SonjaSparkle

Dawntrail is a good expansion in my opinion. First things first, a lot of the criticisms are valid. The story has a slow pacing in the first half and goes from 0 to 100 with no break in the second. However, this does not necessarily bother me since we were promised a „relaxing summer vacation“ and that is what we got. This expansion is not meant to be on par with Endwalker or, gods forbid, Shadowbringers. A lot of people seem to have had such high expectations that disappointment was inevitable. This was not the point of Dawntrail. Instead, this is the slow introduction of a literal „New World“ not only referring to Tural but another reflection entirely. But instead of seeing the potential, it feels like many players are focusing only on the negatives and looking for anything they can possibly criticize, which I feel is not fair to Dawntrail. I agree that the writing could have been better sometimes and Wuk Lamat did have a lot of screentime which could have been better divided between her and Krile for example. She fell a little short unfortunately and I would have liked to see more of her personal journey during the entire MSQ. The new zones are absolutely beautiful and graphical masterpieces in every sense! Exploring the landscapes of Kozama’uka and Yak Tel especially was a pure joy. The battle content was very enjoyable and I did not find it too difficult at all (and I am a casual player). Some wipes are expected with new content of course but it made the experience even more fun in my opinion. If I had to rank every single expansion so far, it would be this: 1. Shadowbringers 2. Endwalker 3. Heavensward 4. Dawntrail / A Realm Reborn 5. Stormblood The story was a bit more „simple“ and straightforward than the last expansions but again, I believe this was intentional. Endwalker gave us literally the epitome of convoluted millennia-spanning highly complex storytelling and hit us with despair, universe-ending threats and debilitating sadness all the time! This is exactly the break we needed. I really just enjoyed the ride with this expansion and that was, in my opinion, what it was meant for.