Getting past the first arc (about 95), I'm enjoying it more. The first arc itself was just... almost arr levels of fetch quests, just with npcs and visuals that aren't horrible. I love learning about Tural, don't get me wrong, but as a medium of exploring it.. it's very cookie-cutter and doesn't throw any unexpected punches at all. Everything works out pretty much exactly as you might expect it to. Too safe, I would say.
Past this... it still is kind of that, but a little more amusing. I hate having to keep it vague, but really don't want to spoil anyone who stumbles in here.
You put it mostly how I would. I just reached the second dungeon, and it’s been pretty safe, but I am liking the vibe, the music, the graphics, and am excited for the surprises that seem likely to come.
Edit: needs more action for sure.
I am at LVL96 MSQ. If this continues in this direction, it will be my least favorite expansion, although that is not a bad thing. My expectations were low since this is following Endwalker, but I did not think we would be slightly above ARR in terms of engaged.
The visuals and music are solid enough but I have liked previous expansions’ battle music, with Shadowbringers getting the most pumped in dungeons. The zones and areas have a distinct aesthetic and theme that I appreciate.
However, the story and characters are weak. Wuk Lamat is a likeable character but she is still a little flat and maybe it’s because the antagonistic characters are cartoon evil. World-building is a good thing but there is something about the way that it is done here that does not land.
Only at the first dungeon. So far I don’t hate it but goodness me, I wish they’d step up the actual gameplay of questing. Running from NPC to NPC and “occasionally” fighting two/three enemies and “occasionally” interacting with a few items in the world is just boring. Story itself is interesting enough. I’m a big world building fan so I find it pretty nifty so far. That said, only at the 91 dungeon so I’m barely ankle deep so far
Maaaaaan….. first two zones was FAR too much dialogue. Pretty sure I had 1 kill mobs question in each zone. I’m really waiting for it to pick up…. Also what’s with all these lizard boys trying to look tough at us…. We literally beat the End it self at the edge of the universe while riding a blood crazed Dragon and fighting on his back….. our state alone should be enough to melt these “warriors”.
Yeah, I don't like that they clearly think they can beat us easily and are all smug constantly and we have to keep letting them think that. They don't have a clue who we are, and while that's not necessarily a bad thing, I'm really tired of just being Wuk Lamat's lackey. No one has asked who we are or anything about us. We are literally heroes to the world who are following her around doing things for her. We don't even get to speak unless it's our turn to reassure her.
> I'm really tired of just being Wuk Lamat's lackey.
One of the first zones we literally do nothing besides be a pack mule, then camp out while she does the quest. I'm fine with taking a step back and doing lower stakes, but at least let us actually be involved in those smaller stakes. ARR at least had us participating and driving the smaller scale plots, but this is us basically being a glorified retainer.
With that zone, it was almost like it existed just to remind us that the Key Items tab exists, what with us being handed things and handing them back to her because apparently it's a key part of her character that she cannot be trusted with stuff. Real leader material, right there.
One thing different about FF14 story, say compared to FF11, we are the protagonist… up to this expansion. In FF11, we just watch the main NPCs (Ajido, Prishe etc) do their stuff and we just help them.
A glorified retainer? Did you not pay attention to the story? Not only are we a retainer we are regarded as such by everyone. These people know nothing of our feats and have no reason to respect us.
Like I get it if all you do is start cutscenes and walk away and mash dialouge boxes away I could see that being your opinion
I did pay attention. There is already barely any gameplay happening, the first few zones have exactly one quest where you actually fight anything, and even that is a couple instances of 1-2 trash mob level enemies. On top of the no gameplay, we are barely involved in driving any of the events happening and are just there along for the ride. I understand that is the premise, but it doesn't make it any less boring.
If you like it, great, I'm not saying you can't. just that hours of no gameplay and little to no personal character relevance isn't doing it for me.
Are you actually reading what I am saying, or just rushing through my comments? Nowhere am I complaining that there is a lot of story, I'm saying that the story is not compelling to me. And even though it is a story based game, it should still have some actual gameplay, which it barely does.
Just like every expansion since storm blood it's action light till dungeon 1 then picks up until near the end where we get like a solo duty every level dungeon every two and less and less quests
The 95 dungeon based on the wiki quest list is exact 50 percent through the game but their is twice the amount of dungeon content and 5 more solo battles.
Differences in style. Honestly? Love it when they underestimate us. Watching as all hope drains from their eyes as they get shit wrecked is the best part for me. Especially when they spent an expansion underestimating us.
Maybe I'll feel that way once I get to beat the smug looks off their ugly faces, but right now it just feels bad. Going into this I thought I was fine with lower stakes, but I haven't felt necessary for anything. The only time we've even been acknowledged was that one line from Estinien. I'm fine being underestimated but it would be nice for some of these Turali people to notice we are there and ask our names or something. They don't even acknowledge us.
Personally love it. In my head cannon, my WoL is now Absolutely Blitzed on margaritas 24/7 and is just wandering serenely about after Wuk Lamat. She's enjoying all the pretty views, safe in the knowledge that if the lizard boy really pushes things she can rip out his spine and beat both his heads in with it.
Im at Level 98 and yeah the Solution Nine Stuff was nice but for the love of god can we not just be doing this without Wuk Lamat. It seems like this whole MSQ is all about Wuk Lamat and we're just the Guy that gets ordered around by her and even Alisae has said to us "Besides this is Wuk Lamats Journey."
I'm only in the third zone so still in the first part of the story. I'm sure it will pick up but so far the story is nice but not terribly engaging and the way it's being told (via normal ffxiv fetch quests) is *extremely* boring. I expected that, though.
The zones look amazing. The city was obviously designed to show off the graphics update. Unfortunately I do not like what they did to my character's face; it looked different in the benchmark and it looks worse than I feared in the game.
Only at lvl 92 but so far it’s been fine, nothing particularly great or bad, just kinda fine. I do like learning about Tural but some of the fetch quests go on longer than they need to be, and there really needs to be more combat encounters, constant reading can get a bit tiring after awhile and if I wasn’t interested in learning about Tural I can see myself getting very bored. The characters are fine, I am enjoying each of the claimants, they each fill their little niche’s pretty well so far, I just want more of them (and since I’m basically at the start, I expect I will get more of them)
Music though, top tier, as always
Too many fetch quests at the start, but once you get past those, it's a great experience.
I like that 8 player content can be done with NPCs. So far at least, haven't seen all trials yet. Makes more sense to bring them from a story PoV, which is what this opinion is based on. Gameplay-wise, it's really easy so far. Yes, I'm more experienced now than I was during Endwalker, which was my starting point, but still, it's by far the easiest expansion for me so far (up to level 95 as of right now).
it does not help that the VA's voice cracks like a prepubescent boy and she fails to deliver on excitement... it wouldn't be as bad if she was a secondary character, but she just keeps talking and talking while the other scions get like.. 5 sentences each..
I've seen a lot of people complaining about the slow pacing in the first half of the game. I have to be honest, I don't have a problem with it. Yes, it's slow, but it's not *bad pacing*. I think the pacing is just right for the type of story it's trying to tell, and I'm really enjoying the journey.
I haven't seen the second half yet, so I can't comment on that.
Yeah I’m kind of enjoying just chilling? I was so eager to get to an instanced duty/dungeon yesterday (took me about 11 hours, lol) so now I’ve done one I’m just enjoying the vibe and tooling around. I’m going between msq and side quests, and crafting and gathering. I don’t feel _obliged_ to just stick with msq.
This is my first time being part of an expansion from release but it all just feels very basic so far. It almost feels like ARR just on a different map. If I would have to rank expansions it would be ARR, DT, SB, SHB, EW, HW.
