Rivenroad

While I do like many things about it, I feel that there's something missing from every part of it. I wondered if it was the pacing, which was a huge problem for me in Endwalker and hampered my enjoyment of much of the story, but I'm not sure it's that simple. Giving each part of the story more time might help, but I feel that depth is actually the key problem.

A number of characters could have done with more active, noticeable development. Wuk Lamat, despite having a lot of on-screen time, was relatively static as a character... I don't think she necessarily needs to change, or go through something huge, but perhaps there should have been something to challenge her more, or develop her relationships with others more deeply?

I think there were things that were supposed to achieve this, like her relationship with her brothers and with Sphene, but somehow it didn't leave as much of an impact as I felt like it should.

And then there's the Scions... who... I didn't really want to be there to begin with, but if they were going to be there - and with the idea of "conflict" between them being a major part of the game's pre-release trailer and advertising - I would really have liked to see something of substance. I already said it in my previous post, but please... if there isn't a good reason for the Scions to be there, if they aren't actually significant to the story in any way, please give them a rest...

While I wouldn't exactly say the story felt rushed to me, again there were just so many moments that seemed like missed opportunities to deepen the impact of certain events or characters. Some things felt like they outstayed their welcome, and others felt like they were over too quickly, or just scraped the surface of something that could have been an interesting idea, but didn't go far enough.

One of the things I really enjoy about XIV's story is its unpredictability - even if I don't agree with every decision made with Endwalker, it was not predictable to me, and unfortunately Dawntrail was at several points. The situation with Alexandria was perhaps the only big revelation of the whole thing, and I did like that a lot - but it was followed by a rather formulaic series of events.

As I mentioned in my previous post, I recently experienced a major loss in my life and thus I would expect a story dealing with that subject to be impactful, but aside from one or two moments that I appreciated, most of the time it didn't make me feel much. I think perhaps if you are someone who hadn't thought much about the ideas that it addresses before, it might be more meaningful, but... we already had a much more impactful examination of dealing with loss and grief in this very game. I'm not sure if Sphene's similarity to Emet-Selch was supposed to be a meaningful callback, but unfortunately it just read as "we've already been through this".

I also wonder if the set structure of the game is hampering the story, both the way dungeons and trials are laid out, and the strict patch release schedule. Both good things for a game, but less so for allowing a story to take an appropriate form. I think pacing was handled very well in Shadowbringers, so it is possible for it to work out, but in my opinion every other expansion could be better from this angle. Might just be something we have to live with, though, because I don't see that changing any time soon.

Then again, sometimes they do away with formulae. I'm glad the zones in this expansion no longer followed the same split-level concept that was getting a little old at this point. I'm also glad they didn't reuse the "second city aetheryte inaccessible" thing yet again. That was very effective in Shadowbringers when it aligned with the narrative, but less so in Endwalker...

There's also the matter than we now have mimicked the final MSQ dungeon concept twice in a row since Amaurot happened. I found that a little tedious in Endwalker but with Alexandria, I actually quite enjoyed it... I can't really say why it's different, maybe it's just that my overall dissatisfaction with Endwalker contributed.

Some of you may remember my feelings about Endwalker and, subsequently, my hopes for the future of XIV's story. Mostly, with Dawntrail I was looking forward to the opportunity for change, a new start, and hopefully a return to one of the things that made me fall in love with the game to begin with - excellent world-building and lore to get immersed in. I would say it gave me those things.

I would like to discuss my thoughts about the story in detail, but at the moment that's a bit difficult for me. I think I would need to go through it again another time in order to properly solidify everything that I feel. But I still have a few points to make.

Firstly, as I mentioned above I was really looking forward to the chance to explore Tural and learn about it and its people, and of course, that's exactly what the first arc of 7.0 was all about. I had a fantastic time with it (and continue to do so, since there are still a lot of quests, exploration and so on for me to do), which was enhanced by the graphics update. I'm pleased to say that beyond a few minor things, most of my characters look the same or better than they did before, and the degree to which the lighting, texture and object density improved the environments is absolutely stunning. I'm really excited to draw the new places, they're incredibly inspiring from an artistic angle. I've spent so much time staring at new higher-definition plants, admiring lighting and weather effects...

I'm thrilled with the presentation of the Mamool Ja. I always found them intriguing, but until now we didn't really get very much solid information about them beyond a few scraps in ARR and the BLU questline. I absolutely love Gulool Ja Ja, he's definitely my favourite character in Dawntrail, and the others interested me a lot too. Very well done and the voice acting was great. I didn't expect to actually get to visit Mamook, but I love it, I really enjoyed all of their history and that of Tural in general... as well as the Mamool Ja, I'm particularly fond of the Yok Huy and the Moblins (long time goblin fan, of course) but I feel that all of the diverse people of Tural were interesting and it all came together very well.

I've seen some criticism of this part of the MSQ with regards to it being boring. I really didn't feel that way though I know it's just not what some people enjoy, which is fair. But Wuk Lamat was fine. The degree to which the "power of friendship/peace" message is stressed sometimes does feel a little silly to me when it's presented so plainly, people have compared it to a shounen anime from that angle and I would agree, but it's not necessarily a bad thing - just not my usual preference.

One thing that did bother me throughout the expansion, though, is one that I expected - I'm really quite tired of the Scions. Estinien is the most blatant example here - his presence in the story served absolutely no purpose whatsoever. I was rather disappointed that the story behind Thancred and Urianger's presence and supposed "opposition" with the others turned out to be... basically nothing of any importance at all, given how it was dramatised in the trailers and so on.

I am fond of many of them, but I'm very strongly in favour of retiring characters, concepts or anything else before they start to become stale, and unfortunately we're very much at this stage with those guys... Just because I like a character doesn't mean I want to see them pop up everywhere all the time when it doesn't really have a point to it. I dunno. Doesn't seem like they're going to drop it, though...