It’s now been about a month (somehow) since Dawntrail launched, so I assume most of us have finished the MSQ, and I’m curious about your thoughts!
For me, I actually really enjoyed not being the center of attention the whole time. It was a nice palette cleanser from the last ten years. It was fun to tag along see this whole new continent. Of course, things do end up getting more serious than that, and I was impressed they were able to get me to care about all these new people so quickly.
The new dungeons and group content all felt good. I liked that none of it seemed to be pushovers, and myself and my friends died several times figuring out the various boss battles — which is a good thing!
I just finished the story last night so I’m now at the point where there are some new quests which I assume will open up some new content. So I have no opinion there yet.
But what about you all?
Just finished it yesterday. (THIS POST WILL CONTAIN SPOILERS)
Starting from Heritage Found and Alexandria, it had a pretty good story to tell, and Wuk Lamat was no longer an annoying loser at that point. I respect their decision not to put too much focus on old scions, as there’s no character development to push forward there.
The patterns of tragedy they use to form ideas for their final zones/dungeons are perhaps a little bit predictable, but this was still a new twist, and it worked well. I also try to remind myself that Dawntrail would not be entirely unique for having a strong ending with a slightly more forgettable leadup. I want to recognize considering the longevity of MMOs, it was very daring of them to give us a “dead and empty” final zone with only a muted soundtrack; basically causing us to miss the golden lights every single time we see it now. It was obvious a lot of work went into Yesterland and all the other locations, so seeing them turned into a “WIP Hammer map” absolutely hammered the themes of loss they were aiming for perfectly.
It’s that leadup and the connecting of those strong themes I take the most issue with. The arc of the rite of succession, I think tried to connect to some of it later on, but didn’t manage it. The closest thing I can see is the prompt “A good leader wishes to achieve peace and happiness for their people. But, can you face the consequences of that price being the lives and happiness of others?” There are some ways I can see this working out:
There’s some other simple criticisms that I think are common - in most scenes I didn’t have direct issue with Wuk Lamat, and I recognize new stories need new characters with their own arcs. The most specific thing that comes to mind is the vicious yells in emotional scenes didn’t deliver much, mainly because of the forced accent. There was one scene towards the end of the rite of succession that gave a lot of “I’ve been thinking” buildup and really failed on writing by just cycling the stuff about friendship and happiness, when it could’ve put in a lot of work on those themes I mentioned above.
I appreciate your detailed thoughts here.
I think after finishing it for a few weeks, I can definitely see some of the story missteps. But also it’s the first part of what will be a much grander story so I’m holding out hope this is just them finding their legs after a decade of Hydelin.