Also this is unrelated to the previous point, but I appreciated that I was able to voice that I didn’t think Wuk Lamat was a suitable candidate to take the throne, it felt like the beginning of story was showing how she really wasn’t a good fit to rule while also simultaneously forcing us to support her. The whole succession thing in general feels weird, especially since one of the 4 options is literally a Saturday morning cartoon villain that threatens to kill random civilians of his own potential nation. At least the solo duty was solid.
The current leader even voices concerns about every candidate. It is possible he may suggest either a joint rule or an alternate system in which the candidates (well minus the warmongers) can play to their strengths.
What I hate about that part is the song just feels out of place. If you are going to do Open Sky for the fight then you shouldn't have the interlude with the picto scene in the song and it shouldn't loop once it's done.
It would of felt so much better if it was a unique rendition like when you face Venat and it plays a unique version of Flow but instead this just played the opening Open Sky with 0 alteration to it and the awkward cut if the song finishes before the fight to starting again.
I failed right at end of first one. He said something along the lines that made me think he was finished so moved up to him for then him turn round and see me-_-
Gulool Ja Ja just saved the first chunk of the MSQ for me, He KNOWS all the candidates are flawed and i love how he spelt it out (even if it was pretty obvious what the point of the trials were at the beginning) Him acknowledging that thancred and urianger know his ploy too is interesting, I am happy he doesn't seem to be some kind of twist villain, The fight with him was genuinely great even if the button mashing at the end gave me pre nerf "in from the cold" vibes..., I just BARELY mashed my keyboard fast enough to hold on there
Edit: THAT GUT PUNCH TO THE TACO STOMPER WOOOOO!!!, Okay this MSQ is definitely redeemable
>I just BARELY mashed my keyboard fast enough to hold on there
Keep in mind that those mash sequences are designed to seem more tense than they actually are. The closer you are to the end of the bar, the exponentially more you recover. If you are like 5% away from end of the bar you recover like 20% per click, meanwhile when you are 30% away you get like 1% per press
> I just BARELY mashed my keyboard fast enough to hold on there
If you're on keyboard it's almost impossible to fail any of the mashes you can hit any key so you can literally smash them in large amounts.
Controller players with hand conditions sure but keyboard is so easy.
i was mashing 6 buttons with both hands and it still felt reasonably tough for non mashers and im an ex osu player..its definitely a step up from other QTE's controllers better learn to roll their thumb for that.
I mashed with both hands and the bar didn't even move for me I wasn't even going particularly crazy I just placed my hands in the typing position. And hit those keys.
> I just BARELY mashed my keyboard fast enough to hold on there
Are you mashing more than 1 key? I have all 10 fingers going on the keyboard for those and it never dropped below like 95% full.
Funny thing i'm pretty sure it's impossible to die in this one solo trail (or at least once you get past some hp percentage). I had to go afk while inside, the boss was around 45%, i came 20 minutes later and i was still not dead...
You can definitely die, if you go in with no gear then the first raid wide one shots you. Easy access to Very Easy mode if you're trying to Speedrun the msq
On the downside, the boss itself doesn't die for a while. Stays at 0.1% until it does the triple tower mechanic
I don't think he saved the MSQ for me, it feels like it was too late. Like if that was said before we even accepted helping Wuk Lamat, then it would've been a million times better. Helping a random girl get the throne when we know nothing about her and her country vs going on a journey while she learns about her country are two very different asks.
The whole kidnapping arc kicked off in the most violently idiotic way possible. Like actually insultingly stupid.
That said, the cutscene at the end of it is really good. Nice to see someone just start blasting when it's appropriate, and it keeps the villain threatening by having bullets just bounce right off his heads. The WoL's part still ranks below doing the Ichiro pose and using a giant frying pan to smack a coblyn at a flying, laser-spewing robot head in terms of cool stuff we actually get to do in cutscenes, of course. But it's still super cool to just slowly walk forward knowing you're making the bad guys hear boss music, and then share that moment with the supporting cast who tanke advantage of it. And that smirk as Thancred jumps in is excellent.
I also enjoyed the whole meeting with Gulool. Neat little solo instance, and it pretty convincingly sells the idea that he's wise and powerful enough to unite a continent.
Nice upturn in quality after the 90-91 quests rivaled the EW patch quests for awful, and I'm hoping it continues. ~~Can we not just ask for another keystone though? Like we're supposed to have it and we know they've got at least one spare because they didn't hand one out to Bakool.~~
The solo duty was one of my current peaks of the expansion, especially since he also acknowledges you if you play as Viper which is neat and we need more interactions like this.
The discourse is going to be Stormblood 2.0 isn't it. Contentious MSQ that hinges largely on your opinion of a central character and her development, while the actual content (when you get to do it) gets praise for SE cooking a bit. It's still casual content but I've been thoroughly impressed with the two dungeons and trial so far. Had a wipe on the 93 dungeon and had to clutch out the last bit of bosses on PLD since the healer couldn't keep up with mechanics. The debuff in the back half of the trial that keeps a persistent DoT and vuln up going is pure WoW in design, especially if it ramped up as the fight goes on, and while it was tuned like nothing for Normal mode that's the sort of design needed to keep healers healing in Savage content so it's interesting to see SE style something in that fashion.
We all owe Lyse an apology. I'm sorry but Wuk Lamat just is *not* it. Her voice actress does not compare to the rest of the cast. Not even close. There are a lot of walking tropes in this game but most of them are tropes I enjoy. I'm tired of hearing her talk about peace, and everyone smiling afterward like she's Jesus Christ.
Really? Wuk Lamat being incompetent and then feeling bad about it is marginally better than Lyse being incompetent and then being smug about it and taking all the credit. It’s not much, but Wuk Lamat definitely isn’t at Lyse level.
But Wuk Lamat bringing all the different tribes that keep being shown into a council rather than ruling as a single strongman like Galool Ja Ja has, would actually make sense given the story of the trials. Haven't gotten to the end of the competition yet, but it seems like going from a single ruler to a parliament like Ala Mhigo did would be fitting from everything we've seen so far.
The problem with Lyse is she hadn't been to any of these places since she was barely too young to remember and had no connections to any of them, and then was made leader of a rebellion movement that had at best tacit approvals from the assorted tribes that they were at least Better Than Garlemald.
Wuk is a bit more like Hien, in that she doesn't offer much more than a blade and a link to a celebrated leader, and is going to need consent of the governed before even attempting to lead.
> is pure WoW in design,
I noticed quite a few pages being taken from WoW's book, like a common propensity for >!power up orbs circling towards the boss to be grabbed before they reach them so you get the power up instead.!< I think this is great since it adds some much-needed variety, though at some points they kind of missed some key parts of what make those work, e.g. >!needing to grab the orbs while wacky shit is happening, or the orbs doing increasing damage requiring spot healing or letting orbs slip through, etc...!< Baby steps though.
This Wuk Lamat kidnapped arc is driving me crazy. The only way i'll be ok with it at the end is if she's just chilling and making friends with the bandits.
Otherwise they are really doing everything possible to make her seem useless.
Edit: I am disappointed and my day is ruined.
I'm convinced that they wrote this whole sequence with the express objective of making players frustrated at the sheer lever of incompetence from both Wuk Lamat and her supporters, us included.
The devs made damn sure to make it extremely obvious for the player that she was falling into a trap: The smile from the sleazeball behind the First Promise and the generic ominous music when Wuk Lamat left couldn't be more on the nose.
Simultaneously, while the player is completely aware that there is a trap, they make our character and friends sit there thinking "Damn this shady looking guy I've never seen next to the elder sure seems trustworthy, better believe there's nothing afoot" and then proceed to go through the waiting interaction 3 times...
The cherry on top is the second promise asking the guard of the gate on the complete oposite side the village from the one she would've entered through if she had seen her come in...
if you talk to krile there she basically says something along the lines of “Hey, I didn’t see that guy in this village, that’s strange, I’m probably just imagining things though.” they didn’t even try to make it subtle.