WAIT YOU MEAN THE WE XPANSION TAKING PLACE AT THE START OD THE NEW 10 YEAR STORY... THAT TAKES PLACE ON A CONTIENT WE HAVE NEVER BEEN ON BEFORE WITH CULTURES AND PEOPLE NOTHING LIKE OUR OWN, WITH NO OVER ARCHING PRE ESTABLISHED VILLAN IS LIKE THE VERY FIRST STORY PIECE WHERE WE WERE IN A NEW WORLD WE HAD NEVER BEEN TO BEFORE THAT HAD TO ESTABLISH THE BASIC WORLD AND VILLAN STRUCTURE WE WOULD INTERACT WITH
I'm shocked and disturbed.
I actually am hating wuk lamat. I feel like we have been sold a dead cat. Just a gratingly obnoxious annoying clueless useless air head of a character.
I’m genuinely curious to know what about her you find obnoxious or air heady.
To me she comes across as a _young_, sheltered, but caring and motivated person who genuinely wants to do her best for her people to have a peaceful future. I read her as naive rather than stupid, but very willing to learn- I only just got to Earthenshire but straight after the dungeon she has that talk about not having to be strong and capable all the time and how she wants to learn from you.
I’ve seen a lot of people complain about her using the same kind of words you have but, tbh, as a woman who’s been gaming a long time, any time there’s that much complaining around a centred character who _happens_ to be female, and it’s generic things like ‘annoying’, ‘obnoxious’ etc but without specifics I really tend to take it all with a healthy personality pinch of salt.
For example a lot of people said the same thing about Frey from Forspoken. One of my students (14M) spent ages going on about how awful she was and he hadn’t even played the game! I played it for the first time a couple of months ago out of contrarianism because I thought there’s no way it could be as bad as people said and it wasn’t- and _she_ wasn’t. She was no more obnoxious than I’d find _any_ person her age, and no more obnoxious than a lot of other characters with similar traits.
I’m seeing a lot of the same kind of things being thrown around about Wuk Lamat but I don’t see how she’s more irritating/obnoxious/whatever than, say, G’raha Tia or Thancred when they were introduced. It’s been a while but I don’t remember people reacting to them this strongly.
My worry right now (level 93) is that Wuk Lamat's character arc feels INCREDIBLY predictable right now. And it is a very typical story we've seen a thousand times before. Hell, we've kind of already seen it in XIV via Lyse. If they do something interesting with her character or offer some kind of twist to make her development not exactly what it shows on the tin, then I will be pleasantly surprised. If she continues down this same obvious path of growing her confidence into a competent compassionate leader that gets everything handed to her because she's the main character... Then I will be less enthused by the end of the story. Characters like Thancred and Graha were kind of annoying and stereotypical when they were first introduced, but their individual plot lines quickly moved them places where I didn't exactly know where they were headed.
I'm not a Wuk Lamat hater, and I am willing to give her a chance to shine. But I do see the criticisms people have of her and think that there is some weight to them. Not just people hating on her because she's a female lead. I think this is a very common thing even for male leads that are introduced as unconfident, naive, or frequently used as comic relief. To use a popular anime reference, many people really dislike Deku, the main character of My Hero Academia for these same reasons. He's introduced as a whiney, incompetent, unconfident character that gets everything literally handed to him by his superiors. His poor social skills constantly annoy people, and his character development is super predictable. I think a lot of people could easily defend Deku and talk about his great work ethic and other things that do make him worthy of being a main character, so I'm not shitting on him either, just providing an example of a male lead that faces similar criticisms as Wuk Lamat.
Wuk Lamat is the opposite of that...She already has the skills to be a great leader. People don't believe in her and talk down to her because she's not as strong as the two mamool ja, who are godlike strong, or she's not an engineering genius. Those are stupid reasons to think someone should become king.
She gets nothing handed to her. She works hard, she faces her fears, she gets things done. She's the only one of the 4 who, when arriving in a new place, volunteers to help the people with their problems instead of sitting around until the trial is ready.
Also it's shown repeatedly, from the start, why she has the qualities to be the best ruler: she knows how to choose her companions (us), she listens to what her entourage says and takes it into account, she shows genuine interest to the people she wants to rule, she has zero ego. She is likeable because she actually cares about all the people she meets. She remembers the names of all the persons we meet in all the random villages we visit.
A good ruler doesn't necessarily have to be a great warrior, that's what generals are for. She doesn't need to be a Cid or a Nero or a Komoa - that's what chief engineers are for. But being humble and ready to listen, with a conservative idea of preserving the peace and freedom of her people, obviously designate her as the strongest candidate.
I absolutely believe that no one would have an issue with her if she was a male lead. She's funny, still a very capable warrior if not the strongest in the land, smart when it matters. She's neither whiney nor incompetent, she only lacks confidence. She has great social skills already.
The story is not about her character development; it's about how, in a strength-based society, she is actually the best choice for queen. Her father (who is basically us but on another continent) managed to create a kingdom of unity and peace *because* he had the strength to address the violence which used to be the norm. But now that peace is there, someone like Wuk Lamat *is* already the best ruler, and the storyline is about how she, and everyone else, will come to realize it.
You’re articulating some specific, tangible issues with the character- whether I agree with them or not the fact that they’re more than just ‘she’s loud and annoying’ make them different from most of the other complaints.
My issue isn’t that people don’t like her- polarising characters are great to have- but that all of the dislike being voiced is the kind of vague, unsubstantiated stuff that is often said about female leads and could _but is rarely to the same degree_ said about male characters.
My own feeling generally is that the ffxiv community isn’t as toxic as a lot of other gaming communities but I feel over the last couple of years when you look at the discourse around any number of games if there’s strongly voiced (usually non-specific) dislike for a character it’s more often than not a female one than a male, and I was seeing that kind of stuff being said about Wuk Lamat even before the release. With it now being out I’m seeing more of it, and even though I can see how people might find her irritating I don’t feel like she’s anywhere near the level that should have people saying ‘I’m skipping all the cutscenes because of her’. Maybe it’s just they’re the most vocal
Her personality is very boisterous and bouncy loud its annoying she feels like comic relief where its not needed.She is woeful clueless about anything even her surrounding areas outside tuyollal and wants to be its leader ? Come on get real without the WoL she doesnt stand a chance and she knows this and thinks she has the right to lead a national into a peaceful prosperous future ?
She is just extremely hard to digest and delusional.
Young graha is very annoying also compared to exarch graha.
Haven't played forspoken but comparing her to todays kids is a bad idea for this argument.
The polar opposite of hein tbh and and takes lyses worst traits and amplified them. Why they went with a rite of passage story when really we have has that in EVERY EXPANSION is annoying.
None of the other 3 candidates know anything about anywhere outside of Tural either, and contrary to Wuk Lamat, they don't care to learn about the people when they get there, they just want the stones.
The exception being Koana, but even he doesn't actually learn about the people and cultures, he just sees how to make things more Sharlayan regardless of what the people want.
I appreciate you replying.
I’ll be honest, even from what you said I’m not seeing just why people are complaining about her _so_ much - there are plenty of other characters in this game and other media who are boisterous and bouncy and naive of the world (like who was complaining about Aerith?) and while I would definitely find that annoying in real life, so can understand why people dislike it, I feel like there’s more complaining about Wuk Lamat disproportionately to what I’d expect. Maybe I’m just reading more about FFXIV than other games but there’s a part of me that thinks if she was a more conventionally pretty character, or male, we wouldn’t be hearing quite so much about it.
As an aside, as someone in their 40s I absolutely think Frey is representative of a fairly common type of mid twenties early 30s young person in terms of her personality/attitde 😂
>there’s a part of me that thinks if she was a more conventionally pretty character,
Let me stop you right there. Here character model is awesome. Her personality is jarring and just inept.
Wuk lamat " wha... what is that ?'
Its clearly a boat with a whale on it whats does it look like. She is dumb.
She is inept to lead a national and we are carrying her It's frustrating.
