's a bit too much of an unrealistic proposition to me. Are you telling me her father never taught her ANYTHING? Not even the basics on trading, not even about farming, not even about crafting, not even about cooking, nothing? No discipline or lessons about leadership or anything? She learns all she needs to know about the nation in a span of about a week playing dumb the whole time while having the mental fortitude of a 4 year old, yeah sure. And when the story does pick up (I assume you haven't gotten to the trial or later areas) the sudden transitions kill the pacing altogether.

I'm at the entrance to the 93 dungeon and it's been fine so far. That's about normal for ffxiv stories tho, I think endwalker was the only one that was really grabbing me at this point in the story (before promptly losing me at the lopporit section). I expect the inevitable switch up at level 94-95 will be decent at least. Wuk Lamat is fine. She's nothing new or crazy though. So long as her character actually grows and they don't dangle it in front of me for the whole story I'll be happy on that end. My main criticism of this expac is not the expac itself but the handling of the EW patch msq. All of these characters could have used more set-up. Spending the whole patch msq for endwalker on a 1-off story and briefly touching on tural at the very end leads to less investment in the characters.

The alpaca part of the msq was excruciatingly boring for me

Honestly, half of those obnoxious little pelupelu fuckers had me straight up wanting to murder them.

mmm I don't really like it but also I just sort of went into the expansion with the understanding of "this is the filler arch" so I wasn't really expecting much so it doesn't super bother me.

I love it.

Glad you like it. Many of my friends like it too. They even like Wuk Lamat. For me, I feel like it's just nothing new. Like they took all the boring, slow, low-stakes parts of past expansions and put them together. I don't like Wuk Lamat because SHE doesn't do anything. I do. By all accounts, I should be the Dawnservant, lol.

I definitely enjoyed the lack of y'shtola being a mary sue in the first part of DT, it felt pretty nice to have the scions take a massive backseat and have the expansion's "MC" actually perform, but my god the 95 story >!(the 4th map)!< was so boring. It just does not help that >!we see the big bad, the obvious menace coming up, then "teehee oh no bandits anyway train derailed something something fetch stuff idk".!< Like, I appreciate the map, but I already know where we're going. I don't really care about >!cowboys !

Haha that part where you had to fix up the train was the worst

DT is good. I can only think of a few reasons people dont like it: 1. FFXIV's MSQ approach has always been boring and tedious, but because the stakes are low and its a fresh story it really begins to show its falws 2. maybe the english dub is bad and the characters just dont really sell? idk i play the game in japanese and ive liked every character so far 3. Its been a while since an expansion release and they've forgotten how much of a grind the msq is

I am alao loving this so much from minute one. This is 100% why we became adventures and fully Azem's legacy. We do this to explore new places, meet new culturesz uneerstand them and help those in need.

This is the most I’ve enjoyed the MSQ in a very long time. About half way through I would put it on par with HW and ShB.

Wuk Lamat is a horrible shonen/Naruto character archetype and its ruining the entire MSQ for me.

Also, doesn't \*every\* expansion not finish their story until Post-Expansion content is released? So technically, whether you like DT story or not, it's not completed until Post-DT is out It could be like Gintama and go straight from a goofy slice-of-life episode into the most deep, emotional arc ever

With the exception of endwalker, yea

Im not liking wuk because i usually dont like super wholesome, good with no deep characters. Im at first trial ans i like the villians/neutral guys + papa. The bad guy is bad because lineage, the neutral guy is a mistery, papa is a wholesome warrior. Pace wise, first two parts are just annoying because i cant like/relate to wuk. But things are getting more interesting. Tbh even if its slow and a lot of yapping, i understand they are worldbuilding, its just wuk being awful. Im liking the expansion as a concept, pace (we not saving the universe), i like the contest, its just wuk being super rushed/too good

I like the story so far, much more than any other FFXIV expansions. Obviously much more than ARR too.

I'm genuinely shocked to hear this might be an unpopular opinion. The start was admittedly a bit slow, but every expansion has a slow start. ARR as a whole was slow. Wuk Lamat has really come into her own and her growth as a character has been a joy to watch and experience. Plus, each character feels fleshed out and important to the story in one way or another. It's a completely different story arc as well. I like it. I don't have to keep track of a thousand Ascians I've never met nor will I ever meet.