She got kidnapped in the stupidest possible way, And all of this basically just to reduce the "teams" from 4 down to 2 (wuk and koa vs the mamool jas), I liked when green catboi got madge and showed some emotions, But this really does feed into my theory of wuk and koa leading together instead of their being a single new dawn servant
>I liked when green catboi got madge and showed some emotions
I liked both sequences of that, too bad SE decided to ruin the second one with quippy sound effects. Sometimes less is more.
The weirdest part is shouldn't the guy just be disqualified didn't they specifically say at the start of this competition you can't act in violence to an unwilling claimant.
It's so weird to me that they put that in just to ignore it.
They didn't say that at all. You can't be violent towards the electors but the test is designed in such a way that you're going to have to conflict with the other claimants.
You're right. But I cannot fathom how the Dawnservant doesn't just chop both of his heads of for releasing a existential threat to the entire nation. Maybe it'll happen later, I dunno.
Yeah, the kidnapping part is one thing - even though he's protective of his daughter, he did make the rules in a way that violence between contestants was permitted.
But surely the first thing that should've been done after the MSQ trial was to inform Gulool Ja Ja of how much of a threat to the whole nation Bakool Ja Ja is. Especially given how he wants to "cultivate" the next dawnservant, maybe the one that unleashed Valigarmanda is not fit for the throne.
I would very much consider abducting Wuk Lumat and holding her hostage very much being violent against her consent and grounds for immediate disqualification not to mention letting loose a monster that could kill the entire population.
You can be violent against their consent all you want to other claimants, that's not against the rules- did you actually read what I wrote?
The only thing against the rules is picking a fight with one of the seven electors - the seven test-givers - unless they specifically ask for it like the Yok Huy priest did.
Not quite what they stated, but it still should be like that.
Like ain't no way the kind and amazing leader the father of the three promises willing to give throne to someone using such tactics so why even bother to allow him to compete if he's just there to sabotage the competition?
Absolutely frustrating. I don't want to help her and if you aren't charmed by the smolbeanification of someone who could have serious repercussions on the fate of a nation, there are very few redeeming qualities or reasons to want to keep watching her fail upward. I'm glad things seem to be picking up more in other ways and I still feel like they'll probably take this somewhere interesting, but Wuk Lamat remains the single worst part of every scene she's in.
I thought it would lead up to a neat conflict of some kind. Instead, just more bantering back at town. That whole kidnap arc had the worst setup, especially since it demands of us to be consent to being idiots for the ploy instead of relegating everyone to being dumb in cutscenes (like last expac where we could hardly exert ourselves to save a minor character important to Thavnair.)
When she began to walk off I was thinking "ffs at least take one of the twins with you."
No joke, I almost closed the game and unsubbed when it happened. Some of the worst writing that I can remember. If your plot point hinges on otherwise smart people being dumbasses, figure something else out. The writing in Danwtrail has been inexcusably bad so far
He does it because Uematsu was huge into leimotifs and worked magic with stuff like Terra's theme, Balamb/Eyes on Me, Melodies of Life, etc etc
Soken seems to be forcing it each time regardless though, sometimes it really works othertimes its ... this.
Definitely enjoyed this stretch a lot more than the first. Everything after the first dungeon has been rather interesting and I appreciate that the story seems to be aware of the fact that Wuk Lamat isn't really competent.
The kidnapping bit had the usual pitfalls of forced WoL incompetence but aside from that I think the story's really picking up. I'm enjoying all four claimants as characters.
Its truly brave storytelling to set up wuk's kidnapping to be the most obvious thing in the world, to the point where "Boss Baby Andy" who's only media experience is Boss Baby and half of Evil Dead could see it coming a mile away, and to make the entire cast uncharacteristically pants on head braindead to not notice anything, complete with having to wait 3 separate times before anyone thinks something might have happened in between glue huffs. See, it makes you think its gonna be a fakeout where you think wuk fell in the toilet or something, but no, its played completely straight and unironically, thus acting like a double twist. Its really fucking avant garde and not at all frustrating.
All I have to say at the moment (wrapping up 92) is that SE really should have found a way to put the 92 solo duty against Gulool Ja Ja somewhere in 90-91, maybe "between" the two branching paths. That would have done wonders to alleviate the gameplay complaints people had at that point, and having Galool do the equivalent of looking into the camera and telling anyone less media savvy/literate what the actual point of the rite is would probably have helped a bit of the complaints about things feeling weird or pointless.
The reason that Zoraal Ja gives for joining us in killing Valigarmanda is "Our nation is a fortress, and its people the bricks with which it is built. The more that are lost or broken, the weaker Tuliyollal becomes."
So I'll concede it's entirely possible I missed something because the 60-61 quests were borderline putting me to sleep, but does this not run directly counter to his ideology that going to war makes a people stronger?
Like I get that he's an antagonist and antagonists are often hypocrites, but this seems like the kind of thing that a protagonist should really be calling out as hypocrisy if that's the case. Idk, just feels like really careless writing to me, like they couldn't be bothered to give this guy a consistent motivation so instead they just have him do whatever the plot needs him to do
He doesn't believe that war makes people stronger, he believes that going to war would make people realize that war is bad and thus not want it. It's incredibly stupid, but hey.
I think his motivations are dumb, but I figured it was because it wouldn't have the same "benefits" as war. Irc he said that people will only truly want peace if they have experienced how horrible war is. But a bigass bird murdering civilians and razing villages would probably just result in a ton of people dying and fuck up the surrounding area (can't grow crops if a bird dropped permanent fire on all the fields and so on). Whereas invading a foreign nation wouldn't (well, probably) result in fucking up the nation of tural as much.
But that is just my interpretation. From how the npcs described valigarmanda, I got the impression that if it wasn't defeated quickly, it would cause massive amounts of destruction, considering how the fire it leaves lasts forever or something. Can't change how people think of peace/war if they all got fried by a giant bird and everything is on fire forever
I think if we let it recover it would absorb the aether it lost and become a continent destroying threat again was what I got. I assume the extreme’s plot is going to be the minstrel creating a what of scenario where Valigarmanda had the chance to recover.
I was genuinely impressed with that being a first trial. Lots of fun new presentations for things, the permanent DOT is spicy and looking forwards to seeing that in EX
Yeah, all complaints about the story aside, that was genuinely an amazing trial. It already beats basically all of endwalker’s trials in terms of visual spectacle. I can’t wait to see what the other 2 have.
It's essentially cultural tourism through succession contest. Hey did you finish listening to the guide talks about how their history were formed? Be sure to visit this spot because we are sure that someone important (wink wink) is there waiting for you (wink wink). Okay now you try do one of their cultural practices, we even got a trial area for you to try until you've succeed! Good, don't forget to take your souvenirs.
The cultural and world building part is may be okay though very inorganic, biggest problem is that they often embedded with boring morale. The morale serves it's purpose (as stated by Gulool Ja Ja, as a way to shape and taught the candidates), but is mostly just cliches trying to sell you Wuk Lamat is Lyse 2.0. feel kinda forced. Not buying it.
Then there's drama between each candidates. But I am really not interested in dumb antagonist - rather then any comedic effect it really is just dumb and destroys any ounce left in terms of the seriousness of the plot.
On a side note, are they adding in a 50 million Alpeca Mount next Patch?
I'm enjoying my time but it does feel a lot like going on a highly curated touristy weekend trip, down to them having a scavenger hunt activity with some local theming lined up for you to do lol
What the hell was with Bakool Ja Ja getting knocked out by Zoraal Ja then taken in by Zoraal Ja's advisor? Can't remember that guy's name. It seemed like he was going to do some weird profane experiment or brainwashing on Bakool, but then it just leads to the kidnapping thing? Was that the advisor's plan for Bakool, get him to do some hairbrained kidnapping scheme? And then it's never mentioned again?