Aerith is a completely different character she was street smart. Zack was more like wuk lamat he was a bit annoying tbh and rather unpopular in lots of circles.
C’mon. Are you telling me that if you had never seen a _manatee_ and suddenly saw one _pulling a boat_ in a harbour of a city you had lived in most of your life you wouldn’t take a moment?! Hard disagree with you on that making her ‘inept’.
Also she shows *multiple* times in your questing with her that she is capable- she literally suggested what ended up being the solution for one of the first areas you visit, and did a lot of the conversation leading and the final task on her own in the second. I don’t hear people saying Bakool Ja Ja is inept and he’s just lurking around waiting to see what other people are doing.
>Are you telling me that if you had never seen a manatee and suddenly saw one pulling a boat in a harbour of a city you had lived in most of your life you wouldn’t take a moment?!
She wants to be a leader of a nation, she should have seen a manatee pulling a boat, except she is afraid of aplaca and boats. She is weakest of the siblings too mentally and physically. Erenville would probably be a better leader lol
Personality exist in many forms. Exarch graha has a cool composed wise personality and had a great screen presence, young graha, is just kinda childish and simps for us far to much and is just used for comic relief.
Try hanging around with that kinda person day in day out it's exhausting
Yes except Wuk's character is very JRPG, anime tropey, the air-headed aloof clueless main character that is supposed to be a leader at some point and is very much a good guy because they give speachess about being good and peace all the time. Where have we seen that before? Ah yes, Naruto, Goku, Luffey. JRPGs rely on these sorts of tropes, so it's not interesting at all. By the way, characters with actual personality traits, quirks, that are not very much a trope and have depth like Emet-Selch, Elidibus, Lahabrea, Venat are loved and adored by the community.
She’s literally the opposite of aloof! So far of all the candidates she’s the one that’s most on the ground with people interacting with locals. She’s also pretty much immediately friendly with you and everyone. Where on earth are you pulling aloof from?
Or airheaded? Being naive and cloistered is not the same as being stupid, and she shows multiple times that she’s observant, keen, emotionally perceptive and sharp.
I’m trusting people’s complaints less and less.
I think you are the one exaggerating. You're to one saying FFXIV players cant handle a character with actual personality and quircks while this community loves such characters. As I said Emet-Selch, Elidibus, Lahabrea, and Venat are examples of that.
You're intentionally being disingenuous by ignoring the entirety of my comment and trying to find some sort of catcha as to why you can dismiss my opinion as nonsense, so this will be my last comment to you as this is a waste of my time. I said they have actual personality traits and quirks, not that they're "quirky". Quirks are "an unusual habit or part of someone's personality, or something that is strange and unexpected", which both Lahabrea and Venat have plenty of. Both Lahabrea and Venat have these unexpected traits to their character. My point still stands, this community can love characters with actual personality and quirks. That some people don't like Wuk has nothing to do with that.
I did misread your use of quirky, but you lost me before that when you compared Wuk to Naruto and Luffy, simply ridiculous. This is why you and exaggerating hard. Wuk isn’t even as 1/10th as anime trope-y as that.
I can make a weak comparison like that too!
“Emet-Selch is very JRPG and anime tropey, the edgey villain who taunts the MC but actually has a sad backstory and gives speeches about why they are in the right”. Comparing Wuk to a shonen anime MC because she is slightly headstrong is a huge reach
I fully agree with you (and I'm also a woman). Wuk Lamat is a very interesting character. She's sweet, humble, curious, very brave (as in, she's afraid of many things and she faces her fears anyway), and genuinely loves her people.
I think a lot of gamers, male gamers in particular, absolutely hate having to take a step back behind a woman, especially a woman who isn't sexy, unless they're a furry. They don't want to get invested in her as a main character *because* she's a woman they can't sexualize.
I am about maybe halfway through the story in the 3rd zone and honestly, it’s gotten to the point where I am skipping some cutscenes because why am I watching a 10 minute cs about a fetch quest that really doesn’t matter? I liked Wuk Lamat at first but now I am getting tired of her story because of how they have to draw out every single little thing. I love story driven games but not when it’s 6 hours of fetch questing before your first dungeon. For me, I am hitting ARR levels of not caring at this point. The first two dungeons and trials were fun but I need more of it!
I had low expectations...but I wouldn't have thought it would be **this** bad. im giving up halfway on MSQ and just doing side contents for now, those are more engaging
Especially with the new graphics update, I find myself going out of my way to just find nice spots to get a good overview of the area from. As for Wuk Lamat, I'm on board with the throne claimant contest thing and I find it fun to explore the different people who live on the continent and comparing them with the societies we've seen in Eorzea. Also, I find the dynamic between Wuk Lamat and her brother very fun to watch.
So you say. Personally as much as I liked endwalker MSQ I've just about had it with saving the world. How many times have we done that now? Nice to be doing something else for a change.
Wuk Lamat is alright. Not the best character but not terrible either.
Wuk Lamat regularly thanks you for your help and gushes about how lucky she is to have such great companions.
Multiple people thank you for supporting Wuk Lamat. Are you even awake??
I haven’t been enjoying it that much so far for the following reasons:
1) there’s way too much yapping and a lot of the yapping is pointless yapping
2) the stakes are way too low for most of the first six levels of MSQ, so it’s really hard to care about what’s going on
3) some of the character motivations/goals are stupid/don’t make sense/aren’t consistent, especially for one of the main villains
4) Wuk Lamat isn’t likable and the story revolves around her, so we don’t really matter that much to the plot
5) the pacing of the plot can change rapidly at certain points and it creates a bit of whiplash
There’s redeeming qualities but these are the major issues I have. Me and the friend I’ve been playing it with have gotten so frustrated and bored that we’ve started skipping unvoiced cutscenes if they don’t seem important, and we usually never skip cutscenes
I haven't left the first city yet but I never wanted to support the other characters than I am being forced to more. This is painfully boring and I'd not be sad if we saved the grapes from the inevitable volcano and left our ward in it.
Wuk Lamat is annoying and pathetic, erenville is boring and pointless. Zones are pretty but are populated with essentially recolored cookie cutter races with almost zero depth or intrigue.
The story itself is beyond slow and tedious, not to mention just plain stupid. There is literally no point for the WoL in the story, we're just a long for the ride and contribute nothing until grunt work monster killing is needed. Definitely my least favorite expansion by a mile .
I’m almost level 96 and bored out of my mind with this expansion. This might be the worst one so far.
Some people say the 2nd half of the MSQ get better. I hope it does :/
90 to 93 were the quintessential world and character building parts but with much better comedy.
94 to 95 started off comedic but you could tell at the 94 solo trial and then the revelations in the late 94 quests that there was a dark secret. And my current prediction is the point on the trials was for the 4 promises to realize to lead the nation they need unity not just among the people but among them selves.
The pre 95 dungeon revelation was wild to me and actually made me change my feelings towards a character.
Also the dungeons actually are challenging and require thinking. And I can allready see how wild ex1 will be.
I am still near the beginning, doing the first two tribes. It is indeed slow (I will give the criticisms that) but actually enjoyable. It feels like a hybrid of travel documentary and slice of life anime. I do think one character (probably an antagonist?) a bit cartoonish. The other characters are all actually right, including find Lion Girl all right: she bizarrely reminds me Clarkson’s Farm (clumsy things that a super car presenter / princess do when put in another situation)… For a very long time FF14 let us do the protagonist thing. This time definitely feels different in that front.
I think less focus of the player as protagonist and slower and less epic approach threw some people off. Somehow this is something I actually wanted. My life is busy with work, game often full of smacking bad guy or despair. A departure from that does not feel bad. I actually wanted something less action packed.
Also the scenery representation is amazing. It really felt Incan - the scenery, the animals.
Really, really chill.
Without the narrative urgency of previous expansions, I've not been chewing my way through the story to the exclusion of everything else. I find myself wandering off and doing jumping puzzles, playing cards, etc - rather than putting that aside for later.
