Recent reviews by What the

I've been playing since A Realm Reborn, and boy, this game has come a long way since. Im over 2 concurrent YEARS of playtime.

But man, Dawntrail really ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ sucks, at least, the Main Scenario does. If you are a player looking for a single player story, you can skip this one. How we got an expansion story this basic, and awful is beyond me. It is akin to putting your nose to a dog's behind and inhaling deeply.

No, I was not expecting a high stakes story, this was supposed to be a fun vacation, but it is not, you will speak to Wuk Lamat 104 times in the MSQ as a quest step. Someone actually counted.
No, I did not skip the cutscenes, but I wish I had.
Yes, the cutscenes and quest design actually made me exit the game and go to bed multiple times because I was yawning the entire way through.

Yes, the ENG voice actors that are US natives. (Wuk Lamat, several NPC's in the ' FF Texas' zone.) Are WAY below the standard of voice acting I would expect Square Enix to hire. Turns out voice actors from the States just absolutely SUCK and should not be used ever again if we can help it, lest we return to the horrors of ARR ENG dub. The cast that we got in HW are stage actors and severely outclass their US counterparts to the point I consider it insulting Wuk Lamat has 456% more voiced lines than any other NPC in the expansion.

There is a distinct lack of Voice over work on critical parts of the story too, which also was wild to me considering how much useless stuff is actually voiced, like Wuk Lamat's 50th speech about peace and understanding cultures. (Its only ever about as deep as enjoying Tacos and food.)

And also obviously they are the main character for this expansion, which is terrible. The player character is useless, and called by other npc's as "Wuk Lamat's friend' or even ENTOURAGE. They take credit for the things the WoL does.

It is obvious, that this character is somebody's pet OC, they wanted to shove into the game and outshine the hero of the saga. And they do, to the point I felt entirely not needed. I was not required at all past level 94.

The pacing of the story is awful, it is riddled with Deus ex Machina to save Wuk Lamat, and put them on a pedestal so they can preach at us about understanding and love.

There is more to FFXIV than the MSQ though. The combat scenarios, dungeons and job changes are great.
I applaud the environment and world design.
Some of the music, especially the disney choir musical one was an absolute miss for me sadly.

I love FFXIV but I loathe Dawntrail's Main Scenario, so I cannot recommend it to others. I have already got an FC to manage and sunk cost fallacy, I will remain, but wait until 8.0 and rush through this garbage fire of an MSQ if you are a single player type of player.

Get ready for a proper non meme review. Where to even start, well I'll break this up into parts.

Graphics - As they are the first thing you will see when you boot the game up.
Fromsoft has never been a studio that applies AAA graphics to their games, and all their games have AA graphics instead, this is in regards to things like textures, models, and especially the lighting engine. The lighting engine in this game is especially dated, light sources do not cast shadows unless they are the sun or moon, thats it. Lightning, flame spells, sorcery, only light up the surrounding area and show your character almost detached from the world with a lack of shadow. Some NPC's do not move their mouths while they speak, others do, its very inconsistent. One major issue that really makes the game unappealing is riding around on your mount, and having the grass not render in until its under you, leaving the space in front blank until the engine kicks in again to render more. Really bad there.

Good art direction can only do so much for the games engine, notice all the screenshots praising the games graphics are all of huge epic vista's or the Erd-tree in the background. Sure, the tree looks nice, but the rest of the game is comparatively ugly.

Music - You know, I never really noticed the music aside from the first phase of the last boss, and the Star-scourge. Im guessing a lot of the music in this game was Epic orchestral droning in the background while the bosses roar and scream over it, I think the (boss) music in this game is not suited for what is actually happening on screen aside from the two I referenced. The music isn't bad, its just, it doesn't do anything for me, and soundtracks are important for games. I cannot list any other tracks or recall what they even sounded like, and that is a problem. Even Demon's Souls (2009 PS3 version, not the remake), the very great, great grandfatherly groundwork for current soulsborne titles had more memorable music than Elden ring, Armoured spider, Tower knight, Old king Allant, Maiden Astrea, they are standouts. Just does not work for me with how much noise the bosses make.

Story - So my playthrough happened before patch 1.03, quests were all bugged, Map did not show where NPC's went to after you spoke to them and exhausted their dialogue. Some quests didn't even EXIST and were only patched in. The open world can really screw you over if you go too far, have the game flag something, and you miss out on what barebone story there is to be had. The background lore is cool I guess but it fails to explain anything meaningful to the player about the current going ons, again, what little story the game contains was ripped apart and thrown away into item descriptions and small dialogues from NPC's who talk much too slowly until you are bored out of your mind. The final boss really soured my time with the game especially from a narrative perspective, and especially a gameplay one.

Multiplayer - Man, this game would probably score higher for me if the game was consistent, holy damn. The netcode is still *atrocious*, friends who live in THE SAME HOUSEHOLD cannot play together but can play with me, across the other side of the planet. Sometimes the game crashes from being summoned, disconnects during boss fights with 100/40 internet that is stable as a rock. People I play with that host other games struggling with this one shows how weak FROM's netplay is. Also for new players, beware, you will be invaded by sweats who minmax stats to be in a certain level range, have explored and gotten as many overpowered items for their level, or even had a friend drop them items they couldn't get themselves for their newbie slayer build if you want to play online in stormveil. Didn't happen to me but you only need look at youtube for all the low level pvp builds people are using.

Gameplay - The game is stronger here than it is in the other categories, Ashes of war are cool, Summons add a neat aspect to the game, Horseback combat is pretty gimmicky, doesn't add too much to the gameplay as one might believe. Lots of weapon types exist, though some are weaker than others and different play styles have advantages over others. A lack of hyper armour on certain charged attacks makes them not really worth using, incantations are slow, lack armor and are generally weak. There are 140 bosses in the game, 70 are unique, you will be fighting a lot of tree ulcers and guardians, over and over again, and Godskin nobles will be rolling out of tiny clown cars like you wouldn't believe. Some enemies suffer, or rather make you suffer with low or no wind up attacks, that combo into an unironic, 10 hit attack. Upgrade your shield and pop the Barricade shield ashes on it to cheese them back. I found this game isn't really one that allows you to use a completely rigid build, which I guess is good. Doesn't feel like there is any middle ground between cheesing something or being underpowered.

Level Design - Thank god for the level designers, who made the world. It really helped alleviate the otherwise other mediocre things about the game, some things were questionable, like leaving the tree sentinel at the start for players to get rolled by instead of come back to them later, but otherwise the big ruined castles and hellish landscape of Caelid were fun to explore.

I will score this game a 7.5/10, its good, but flawed.
The overall game is good, but not 90 Dollars AUD good. Wait for it to go on sale.
Certainly not a 'masterpiece' like some would fervently or rabidly claim, objectively the game has a whole host of problems. Bugs, performance issues on PC, netcode problems, lackluster music, previous gen graphics, another poorly fragmented, non engaging story, held together by the gameplay that is fairly familiar for anyone who played DS1, DS3.