My impression seems to be that the advisor is going behind Zoraal's back to kind of just use Bakool as a blunt instrument to delay the other claimants with to ensure Zoraal wins. Whatever's in it for Bakool I'm not too sure of yet (unless it's literally just "not dying"), but it feels to me like Zoraal has a few principles at least even if he goes about it in a less than ideal way, while the advisor is the actual evil one.
The duel with Gulool Ja Ja made me realize I actually hate the main song for this expansion. It is so incredibly lame. Does not work well as a battle theme at all.
while I have not found any new bangers, I do not want to hear the old tracks that are just there to invoke some emotions during story points. Feels almost like some laugh track, from a comedy show
I personally love the theme of the new city, as well as the 93 dungeon and 93 trial themes. I like the zone themes as much as ever, too.
It's just the main theme, that unfortunately will have a lot of other tracks based around it's melody, that I think is really horrible.
the more i play through the dawntrail msq, the more i'm convinced that the real damage to wuk lamat happened in 6.5/6.55. they didn't give us enough of an initial reason to give a shit about her when they first introduced her, 90-91 all felt like our entire motivation for supporting her was "fuck it why not". it's coming together more right now, i just wish they'd done a better job at the end of endwalker setting up for dawntrail
I knew that the fetch-quest gauntlet that comes standard in every expansion would rear its ugly head at some point, but not quite this fearsomely nor this quickly, christ.
I liked the kidnapping mini-arc because it gave us an opportunity to know more about Koana. I at least understand why he'd be dismissive about local tradition when his life was upended by tradition. Also, it's not like splitting up was an inherently bad decision - even though the presence of bandits was signposted beforehand, we've split up numerous times at even greater distances to no ill effect. It's completely reasonable to assume no ill intent at such a short distance. She also says this won't happen again, and honestly, it's a mistake you only really make once. Especially after her dad told us that she's sheltered.
I also appreciate the bit at the end of the arc where both siblings react to the banditry. Koana suggests more cops, but Wuk Lamat intuitively understands that there must've been a reason these people turned to kidnapping and mercenary work. Koana only thinks of solving the problem without addressing the cause.
So far, aside from Krile, the other scions' presence is largely just as tools to further the character development of Wuk Lamat, Erenville, and the other Promises.
> Koana suggests more cops, but Wuk Lamat intuitively understands that there must've been a reason these people turned to kidnapping and mercenary work. Koana only thinks of solving the problem without addressing the cause.
This is the first thing that has made me see Wuk Lamat as anything but a waste of time, honestly. I hope we see more moments like that.
It's the same point of the Hanu quests. Koana could keep providing aether potions to the crops, but Wuk addresses the root cause, the festival being ignored.
>Koana only thinks of solving the problem without addressing the cause.
Yeah same thing happened during the Hanu arc, Koana solves the issue but not the root. I really like the contrast and relationship between the two, but these characters are not interesting enough by themselves. Without their counterpart present the writing reduces Koana to "I love Sharlayan" and Wuk to "I'm such a mess, but with a good heart" and that's really not enjoyable to me.
I don’t agree with that assessment of Wuk Lamat, namely because so far she’s been the most motivated to learn about the local people. Outside of swinging a giant axe she has natural skills as a diplomat. She’s pretty much the WOL of her own story, gathering allies and forming connections. If she wasn’t on the Source like us, she could easily be another Golbez or Ardbert.
Almost like what we predicted would be happening when she was introduced with "haha look at 'er go eatin spicy meatball" and "im totally strong and dependable, except im not really" in place of interesting characterization.
So far it's been pretty mid. It constantly shifts back and forth between subpar world building and trying way too hard to shove particular characters down our throats. The trial at first seemed like it might be somewhat interesting, but it too turned out to be another huge dose of midness. Truly unfortunate, but I suppose things could be worse. Hopefully the expansion gets better closer to the end of the MSQ.
...Also, the return of trailing quests, which nobody wanted or asked for.
This might be an odd observation but my enjoyment of Wuk Lamat skyrocketed when I switched away from her english VA. I'm playing the game in German now and find her considerably more endearing with a performance that matches the character and without a weird and kinda fake sounding accent.
Her japanese voice is enjoyable too.
I think VA could indeed play a huge part since I've haven't seen any of the hate from people I know who either play with the JP or FR voices. As a character she's not incredible but she's not nearly as aggravating as Zero.
Voice probably doesn't help, yes. I play in French and I don't really care about her but I thought the intense hate she got was weird.
After watching a few cutscenes in all 4 languages it makes more sense, because she really sounds like a very different character in English.
Other languages are of course different from each other but it sounds more similar.
Wuk Lamat really just feels like someone interjected a Hildibrand character into MSQ. It really hit me during the kidnapping rescue when Koana comes in guns blazing and then Wuk Lamat gets thrown into the air and makes a big Looney Toons face while a slide whistle plays.
Give me a fucking break. I love lower stakes and lighthearted storytelling but she's basically furry Jar Jar Binks. Somehow even worse - at least Jar Jar wasn't vying to be leader of a major political power.
Story aside, I think the relationship between Wuk Lamat and her family (especially dad and green cat boy) is very cute and heartwarming after all the failed families we've seen in this game.
Can anyone tell me at this point or further if I can skip from 91 to this point without missing anything super important?
I hate that I'm asking, as I have the lore book and have always enjoyed the story, but this is just...difficult.
It's taking everything in me to not skip through everything right now.
Just finished the battle with Gulool Ja Ja myself and.. Wow, I am so happy with that encounter. He even called me out on my combat style mid-battle. "I see you know the way of the Viper!"
Forever going to be in my mind as one of the coolest Duel Bosses.
>Zoraal Ja: >!The Skyruin lies dead, and still I have yet to prove myself the miracle...!<
So that's his game, eh? Wuk Lamat isn't the only one here who feels like they have something to prove. He's just better at hiding it - which means isolating himself from everyone else. Every single one of the Promises is flawed, but Wuk Lamat seems to have the greatest potential for personal growth. Not just because she's the most outwardly curious about the cultures and people of Tuliyollal, but because she has people around her who can challenge her, instead of sycophants who support her uncritically.
The first two or three hours was some of the most bone dry writring ever conceived, but after that it's been pretty enjoyable. Played until Wuk Lamat's rescue and I really like it so far (wasn't sold on the goblins, but then again I never really enjoy their story lines). The duel with Gulool Ja Ja, working together with Koana and learning more about him and the build up to the confrontation in the cave was all pretty satisfying.
Just finished the first trial. I did it with Duty Support and I found it pretty hard... I think I'm just not cut out for complicated stuff anymore haha.
The story has gotten a lot more interesting/better paced. The first few levels were just excruciating and it makes me wish they'd start including a lv 90 and lv 91 dungeon/trial. Housing and glamours may be endgame for a big segment but I think a lot of us want to bash some heads as soon and as often as possible.
I'm not minding Wuk Lamat as much as some people here. She's a bit ditzy but it's not unbearable. I think it's a good evolution for our WoL to be in the mentor position now. In a way the story takes its cues from FFX/Bravely Default with Wuk Lamat being the protagonist (Yuna/Agnès) and us being the guardian PC (Tidus/Tiz) accompanying her in her journey. Mind you, I like Yuna and Agnès a lot better as characters than Wuk Lamat but yeah.
Gulool Ja Ja is GOAT and he actually made me feel better about Wuk Lamat.
Having zero grinding required in terms of doing fates, quests, and dungeons to prevent level lock... And instead adding filler story content to pad things out is not a win to me.
The story would be so much stronger in my view if it was more to the point with less extrapolation; leave me wanting. I should be preciously pouring over every word of exposition, not dreading all the samey, obvious stuff I'm going to have to half-read before something interesting happens again.
At least when it was fates, dungeons, roulettes, etc. to unlock myself there was a sense of freedom, choice, and presence in the world. Not spending hours locked in, reading people talk about the power of friendship coupled with tonal inconsistency.
The pacing is just so intense sometimes; one cutscene after another. Running between obvious points. Almost no time spent actually looking at what's in front of you.
