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| Couldn't take a screenshot of the title screen so uh have the keyart! |
Developer/publisher: Square Enix.
Platform: PS4/5, PC, xbone.
Official Site: N/A.
Platform: PS4/5, PC, xbone.
Official Site: N/A.
Release date: 27-6-2024.
I have been playing FFXIV for quite some time but never wrote a review on it.
This post is mostly about the new expansion dawntrail and it isn't much about the previous.
There aren't any major plot spoilers in this post but anything could count as
a spoiler to some so whatever I guess this is just a blog post and I am writing my own
personal thoughts as a review of a game I played, if you don't like it then close the tab/browser.
Pro's
- Decent enough plot.
- Great character development for Krile and Erenville.
- The first four zones are beautiful.
Con's
- Levels are simply given to you and I personally don't feel like I earned the lvl 100.
- Recycles too much old tunes and enemy models as well, its like i've seen/heard this before.
- I get Wuk Lamat is a main character but she steals too much of the spotlight...
The expansions features a slight graphic update with better textures and models
gotta admit I was a little nervous, my WoL turned out okay but there may have
been those the update wasn't too kind of. The developers were kind enough to
give players a free fantasia to edit the character again. Which is a good thing.
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| Not really great at taking screenshots but thought this was a nice spot in the game. |
More rambles after the jump but if you want the short of it, I think Dawntrail is decent
however don't expect too much out of the story and just enjoy it for what it is not for what it is not.
and feels better, I had little to no complaints about it. I really enjoyed exploring
the first four zones they were all breathtaking!
The music is pretty good and soken the composer is at it again however, there are still plenty
of reused tracks and for some it was nice to hear them again yet others I was like oh its this... tune.
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| I actually wish we were there now... |
I didn't really play any of the new classes during early access or release, personally I am
not fond of melee which left pictomancer for me which I wanted to try more than the new melee.
Honestly I don't see much of a point of leveling classes I am not going to play
so at the end of the day I only play the ones I really like.
Also I think the game is starting to recycle too much, like I already mentioned the music
but the same thing can be said for enemy models, its not fun seeing the first boss from
the eden raids in the final dungeon of DT, I get it is cost efficient but a little bit
more effort would be much appreciated. Maybe I have just played this game for too long
and seeing enemies reskinned is just getting to me, lmao.
Honestly I think the final dungeon of EW had better boss design, they were more unique
and not straight-up a reskin from some other boss in the game.
I used to say the dev's were clever with reusing bosses base-skeleton but now they're just lazy.
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| Koana!!!! Squeaaal~~ |
On to the story, it had a slow start that I will admit but I generally liked exploring the new world
and getting to know the peoples. Sure at first it was a little boring and there seemed to be no stakes
but it got a lot better around the time of the first trial and onwards from the 3rd area.
Wuk Lamat as a character did grew on me, she grew a lot over the course of the story
and Koana is my new favorite cat boy! sorry Graha but you are almost getting dethroned!
Bakool Jaja was another surprise favorite however I cannot say the same for Zarool Ja...
that was a character who grew worse and worse and saw no sign of redemption.
Unfortunately I think the story overstayed its welcome after the second trial
like a lot of it was a broken train that kept going and no one seemed to mind
I also hated whatever music played at the backroom because it got on my nerves.
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| Literally me during the latter half of the game. |
that generally liked FF9. It used to be Azys Lla but even that looked much better
and not like some burnt piece of ruins, I get it makes sense for the story but damn
not nice to look at like at all. Anyway, atleast we got a cute scene with G'raha Tia!
so that's gonna please some folks because his presence was abysmal.
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| Don't worry I love you both equally! |
Final Thoughts?!
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| Okay one last time speaking to this furball... for now atleast. |
Overall I saw that Dawntrail got mixed receptions but I do not agree with all of it.
I think the story is fine for what its worth, especially coming off from Shadowbringers and Endwalker.
But I dunno the whole shit in the 2nd half made me go wtf is this shit?! it was a mess
and just made my head hurt. I could barely follow some of that stuff but I got the gist of it all.
