Final Fantasy XIV 7.0: Dawntrail - Summer 2024

[Anoat]

When there is a login que the message says “the server is currently congested”, that’s new right?! I could have sworn it previously said “the world is currently full” or am I losing my freaking mind

[Anoat]

I liked these raid fights. Mechanics felt new and pretty fresh and really only took one time seeing them where you are like oooooh yeah I see what to do here. Feels very intuitive but not like super dumbed down, if that makes sense? I love how the announcer calls people out when they die, as well lol

[Anoat]

Please tell me I’m not the only person who got a real Persona 5 vibe from the music?

[Kaslo]

Please tell me I’m not the only person who got a real Persona 5 vibe from the music?

The start of the M1 for sure, M2 was more Splatoon to me

[Anoat]

Dawntrail is never beating the Stormblood comparisons now with weak ass story being carried by battle content

[Lokus]

Hey fuck you buddy I like Stormblood.

[Prothescar]

Lyse > Wuk Lamat

Drove an hour to spend 100 bucks on boba, secured all 3 keychains and the pig

[Lokus]

I also like Dawntrail.

That said, there's a Gong Cha 15 mins from work so I secured a mount and met 6 other nerds.

[Prothescar]

Yeah there was a high concentration of people there for this, pretty cool

[Anoat]

XIVHunt has updated their enemy location maps for Dawntrail zones thank goodness

[Athas]

Finally got around to the MSQ

Spoiler: show

Mostly it was just like, fine - 5/10. Worst of the expansions so far, but still better then ARR (Not counting any of the x.1-x.5 patches). Definitely some weak character writing and pacing - everything after the successions rites feels like it would have worked better as patch content then maybe the rites themselves could have fleshed things out more than peace good war bad. But those kind of shallow exploration of themes is so endemic of JRPG/anime generally and XIV specifically in past content that I just I'm just conditioned to not be that bothered with it.

Though I don't get why people seems so upset about Wuk Lamat jumping in at the 100 Trial, one of the major complaints as the game drags on was I thought that the WoL always has to do absolutely bloody everything. If characters are going to help take down the big bad more directly I don't know how else it would go? I don't really care that she helps out in the victory lap phase? Definitely thought her dialog wasn't exactly stellarly written most of the time but the VA was eh? Fine?

Bakool Ja Ja freeing Valigarmanda just to slow down the others was probably the thing that stood out the most - considering his Heel–Face Turn it doesn't seems like something that can just slide by. Just have him try to 1v1 fox only no items him and get stomped. I somehow get the feeling his stepping on tacos will get more focus in the coming patches then freeing a living disaster.

I think the narrative being too easy has been a problem for a while now but it was prominent here, no one seems to hold a grudge for your killing Sphene, no one in Living Memory rages against the dying of the light, Bakool Ja Ja's seemingly zealot of a dad just drops that whole part of his character once it's convenient and any problems in the rites just immediately get sorted out with barley any conflict. I get that stuff generally has to advance quickly due to how MSQ works but not absolutely everything has to get resolved and again probably need to time to focus on. Guessing that the key and shard fusing/jumping will be central to the story going forward which is why they rushed to it?

Most of the actually gameplay was pretty good, though I really think the defense of the train should have been a solo duty and not a cutscene. Just fight some stuff on the top of the train, or at least port over the Golden Saucer Gate to man the turret. The lack of gameplay options continues to be an issue overall - I don't know why anyone thought transporting ice cream in the final zone of the expansion was a valuable use of time. Really seems like XIV needs more minigames or something.

Krile really seemed to get shafted, I think there more content for her in Eureka - maybe even in just the HW trials. There one quest between her reuniting with her parents and them getting Thanos snapped? And how is she so young? Wasn't she already a part of the faculty in the Studium when Alphinaud joined? Though again I guess that's a broader problem in Eastern media where you have three full careers before 15 and 25 is considered over the hill. Erenville also turned out to be way younger then I thought for a veteran gleaner, seems really odd given how long Viera live for. And how did his mom even die considering their lifespans?

Zoraal Ja was probably the most underdeveloped though - the reveal that he wanted to force an appreciation of peace through war seems like it should have come much later, and not in direct hearing of some of his supporters. And there's no real explanation on how he came to view that as desirable to the point of invading from another world and harvesting the souls of the dead and then murdering his dad other then some vague hand wave about feeling inadequate to expectations. Nor for why he decided to have/clone a kid. For such a driving antagonist he gets almost nothing shown about him other then he was quite and stoic and punches good.

[Kaslo]

https://twitter.com/PreachGaming/sta...66352062881940

[Gokulo]

This expansion has unleashed a lot of weird stuff in people, first Bakool Ja Ja, now this

[Anoat]

Re: Bakool Ja Ja I just wanna say yes I know one of the biggest XIV tropes is antagonists turning into allies but for christ's sake

Spoiler: show

We sure go real fast to forgiving Bakool Ja Ja for unleashing Valigarmanda and trying to murder Wuk Lamat and other innocents because he came from a really shitty situation in Mamook. Like bro. You just don't get to commit atrocities and then be like "whoops my bad I had a rough childhood" and all is forgiven

[Lokus]

I wanna say that I hate the naming convention the community settled on for this raid tier.

[Lucavi]

Re: Bakool Ja Ja I just wanna say yes I know one of the biggest XIV tropes is antagonists turning into allies but for christ's sake

Spoiler: show

We sure go real fast to forgiving Bakool Ja Ja for unleashing Valigarmanda and trying to murder Wuk Lamat and other innocents because he came from a really shitty situation in Mamook. Like bro. You just don't get to commit atrocities and then be like "whoops my bad I had a rough childhood" and all is forgiven

Gotta go fast, man; this Xpac was like a filler movie. Everything has to be resolved by the end of runtime, so WE GOTTA GO, MAN!!!

[Gokulo]

[Dantrag]

I wanna say that I hate the naming convention the community settled on for this raid tier.

Why?

[Lokus]

Why?

I feel like AAC1, AAC2, etc. or AC1, AC2, etc. were better options for each fight but they settled on M cause two letters are hard.

[Anoat]

Welp since I don’t do savage, I don’t have much to keep me subbed for now so think I’ll be letting sub lapse until 7.1 drops. I enjoyed the raids and expert dungeons but I don’t have much to keep working toward. Oh well.