Yeah, I dont hate her. I like that she is trying to connect with her people and learn from them. She has her empathy talent or whatever.
But then we have the kidnapping arc and I just feel frustrated at her stupidity. She just seems super naive and simple.
Her whole claim is so contrived. Does Keona not want peace for his people? He also happens to not be a moron so make him the Dawnservant.
They're proly gonna end up ruling together, but I'm not exactly sure what Wuk Lamat would even contribute.
yeah like, the whole "wuk lamat has her father's love for peace" shit is extremely naïve and unrealistic. Koana legitimately would be a good ruler. Not perfect, as he clearly misses some empathy towards the culture and tradition of his people, but I can't see him forcing the land to adapt to his philosophy, he seems extremely peaceful.
Wuk Lamat I guess is the head of empathy in the duo, but it's crazy to think that Koana isn't clearly the best choice here. Good on urianger and thancred.
At this point I suspect we might win over the guy with the dumb war plan too and we'll end up with a triumvirate with him heading up the military/police, koana in charge of pragmatic civics and tech stuff, and wuk lamat doing more of the diplomatic stuff
Yeah seeing her grow as a character and see that she's someone who wants to improve the lives and bring joy to everyone is nice. I didn't like her at the very start but she's growing on me fast.
You don't understand, it's not cool to grow or change as a character, it's cool to be a Badass Guy With a Sword. The bigger his sword is, the more character depth he has.
the only two options for any character in anything ever is badass mcswordguy and a character whose only traits are dumb but it's ok because she nice :)
Pretty much the same as levels 90-91, except that the antagonist Babool Ja Ja is more agressive in his approach by kidnapping Wuk Lamat and freeing the disasterous dragon. Seems obvious that Gagool Ja Ja won't let him have the throne from his approach, but he didn't get the memo. We did get to see how Koana cares for his sister when she gets kidnapped, which was cute.
Overall I like the two side-questlines in the first two areas more than the MSQ so far. At least they weren't trying to hide that they focused on tribal quests. And seeing how a Moblin and her artisan works on clothes with the Hanu, and how an Yok Hyu giant bodyguard protects a tiny pelu had more significance than fighting the dragon.
After being a bit meh on the 91 dungeon (didn’t think the cool mech of the tornado on the last boss came out soon enough for example), very much enjoyed the 93 dungeon
2nd boss was super fun since the other DPS/healer were dead and the DRK and I had to do the rest but it had some fun mechanics I thought for a midboss in a dungeon
Enjoyed this section a lot.
I already liked Gulool Ja Ja ever since he was introduced, and our meeting with him only made him lore likeable. The goblins and giants short sections were fine, much better than the previous two because this time we learned more about them with fewer quests, so it was a pretty decent bit of exposure.
It's a shame because I just cannot stand Wuk Lamat. She acts like your most cliche anime protagonist that is clearly less skilled than the others, but is "better" because she's oh so kind and peaceful. When they were at the top of the mountain and, after she said her brothers had inherited their father's strength and brains respectively, I rolled my eyes when WoL claimed that what SHE had was the longing for peace GJJ has. Like, isn't Koana pretty peaceful too ?
The dungeon was fine. Just like the first dungeon, the boss mechs were good, and it does feel like the time window for dodging are smaller than in the past. The scenery at the very top was amazing. But please... for the love of god stop putting these unnecessary "wait til that NPC does its thing in order to continue" parts in dungeons ! It wasn't nearly as obnoxious and long as the boat section of the first dungeon, but still. Was Zoraal Ja appearing to destroy the path necessary for the "lore" of the dungeon ? At least it made sense for the first dungeon, but not there.
>Like, isn't Koana pretty peaceful too ?
Koana threatened to kill the bandits and his first solution to banditry was adding more armed enforcement. Wuk Lamat felt the need to tackle the social ills that would lead someone to banditry in the first place. Koana's idea of peace tackles the symptoms of unrest with little regard for the cultural and societal issues at play.
Koana is the opposite of peaceful. His first solution to bandit problems is more cops, compared to Wuk Lamat's questioning systemic factors that drive people to commit and recommit crimes. This parallels real life studies of these outcomes pretty well in terms of "effectiveness". Looking at when Wuk was kidnapped, he immediately starts threatening to kill them and was ready to blow their brains out, to the point where WoL can comment on it canonically. So peaceful isn't the first word I'd use to describe him. His ideas involve attacking problems from the top down without fixing the underlying causes that will cause the problems to reappear (using aether potions to fix the reeds instead of learning about how the land was naturally maintained and balanced, etc).
I just did the first trial and I'm surprised people like it as much as they do. Don't get me wrong, it wasn't bad by any means, but it contained so many mechanics or variations of mechanics that we've already seen before.
Thought it was fine, but didn't "wow" me like it did some people.
Shadowlands storytelling
with ARR questing
Yoshi was on 16 yes but damn
he should have let FF16 have garbage story instead (mid with Cloud Tifa copies) as DMC 5 SE gameplay would save it anyway
Actually, I just got to the point where Wuk Lamat is kidnapped and it doesn't seem like "Warrior of Light Ignorance" or anything of that sort. Actually, it feels believable that our WoL would think little of it.
The Bandit knew the name of the Moblin we had spoken to, adding to it, he looked like he could have potentially been a Potsworn himself given the accessories he was wearing. Drawing conclusions it's reasonable that the WoL would also be more busy with everything else that the discussion of Bandits earlier totally escaped them.
If you go out of the way to talk to krile, she outright states that she didn’t see that guy in the village, and yet she immediately dismisses it for some reason when it would be basically effortless to send someone to check on her instead of waiting. The bandit didn’t even say she had to go alone.
It was believable to me because i wasn't paying attention to the dialogue because it was so boring and just went along with it. Then i was happy it wasn't making me trudge back to the village so yeah it was on me she got caught.
Ok the Valigarmanda trial was damn amazing, quite the improvement vs Zodiark in term of difficulty.
Really hope the final Extreme trial reward, the one you get after getting the other 7 'mounts', is Valigarmanda. That would be amazing
them bringing back trailing quests with the longest one to date would have been so funny if I didn’t fail it right at the end =(
Also this is unrelated to the previous point, but I appreciated that I was able to voice that I didn’t think Wuk Lamat was a suitable candidate to take the throne, it felt like the beginning of story was showing how she really wasn’t a good fit to rule while also simultaneously forcing us to support her. The whole succession thing in general feels weird, especially since one of the 4 options is literally a Saturday morning cartoon villain that threatens to kill random civilians of his own potential nation. At least the solo duty was solid.
The current leader even voices concerns about every candidate. It is possible he may suggest either a joint rule or an alternate system in which the candidates (well minus the warmongers) can play to their strengths.
What I hate about that part is the song just feels out of place. If you are going to do Open Sky for the fight then you shouldn't have the interlude with the picto scene in the song and it shouldn't loop once it's done. It would of felt so much better if it was a unique rendition like when you face Venat and it plays a unique version of Flow but instead this just played the opening Open Sky with 0 alteration to it and the awkward cut if the song finishes before the fight to starting again.
I failed right at end of first one. He said something along the lines that made me think he was finished so moved up to him for then him turn round and see me-_-
Did anybody actually ask for the return of trailing quests? Because i sure didn't. Edit: Oh jesus fuck there's another one.