I saw some people say the second half is better than the first but here I am thinking...
ya know the second half wouldn't exist without the build up in the first! when I suddenly think about
it like this the storyline of DT wasn't too bad, some villains redeem themselves and others do not.
I know this expansion was supposed to be the start of a new adventure and the dev's
sure as hell tried to make something of it, I know it musn't be easy trying to continue
write a story for a long running game so despite some things I'll give kudos to them still.
Things I didn't like was how easy it is to get from 90 to 100 like wtf there was 0 effort I got
everything from quest and during the 98 quests I got to 100 already so lots of EXP was wasted.
Also when I got to 100 I didn't feel like I earned it, there was no satisfaction more like oh i'm 100 now.
I remember in Stormblood that I actually got blocked from doing MSQ if I only did MSQ...
SHB was better at it but ever since EW and the statcrush happened I think the exp scaling has been off
and with DT they just didn't bother at all. As long as you're diligent in doing story
and/or roulettes for other classes then you will max your classes.
Its also kinda funny how for three expansions the 6th zone and/or its final dungeons have carried
the exact same theme. There's nothing new about that, just a different story
like copy and past some template.
Other thing I couldn't like were the role quests, I like hildibrand but I couldn't enjoy
this at all, i'm just not in the mood for saturday or sunday morning cartoon antics.
The healer role quests were by far the worst in that regard, Phys ranged was OK
and magical ranged had just the right amount of intrigue and comedic effect but at
the end of the day the writing was still awful, too many times its like wtf am I reading?
Can't comment for Melee or Tank role quest but they're mostly all a miss for me its like they
tried too hard to come up with a plot for the role quest so you get a bunch of whatever that was.
On the other hand the crafter/gatherer and some sidequests were much better!
The DoH/L quests were a delight and actually genuinely made me laugh
didn't expect BLU lore in my fisher quests! god that shit was hilarious.
**I forgot to add that the Viera lore in the gatherer's quest as well as general plot was also really nice.
Also some of the sidequest dialogue is surprisingly good maybe even better than most of the plot...
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| Such a heartwarming sidequests that was, it caught me off-guard. |
I still did enjoy the story/characters and exploring new lands, I just think
FFXIV is a game that plays it too safe and knowing the template of content
distribution it probably will continue to do so. I had some dark thoughts during
the first part of the last zone but the part related to Krile and eventually Erenville saved the whole
thing for me, ultimately Erenville ended up being my favorite character in this expansion even though he wasn't in the spotlight as much. IDK what that says but I do love my fussy little bunbun.
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| 💕 |
TL;DR The story in this expansion was just decent enough to me
and overall I enjoyed it a lot more than final fanfiction VII rebirth.
I actually enjoyed exploring the new world but the story? It has some highs then some lows
overall its unable to reach new highs which is understandable.
If I had to be honest I loved everything till right after the second trial and then it all went
downhill for me. The camarederie & characters are what saved this expansion for me.
7.5/10
I will definitely be up for more FFXIV adventures but yea... its uncertain where any of this will go
i'm not in the mood for the raid storyline which is gonna be tournament arc so meh.
The expert dungeons aren't fun to do on repeat like who the heck
designed the bosses of the strayborough deadwalk💀.
30-7-24 update:
I have been doing daily roulettes for the past month but I will just reiterate it again
the EXP scaling is god awful what do you mean I get like a full bar of EXP
from just leveling and PVP's daily bonus? I felt like I did nothing and get just get max level.
Really there's not much you can do if you're a casual player except but do that and grind fates
for vouchers of a cute mount and a funny one of you get them all to 100 >_>;.
This game is very, very casual and you don't even need to do all duty roulettes, exp is
there to get a plenty perhaps too much since they stopped scaling properly.
In terms of social aspect its a quiet game if you don't got many friends or aren't much
of a talker, the community is nice and good but its more often than not a lonely game to play.
There's just not much incentive to do anything together and said content can be done alone...
Is this really a multiplayer game? it feels more like a team up to do dailies and move along game.
Oh well... see you next expansion if I still feel like playing.
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