Having finally finished DT MSQ yesterday I felt compelled to jot down my thoughts on some parts of the expansion, as I certainly have a few, some of which I haven't seen mentioned elsewhere (they probably have been, but I've been careful with what I look at, so if it popped up in the first day or two of early access I probably missed it). I'll generally go in the order things occurred in MSQ just for ease of organization, but here we go:
I think that just about covers it without going into every single minute thing. I rambled on a bit, but I wanted to try to get all of my own thoughts organized by writing this out. Overall, I did enjoy DT, and I'm looking forward to what comes next, but it is quite amusing to think that the entirety of DT can be summed up as a convoluted means of giving the Scions the means to travel to any reflection.
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- Starting off with something that isn't strictly MSQ related, but I simply must mention, the zone music for Urqopacha reminded me of something, and I spent my first little bit in the zone going insane trying to think of what it was. I eventually figured it out, it sounds very similar to the main motif used in NieR Replicant (I think I've got the right musical term, but apologies if not). As mentioned, not strictly MSQ relevant, but I thought I'd share for anyone else that felt like they had heard the Urqopacha BGM before.
- Overall, the rite of succession was pretty enjoyable to me. I enjoyed the slow walk through the zones, learning about all of the cultures introduced with DT. It also became evident to me rather quickly that we were headed for a resolution where both Wuk Lamat and Koana become Dawnservants together. I know I have seen it mentioned that people were a bit upset at how much SE hyped up the Scion vs Scion conflict, but I went in expecting it to be almost immediately thrown out, as there is no real way to do such a conflict within the confines of FFXIV MSQ, so the fact it lasted up until nearly the end of act 1 was honestly surprising.
- Act 2 is where things start to go downhill for me. The MSQ in Shaaloani is a bit painful to me, mostly due to the voice work in it. I am from Texas, I have heard plenty of southern drawls and accents that would be right at home in old western movies. The accents in DT are not those accents. The actual content in this part is mediocre to me, but I understand its purpose was purely to bridge the gap between act 1 and the primary conflict of the expansion, as well as introduce characters that could help solve the problem of getting into the dome.
- The start of Heritage Found is rather nice, as uncovering the mysteries of what happened in the dome is enjoyable. The confusion generally stems from Sphene for most of the remainder of MSQ (bit of an aside, but why can't we have Sphene's waistline even though she's using a midlander skeleton? Signed, a midlander). Going into DT I had the thought that the Enigmatic Maiden would be some sort of corrupted AI just given what was presented in advance, which generally ends up being correct. However, they refuse to let this be brought up at any point until the very end, instead having us go through the cycle of Sphene betraying us and Wuk Lamat forgiving her and wanting to get to know her better. This is the point where Wuk Lamat started to get a bit grating to me. I had overall enjoyed her presence up until this point, and seeing her grow into a much better leader was nice to see, but from here on out she simply overstays her welcome and interjects into matters that are above her paygrade, something that is particularly annoying given that all of the Scions are in Tural at this point, the group whose entire purpose is stopping existential threats.
- Somebody get G'raha an award, as he is the one who finally tells Sphene what she should have been told ages ago, that she is a child who refuses to accept reality. He doesn't say this as clear as I would have liked, but I'm glad it was eventually stated when encountering Sphene at the Meso Terminal.
- Living Memory seems to be designed to mirror Ultima Thule, but it's hard to get fully invested in all of the characters we say good bye to given we interacted with them very little or not at all before their deaths, and overall the main point that gives some relevant info is the portion of Krile's parents. I do have to wonder exactly how Cahciua and Krile's parents originally died, as for Cahciua we were never given any indication she was close to the end of her life before Erenville set out to visit her, but she mentions she has been dead for quite some time. I assume the timeline is something along the lines of: the dome pops up, Cahciua accepts a regulator, Cahciua dies, Cahciua is bored as an Endless and breaks out, Cahciua learns more about regulators and joins Oblivion. As for Krile's parents, given their desire to expunge their memories to prevent their use for fusing reflections, and them being traitors, I have to imagine they were executed and their memories uploaded for future use. I can get SE not wanting to explicitly state either of these things, but leaving them as blanks bothers me a bit, especially with Cahciua.
- The final trial is incredible, but Wuk Lamat's appearance in it is a bit baffling. It is reminiscent of E8 where Gaia jumps in to help save Ryne, but in that instance it makes sense because of her being the Oracle of Darkness and we're trying to deal with the rampant light from the Oracle of Light. For Wuk Lamat it's just a bit strange, as throughout the entirety of DT it's made very clear that we are much stronger than Wuk Lamat, yet she breaks into the final trial and pretty much solos the remainder of the fight. This is made worse by the rather poor English voice acting for this section (other posts detail this far more, but overall the VA struggled to convey yelling or anger while maintaining Wuk Lamat's voice). Her appearance in the trial is even more baffling given G'raha should also have been able to break in, of which given his personality it is insane to think that he would let the WoL face Sphene alone if he had the chance to help.
- The aftermath of the trial finally gives the option to tell Sphene that she is simply a broken program, but there are some confusing aspects to the aftermath as well. After the Meso Terminal shuts down the barrier fades, revealing a sunrise. Upon returning to Living Memory you can see clouds in the sky. This all leads to a massive question, where is the lightning storm? Had the threat passed and Alexandria only continued on its path because of its goal to abolish death? But everything is powered by the lightning from the storm, so where is this lightning coming from if there isn't actually a storm? Going back in time a bit, the calamity Sphene describes seems to be what happens to a world right before a rejoining, but we don't know of any event in the Source where a rejoining was thwarted, so were the Ascians about to create the Void 2.0? I know some of these questions will likely be answered either in the raid series or in the 7.x quests, but no one even bringing it up before the conclusion of 7.0 is a bit wild to me.
I think that just about covers it without going into every single minute thing. I rambled on a bit, but I wanted to try to get all of my own thoughts organized by writing this out. Overall, I did enjoy DT, and I'm looking forward to what comes next, but it is quite amusing to think that the entirety of DT can be summed up as a convoluted means of giving the Scions the means to travel to any reflection.
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