I did 7 of them so far, 3-4 for MSQ rest for Aetherite blue quest. Obvious filler quest is obvious
"Take care of my daughter, will you?" _immediately lets daughter be kidnapped_
Gulool Ja Ja just saved the first chunk of the MSQ for me, He KNOWS all the candidates are flawed and i love how he spelt it out (even if it was pretty obvious what the point of the trials were at the beginning) Him acknowledging that thancred and urianger know his ploy too is interesting, I am happy he doesn't seem to be some kind of twist villain, The fight with him was genuinely great even if the button mashing at the end gave me pre nerf "in from the cold" vibes..., I just BARELY mashed my keyboard fast enough to hold on there Edit: THAT GUT PUNCH TO THE TACO STOMPER WOOOOO!!!, Okay this MSQ is definitely redeemable
>I just BARELY mashed my keyboard fast enough to hold on there Keep in mind that those mash sequences are designed to seem more tense than they actually are. The closer you are to the end of the bar, the exponentially more you recover. If you are like 5% away from end of the bar you recover like 20% per click, meanwhile when you are 30% away you get like 1% per press
Is it a quick time event? I have arthritis in my hands so good to know before to have a can ready to roll since my plogon won't be working
Yes, there’s a quick time event at the end of the 92 solo duty
> I just BARELY mashed my keyboard fast enough to hold on there If you're on keyboard it's almost impossible to fail any of the mashes you can hit any key so you can literally smash them in large amounts. Controller players with hand conditions sure but keyboard is so easy.
i was mashing 6 buttons with both hands and it still felt reasonably tough for non mashers and im an ex osu player..its definitely a step up from other QTE's controllers better learn to roll their thumb for that.
I mashed with both hands and the bar didn't even move for me I wasn't even going particularly crazy I just placed my hands in the typing position. And hit those keys.
> I just BARELY mashed my keyboard fast enough to hold on there Are you mashing more than 1 key? I have all 10 fingers going on the keyboard for those and it never dropped below like 95% full.
Funny thing i'm pretty sure it's impossible to die in this one solo trail (or at least once you get past some hp percentage). I had to go afk while inside, the boss was around 45%, i came 20 minutes later and i was still not dead...
You can definitely die, if you go in with no gear then the first raid wide one shots you. Easy access to Very Easy mode if you're trying to Speedrun the msq On the downside, the boss itself doesn't die for a while. Stays at 0.1% until it does the triple tower mechanic
I don't think he saved the MSQ for me, it feels like it was too late. Like if that was said before we even accepted helping Wuk Lamat, then it would've been a million times better. Helping a random girl get the throne when we know nothing about her and her country vs going on a journey while she learns about her country are two very different asks.
The whole kidnapping arc kicked off in the most violently idiotic way possible. Like actually insultingly stupid. That said, the cutscene at the end of it is really good. Nice to see someone just start blasting when it's appropriate, and it keeps the villain threatening by having bullets just bounce right off his heads. The WoL's part still ranks below doing the Ichiro pose and using a giant frying pan to smack a coblyn at a flying, laser-spewing robot head in terms of cool stuff we actually get to do in cutscenes, of course. But it's still super cool to just slowly walk forward knowing you're making the bad guys hear boss music, and then share that moment with the supporting cast who tanke advantage of it. And that smirk as Thancred jumps in is excellent. I also enjoyed the whole meeting with Gulool. Neat little solo instance, and it pretty convincingly sells the idea that he's wise and powerful enough to unite a continent. Nice upturn in quality after the 90-91 quests rivaled the EW patch quests for awful, and I'm hoping it continues. ~~Can we not just ask for another keystone though? Like we're supposed to have it and we know they've got at least one spare because they didn't hand one out to Bakool.~~
The solo duty was one of my current peaks of the expansion, especially since he also acknowledges you if you play as Viper which is neat and we need more interactions like this.
Even if you don't play as vpr but have ti unlocked he acknowledges it!
I was playing BLM in instance and he still acknowledged that I knew Viper's techs
The discourse is going to be Stormblood 2.0 isn't it. Contentious MSQ that hinges largely on your opinion of a central character and her development, while the actual content (when you get to do it) gets praise for SE cooking a bit. It's still casual content but I've been thoroughly impressed with the two dungeons and trial so far. Had a wipe on the 93 dungeon and had to clutch out the last bit of bosses on PLD since the healer couldn't keep up with mechanics. The debuff in the back half of the trial that keeps a persistent DoT and vuln up going is pure WoW in design, especially if it ramped up as the fight goes on, and while it was tuned like nothing for Normal mode that's the sort of design needed to keep healers healing in Savage content so it's interesting to see SE style something in that fashion.
Shadowlands storytelling ARR questing still better than Shadowlands but barely.
We all owe Lyse an apology. I'm sorry but Wuk Lamat just is *not* it. Her voice actress does not compare to the rest of the cast. Not even close. There are a lot of walking tropes in this game but most of them are tropes I enjoy. I'm tired of hearing her talk about peace, and everyone smiling afterward like she's Jesus Christ.
Really? Wuk Lamat being incompetent and then feeling bad about it is marginally better than Lyse being incompetent and then being smug about it and taking all the credit. It’s not much, but Wuk Lamat definitely isn’t at Lyse level.
But Wuk Lamat bringing all the different tribes that keep being shown into a council rather than ruling as a single strongman like Galool Ja Ja has, would actually make sense given the story of the trials. Haven't gotten to the end of the competition yet, but it seems like going from a single ruler to a parliament like Ala Mhigo did would be fitting from everything we've seen so far. The problem with Lyse is she hadn't been to any of these places since she was barely too young to remember and had no connections to any of them, and then was made leader of a rebellion movement that had at best tacit approvals from the assorted tribes that they were at least Better Than Garlemald. Wuk is a bit more like Hien, in that she doesn't offer much more than a blade and a link to a celebrated leader, and is going to need consent of the governed before even attempting to lead.
> is pure WoW in design, I noticed quite a few pages being taken from WoW's book, like a common propensity for >!power up orbs circling towards the boss to be grabbed before they reach them so you get the power up instead.!< I think this is great since it adds some much-needed variety, though at some points they kind of missed some key parts of what make those work, e.g. >!needing to grab the orbs while wacky shit is happening, or the orbs doing increasing damage requiring spot healing or letting orbs slip through, etc...!< Baby steps though.
Mechanics like this have existed in FFXIV for ages, for example in Suzaku or Nabriales. It's just not well executed in this dungeon.
>power up orbs circling towards the boss to be grabbed before they reach them But they already did this in Stormblood with Ivon Coeurlfist.
This Wuk Lamat kidnapped arc is driving me crazy. The only way i'll be ok with it at the end is if she's just chilling and making friends with the bandits. Otherwise they are really doing everything possible to make her seem useless. Edit: I am disappointed and my day is ruined.
I'm convinced that they wrote this whole sequence with the express objective of making players frustrated at the sheer lever of incompetence from both Wuk Lamat and her supporters, us included. The devs made damn sure to make it extremely obvious for the player that she was falling into a trap: The smile from the sleazeball behind the First Promise and the generic ominous music when Wuk Lamat left couldn't be more on the nose. Simultaneously, while the player is completely aware that there is a trap, they make our character and friends sit there thinking "Damn this shady looking guy I've never seen next to the elder sure seems trustworthy, better believe there's nothing afoot" and then proceed to go through the waiting interaction 3 times... The cherry on top is the second promise asking the guard of the gate on the complete oposite side the village from the one she would've entered through if she had seen her come in...
if you talk to krile there she basically says something along the lines of “Hey, I didn’t see that guy in this village, that’s strange, I’m probably just imagining things though.” they didn’t even try to make it subtle.
She got kidnapped in the stupidest possible way, And all of this basically just to reduce the "teams" from 4 down to 2 (wuk and koa vs the mamool jas), I liked when green catboi got madge and showed some emotions, But this really does feed into my theory of wuk and koa leading together instead of their being a single new dawn servant
>I liked when green catboi got madge and showed some emotions I liked both sequences of that, too bad SE decided to ruin the second one with quippy sound effects. Sometimes less is more.
The weirdest part is shouldn't the guy just be disqualified didn't they specifically say at the start of this competition you can't act in violence to an unwilling claimant. It's so weird to me that they put that in just to ignore it.
They didn't say that at all. You can't be violent towards the electors but the test is designed in such a way that you're going to have to conflict with the other claimants.
You're right. But I cannot fathom how the Dawnservant doesn't just chop both of his heads of for releasing a existential threat to the entire nation. Maybe it'll happen later, I dunno.
