Main Story Questline - One of the reasons I play FFXIV is for the story. Quite frankly, I wasn't exactly enthralled with the first half of the story in Dawntrail. When looking back at previous expansions, I compare Dawntrail most to Stormblood. A lengthy story the development team crammed into a single expansion, with the end of the expansion outshining the beginning.
Rating the stories in the expansions, I would rate them as follows:
- Shadowbringer
- Endwalker
- Stormblood
- Heavensward
- Stormblood
- Dawntrail
- A Realm Reborn
Dawntrail falls below Stormblood because due to time. Many of the characters as well as the world were familiar due to the content in A Realm Reborn and Heavensward. I had some familiarity with both Ala Mhego and Doma beyond the name before I downloaded Stormblood. In Dawntrail, the storywriters had to introduce players to a new world in basically five levels of gameplay plus the final point patch in Endwalker. Not ideal, but I did wind up rating the story in Dawntrail higher than the one in A Realm Reborn.
Wut Lamak - Wut Lamak is a bit of a controversial figure who I thought was ill-served by the planning of the content. In my opinion, I think the future Dawnservant should have been introduced in patch 6.4, giving her eight months to grow on players. I know, I know, an impossibility due to female Hrothgars not existing at the time. But a negative factor all the same.
Next came the compressed time for character development in the first five levels of Dawntrail. The character development was way too rushed. The problem was, unlike Lyse who was left behind in Ala Mhego in Stormblood, Wut Lamak had to carry on into the second half of Dawntrail. Wut Lamak confronting both Zoraal Ja and Sphene made total sense, but I think resulted in a damaged main character as the development was rushed.
When talking about Wut Lamak I like to compare her to both Alphinaud and Lyse/Yda. I know Alphinaud is now a fan favorite, but he was so annoying in A Realm Reborn that I didn't fully warm up to him until Shadowbringer. Unlike a lot of players, the change in English voice actor in Heavensward did not help me to warm up to the character immediately. I found Wut Lamak extremely irritating when I was introduced to her at the end of Endwalker. My first thought was, "Why is Yoshi-P making me adventure with this irritating idiot?" Which, to be fair, was my response when I found myself burdened with Alphinaud walking into Heavensward.
But I wasn't just burdened with an irritating, know-it-all rich kid Elezen in Dawntrail. The story writer also decided to throw in a splash of Lyse. The character I was introduced to as Yda in the forests of Gridania, Lyse wound up becoming a leader in a land she didn't really understand. The big difference with Wut is the amount of character development time devoted to that aspect of Lyse. Like I said, the development of Wut was rushed.
I guess I need to briefly mention some sort of kerfuffle involving the English voice actor for Wut Lamak. I wasn't aware of any issues until reading MassivelyOP. All I really want to say is that I thought that for the new female Hrothgars introduced in Dawntrail, the English voice actor's sound fit. Of course, I did find the character annoying so maybe my description isn't exactly the greatest endorsement. Any dissatisfaction with Wuk Lamat is due to the writing, not the voice actor. But don't go out and harass the writers either.
The MSQ Dungeons - At the beginning of the expansion a lot of players complained about the difficulty of the MSQ dungeons. The ones I found most difficult were the final three 4-character duties: Vanguard (level 97), Origenics (99), and Alexandria (100). The final duty was so hard it scared me away from attempting the last trial of the expansion until two weeks ago. In fact, if the level of difficulty of Alexandria continues in future expansions I'll have to give up on playing the white mage job, one I've enjoyed for the past 5 years. I did wind up completing The Interphos, only dying 3 times. Thankfully the Astrologian in the party was experienced and made it possible that I could finish the trial on my feet.
Yes, the duties and trials were well done. And the music was good as good as ever. But honestly, with the problems I had completing the normal difficulty level story content, I'm questioning if the next expansion will force me from the game.
Role Quests - I only managed to get one job, white mage, up to level 100 in patch 7.0. As such, I only completed the healer's role quest. I enjoyed the chase from the New World back to Limsa Lominsa. The questline had a rather Hildebrand-like quality to it. Nowhere as serious as the ones in Shadowbringer or Endwalker, I found the healer quests more an appetizer rather than a main course.
Currently I'm levelling up the Warrior job and reached level 60. I know I could have made Gunbreaker my tank job and reached the Dawntrail role quests much quicker, but I've heard so much about Warrior I had to find out first hand. So far I find playing Warrior fairly easy, but I haven't reached Bardam's Mettle yet.
