FFXIV: Dawntrail Patch 7.1 – Non-Spoiler Story Thoughts
Posted on November 14, 2024 by Aywren
It’s been a while since I’ve written anything about FFXIV. In fact, it’s been 3 months in total, looking back.
This is somewhat because I don’t particularly like writing posts that have a sense of negativity to them. And while there are things to enjoy in Dawntrail, I came away feeling this expansion was the weakest FFXIV story and the lowest amount of personal engagement (especially for casual folks) that I’ve seen since I’ve started playing in ARR.
Yes, these are strong words. To some people they might be fighting words. But this is how I feel.
While I have been a long-time fan of FFXIV – still subbed, even after Dawntrail, for over 11 years – I do not give the game a pass when I feel it’s not up to snuff. I really did not feel the writing during the expansion MSQ was on par this time around, but I won’t belabor the points. You can go to YouTube and search up videos on what went wrong with Dawntrail, and I’ll generally be in agreement with most of it.
So, suffice to say, I was mostly looking towards 7.1 story as a measuring stick of where I could expect the story to go in the future. Would they continue on their crash course of mediocrity, or would they actually take the opportunities they’ve built out – there’s so much potential here – and do something interesting with it?
I break down the offerings of 7.1 story into three smaller plots. I’m going to paint this with a vague brush because this is a non-spoiler post. Overall, we’ve got a story about:
- Gulool Ja
- Koana
- Solution 9 Folks
While I have no idea if different writers were assigned to each section, they do feel like their own self-contained topics. In my opinion, the Koana and Gulool Ja bits tackle things about these characters that (honestly) should have been developed during the expansion, rather than after the fact.
Instead of repeatedly talking to 3 people at every location we visited in Dawntrail, we could have had gleaned the same sort of knowledge about the cultures these stories took place in while also learning about these characters. All in all, that would have brought a bit more depth to the original Dawntrail MSQ, in my opinion.
However… that’s not what we got. So, I’ll write about what we have.
Koana’s Tale
The Koana arc struggled with the same sorts of troubles I saw throughout most of Dawntrail’s storyline. I say this with sadness because I like Koana’s character – he’s probably one of the characters from the expansion I like the most.
I welcomed learning more about him. I just don’t think it was written all that well. While we did get a cool bit of action – and thankfully not something overtaxing to deal with battle-wise – most of his development happened off-screen and very suddenly.
One moment, he was doubtful about a certain topic. You got put on a quest to talk to 4 people (yes… again with the talking to NPCs). You reconvened with Koana to discuss what you learned, and he’d made a complete round about in how he felt about that something, including the sudden conviction to risk everything for it.
Basically, within the span of two quests, his entire outlook changed. This isn’t impossible, it’s just not great pacing or very believable. Especially given the high, dangerous stakes he faced further in the story.
The second issue I had was, once again, the writers decided they had to explain away every ounce of mystery from Koana’s backstory. It ultimately all boiled down to a coincidence that he just happens to find someone who was at the right place at the right time, noticed the specific details, and was able to confirm everything without a doubt.
Then, of course, in true Dawntrail fashion, Koana had to completely recap the NPC’s story and explain everything a second time very clearly. As if the players couldn’t come to this conclusion on their own.
If this was the only tale that had these issues, I wouldn’t have been as critical. But Dawntrail is rife with these two storytelling troubles in particular over and over again.
Two Out of Three Ain’t Bad
The other two stories were far darker – touching on deep topics such as death, loss, and grief. Considering S/E probably didn’t want to go too far down that rabbit hole, I felt they did a pretty good job of exploring these questions without driving it too hard.
I also enjoyed some of the spooky vibes we got here and there – both in the new dungeon and smattered throughout the ending of this MSQ. Both of these sections were well-paced and interesting, which marks a turn towards something I hope will be more enjoyable and engaging to play through in the future.
Unlike Koana’s story, there’s plenty left to mystery here. Even some theories Syn and I chatted about that weren’t fully answered, but left to imagination. This is a good thing.
One fault I have is that I still don’t feel like I have a true understanding of Zoraal Ja’s character, even after this. If everything in his life really does boil down to daddy issues, that’s a shame. He’s a character who could have a lot of interesting potential, but at every turn, they seem to opt to not go in a direction that brings any of that. This is a case of – if they are trying for mystery, it’s just not working for me. It just makes him feel like a flat character with unexplained/unrealistic motives.
The other fault is, they’re right back to bringing in characters who were previously dismissed (wording this carefully). I’m going to see how this plays out, because it does raise interesting questions, so I’m here for that.
Whereas Dawntrail left me with very little to speculate on or look forward to, 7.1 dropped a few bombs and left it wide open for something interesting to happen. I’m holding on with a cautious hope that the writing team can take what they’ve begun here and make the pay-off worth it.
Because I really do think all the pieces are here for something that could be cool. I’ve got an open mind and I’m waiting to see what they choose to do.