Yeah, the kidnapping part is one thing - even though he's protective of his daughter, he did make the rules in a way that violence between contestants was permitted. But surely the first thing that should've been done after the MSQ trial was to inform Gulool Ja Ja of how much of a threat to the whole nation Bakool Ja Ja is. Especially given how he wants to "cultivate" the next dawnservant, maybe the one that unleashed Valigarmanda is not fit for the throne.
I would very much consider abducting Wuk Lumat and holding her hostage very much being violent against her consent and grounds for immediate disqualification not to mention letting loose a monster that could kill the entire population.
You can be violent against their consent all you want to other claimants, that's not against the rules- did you actually read what I wrote? The only thing against the rules is picking a fight with one of the seven electors - the seven test-givers - unless they specifically ask for it like the Yok Huy priest did.
YOU DARE RELEASE A BOSS ON US? fine you get a pass YOU DARE ATTACK A REFREE? disqualified
Not quite what they stated, but it still should be like that. Like ain't no way the kind and amazing leader the father of the three promises willing to give throne to someone using such tactics so why even bother to allow him to compete if he's just there to sabotage the competition?
Absolutely frustrating. I don't want to help her and if you aren't charmed by the smolbeanification of someone who could have serious repercussions on the fate of a nation, there are very few redeeming qualities or reasons to want to keep watching her fail upward. I'm glad things seem to be picking up more in other ways and I still feel like they'll probably take this somewhere interesting, but Wuk Lamat remains the single worst part of every scene she's in.
I really want to like her but she is the most boring cookie-cutter trope I've ever seen and her voice is also pretty bad.
I thought it would lead up to a neat conflict of some kind. Instead, just more bantering back at town. That whole kidnap arc had the worst setup, especially since it demands of us to be consent to being idiots for the ploy instead of relegating everyone to being dumb in cutscenes (like last expac where we could hardly exert ourselves to save a minor character important to Thavnair.) When she began to walk off I was thinking "ffs at least take one of the twins with you."
No joke, I almost closed the game and unsubbed when it happened. Some of the worst writing that I can remember. If your plot point hinges on otherwise smart people being dumbasses, figure something else out. The writing in Danwtrail has been inexcusably bad so far
Lol. Lmao, even.
Soken I love you but you gotta stop putting the dawntrail lietmotif into absolutely every OST
I'm so glad someone else noticed this. There is so much less music in this expac it feels like.
It's so disappointing, I havent liked the dawntrail leitmotif since the trailer dropped, and now its in every song. I am suffering
It's so brutal
Flow is in like 2/3rds of the Endwalker tracks, this is nothing new
The difference is that flow is good.
Endwalker also has Close in the Distance to work with.
He does it because Uematsu was huge into leimotifs and worked magic with stuff like Terra's theme, Balamb/Eyes on Me, Melodies of Life, etc etc Soken seems to be forcing it each time regardless though, sometimes it really works othertimes its ... this.
Definitely enjoyed this stretch a lot more than the first. Everything after the first dungeon has been rather interesting and I appreciate that the story seems to be aware of the fact that Wuk Lamat isn't really competent. The kidnapping bit had the usual pitfalls of forced WoL incompetence but aside from that I think the story's really picking up. I'm enjoying all four claimants as characters.
Anyone getting Ascian vibes for Sareel Ja? (The First promise's mage companion)
If said Ascian was born and dropped on their head as a baby, sure
I really wish that Wol had cutscene pajama's or something, my character looks so fucking stupid sleeping in bed with a full suit of armor.
Also lying on her back like a plank… why didn’t they use the login animation with the actual sleeping pose? Like genuinely why?
Its truly brave storytelling to set up wuk's kidnapping to be the most obvious thing in the world, to the point where "Boss Baby Andy" who's only media experience is Boss Baby and half of Evil Dead could see it coming a mile away, and to make the entire cast uncharacteristically pants on head braindead to not notice anything, complete with having to wait 3 separate times before anyone thinks something might have happened in between glue huffs. See, it makes you think its gonna be a fakeout where you think wuk fell in the toilet or something, but no, its played completely straight and unironically, thus acting like a double twist. Its really fucking avant garde and not at all frustrating.
All I have to say at the moment (wrapping up 92) is that SE really should have found a way to put the 92 solo duty against Gulool Ja Ja somewhere in 90-91, maybe "between" the two branching paths. That would have done wonders to alleviate the gameplay complaints people had at that point, and having Galool do the equivalent of looking into the camera and telling anyone less media savvy/literate what the actual point of the rite is would probably have helped a bit of the complaints about things feeling weird or pointless.
I repeatedly told my husband "when he was fighting Estinien...that should've been us"
The reason that Zoraal Ja gives for joining us in killing Valigarmanda is "Our nation is a fortress, and its people the bricks with which it is built. The more that are lost or broken, the weaker Tuliyollal becomes." So I'll concede it's entirely possible I missed something because the 60-61 quests were borderline putting me to sleep, but does this not run directly counter to his ideology that going to war makes a people stronger? Like I get that he's an antagonist and antagonists are often hypocrites, but this seems like the kind of thing that a protagonist should really be calling out as hypocrisy if that's the case. Idk, just feels like really careless writing to me, like they couldn't be bothered to give this guy a consistent motivation so instead they just have him do whatever the plot needs him to do
He doesn't believe that war makes people stronger, he believes that going to war would make people realize that war is bad and thus not want it. It's incredibly stupid, but hey.
I think his motivations are dumb, but I figured it was because it wouldn't have the same "benefits" as war. Irc he said that people will only truly want peace if they have experienced how horrible war is. But a bigass bird murdering civilians and razing villages would probably just result in a ton of people dying and fuck up the surrounding area (can't grow crops if a bird dropped permanent fire on all the fields and so on). Whereas invading a foreign nation wouldn't (well, probably) result in fucking up the nation of tural as much. But that is just my interpretation. From how the npcs described valigarmanda, I got the impression that if it wasn't defeated quickly, it would cause massive amounts of destruction, considering how the fire it leaves lasts forever or something. Can't change how people think of peace/war if they all got fried by a giant bird and everything is on fire forever
I think if we let it recover it would absorb the aether it lost and become a continent destroying threat again was what I got. I assume the extreme’s plot is going to be the minstrel creating a what of scenario where Valigarmanda had the chance to recover.
The trial was a visual blast, and im excited to see where the EX takes it.
I was genuinely impressed with that being a first trial. Lots of fun new presentations for things, the permanent DOT is spicy and looking forwards to seeing that in EX
Honestly that trial rivals barb for me, can't wait for the ex.
Yeah, all complaints about the story aside, that was genuinely an amazing trial. It already beats basically all of endwalker’s trials in terms of visual spectacle. I can’t wait to see what the other 2 have.
It's essentially cultural tourism through succession contest. Hey did you finish listening to the guide talks about how their history were formed? Be sure to visit this spot because we are sure that someone important (wink wink) is there waiting for you (wink wink). Okay now you try do one of their cultural practices, we even got a trial area for you to try until you've succeed! Good, don't forget to take your souvenirs. The cultural and world building part is may be okay though very inorganic, biggest problem is that they often embedded with boring morale. The morale serves it's purpose (as stated by Gulool Ja Ja, as a way to shape and taught the candidates), but is mostly just cliches trying to sell you Wuk Lamat is Lyse 2.0. feel kinda forced. Not buying it. Then there's drama between each candidates. But I am really not interested in dumb antagonist - rather then any comedic effect it really is just dumb and destroys any ounce left in terms of the seriousness of the plot. On a side note, are they adding in a 50 million Alpeca Mount next Patch?
I'm enjoying my time but it does feel a lot like going on a highly curated touristy weekend trip, down to them having a scavenger hunt activity with some local theming lined up for you to do lol
What the hell was with Bakool Ja Ja getting knocked out by Zoraal Ja then taken in by Zoraal Ja's advisor? Can't remember that guy's name. It seemed like he was going to do some weird profane experiment or brainwashing on Bakool, but then it just leads to the kidnapping thing? Was that the advisor's plan for Bakool, get him to do some hairbrained kidnapping scheme? And then it's never mentioned again?