Crafting and Gathering - I found the crafting and gathering grind enjoyable in Dawntrail and I still have a little ways to go to finish the Wachumeqimeqi Deliveries content. I have three of the five NPC quest givers to finish. I've at the level 95 quests for Pameka (carpenter, leatherworker, weaver) and Donuhanu (fishing), and the level 93 quest for Rral Soj (armorer, blacksmith, goldsmith). I really need to finish these questlines up before the next patch, although not doing so is not the end of the world. With the lack of mention of any crafting/gathering specific content so far, I might want to save these quests for something to do later.
I should add upgrading my crafting and gathering gear to best in slot with the medium level of melding was not painful. Not only did I have over 145 million gil saved up going into the expansion, but I had over 900,000 sea cowries from my island sanctuary, plenty to meet all my tier 9 and tier 10 materia needs. I'll reach patch 7.1 with 149 million gil and 650,000 sea cowries.
The Retainer Army - Final Fantasy XIV has content that stays relevant no matter how long someone has played the game. One of those systems is the retainer system. I have 9 retainers, which means my subscription costs more than the two EVE Online accounts I maintain. On the positive side, I receive enough gil to more than cover my expenses each week while still needing to put in work to keep the funds rolling in. Levelling alternative jobs like Warrior through the MSQ duties using the Duty Support and Trust systems keeps the army operating.
Over the course of the last four months I finished levelling all 9 retainers, with 6 of them having best-in-slot melded gear. The only ones needed gear updates are the two white mages and the newest botanist retainer. I'm assuming new crafted gear is coming so I'm holding out until Tuesday to decide how to upgrade the three retainers. The other six I may leave be depending on what the possible benefits are for upgrading.
My Island Sanctuary - Last week I finally received the Island Peerifool from a Sanctuary Material Container, the final mount I was missing from my Island Sanctuary. I put my island into maintenance mode a couple of months ago and only spend perhaps 20 minutes a week on the feature now. I also discovered the stacks of materials I gathered up 4 months ago before the launch of Dawntrail was enough to last through a patch cycle. But just barely. I was down to 24 Island Copper Ore after setting up my workshops for the final time before patch 7.1. I'll need to get my low inventory items back up to 300 each over the weekend.
Completing the Final Allied Society Faction Grind - Before patch 7.1 introduced the first Dawntrail allied society, I figured I needed to complete the Omicron questline in Ultama Thule. And I'm glad I did. Not only did I receive a really well-thought out Miw Miisv mount, but I really liked the storyline. Honestly, I know that some players hatred of crafting and gathering will lead them to never partaking of the Omicron and Loporrit society quests. But I think it was really good. The only reason I didn't do the Omicron society quests during Endwalker is that for some reason a storyline for gatherers was locked behind a non-MSQ duty I wound up soloing as a white mage when I reached level 100 and had my level 710 gear. Hopefully something like that doesn't happen again.
Catching Up With Margrat - I'm not exactly sure how I missed doing custom deliveries with Margrat, but I did. I made up for that mistake. I only wish the Unending Journey held the cutscenes for the custom delivery questlines, because I really wanted to relive the experience at the end. Another very well-done story that crafting and gathering haters will not experience.
The Graphics - I've complemented the graphics before, but I'll do so again. Having visited all the areas except for some optional dungeon content, the graphics are so much better than in Endwalker. I realize some bugs made it through the QA process, but overall I was really happy with the new zones. Hopefully the graphics update is complete in the older zones before the next expansion hits. Seeing some of the graphics in the older zones in the background of my character with the new graphics in cutscenes was a bit odd at times.
The Music - I'm not going to lie. The music wasn't quite up to Shadowbringer/Endwalker standards. That's not to say the music was not really good. Just that I got the feeling that Soken was distracted, perhaps with Final Fantasy XVI. Then again, when the last music I hear is that celebration music as the credits roll, I knock off a point. True, the music wasn't as cringe as the Ala Mhego anthem played at the end of the Stormblood MSQ, but I was reminded of it.
Server Stability - Having experienced the insanity of the Endwalker launch, I was really impressed with the lack of queuing during Dawntrail. Apparently someone at Square Enix pissed some people off because the game experienced a lot more DDoS attacks than I remember ever having before. Then again, I'm still seeing multiple instances of some zones during peak times, which I don't remember seeing at the end of patch 6.0. All the measures Yoshi-P worked to implement since the launch of Endwalker worked for the current expansion.
Those are all the things I personally experienced during the first four months of Dawntrail. Perhaps I'll adventure out and do something wild like PvP someday. But for now, I need to head over and collect some materials for the workshops on my island. I need to free up the time now for the new features coming in patch 7.1 next week.
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