Also, it's nice to see the WoL smiling, for once!
I'm not far in, and I'm actually really enjoying it. I felt like EW's world building fell flat with me, and the entire first half was pretty slow and boring. Although it more than made up for it in the second half. DT so far has had a really good flow. The world is so beautifully crafted as well, and it's not overstaying its welcome on any part of it. You get your nugget of info you need on a place or race, and it moves on, which I feel is working out a lot better this time around.
It's okay so far. Waiting for things to pick up more and get interesting. Wuk Lamat I find pretty annoying. I'm not a fan of the young, dumb and a little dopey personality. Also the voice acting for her has been a real hit and miss. Plenty of scenes where the actions done don't match the tone of voice and just takes you out of it.
Huge meh from me so far. My character was completely ruined with the update (face 1 female highlander), and the story hasn't interested me at all. I got partway through and logged off out of both boredom and being upset at seeing my poor WOL looking awful in cutscenes. I have zero interest in logging in and finishing it; I canceled my sub last night.
My husband is enjoying it, though. His character (face 2 female highlander) had a nice glow-up and looks gorgeous in cutscenes, and he's fully invested in the story. He also really likes Viper.
I'm slowly getting used to the changes on mine. I don't like that my skin looks more realistic in that it's kind of blotchy in color, and my viera's nose just looks dirty with the shading on it. I don't hate it anymore but I'm not really happy.
I was also pretty happy when I heard about the changes made to my main, but in practice in casual content it feels like shit. I'm working on leveling another job up a bit to continue with something else.
E: Wow, I really hurt some peoples feelings judging by these downvotes. Not sure what that's about.
It good. Love learning about rando fantasy races cultures. One sidequest in the merchant culture zone made a deepcut reference to a FATE boss all the way back in ARR, which I thought was neat.
Just finished the first trial, and I've entered the 3rd zone. So far, I'm enjoying the break from all of the high stakes "if you fail everyone dies" action we've had for so long. I'm not in love with the setting, since it all reminds me too much of where I actually live, but the interactions and worldbuilding feels really nice (except the Pelu questline. that one can fuck off).
Wuk Lamat feels like a much better written Lyse. She's admitting her faults, growing, learning, and isn't just stepping up and taking credit for everything everyone helps her with. And, unfortunately, with how cartoonishly evil 2 of the claimants are, I'm pretty sure I can guess the actual outcome of the contest.
Job-wise, I've only played 3 so far (Bard, Dancer, Pictomancer) and all of them feel great to play still. Bard actually does respectable damage, and untargetted songs feel so much better to use. Dancer is \*exactly\* the same, just with more Finishers, which makes it so much more fun in that chaotic burst phase.
For Pictomancer, I've only got 2 real complaints: painting Motifs mid-combat just feels bad (I know the job is balanced around 9s+ of not dealing damage to paint them) and having Motif/Muse/Follow-up be 3 separate buttons when they could \*easily\* be 1 and 2 for the individual skills. There's no reason, right now, to not have Landscape>Starry>Prism not just be a single button. Or for your 1-2-3 to not just flip to the Subtractive 1-2-3 when you press the swap button. 5 buttons for what should only be 3, since you lose access to the original combo when you Subtract, and can't cast the other without being in Subtract. I know it was done to make sure the class didnt only have like 7 buttons total, but it really feels weird to me.
I am just about to hit 92. It is a very, VERY slow burn so far. I am not really enjoying myself. The zones are beautiful, the graphics update is nice and the music is awesome... but it's very slow. I think I've maybe killed 6 mobs in the last two levels? It's just talk to Wuk Lamat here, go to a new area, talk to her again. For two whole levels.
The pacing is very bad. I'll sludge through it to get to 100 but so far I am not enjoying it at all.
I think that the quest developers don’t have respect for my time.
I mean they didn’t before, but some of the quests here are borderline insulting.
Run to a spot away from town, click the ground to fill a progress bar three times, then run back to town.
This should have been a cutscene, gains nothing from being a ‘click to wait three times’, and actively annoys me by being such a blatant waste of my time.
I don’t get how people are playing this expansion and are somehow surprised it’s way less serious than the ones before. Like, the whole point of this expansion is to be a lighthearted adventure, a “summer vacation”. So what if the start is slow? Enjoy the ride, let the cute birdies carry the boat and have some fun.
Terrible. First my character looks very different from before, older, less cheery and lifeless. This seems also apply to other player characters I see in the world. Somehow the colors also seem less vibrant. While the world and dungeons look much better the characters don't seem like an upgrade or sidegrade at all but strait up downgrade. I wish they would keep old character textures and shape. I did the first dungeon and it was borring, no big dmg mobs like vanaspati or badam's mettle, not big pulls like Mount Gulg. No job dramatic redesign means everything feels the same during roulettes and lvl syncted stuff. The story is sooo boring. I was hoping for vacation expansion with adventures instead am getting a lot of busywork. I was expecting something like Azim Steppe or that time when we were diving through Ronka Pyramid, because THAT felt like adventure. WukLamat makes me only miss Lyse, Minfilia and Ryne, because they were so much better characters that I actually enjoyed having around and following. For a MMORPG more about the journey I can't wait to get through this fast enough. I was having more fun a week ago, just doing roulettes then yesterday and today with dawntrail and this feels wrong.
>I was having more fun a week ago, just doing roulettes then yesterday and today with dawntrail and this feels wrong.
This sums up my feelings incredibly well so far and I have *never* felt like that with FFXIV before. Hoping it gets better later, but man I am having a hard time getting the motivation to play through this whole MSQ which is usually my absolute favorite thing to do in the game.
I think it's fine, it's the start of a new era of expansions, nothing out the box, i'm just enjoying new areas, riding around while checking out new classes, I don't expect anything major to happen, story needs time to expand and build upon characters so in 10 years time they can killem all and make me sad again.
Visuals and soundtrack are absolutely outstanding and I love the setting but I am just very bored with the story. So far it has had almost none of the things I loved about the story of FFXIV from previous expansions, in particular that sense of mystique and desire to find out more about the world/area's history and lore. Something that is missing somehow despite being in a brand new and foreign country.
I understand this expansion was never going to be as high stakes as ShB or EW, but this is just way too slow and uninteresting and feels like it would have been better suited as post expansion MSQ instead of taking the main focus.
I am also incredibly disinterested in Wuk Lamat, which is a shame cause I thought I was really going to like her as I was very excited for a new female lead.
Getting past the first arc (about 95), I'm enjoying it more. The first arc itself was just... almost arr levels of fetch quests, just with npcs and visuals that aren't horrible. I love learning about Tural, don't get me wrong, but as a medium of exploring it.. it's very cookie-cutter and doesn't throw any unexpected punches at all. Everything works out pretty much exactly as you might expect it to. Too safe, I would say. Past this... it still is kind of that, but a little more amusing. I hate having to keep it vague, but really don't want to spoil anyone who stumbles in here.
I'm getting there too and I feel the same as you. I think I know what will come (since story trailer show it pretty clearly) and I guess we'll see !
You put it mostly how I would. I just reached the second dungeon, and it’s been pretty safe, but I am liking the vibe, the music, the graphics, and am excited for the surprises that seem likely to come. Edit: needs more action for sure.
I am at LVL96 MSQ. If this continues in this direction, it will be my least favorite expansion, although that is not a bad thing. My expectations were low since this is following Endwalker, but I did not think we would be slightly above ARR in terms of engaged. The visuals and music are solid enough but I have liked previous expansions’ battle music, with Shadowbringers getting the most pumped in dungeons. The zones and areas have a distinct aesthetic and theme that I appreciate. However, the story and characters are weak. Wuk Lamat is a likeable character but she is still a little flat and maybe it’s because the antagonistic characters are cartoon evil. World-building is a good thing but there is something about the way that it is done here that does not land.