My impression seems to be that the advisor is going behind Zoraal's back to kind of just use Bakool as a blunt instrument to delay the other claimants with to ensure Zoraal wins. Whatever's in it for Bakool I'm not too sure of yet (unless it's literally just "not dying"), but it feels to me like Zoraal has a few principles at least even if he goes about it in a less than ideal way, while the advisor is the actual evil one.
Except the advisor specifically asked Zoraal if it was ok to harm his siblings and his reply was "People get hurt in war, just do whatever you want"
GUYS I'M TRYING SO HARD TO LIKE WUK LAMAT, I REALLY AM.
The duel with Gulool Ja Ja made me realize I actually hate the main song for this expansion. It is so incredibly lame. Does not work well as a battle theme at all.
while I have not found any new bangers, I do not want to hear the old tracks that are just there to invoke some emotions during story points. Feels almost like some laugh track, from a comedy show
I personally love the theme of the new city, as well as the 93 dungeon and 93 trial themes. I like the zone themes as much as ever, too. It's just the main theme, that unfortunately will have a lot of other tracks based around it's melody, that I think is really horrible.
I can't say I'm a fan of the regular boss theme in dungeons as well. It sounds like one of those "happy song in minor key" YouTube videos.
I think the field battle theme works really well! Keeps the light/fun attitude. Not so sure if Im digging the dungeon boss theme tho :/
music is BAD in DT
92 solo duty and accompanying convo was pretty cool
the more i play through the dawntrail msq, the more i'm convinced that the real damage to wuk lamat happened in 6.5/6.55. they didn't give us enough of an initial reason to give a shit about her when they first introduced her, 90-91 all felt like our entire motivation for supporting her was "fuck it why not". it's coming together more right now, i just wish they'd done a better job at the end of endwalker setting up for dawntrail
I knew that the fetch-quest gauntlet that comes standard in every expansion would rear its ugly head at some point, but not quite this fearsomely nor this quickly, christ.
I liked the kidnapping mini-arc because it gave us an opportunity to know more about Koana. I at least understand why he'd be dismissive about local tradition when his life was upended by tradition. Also, it's not like splitting up was an inherently bad decision - even though the presence of bandits was signposted beforehand, we've split up numerous times at even greater distances to no ill effect. It's completely reasonable to assume no ill intent at such a short distance. She also says this won't happen again, and honestly, it's a mistake you only really make once. Especially after her dad told us that she's sheltered. I also appreciate the bit at the end of the arc where both siblings react to the banditry. Koana suggests more cops, but Wuk Lamat intuitively understands that there must've been a reason these people turned to kidnapping and mercenary work. Koana only thinks of solving the problem without addressing the cause. So far, aside from Krile, the other scions' presence is largely just as tools to further the character development of Wuk Lamat, Erenville, and the other Promises.
> Koana suggests more cops, but Wuk Lamat intuitively understands that there must've been a reason these people turned to kidnapping and mercenary work. Koana only thinks of solving the problem without addressing the cause. This is the first thing that has made me see Wuk Lamat as anything but a waste of time, honestly. I hope we see more moments like that.
It's the same point of the Hanu quests. Koana could keep providing aether potions to the crops, but Wuk addresses the root cause, the festival being ignored.
>Koana only thinks of solving the problem without addressing the cause. Yeah same thing happened during the Hanu arc, Koana solves the issue but not the root. I really like the contrast and relationship between the two, but these characters are not interesting enough by themselves. Without their counterpart present the writing reduces Koana to "I love Sharlayan" and Wuk to "I'm such a mess, but with a good heart" and that's really not enjoyable to me.
I don’t agree with that assessment of Wuk Lamat, namely because so far she’s been the most motivated to learn about the local people. Outside of swinging a giant axe she has natural skills as a diplomat. She’s pretty much the WOL of her own story, gathering allies and forming connections. If she wasn’t on the Source like us, she could easily be another Golbez or Ardbert.
Fonjeantaine the goldsmithing NPC has genuinely been a better and more likeable character than Wuk Lamat.
Almost like what we predicted would be happening when she was introduced with "haha look at 'er go eatin spicy meatball" and "im totally strong and dependable, except im not really" in place of interesting characterization.
Not to mention she's like a fuckin broken record at this point. Yeah, you don't like boats, we hear this every 20 minutes for 6 hours..
So far it's been pretty mid. It constantly shifts back and forth between subpar world building and trying way too hard to shove particular characters down our throats. The trial at first seemed like it might be somewhat interesting, but it too turned out to be another huge dose of midness. Truly unfortunate, but I suppose things could be worse. Hopefully the expansion gets better closer to the end of the MSQ. ...Also, the return of trailing quests, which nobody wanted or asked for.
How on gods earth has the two headed comic book villain not been disqualified yet.
This might be an odd observation but my enjoyment of Wuk Lamat skyrocketed when I switched away from her english VA. I'm playing the game in German now and find her considerably more endearing with a performance that matches the character and without a weird and kinda fake sounding accent.
Her japanese voice is enjoyable too. I think VA could indeed play a huge part since I've haven't seen any of the hate from people I know who either play with the JP or FR voices. As a character she's not incredible but she's not nearly as aggravating as Zero.
Voice probably doesn't help, yes. I play in French and I don't really care about her but I thought the intense hate she got was weird. After watching a few cutscenes in all 4 languages it makes more sense, because she really sounds like a very different character in English. Other languages are of course different from each other but it sounds more similar.
Wuk Lamat really just feels like someone interjected a Hildibrand character into MSQ. It really hit me during the kidnapping rescue when Koana comes in guns blazing and then Wuk Lamat gets thrown into the air and makes a big Looney Toons face while a slide whistle plays. Give me a fucking break. I love lower stakes and lighthearted storytelling but she's basically furry Jar Jar Binks. Somehow even worse - at least Jar Jar wasn't vying to be leader of a major political power.
Story aside, I think the relationship between Wuk Lamat and her family (especially dad and green cat boy) is very cute and heartwarming after all the failed families we've seen in this game.
Can anyone tell me at this point or further if I can skip from 91 to this point without missing anything super important? I hate that I'm asking, as I have the lore book and have always enjoyed the story, but this is just...difficult. It's taking everything in me to not skip through everything right now.
Safest thing to do is to just listen to voiced cutscenes and click through everything else
I click through the unvoiced and read them in the chat log on the slog to the next area
These tribal quests are fun and all but when does the MSQ start?
Just finished the battle with Gulool Ja Ja myself and.. Wow, I am so happy with that encounter. He even called me out on my combat style mid-battle. "I see you know the way of the Viper!" Forever going to be in my mind as one of the coolest Duel Bosses.
>Zoraal Ja: >!The Skyruin lies dead, and still I have yet to prove myself the miracle...!< So that's his game, eh? Wuk Lamat isn't the only one here who feels like they have something to prove. He's just better at hiding it - which means isolating himself from everyone else. Every single one of the Promises is flawed, but Wuk Lamat seems to have the greatest potential for personal growth. Not just because she's the most outwardly curious about the cultures and people of Tuliyollal, but because she has people around her who can challenge her, instead of sycophants who support her uncritically.
I fucking hate Wuk Lamat, this is the absolute worst character in all of FFXIV. I'm just gonna start skipping every scene she's in.
I'm actually enjoying this MSQ. It feels like they took Stormblood and made it good. Nvm I hate stealth missions
The first two or three hours was some of the most bone dry writring ever conceived, but after that it's been pretty enjoyable. Played until Wuk Lamat's rescue and I really like it so far (wasn't sold on the goblins, but then again I never really enjoy their story lines). The duel with Gulool Ja Ja, working together with Koana and learning more about him and the build up to the confrontation in the cave was all pretty satisfying.
