I know Stormblood didn't really exist on Steam back then but I wonder if it would have been similarly divisive. Probably not; I think most here are in agreement that it's a flawed but still fun xpac. The seas part for we alone!
Stormblood had a dry political story, an unpopular lead, and a boring A plot/setting (Ala Mhigo,) but there were many highs and points of intrigue even in the base MSQ that Dawntrail doesn’t come close to matching. Susano, Lakshmi and Shinryu were all memorable primals who had effects on the world without overstaying their narrative welcome (and Lyse was absent or completely outclassed, so she didn’t steal our thunder in any of them,) we had an excellently developed villain in Yotsuyu who got her own arc that explained and deepened her tragedy without using it to try to excuse her of her crimes, and we had time to spend on the multiple side characters that people remember and like to this day because they were robust enough to make an impression (Gosetsu, Fordola, Hien, Magnai, Hancock, etc.) Kugane was an interesting city that had a strong personality of grey morality and independence, including having an embassy for our arch enemy in it, which kept it feeling very politically distinct from our Eorzean cities and passively encouraged not getting too comfortable. There was a character that was interested in ours personally to bring some more personal stakes into all the politics (Zenos,) and the Hingashi/Doman/Steppe side was simply dripping with detail and culture that didn’t feel like it had just come into existence five minutes ago, which is the feeling that I got from every locale and population in Dawntrail.
Dawntrail is more like what you would get if you took only the dull Ala Mhigo side of Stormblood and tried to stretch it into a full expansion, first of all. But even if you let that slide, the story is still on a completely different level of poor planning and execution. It has already squandered most of its memorable MSQ side characters by lobotomizing them immediately (Bakool Ja Ja) or killing them immediately (Gulool Ja Ja,) sometimes twice (Otis,) ascribes zero logical motive to ANY character, and refuses to develop anyone or anything in a natural or logical way instead of a fake and forced one. It hamstrings its own stakes as often as possible and repeatedly presents uncannily cardboardlike locations, characters and story beats that are consistently bereft of meaning, implication or even basic logic, like a collection of functions that exist only to fulfill arbitrary gameplay and plot requirements. Things happen because the plot needs them to, and the plot needs them to because who the fuck knows? Things are explained but the explanations don’t make sense. It’s going through the motions of a story. It’s all extremely immature, even childish, like baby’s first shitty worldbuilding attempt constructed out of an extremely limited awareness of things that exist and practically no life experience or empathetic observation of people to understand what makes them tick. These are entry level fiction writing skills that are completely absent.
Ala Mhigo wasn’t liberated overnight with food and a handshake. Its problems could not be fixed with a solution that was Right There All Along. And the sequence of events that were required to free it made sense, had stakes, and
needed the Warrior of Light, even if one personally found them uninteresting.
Dawntrail is Temu FFXIV. Comparing the two is definitely unfair to Stormblood.
