FF14 player counts around 21 hours of cutscenes in Dawntrail—making it the second longest expansion next to Endwalker—and I can't for the life of me tell you why

I've had time to finish Final Fantasy 14: Dawntrail's main story—which landed to a bit of a mixed reception late last month.

Before I have a good moan about it, though, I think our recent Final Fantasy 14: Dawntrail review (written by contributor Daniella Lucas) isn't wrong in its assessment by any means. Things absolutely pick up in its latter half, there's a lot to like, and I would be lying if I said I wasn't emotionally invested in Wuk Lamat's journey. But that might be why it's bothered me so much.

While I had a good time overall, it's one of those stories that's marinated poorly in my head. The more I think about it, the more frustrated I get with its issues—which isn't surprising. I'm the kind of person who gets more irate the closer to greatness something scrapes. To me, 'almost fantastic, but overall fine' feels more criminal than 'just bad'.

High up on my list of mopes is the MSQ's pacing. Now, granted, every single FF14 expansion does a bad job of this: Shadowbringers had a literal trolley problem take up hours of screen time, Heavensward starts off very slow, and Endwalker made you listen to a few hours of a climactic, «yeah, we're doing it!» music while you were helping a bunch of nerds piece a spaceship together.

In the past, though, that pacing's been mitigated by strong character development, beautiful dialogue, and a pretty good use of time spent with side-conversations and self-contained plots.

Alas, the beat-by-beat storytelling of Dawntrail was just plain weaker than usual—all of the pieces were there for something fantastic, and there were some very high points, but they just didn't come together to form a proper whole for me. As such, that pacing problem, usually dismissible, was a huge part of the buzzkill.

If you feel similarly, it might surprise you to find that those issues also have some measurable roots. The vibes weren't just off, they were downright stretched thin.

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