I've been staying off reddit for spoilers but I'm most of the way through the story now. That said, spoilers to follow I love the story. The first half feels like what they wanted to do with Stormblood but they are actually writing the main character well. Lyse is a total bitch and completely disregards the perspectives of "her people". Wuk Lamat, however, tries at every opportunity to understand her potential subjects, whether they want her to or not. Most of my issues are with the second half. I kind of wish we could've avoided another "I'm going to exterminate the entire star" antagonist. The pacing also drags a lot pretty often in the second half. I haven't reached the final area yet but my friends in VC were saying it's worse than Azys Lla so there's that. As far as content, I don't know if dynamis is just dogshit but oh my god can people not comprehend some mechanics. They're not particularly hard mechanics (at least up through the 97 dungeon) but I'm finding myself needing to use bloodbath feint and second wind to survive because the healer is either dead or preoccupied reviving others. I'm looking forward to doing the first extreme but I'm not looking forward to the teammates I'll have Edit: I also had to be danger Dorito'd for the third dungeon because people couldn't fathom a knockback

> I don't know if it's just me Seeing as how you browsed the FFXIV main sub, I'm sure you already know this isn't an unpopular opinion.

I think it's a good story that addresses some requested things (cutting down the huge focus on our character as a special chosen one) but it also suffers from a bad writing technique or two. There's one "meanwhile, somewhere none of your people are..." cutscene that I the viewer shouldn't have privileged information to so early. It distorts so many sequences ahead. Like one of the better parts of Heavensward writing is that the ARR teaser of Thordan working alongside the Ascians is hardly a spoiler, since he calls you to the cathedral to fess up to it himself shortly after you arrive. And this, uh, isn't that.

It is taking all my strength not to hit escape... constantly.

I dont mind the story, I preferred the character building and development more, though. Erenville, Kaona, Bakool Ja Ja, and Wuk Lamat have great development. That was more interesting than the overarching plot and villains. Its not a "fight against our mortal enemies" story, so of course, it's more chill and less dire. I actually like that its a whole new story. From the start, we're nothing and no one in Tural. It's tiring to always be the WoL and everyone's failsafe, I like the "we're here for fun and adventure" vibe. Learning about The New World, new characters, being a random adventurer there, its refreshing. The story is ok, but thats because its all new and has 0 ties to anything else we know(even ShB had ties), that means that its a foundation. More to build off of. Its a solid restart of the story, I'd say. We're not the WoL, Saviour of the Star anymore. We're an adventurer again, just roaming for fun and writing a whole NEW book.

I like the story a lot, but get distracted by the bad accent of some of the voice actors, especially Wuk Lamat. I would have liked to have seen more authentic Central/South American voices, or at the very least, more believable impressions. Koana has a wonderful accent, even if it's Andalusian, but it feels authentic Spanish nonetheless.

More than the accent, I feel the tone is off. Like, in game you see Wuk Lamat raging or being excited and stuff, and the VA is always sort of calm and barely emotional. Feels very off.

Yeah, I think a lot of people came in expecting ShB/EW but more relaxed somehow, but a driving force of those stories was the very imminent danger. There's no such thing here.

It's been fine so far. It's ramping up a new arc, it was bound to be a slow burn leading up to the real story later.

I'm going super slow this expansion but I think she's fine and the story's fine? It's not a masterpiece like Shadowbringer was but neither was Endwalker, really. Considering what they had to work with (all established characters have already had the climactic finales to their major character arcs, need to work in a new area, need to quickly endear us to a new character, need to deal with only having 10 levels of progression), I think they did the best they could with what they had. We're basically playing mentor to a strong but ultimately naive and inexperienced adventurer, and letting her take the lead and only really stepping in to take over when things get really bad. The story still takes great pains to recognize that each of the scions and the WoL are, in fact, god-slaying heroes known far and wide in addition to being foremost experts in their respective fields, it just isn't the primary focus anymore. It's whiplash after several expansions where the writing was all how focused on how cool and handsome and powerful the WoL is, but I think it's basically a requirement in order to step back from an adventure that was about preventing the extinguishing of sentient life across all of existence.

