Thoughts & Impressions: Dawntrail's Main Story (Spoilers)
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 26 ส.ค. 2024
- With Dawntrail's Main Story done, I decided I'd do a ramble about my thoughts on my overall feelings towards the story. Some good and some bad. There will be spoilers up ahead! So please, if you haven't finished, save yourself! Also, unlike most of the internet, these are my opinions and if you disliked or liked the story, that is more than okay.
Check my twitch channel where I stream almost everyday. From story content to ultimate raids to Top 30/100 PvP:
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Since April, SE is still having issues with payment processing, forcing many to buy 60 day game time cards . . . from external retailers. I tried recently to resub and apparently this is still an issue, the reply from SE support was a step by step guide advising me to buy 60 day game time card, because, 30 does not exist. Buying Crysta through Paypal and Amazon also does not work. Seems REALLY convenient that all of this would happen leading up to and during the release of their newest expansion when they know subs peak. IDK what SEs deal is, but, something sus is going on.
My friend card was rejected and she had to pay with Crysta. You need to pay 15€ for one month of playtime instead of the usual 11€. It's a scam indeed.
I think one of my opinions in the early game is that they should have left the twins behind in Eorzea. I felt that they didn't really add anything to the story. Alphinaud's role as the smart, bookish character who explains things could have been better filled by Krile and given her some much needed general screentime early on, and having gone through several expansions of growth Alphinaud and Alisae are far too aligned in their motivations to present meaningful differences in the scenario. I felt that Alisae's use in the second half was much stronger, and I suspect that's because leaving Alphinaud behind gave her some time to breathe. Their connection to the main story and its themes of legacy, rulership, etc being primarily second-hand in relation to Garlemald just made me think we'd have been better served by having an actual Garlean character accompany us instead. Other than that, i agree and wish we could have actually clashed with Thancred and Urianger as part of the contest. In general, I do hope they actively retire several of them for an expansion in future. They don't need to *all* be there.
That said, other than issues with the scions and some problems with execution, I thought Dawntrail did a great job at what it set out to do. All of its core plot beats are strongly centred around its core themes, which are chiefly questions of legacy, of whose job it is to ensure legacy and how, and with what legacies are worth preserving or letting go. In this I feel it's probably the most thematically cohesive expansion other than Shadowbringers, and I appreciate a thematically tight piece of work even if it suffers a bit in the execution and gets a bit heavy handed at times.
While I would have been sad to have left them behind, I would have preferred your suggestion over what we got
Thank you for the review. It's exactly what I've was looking for. I've decided to skip this expansion. I have no interest in the backstory of some rando npc that I have no connection to. I play the game for the WoL's story.
I like the overall story of Dawntrail! It felt like a prologue to the actual future storyline! I over time ended up liking Wuk Lamat! I am hopeful the story is mysterious & shocks us all! We will see in November hopefully! Great vid, keep up the good work! Liked & Subbed! 😉
Finally, a fair and civil DT impression video. Great work friend, you deserve a sub!
Thanks! Yeah, a lot of videos I've seen have been way too one way or the other without much room in between.
very good video. my biggest complaint of dawntrail is the use of the scions, but im hoping this will lead into them being put on the sidelines while they work torwards their own motivations, which will give us the opportunity to travel the star with a new group (Graha, Krile and Erenville included because they have reason to travel with us) it would be cool to see some new faces as permanent party members that we can see develop and grow
I do find it funny that I'm seeing an equal number of complaints for both "Why were the scions here? They should have been phased out entirely" and "Why were the scions only here for that, they should have been way more present throughout"
I just want them the choose one way or the other. Right now it's a weird middle ground
For me personally I felt like a lackey for Wuk Lamat. I found the pacing of the story to be noticeable. There were little things that made the story drag a little bit. Dont get me wrong i thought the second half of the story pick up quite nicely. However, the time it took to get to that part really put a spotlight on the pacing of the story as whole. It was hard for me not to notice it.
I also felt like the msq was riddled with missed opportunities. I was looking forward to a little tussle with Kona and his team. But it never really happened. Which is unfortunate cause i think it would have added nicely to the dynamics between Wuk lamat and Kona and it would have added more to Wuk Lamat character development. It was also very unfortunate that they didnt make the train event a solo instance. How fun would it have been if we could control our character and shoot those flying motorcycles out the sky. I would have enjoyed having a part in saving allisae and graha on that train in order to complete the objective. There were lots of miss opportunities to include the player into the msq in a more meaningful way that would have lessened the issues with the story pacing.
But that is just my opinion. The msq still has potential and I do wonder where the patches will lead. I am hoping that Yoshi P returns to the previous formula that was used on the msq story where the story wraps up in x.3 and the lead up to the next xpansion starts in x.4. The formula worked. Cant deny that.
All very good points! I do think a little Air Force One in the MSQ would have been pretty fun. Just more solo instances in general
I don't know where this idea of mentorship for Wuk Lamat comes from because I can't think of a single moment where you actually act in that role, let alone explicitly told you're that. Sure wish I could tell Wuk to stfu and get her shit together especially when she becomes Dawn Servant because at that point shit is real and she has actual responsibilities.
A few good moments does not save a bad overall story. I wished I just skipped the MSQ. Thanks for sharing your thoughts.