Only at the first dungeon. So far I don’t hate it but goodness me, I wish they’d step up the actual gameplay of questing. Running from NPC to NPC and “occasionally” fighting two/three enemies and “occasionally” interacting with a few items in the world is just boring. Story itself is interesting enough. I’m a big world building fan so I find it pretty nifty so far. That said, only at the 91 dungeon so I’m barely ankle deep so far
Maaaaaan….. first two zones was FAR too much dialogue. Pretty sure I had 1 kill mobs question in each zone. I’m really waiting for it to pick up…. Also what’s with all these lizard boys trying to look tough at us…. We literally beat the End it self at the edge of the universe while riding a blood crazed Dragon and fighting on his back….. our state alone should be enough to melt these “warriors”.
Yeah, I don't like that they clearly think they can beat us easily and are all smug constantly and we have to keep letting them think that. They don't have a clue who we are, and while that's not necessarily a bad thing, I'm really tired of just being Wuk Lamat's lackey. No one has asked who we are or anything about us. We are literally heroes to the world who are following her around doing things for her. We don't even get to speak unless it's our turn to reassure her.
> I'm really tired of just being Wuk Lamat's lackey. One of the first zones we literally do nothing besides be a pack mule, then camp out while she does the quest. I'm fine with taking a step back and doing lower stakes, but at least let us actually be involved in those smaller stakes. ARR at least had us participating and driving the smaller scale plots, but this is us basically being a glorified retainer.
With that zone, it was almost like it existed just to remind us that the Key Items tab exists, what with us being handed things and handing them back to her because apparently it's a key part of her character that she cannot be trusted with stuff. Real leader material, right there.
One thing different about FF14 story, say compared to FF11, we are the protagonist… up to this expansion. In FF11, we just watch the main NPCs (Ajido, Prishe etc) do their stuff and we just help them.
A glorified retainer? Did you not pay attention to the story? Not only are we a retainer we are regarded as such by everyone. These people know nothing of our feats and have no reason to respect us. Like I get it if all you do is start cutscenes and walk away and mash dialouge boxes away I could see that being your opinion
I did pay attention. There is already barely any gameplay happening, the first few zones have exactly one quest where you actually fight anything, and even that is a couple instances of 1-2 trash mob level enemies. On top of the no gameplay, we are barely involved in driving any of the events happening and are just there along for the ride. I understand that is the premise, but it doesn't make it any less boring. If you like it, great, I'm not saying you can't. just that hours of no gameplay and little to no personal character relevance isn't doing it for me.
DA STORY BASED GAME IS MOSTLY STORY? Go play some slop like wow
Are you actually reading what I am saying, or just rushing through my comments? Nowhere am I complaining that there is a lot of story, I'm saying that the story is not compelling to me. And even though it is a story based game, it should still have some actual gameplay, which it barely does.
Just like every expansion since storm blood it's action light till dungeon 1 then picks up until near the end where we get like a solo duty every level dungeon every two and less and less quests The 95 dungeon based on the wiki quest list is exact 50 percent through the game but their is twice the amount of dungeon content and 5 more solo battles.
Previous expansion got interesting story content between these dungeon and trials. This is not the case for the first half of Dawntrail.
If you don't think this content is interesting then I beg just stop playing FF14 maybe a game like call of duty is more your speed.
Differences in style. Honestly? Love it when they underestimate us. Watching as all hope drains from their eyes as they get shit wrecked is the best part for me. Especially when they spent an expansion underestimating us.
Maybe I'll feel that way once I get to beat the smug looks off their ugly faces, but right now it just feels bad. Going into this I thought I was fine with lower stakes, but I haven't felt necessary for anything. The only time we've even been acknowledged was that one line from Estinien. I'm fine being underestimated but it would be nice for some of these Turali people to notice we are there and ask our names or something. They don't even acknowledge us.
Personally love it. In my head cannon, my WoL is now Absolutely Blitzed on margaritas 24/7 and is just wandering serenely about after Wuk Lamat. She's enjoying all the pretty views, safe in the knowledge that if the lizard boy really pushes things she can rip out his spine and beat both his heads in with it.
Im at Level 98 and yeah the Solution Nine Stuff was nice but for the love of god can we not just be doing this without Wuk Lamat. It seems like this whole MSQ is all about Wuk Lamat and we're just the Guy that gets ordered around by her and even Alisae has said to us "Besides this is Wuk Lamats Journey."
Wuk Lamat is the new furry minfilia :/
I'm only in the third zone so still in the first part of the story. I'm sure it will pick up but so far the story is nice but not terribly engaging and the way it's being told (via normal ffxiv fetch quests) is *extremely* boring. I expected that, though. The zones look amazing. The city was obviously designed to show off the graphics update. Unfortunately I do not like what they did to my character's face; it looked different in the benchmark and it looks worse than I feared in the game.
Only at lvl 92 but so far it’s been fine, nothing particularly great or bad, just kinda fine. I do like learning about Tural but some of the fetch quests go on longer than they need to be, and there really needs to be more combat encounters, constant reading can get a bit tiring after awhile and if I wasn’t interested in learning about Tural I can see myself getting very bored. The characters are fine, I am enjoying each of the claimants, they each fill their little niche’s pretty well so far, I just want more of them (and since I’m basically at the start, I expect I will get more of them) Music though, top tier, as always
Too many fetch quests at the start, but once you get past those, it's a great experience. I like that 8 player content can be done with NPCs. So far at least, haven't seen all trials yet. Makes more sense to bring them from a story PoV, which is what this opinion is based on. Gameplay-wise, it's really easy so far. Yes, I'm more experienced now than I was during Endwalker, which was my starting point, but still, it's by far the easiest expansion for me so far (up to level 95 as of right now).
Wuk Lamat turned me into a cutscene skipper.
I do catch myself skipping more when she talks. I'll read the box real quick and hit next asap.
it does not help that the VA's voice cracks like a prepubescent boy and she fails to deliver on excitement... it wouldn't be as bad if she was a secondary character, but she just keeps talking and talking while the other scions get like.. 5 sentences each..
I've seen a lot of people complaining about the slow pacing in the first half of the game. I have to be honest, I don't have a problem with it. Yes, it's slow, but it's not *bad pacing*. I think the pacing is just right for the type of story it's trying to tell, and I'm really enjoying the journey. I haven't seen the second half yet, so I can't comment on that.
Yeah I’m kind of enjoying just chilling? I was so eager to get to an instanced duty/dungeon yesterday (took me about 11 hours, lol) so now I’ve done one I’m just enjoying the vibe and tooling around. I’m going between msq and side quests, and crafting and gathering. I don’t feel _obliged_ to just stick with msq.
This is my first time being part of an expansion from release but it all just feels very basic so far. It almost feels like ARR just on a different map. If I would have to rank expansions it would be ARR, DT, SB, SHB, EW, HW.
WAIT YOU MEAN THE WE XPANSION TAKING PLACE AT THE START OD THE NEW 10 YEAR STORY... THAT TAKES PLACE ON A CONTIENT WE HAVE NEVER BEEN ON BEFORE WITH CULTURES AND PEOPLE NOTHING LIKE OUR OWN, WITH NO OVER ARCHING PRE ESTABLISHED VILLAN IS LIKE THE VERY FIRST STORY PIECE WHERE WE WERE IN A NEW WORLD WE HAD NEVER BEEN TO BEFORE THAT HAD TO ESTABLISH THE BASIC WORLD AND VILLAN STRUCTURE WE WOULD INTERACT WITH I'm shocked and disturbed.
“Yoshida told us this expansion would be shit so you should’ve been ok with eating shit”
Lemme know where i said that? lemme know where i said it was shit Its setup, the story is setting up something
Damn let people have opinions.
I actually am hating wuk lamat. I feel like we have been sold a dead cat. Just a gratingly obnoxious annoying clueless useless air head of a character.