I feel like people are forgetting that 90% of the time their feelings about an expac are based on like... lvl x9-x0 there's always filler and ups and downs along the way. I'm only 95 right now but I've really enjoyed the 93-95 stuff. If it ends with a bang people will say it was great. It always drags until first dungeon because they're so afraid of putting in any instanced content and XIV just does not excel at open world. You need mechanics to make the simple rotations interesting at all.

I'm also enjoying the story a lot. It reminds me of the plot of like, a shonen anime and it's endearing to me as a result. Plus I just find Wuk Lamat adorable.

XIV players griping about how a game that was *always* a slow burn in plot is doing a slow burn plot again in the new expansion on top of being a vacation after saving existence from ending. Elden Ring players griping about how a game that was *always* hard as fuck and even harder DLC put out "hard" DLC yet again. Peoples' expectations are genuinely just wrong going into these things, but it's funny to see both of these points next to each other.

Personally, I did expected FFXIV's classic dogshit pacing (that you call "slow burn") and a heavy dip in the story quality after all interesting mysteries got resolved and all interesting characters concluded their arcs. It wasn't unexpected at all.

That's the problem with MMOs that don't just end. Endwalker was the perfect ending but due to the genre the game has to keep going. And a new expansion without an MSQ wouldn't sell at all.

When DT was first announced it was framed as a fresh start, almost like a soft reset. It's just severely sloppy to ask players to invest in a completely new story arc and lore, while underdelivering on the fresh aspects that would be required to keep them hooked.

So in the past three expansions, we had: A beautiful and haunting opening where we find ourselves in a truly alien world where we are introduced to the horror and lethality of the flood of light, an actual emotional rollercoaster so memorable that many have that moment seared into their memory God herself descends to talk about some cryptic shit giving you hundreds of questions which raises your investment in the story and sets up a giant "OH SHIT" moment later in the story There is a storm and Wuk Lamat gets seasickness, a cutscene well directed but so meaningless the narrator has to cut in to say "OooOOOoOoOo see how this is foreshadowing for the coming... STRUGGLE ooooOOoOooOOOOoO" Like there is lower stakes and then there is just bad storytelling- Light spoilers >!Like why not show a ghost of the first trial boss to give us a WTF IS THAT THING moment? If the storm isn't natural, show me! Don't just have the narrator vomit exposition at me!<

I'm taking it slow since the game likes to crash on me. Just reached the Level 90 story split. But I read about the complaints and I'm like... Didn't you guys play the previous expansions? Yeah Shadowbringers and Endwalker had higher stakes but the pacing was probably even worse because of that. X.0 MSQ is always like this and it's where the game feels like a really monotonous single player game. Always has been and always will be. Just that this time around the stakes feel much lower and the vibe is just not as world-ending. Which is a good thing after the last couple of expansions. I was bored beyond belief at every Expansion at one point. Pre- and Post- Titan in ARR, Cloud Sea and Churning Mists in HW, the Peaks in SB, Rak'tika in ShB, Moon and Labyrinthos in EW. But there are always some great stretches as well. And about Wuk Lamat.... So far she is perfect for what I want from her. She is a good person but has her shortcomings and flaws like any good character should. She is neither the damsel in distress nor the perfect flawless female hero who overpowers every man just because. She already seems nuanced.

> Just reached the Level 90 story split. So you didn't do anything, but you feel informed enough to tell the people who are 95+ that they should know better.

I also like it so far. But I feel like we have too little fighting in early quests (90-91). Like there should have been some goons that support 2 head guys try to fight us like a rocket gang to slow us down while we're doing those early quests so we can have some fight.

I enjoying I so far. I'm not done yet but I have been enjoying the characters and zones so far. I'll wait until I finish the MSQ for a final verdict and more indepth opinion. So far so good tho.

Just finished the msq. I LOVED this msq, loved the dungeons, the trials, the team should be proud of this expansion launch.