My biggest issue is just how low stakes this entire story is. We just got done slaying The Twelve, Hydaelyn, Zodiark, Endsinger, dealing with some upstart tyrant just felt like a guy we could have just slapped around if he had taken the throne and tried his hand at being the next Garlemald. Power fantasy went too hard last expansion, not really a way to raise the stakes after killing gods. Story wise it was ok, but again after everything we had done, this feels like a "well, I have nothing better to do I guess" type of thing and I feel like this would have been something our characters did towards the end of their life in a "passing the torch" type of thing, not as an adventurer (who fought gods) and still is in their prime. Outside of us and Krile, the scions could have easily been left out until we got to the point where another reflection came into question. While there is technically more story to be had, I don't see how you can ever make it feel like it is something that will really challenge our characters narratively. Can we just have the Ascians have a surprise win (few of them are unaccounted for I think), worlds are rejoined, everything is destroyed and remade, new MMO FFXVII comes out? Hell, it could be our fault for that matter, but our characters are too strong for anything to oppose them narratively at this point. Only thing that could be stronger than the Endsinger, The Twelve and Hydaelyn, would be a Zodiark at full power and that isn't possible at this point given we destroyed the majority of it, his heart/brain and then his fragment in the void. Second half of the story got better, but still just didn't feel like an individual that was actually a danger to our character.
3 worst characters in the Xpac, in order:
1. Zoraal Jaja - the guy is a living contradiction and his priorities are all over the place. I believe the writer had an idea for a bad guy, had 2 templates and mixed them up horribly. He wants recognition via honourable combat, but cheats and is adamant he wins fair and square. He wants to conquer Tural so badly, but he already had Tulliyolal at his mercy, withdraws and issues a challenge al a Final Boss of a Fighting Game.
2. Wuk Lamat- this is already known to everyone
3. Erenville- He has the personality of a dead fish. His "ugh, if I have to" attitude is really offputting. He makes it feel like he doesn't want to be there... and he's the fucking Narrator.
I like Dawntrail though, just disappointed that I didn't like what I was expecting to like the most.
Mui mui jar jar.
It took me a while to appreciate the point of the narrative and even the Scions involvement.
The Scions are meant to be characters in the shadow, so their call to action makes sense because they aren't acting as characters who are suppose to develop, they are acting like super heroes being called to action to prevent a catastrophe which is what the whole purpose of disbanding/not disbanding the Scions was. They disbanded so people wouldn't fear the end of times always creeping at their door but they still remain in the shadows to prevent a disaster that may come to pass.
As for treading the same water, yes and no, it does tread the same ideals, because yes Shadowbringers was about Emet and the Ascians End of Days and the emotion they felt by it however from the way it is characterized by Emet it was just disappear and dread as life was ending, nothing they could do about it other than having the Sundering happen. In Endwalker it's about seeing the end of civilization through different ideals whether it be illness, war and/or lethargic and the futility of life that is bound to have an end point. Then of course 6.X treads the same ideals of a civilization lost to Asicna tomfoolery and the means they went to survive and then inevitably because this stagnant world that could not return to the source but still treading on the end of days and the extremes they went to survive.
Then we get into Dawntrail however Sphene hits closer to Venat rather than Emet in the way the End of Days proceeded for her people, it took me a few runs to appreciate both the final dungeon and instance because of the narrative behind it.
The Dungeon is very emotional even though yes we are seeing yet another end of days scenario however we are seeing it through Sphene's eyes who is saving her people while also erasing her memories so that she can better save her people. Rather than fall into despair like Emet and Durante she actively moves to save all those she can until she herself ends up dying. It's the tragedy of knowing that peace can not be achieved by two different shards because her means to keep her people alive put other shards at risk and understanding that she realizes that in order to rule without the empathy of Sphene she needs to just become an Endless whose duty it is to save her people and allow them to live on, so that they will not be forgotten.
As for the trial Wuk is definitely needed to make the finale work because it's her realizing that in order to achieve the peace that she wishes to have, you have to fight for it. Knowing that Sphene won't back down she shows her respect that forcing her memories back into the Endless so they can end it as Two Rulers facing off to see who comes out on top rather than a mindless machine whose duty is to protect their people. It's that mutual respect and understanding that it's not that they don't like each other, or even hate each other, they just know that they NEED to act in a way in order to allow their people to live on and it's that harsh reality that sometimes causes strife in the world.
Overall though, while at first I too was like another end of days dungeon at the same time the narrative makes sense because it would honestly be an injustice and unrealistic to assume that just because we have eliminated the Ascians that their effects on our world/shard would just disappear.
Dawntrail and to an extent the 7.X is a look into the affects the Ascians rejoining will have on The Source world, Durante I believe wanted ether to ingest/bring salvation to his people potentially forcing a rejoining on the void if his plan worked and Sphene wanted to keep her people alive even if it meant destroying other shards however none of this would have been done if it wasn't for the Ascians that forced a rejoining in the first place.
I can appreciate the idea that we may look into other civilization/shards that seek to survive especially the strange case of the Mi la la and how their is potentially a culture of lalafell/taru taru/dwarves that came from another shard and found their way to other shards given the laliho remark from the Solution Nine area so it will be interesting to see how that mystery plays out as well.
Thank you for your comment! I don't think I necessarily agree with everything posted here, but I understand that art is subjective. I think that a lot of what you said is on the cusp of coming to fruition with what we got, but that the execution didn't quite let some of these themes really and truly shine. And part of this is due to the fact that the game is on such a rigid skeleton because it is an MMO first. This isn't just an issue with DT but with the game as a whole. Knowing that the game has a lvl 100 trial or a lvl 93 trial sort of pigeon holes the devs and story writers into having to wrap things up in a neat little bow in a certain time frame. And that can cause things to either drag or be rushed depending on. One day, I'd like to see a novelization of this game - but that's fanciful lol
Great video!
I was less invested in this story than I was in Shadowbringers. Never thought that was possible.
At least I was playing the main character in Shadowbringers, and I could be sour at Ardbert for almost killing Alisae and not be palsy walsy with Solus.
DT gave my toon no agency and I could not resist any of the obnoxious nonsense that I was forced to deal with, with a smile on my face. I would have rather gone back to see how Fordola and Arenvald were doing