I’m genuinely curious to know what about her you find obnoxious or air heady. To me she comes across as a _young_, sheltered, but caring and motivated person who genuinely wants to do her best for her people to have a peaceful future. I read her as naive rather than stupid, but very willing to learn- I only just got to Earthenshire but straight after the dungeon she has that talk about not having to be strong and capable all the time and how she wants to learn from you. I’ve seen a lot of people complain about her using the same kind of words you have but, tbh, as a woman who’s been gaming a long time, any time there’s that much complaining around a centred character who _happens_ to be female, and it’s generic things like ‘annoying’, ‘obnoxious’ etc but without specifics I really tend to take it all with a healthy personality pinch of salt. For example a lot of people said the same thing about Frey from Forspoken. One of my students (14M) spent ages going on about how awful she was and he hadn’t even played the game! I played it for the first time a couple of months ago out of contrarianism because I thought there’s no way it could be as bad as people said and it wasn’t- and _she_ wasn’t. She was no more obnoxious than I’d find _any_ person her age, and no more obnoxious than a lot of other characters with similar traits. I’m seeing a lot of the same kind of things being thrown around about Wuk Lamat but I don’t see how she’s more irritating/obnoxious/whatever than, say, G’raha Tia or Thancred when they were introduced. It’s been a while but I don’t remember people reacting to them this strongly.
My worry right now (level 93) is that Wuk Lamat's character arc feels INCREDIBLY predictable right now. And it is a very typical story we've seen a thousand times before. Hell, we've kind of already seen it in XIV via Lyse. If they do something interesting with her character or offer some kind of twist to make her development not exactly what it shows on the tin, then I will be pleasantly surprised. If she continues down this same obvious path of growing her confidence into a competent compassionate leader that gets everything handed to her because she's the main character... Then I will be less enthused by the end of the story. Characters like Thancred and Graha were kind of annoying and stereotypical when they were first introduced, but their individual plot lines quickly moved them places where I didn't exactly know where they were headed. I'm not a Wuk Lamat hater, and I am willing to give her a chance to shine. But I do see the criticisms people have of her and think that there is some weight to them. Not just people hating on her because she's a female lead. I think this is a very common thing even for male leads that are introduced as unconfident, naive, or frequently used as comic relief. To use a popular anime reference, many people really dislike Deku, the main character of My Hero Academia for these same reasons. He's introduced as a whiney, incompetent, unconfident character that gets everything literally handed to him by his superiors. His poor social skills constantly annoy people, and his character development is super predictable. I think a lot of people could easily defend Deku and talk about his great work ethic and other things that do make him worthy of being a main character, so I'm not shitting on him either, just providing an example of a male lead that faces similar criticisms as Wuk Lamat.
Wuk Lamat is the opposite of that...She already has the skills to be a great leader. People don't believe in her and talk down to her because she's not as strong as the two mamool ja, who are godlike strong, or she's not an engineering genius. Those are stupid reasons to think someone should become king. She gets nothing handed to her. She works hard, she faces her fears, she gets things done. She's the only one of the 4 who, when arriving in a new place, volunteers to help the people with their problems instead of sitting around until the trial is ready. Also it's shown repeatedly, from the start, why she has the qualities to be the best ruler: she knows how to choose her companions (us), she listens to what her entourage says and takes it into account, she shows genuine interest to the people she wants to rule, she has zero ego. She is likeable because she actually cares about all the people she meets. She remembers the names of all the persons we meet in all the random villages we visit. A good ruler doesn't necessarily have to be a great warrior, that's what generals are for. She doesn't need to be a Cid or a Nero or a Komoa - that's what chief engineers are for. But being humble and ready to listen, with a conservative idea of preserving the peace and freedom of her people, obviously designate her as the strongest candidate. I absolutely believe that no one would have an issue with her if she was a male lead. She's funny, still a very capable warrior if not the strongest in the land, smart when it matters. She's neither whiney nor incompetent, she only lacks confidence. She has great social skills already. The story is not about her character development; it's about how, in a strength-based society, she is actually the best choice for queen. Her father (who is basically us but on another continent) managed to create a kingdom of unity and peace *because* he had the strength to address the violence which used to be the norm. But now that peace is there, someone like Wuk Lamat *is* already the best ruler, and the storyline is about how she, and everyone else, will come to realize it.
You’re articulating some specific, tangible issues with the character- whether I agree with them or not the fact that they’re more than just ‘she’s loud and annoying’ make them different from most of the other complaints. My issue isn’t that people don’t like her- polarising characters are great to have- but that all of the dislike being voiced is the kind of vague, unsubstantiated stuff that is often said about female leads and could _but is rarely to the same degree_ said about male characters. My own feeling generally is that the ffxiv community isn’t as toxic as a lot of other gaming communities but I feel over the last couple of years when you look at the discourse around any number of games if there’s strongly voiced (usually non-specific) dislike for a character it’s more often than not a female one than a male, and I was seeing that kind of stuff being said about Wuk Lamat even before the release. With it now being out I’m seeing more of it, and even though I can see how people might find her irritating I don’t feel like she’s anywhere near the level that should have people saying ‘I’m skipping all the cutscenes because of her’. Maybe it’s just they’re the most vocal
Her personality is very boisterous and bouncy loud its annoying she feels like comic relief where its not needed.She is woeful clueless about anything even her surrounding areas outside tuyollal and wants to be its leader ? Come on get real without the WoL she doesnt stand a chance and she knows this and thinks she has the right to lead a national into a peaceful prosperous future ? She is just extremely hard to digest and delusional. Young graha is very annoying also compared to exarch graha. Haven't played forspoken but comparing her to todays kids is a bad idea for this argument. The polar opposite of hein tbh and and takes lyses worst traits and amplified them. Why they went with a rite of passage story when really we have has that in EVERY EXPANSION is annoying.
None of the other 3 candidates know anything about anywhere outside of Tural either, and contrary to Wuk Lamat, they don't care to learn about the people when they get there, they just want the stones. The exception being Koana, but even he doesn't actually learn about the people and cultures, he just sees how to make things more Sharlayan regardless of what the people want.
I appreciate you replying. I’ll be honest, even from what you said I’m not seeing just why people are complaining about her _so_ much - there are plenty of other characters in this game and other media who are boisterous and bouncy and naive of the world (like who was complaining about Aerith?) and while I would definitely find that annoying in real life, so can understand why people dislike it, I feel like there’s more complaining about Wuk Lamat disproportionately to what I’d expect. Maybe I’m just reading more about FFXIV than other games but there’s a part of me that thinks if she was a more conventionally pretty character, or male, we wouldn’t be hearing quite so much about it. As an aside, as someone in their 40s I absolutely think Frey is representative of a fairly common type of mid twenties early 30s young person in terms of her personality/attitde 😂
>there’s a part of me that thinks if she was a more conventionally pretty character, Let me stop you right there. Here character model is awesome. Her personality is jarring and just inept. Wuk lamat " wha... what is that ?' Its clearly a boat with a whale on it whats does it look like. She is dumb. She is inept to lead a national and we are carrying her It's frustrating. Aerith is a completely different character she was street smart. Zack was more like wuk lamat he was a bit annoying tbh and rather unpopular in lots of circles.
C’mon. Are you telling me that if you had never seen a _manatee_ and suddenly saw one _pulling a boat_ in a harbour of a city you had lived in most of your life you wouldn’t take a moment?! Hard disagree with you on that making her ‘inept’. Also she shows *multiple* times in your questing with her that she is capable- she literally suggested what ended up being the solution for one of the first areas you visit, and did a lot of the conversation leading and the final task on her own in the second. I don’t hear people saying Bakool Ja Ja is inept and he’s just lurking around waiting to see what other people are doing.