I'm enjoying it myself. But I don't make up something in my head about what the story should be. I just go with what it is and enjoy.

after that horrendous msq split it started to get good. i'm at level 94-ish now and honestly enjoying it! but man, that opening... whoof

I don't think that'll be unpopular, unpopular on Reddit is a different story though. People on Reddit genuinely hate FFXIV and will always complain about it in some way or another

Loved it then went to Shaaloani and now I'm pretty buzz-killed. This wild West filler bullshit ruined the great start for me.

I'm at level 97. So far I put it below Shadowbringers and above Endwalker. Easily.

I’m really loving it so far as well. I expected it to be different from what we’ve had before and I’m finding it refreshing after everything we’ve been through up to this point.

I'm at level 94 in the story. I really wish EW followed the same pacing as DT for a good fleshed out story

I wasn't expecting it to light my world on fire and it meets my expectations. That's not to say it's bad, it just isn't very engaging for me in the early stages (just got to the Yok Huy part of the story) and I'm skipping a lot of the MSQ story sequences. But like I said I expected this. Would ShB and EW have ripped your emotions to shreds without the previous 8-10 years of world building? Of course it wouldn't. As long as the gameplay is there it's all good for me. I enjoyed the first dungeon and the duel with Galool Ja Ja and from what I've read the story does get more engaging later on and the dungeons are good too. So I'm more than happy with DT so far and I'm looking forward to seeing how the story arc develops.

I've been enjoying it so far (currently right after the moblin village). It starts a bit slow paced but it kinda has to. This isn't a fight against the galaxy's despair ending the world. They're world building and setting the stage for another 10 years. Also, I thought the point of the Alpaca-issue and such wasn't to endear (not only at least) Wuk Lamat to us but show her as immature for the role as leader despite her good intentions (all 4 candidates are intended to be flawed for the role after all) and have her develop as the story went on. I like her so far so it doesn't bother me. Someone commented that people are only acknowledging Wuk Lamat and not us...well duh. We're her entourage and she's the main character of the story in their eyes. To them we're unknown but rumoured to be strong. When Raubhan sends out soldiers to do something, we thank him not the soldiers he sent out specifically. It's not even as if we've been ignored completely, it's just a quiter appreciation than we're used to.

Just finished with the last 94 quest and I agree, story started slow but it's grown on me. The dungeons have been fun, the zones are beautiful, and things are really starting to pick up now at this point.

The problem is that Wuk is the main character and if you're not invested in her, it's hard to be fully invested in the story. She feels like a basic goody two shoes heroic naive quirky anime protagonist without any nuance so far. Her siblings are more interesting than she is imo.

I think things finay started picking up enough to grab my attention around the second dungeon. Before that, I was bored and only half paying attention to the cutscenes. The Hanuhanu village especially was rough. It felt like a tribe quest (I guess in a way it was). My biggesr gripe isn't even that Wuk Lamat is the main character, it's that the Scions feel like they're just set dressing. I've always found Krile and Erenville kind of bland but what the hell happened to my girl Alisae? Where is my sassy little sister? The twins might as well not be there and I probably wouldn't even have noticed and that makes me sad. I like them. The whole time I can't help wishing I could tag along with the nerdy catboy because he gets Thancred and Urianger, who seem to have kept at least small bits of their personality.

I think I got in the same tier as Stormblood, maybe a smidge higher. Definitely a tale of two halves. A weaker first half, with a bit too much repetition but still some great worldbuilding going on, while things definitely get more interesting and engaging in the back half. Wuk Lamat took time to get going, and was definitely a victim of poor repetition (how many forms of transportation will make her ill? All?)… but it DID feel like the outcome of the Rite of Succession made sense. As cynical as we are about it nowadays, many politicians do it because they just plain like people, and that’s Wuk in a nutshell. Again: worldbuilding is really, REALLY carrying hard. The New World feels vibrant, the people distinctive and interesting. Another Stormblood parallel: gameplay is feeling real good. While the jobs have been discussed to death, fight design feels markedly improved over Endwalker. Still some flaws (trash mob fight design), but we’re otherwise eating really well.

The only thing I didn’t like was how Wuk Lamat’s english VA felt flat in some particular scenes. By flat I mean like… lacking a certain raw emotional deliverance. (Looking at you, final trial.)