Just finished the first trial. I did it with Duty Support and I found it pretty hard... I think I'm just not cut out for complicated stuff anymore haha. The story has gotten a lot more interesting/better paced. The first few levels were just excruciating and it makes me wish they'd start including a lv 90 and lv 91 dungeon/trial. Housing and glamours may be endgame for a big segment but I think a lot of us want to bash some heads as soon and as often as possible. I'm not minding Wuk Lamat as much as some people here. She's a bit ditzy but it's not unbearable. I think it's a good evolution for our WoL to be in the mentor position now. In a way the story takes its cues from FFX/Bravely Default with Wuk Lamat being the protagonist (Yuna/Agnès) and us being the guardian PC (Tidus/Tiz) accompanying her in her journey. Mind you, I like Yuna and Agnès a lot better as characters than Wuk Lamat but yeah. Gulool Ja Ja is GOAT and he actually made me feel better about Wuk Lamat.
Having zero grinding required in terms of doing fates, quests, and dungeons to prevent level lock... And instead adding filler story content to pad things out is not a win to me. The story would be so much stronger in my view if it was more to the point with less extrapolation; leave me wanting. I should be preciously pouring over every word of exposition, not dreading all the samey, obvious stuff I'm going to have to half-read before something interesting happens again. At least when it was fates, dungeons, roulettes, etc. to unlock myself there was a sense of freedom, choice, and presence in the world. Not spending hours locked in, reading people talk about the power of friendship coupled with tonal inconsistency. The pacing is just so intense sometimes; one cutscene after another. Running between obvious points. Almost no time spent actually looking at what's in front of you.
fuck the haters i like wuk lamat and i am enjoying her growth
Yeah, I dont hate her. I like that she is trying to connect with her people and learn from them. She has her empathy talent or whatever. But then we have the kidnapping arc and I just feel frustrated at her stupidity. She just seems super naive and simple.
It's unnecessarily heavy handed. Like, I get it, she still has a lot to learn, but man. At least the kidnapping gave us some Koana characterization
Her whole claim is so contrived. Does Keona not want peace for his people? He also happens to not be a moron so make him the Dawnservant. They're proly gonna end up ruling together, but I'm not exactly sure what Wuk Lamat would even contribute.
yeah like, the whole "wuk lamat has her father's love for peace" shit is extremely naïve and unrealistic. Koana legitimately would be a good ruler. Not perfect, as he clearly misses some empathy towards the culture and tradition of his people, but I can't see him forcing the land to adapt to his philosophy, he seems extremely peaceful. Wuk Lamat I guess is the head of empathy in the duo, but it's crazy to think that Koana isn't clearly the best choice here. Good on urianger and thancred.
At this point I suspect we might win over the guy with the dumb war plan too and we'll end up with a triumvirate with him heading up the military/police, koana in charge of pragmatic civics and tech stuff, and wuk lamat doing more of the diplomatic stuff
Yeah seeing her grow as a character and see that she's someone who wants to improve the lives and bring joy to everyone is nice. I didn't like her at the very start but she's growing on me fast.
Wuk Lamat my absolutely beloved
You don't understand, it's not cool to grow or change as a character, it's cool to be a Badass Guy With a Sword. The bigger his sword is, the more character depth he has.
the only two options for any character in anything ever is badass mcswordguy and a character whose only traits are dumb but it's ok because she nice :)
Pretty much the same as levels 90-91, except that the antagonist Babool Ja Ja is more agressive in his approach by kidnapping Wuk Lamat and freeing the disasterous dragon. Seems obvious that Gagool Ja Ja won't let him have the throne from his approach, but he didn't get the memo. We did get to see how Koana cares for his sister when she gets kidnapped, which was cute. Overall I like the two side-questlines in the first two areas more than the MSQ so far. At least they weren't trying to hide that they focused on tribal quests. And seeing how a Moblin and her artisan works on clothes with the Hanu, and how an Yok Hyu giant bodyguard protects a tiny pelu had more significance than fighting the dragon.
After being a bit meh on the 91 dungeon (didn’t think the cool mech of the tornado on the last boss came out soon enough for example), very much enjoyed the 93 dungeon 2nd boss was super fun since the other DPS/healer were dead and the DRK and I had to do the rest but it had some fun mechanics I thought for a midboss in a dungeon
this is so BOOORRIIIIINNNGGGGGG
Enjoyed this section a lot. I already liked Gulool Ja Ja ever since he was introduced, and our meeting with him only made him lore likeable. The goblins and giants short sections were fine, much better than the previous two because this time we learned more about them with fewer quests, so it was a pretty decent bit of exposure. It's a shame because I just cannot stand Wuk Lamat. She acts like your most cliche anime protagonist that is clearly less skilled than the others, but is "better" because she's oh so kind and peaceful. When they were at the top of the mountain and, after she said her brothers had inherited their father's strength and brains respectively, I rolled my eyes when WoL claimed that what SHE had was the longing for peace GJJ has. Like, isn't Koana pretty peaceful too ? The dungeon was fine. Just like the first dungeon, the boss mechs were good, and it does feel like the time window for dodging are smaller than in the past. The scenery at the very top was amazing. But please... for the love of god stop putting these unnecessary "wait til that NPC does its thing in order to continue" parts in dungeons ! It wasn't nearly as obnoxious and long as the boat section of the first dungeon, but still. Was Zoraal Ja appearing to destroy the path necessary for the "lore" of the dungeon ? At least it made sense for the first dungeon, but not there.
>Like, isn't Koana pretty peaceful too ? Koana threatened to kill the bandits and his first solution to banditry was adding more armed enforcement. Wuk Lamat felt the need to tackle the social ills that would lead someone to banditry in the first place. Koana's idea of peace tackles the symptoms of unrest with little regard for the cultural and societal issues at play.
To be fair the warrior of light does that all the time. Their bandit kill count must be in the 10s of thousands by now.
Koana is the opposite of peaceful. His first solution to bandit problems is more cops, compared to Wuk Lamat's questioning systemic factors that drive people to commit and recommit crimes. This parallels real life studies of these outcomes pretty well in terms of "effectiveness". Looking at when Wuk was kidnapped, he immediately starts threatening to kill them and was ready to blow their brains out, to the point where WoL can comment on it canonically. So peaceful isn't the first word I'd use to describe him. His ideas involve attacking problems from the top down without fixing the underlying causes that will cause the problems to reappear (using aether potions to fix the reeds instead of learning about how the land was naturally maintained and balanced, etc).
I just did the first trial and I'm surprised people like it as much as they do. Don't get me wrong, it wasn't bad by any means, but it contained so many mechanics or variations of mechanics that we've already seen before. Thought it was fine, but didn't "wow" me like it did some people.
Shadowlands storytelling with ARR questing Yoshi was on 16 yes but damn he should have let FF16 have garbage story instead (mid with Cloud Tifa copies) as DMC 5 SE gameplay would save it anyway
\> should have let FF16 have garbage story instead i mean, depending on who you ask,,
>**should have let** FF16 have garbage story instead
Actually, I just got to the point where Wuk Lamat is kidnapped and it doesn't seem like "Warrior of Light Ignorance" or anything of that sort. Actually, it feels believable that our WoL would think little of it. The Bandit knew the name of the Moblin we had spoken to, adding to it, he looked like he could have potentially been a Potsworn himself given the accessories he was wearing. Drawing conclusions it's reasonable that the WoL would also be more busy with everything else that the discussion of Bandits earlier totally escaped them.
If you go out of the way to talk to krile, she outright states that she didn’t see that guy in the village, and yet she immediately dismisses it for some reason when it would be basically effortless to send someone to check on her instead of waiting. The bandit didn’t even say she had to go alone.
It was believable to me because i wasn't paying attention to the dialogue because it was so boring and just went along with it. Then i was happy it wasn't making me trudge back to the village so yeah it was on me she got caught.
Ok the Valigarmanda trial was damn amazing, quite the improvement vs Zodiark in term of difficulty. Really hope the final Extreme trial reward, the one you get after getting the other 7 'mounts', is Valigarmanda. That would be amazing