>Are you telling me that if you had never seen a manatee and suddenly saw one pulling a boat in a harbour of a city you had lived in most of your life you wouldn’t take a moment?! She wants to be a leader of a nation, she should have seen a manatee pulling a boat, except she is afraid of aplaca and boats. She is weakest of the siblings too mentally and physically. Erenville would probably be a better leader lol
It’s also weird to find young Graha annoying. Are people just allergic to any character with some personality?
Personality exist in many forms. Exarch graha has a cool composed wise personality and had a great screen presence, young graha, is just kinda childish and simps for us far to much and is just used for comic relief. Try hanging around with that kinda person day in day out it's exhausting
FFXIV players are so used to white-haired scions that mainly lore dump that a character with an actual personality and quirks scares them
Yes except Wuk's character is very JRPG, anime tropey, the air-headed aloof clueless main character that is supposed to be a leader at some point and is very much a good guy because they give speachess about being good and peace all the time. Where have we seen that before? Ah yes, Naruto, Goku, Luffey. JRPGs rely on these sorts of tropes, so it's not interesting at all. By the way, characters with actual personality traits, quirks, that are not very much a trope and have depth like Emet-Selch, Elidibus, Lahabrea, Venat are loved and adored by the community.
She’s literally the opposite of aloof! So far of all the candidates she’s the one that’s most on the ground with people interacting with locals. She’s also pretty much immediately friendly with you and everyone. Where on earth are you pulling aloof from? Or airheaded? Being naive and cloistered is not the same as being stupid, and she shows multiple times that she’s observant, keen, emotionally perceptive and sharp. I’m trusting people’s complaints less and less.
I think you are exaggerating a lot
I think you are the one exaggerating. You're to one saying FFXIV players cant handle a character with actual personality and quircks while this community loves such characters. As I said Emet-Selch, Elidibus, Lahabrea, and Venat are examples of that.
Bro said Eldibus and Venat as his examples of quirky characters. Two of the most stoic people on the planet. This is exactly what I’m talking about.
You're intentionally being disingenuous by ignoring the entirety of my comment and trying to find some sort of catcha as to why you can dismiss my opinion as nonsense, so this will be my last comment to you as this is a waste of my time. I said they have actual personality traits and quirks, not that they're "quirky". Quirks are "an unusual habit or part of someone's personality, or something that is strange and unexpected", which both Lahabrea and Venat have plenty of. Both Lahabrea and Venat have these unexpected traits to their character. My point still stands, this community can love characters with actual personality and quirks. That some people don't like Wuk has nothing to do with that.
I did misread your use of quirky, but you lost me before that when you compared Wuk to Naruto and Luffy, simply ridiculous. This is why you and exaggerating hard. Wuk isn’t even as 1/10th as anime trope-y as that. I can make a weak comparison like that too! “Emet-Selch is very JRPG and anime tropey, the edgey villain who taunts the MC but actually has a sad backstory and gives speeches about why they are in the right”. Comparing Wuk to a shonen anime MC because she is slightly headstrong is a huge reach
I fully agree with you (and I'm also a woman). Wuk Lamat is a very interesting character. She's sweet, humble, curious, very brave (as in, she's afraid of many things and she faces her fears anyway), and genuinely loves her people. I think a lot of gamers, male gamers in particular, absolutely hate having to take a step back behind a woman, especially a woman who isn't sexy, unless they're a furry. They don't want to get invested in her as a main character *because* she's a woman they can't sexualize.
I am about maybe halfway through the story in the 3rd zone and honestly, it’s gotten to the point where I am skipping some cutscenes because why am I watching a 10 minute cs about a fetch quest that really doesn’t matter? I liked Wuk Lamat at first but now I am getting tired of her story because of how they have to draw out every single little thing. I love story driven games but not when it’s 6 hours of fetch questing before your first dungeon. For me, I am hitting ARR levels of not caring at this point. The first two dungeons and trials were fun but I need more of it!
I had low expectations...but I wouldn't have thought it would be **this** bad. im giving up halfway on MSQ and just doing side contents for now, those are more engaging
The music in the main city was an odd choice and I don’t really like Wuk Lamar as a potential ruler/ main character. Great otherwise.
Very mediocre. Wuk Lamat being Lyse 2.0 (but dumber) is even worst for me
I liked lyse she had a sad backstory. Wuk lamat is just dumb and annoying.
I'm enjoying the lower stakes just exploring the world and it's characters.
Especially with the new graphics update, I find myself going out of my way to just find nice spots to get a good overview of the area from. As for Wuk Lamat, I'm on board with the throne claimant contest thing and I find it fun to explore the different people who live on the continent and comparing them with the societies we've seen in Eorzea. Also, I find the dynamic between Wuk Lamat and her brother very fun to watch.
There is low stakes and just plain boring.. putting their hopes that we like wuk lamat was a dumb writing choice she is annoying as fuck
So you say. Personally as much as I liked endwalker MSQ I've just about had it with saving the world. How many times have we done that now? Nice to be doing something else for a change. Wuk Lamat is alright. Not the best character but not terrible either.
I agree saving the world/universe needs a break. Yeah she is just not sitting with me !
I don't like "returning to my adventurer roots" if that means no one thanks me or acknowledges me. I'm just a warm body carrying Wuk Lamat.
Wuk Lamat regularly thanks you for your help and gushes about how lucky she is to have such great companions. Multiple people thank you for supporting Wuk Lamat. Are you even awake??
At the early point in the story I'm at, I haven't heard anyone thank us. Maybe it comes later.
I haven’t been enjoying it that much so far for the following reasons: 1) there’s way too much yapping and a lot of the yapping is pointless yapping 2) the stakes are way too low for most of the first six levels of MSQ, so it’s really hard to care about what’s going on 3) some of the character motivations/goals are stupid/don’t make sense/aren’t consistent, especially for one of the main villains 4) Wuk Lamat isn’t likable and the story revolves around her, so we don’t really matter that much to the plot 5) the pacing of the plot can change rapidly at certain points and it creates a bit of whiplash There’s redeeming qualities but these are the major issues I have. Me and the friend I’ve been playing it with have gotten so frustrated and bored that we’ve started skipping unvoiced cutscenes if they don’t seem important, and we usually never skip cutscenes
I've enjoyed what I've played so far, I like the lower stakes and more focus on the other characters.
I haven't left the first city yet but I never wanted to support the other characters than I am being forced to more. This is painfully boring and I'd not be sad if we saved the grapes from the inevitable volcano and left our ward in it.
It's fun. I like the vibe so far and I think they nailed it with both of the new jobs.
Wuk Lamat is annoying and pathetic, erenville is boring and pointless. Zones are pretty but are populated with essentially recolored cookie cutter races with almost zero depth or intrigue. The story itself is beyond slow and tedious, not to mention just plain stupid. There is literally no point for the WoL in the story, we're just a long for the ride and contribute nothing until grunt work monster killing is needed. Definitely my least favorite expansion by a mile .
I’m almost level 96 and bored out of my mind with this expansion. This might be the worst one so far. Some people say the 2nd half of the MSQ get better. I hope it does :/
90 to 93 were the quintessential world and character building parts but with much better comedy. 94 to 95 started off comedic but you could tell at the 94 solo trial and then the revelations in the late 94 quests that there was a dark secret. And my current prediction is the point on the trials was for the 4 promises to realize to lead the nation they need unity not just among the people but among them selves. The pre 95 dungeon revelation was wild to me and actually made me change my feelings towards a character. Also the dungeons actually are challenging and require thinking. And I can allready see how wild ex1 will be.
Fantastic on all fronts. Especially music and visuals.
I am still near the beginning, doing the first two tribes. It is indeed slow (I will give the criticisms that) but actually enjoyable. It feels like a hybrid of travel documentary and slice of life anime. I do think one character (probably an antagonist?) a bit cartoonish. The other characters are all actually right, including find Lion Girl all right: she bizarrely reminds me Clarkson’s Farm (clumsy things that a super car presenter / princess do when put in another situation)… For a very long time FF14 let us do the protagonist thing. This time definitely feels different in that front. I think less focus of the player as protagonist and slower and less epic approach threw some people off. Somehow this is something I actually wanted. My life is busy with work, game often full of smacking bad guy or despair. A departure from that does not feel bad. I actually wanted something less action packed. Also the scenery representation is amazing. It really felt Incan - the scenery, the animals.
Really, really chill. Without the narrative urgency of previous expansions, I've not been chewing my way through the story to the exclusion of everything else. I find myself wandering off and doing jumping puzzles, playing cards, etc - rather than putting that aside for later. Also, it's nice to see the WoL smiling, for once!
10/10 Story is great. I love both new classes. Duty Support feels much faster than before. I'm only level 94 tho so we'll see
I’ve only done the first dungeon but it also felt faster to me- though I felt like I had to heal the tank way more than previous duty supports
The tanks do tend to stand in AoE sometimes for some weird reason but I play as an DPS so it didn't bother me too much lol
I'm not far in, and I'm actually really enjoying it. I felt like EW's world building fell flat with me, and the entire first half was pretty slow and boring. Although it more than made up for it in the second half. DT so far has had a really good flow. The world is so beautifully crafted as well, and it's not overstaying its welcome on any part of it. You get your nugget of info you need on a place or race, and it moves on, which I feel is working out a lot better this time around.
It's okay so far. Waiting for things to pick up more and get interesting. Wuk Lamat I find pretty annoying. I'm not a fan of the young, dumb and a little dopey personality. Also the voice acting for her has been a real hit and miss. Plenty of scenes where the actions done don't match the tone of voice and just takes you out of it.
The worst expansion, the MSQ so far is very dull, go X, meet race X, do task, get keystone, that x6.
Where have you been for the past like... Four expansions? That's the MSQ brother.
Huge meh from me so far. My character was completely ruined with the update (face 1 female highlander), and the story hasn't interested me at all. I got partway through and logged off out of both boredom and being upset at seeing my poor WOL looking awful in cutscenes. I have zero interest in logging in and finishing it; I canceled my sub last night. My husband is enjoying it, though. His character (face 2 female highlander) had a nice glow-up and looks gorgeous in cutscenes, and he's fully invested in the story. He also really likes Viper.
I'm slowly getting used to the changes on mine. I don't like that my skin looks more realistic in that it's kind of blotchy in color, and my viera's nose just looks dirty with the shading on it. I don't hate it anymore but I'm not really happy. I was also pretty happy when I heard about the changes made to my main, but in practice in casual content it feels like shit. I'm working on leveling another job up a bit to continue with something else. E: Wow, I really hurt some peoples feelings judging by these downvotes. Not sure what that's about.
Same, not sure why we're both getting downvoted for not being 100% happy with the changes.
It good. Love learning about rando fantasy races cultures. One sidequest in the merchant culture zone made a deepcut reference to a FATE boss all the way back in ARR, which I thought was neat.
Just finished the first trial, and I've entered the 3rd zone. So far, I'm enjoying the break from all of the high stakes "if you fail everyone dies" action we've had for so long. I'm not in love with the setting, since it all reminds me too much of where I actually live, but the interactions and worldbuilding feels really nice (except the Pelu questline. that one can fuck off). Wuk Lamat feels like a much better written Lyse. She's admitting her faults, growing, learning, and isn't just stepping up and taking credit for everything everyone helps her with. And, unfortunately, with how cartoonishly evil 2 of the claimants are, I'm pretty sure I can guess the actual outcome of the contest. Job-wise, I've only played 3 so far (Bard, Dancer, Pictomancer) and all of them feel great to play still. Bard actually does respectable damage, and untargetted songs feel so much better to use. Dancer is \*exactly\* the same, just with more Finishers, which makes it so much more fun in that chaotic burst phase. For Pictomancer, I've only got 2 real complaints: painting Motifs mid-combat just feels bad (I know the job is balanced around 9s+ of not dealing damage to paint them) and having Motif/Muse/Follow-up be 3 separate buttons when they could \*easily\* be 1 and 2 for the individual skills. There's no reason, right now, to not have Landscape>Starry>Prism not just be a single button. Or for your 1-2-3 to not just flip to the Subtractive 1-2-3 when you press the swap button. 5 buttons for what should only be 3, since you lose access to the original combo when you Subtract, and can't cast the other without being in Subtract. I know it was done to make sure the class didnt only have like 7 buttons total, but it really feels weird to me.
I think of the days when I was leveling through ARR
It's more FFXIV and that's all I really need it to be.
I am just about to hit 92. It is a very, VERY slow burn so far. I am not really enjoying myself. The zones are beautiful, the graphics update is nice and the music is awesome... but it's very slow. I think I've maybe killed 6 mobs in the last two levels? It's just talk to Wuk Lamat here, go to a new area, talk to her again. For two whole levels. The pacing is very bad. I'll sludge through it to get to 100 but so far I am not enjoying it at all.
Boring. 3 hours fetch quests I had to stop and played something else. Which is insane for me to say as I usually no life new MMO expansions.
I think that the quest developers don’t have respect for my time. I mean they didn’t before, but some of the quests here are borderline insulting. Run to a spot away from town, click the ground to fill a progress bar three times, then run back to town. This should have been a cutscene, gains nothing from being a ‘click to wait three times’, and actively annoys me by being such a blatant waste of my time.
I don’t get how people are playing this expansion and are somehow surprised it’s way less serious than the ones before. Like, the whole point of this expansion is to be a lighthearted adventure, a “summer vacation”. So what if the start is slow? Enjoy the ride, let the cute birdies carry the boat and have some fun.
Terrible. First my character looks very different from before, older, less cheery and lifeless. This seems also apply to other player characters I see in the world. Somehow the colors also seem less vibrant. While the world and dungeons look much better the characters don't seem like an upgrade or sidegrade at all but strait up downgrade. I wish they would keep old character textures and shape. I did the first dungeon and it was borring, no big dmg mobs like vanaspati or badam's mettle, not big pulls like Mount Gulg. No job dramatic redesign means everything feels the same during roulettes and lvl syncted stuff. The story is sooo boring. I was hoping for vacation expansion with adventures instead am getting a lot of busywork. I was expecting something like Azim Steppe or that time when we were diving through Ronka Pyramid, because THAT felt like adventure. WukLamat makes me only miss Lyse, Minfilia and Ryne, because they were so much better characters that I actually enjoyed having around and following. For a MMORPG more about the journey I can't wait to get through this fast enough. I was having more fun a week ago, just doing roulettes then yesterday and today with dawntrail and this feels wrong.
>I was having more fun a week ago, just doing roulettes then yesterday and today with dawntrail and this feels wrong. This sums up my feelings incredibly well so far and I have *never* felt like that with FFXIV before. Hoping it gets better later, but man I am having a hard time getting the motivation to play through this whole MSQ which is usually my absolute favorite thing to do in the game.
I think it's fine, it's the start of a new era of expansions, nothing out the box, i'm just enjoying new areas, riding around while checking out new classes, I don't expect anything major to happen, story needs time to expand and build upon characters so in 10 years time they can killem all and make me sad again.
Visuals and soundtrack are absolutely outstanding and I love the setting but I am just very bored with the story. So far it has had almost none of the things I loved about the story of FFXIV from previous expansions, in particular that sense of mystique and desire to find out more about the world/area's history and lore. Something that is missing somehow despite being in a brand new and foreign country. I understand this expansion was never going to be as high stakes as ShB or EW, but this is just way too slow and uninteresting and feels like it would have been better suited as post expansion MSQ instead of taking the main focus. I am also incredibly disinterested in Wuk Lamat, which is a shame cause I thought I was really going to like her as I was very excited for a new female lead.