MeinMMO editor Karsten Scholz has completed the leveling phase of Dawntrail and had some fun with Final Fantasy XIV. However, he doesn’t like to remember about a dozen quests from the new continent of Tural.
By a happy coincidence, the launch of Final Fantasy XIV: Dawntrail and the start of my two-week summer vacation coincided. And in addition to visiting the Leipzig lakes, taking long naps with the little one and watching TV series with my wife (especially The Orville), there was actually enough time to explore Eorzea and level up the monk to level 100.
Looking back, I can certainly understand the mixed reviews from the community after the launch. Despite the extensive cutscenes, the story only gets going slowly, and the more supporting role alongside Wuk Lamat is unusual. What bothered me most, however, were certain types of quests that I have never enjoyed in any online role-playing game.
The launch trailer for FFXIV: Dawntrail gets you in the mood for the expansion:
Final Fantasy XIV: Launch trailer for Dawntrail sets the mood for the adventure in Tural
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Escorting, accompanying, pursuing – yuck!
I must have completed my first escort quest sometime in 2005. In the Wailing Caverns in World of Warcraft, a Tauren Druid had to be brought through half of the instance alive. He didn’t walk, however; instead, he slowly shuffled through the dungeon, only taking a break every few meters. God, what a time-waster on two legs. I was so annoyed!
Similar feelings were aroused in me by at least a dozen quests from Dawntrail (why did there have to be so many?!), in which I had to escort NPCs through dangerous areas, accompany them through peaceful zones, or secretly follow them.
Of course, these tasks are much more modern in 2024 than they were almost 20 years ago. The inhabitants of Eorzea are more than capable of walking and are no longer constantly out of breath. During the peaceful companion quests, you can even use the city’s aetherytes to reach your destination as quickly as possible.
But none of that changes the fact that these missions continue to annoy me. They take the pace out of the gaming experience, offer no excitement or fun, and limit my freedom and flexibility for a certain period of time. If you break out of the given framework of the quest, it often fails immediately and you have to start over. Annoying!
The occasional bright spots
Luckily, there were some highlights during the leveling phase of Dawntrail, namely whenever there was a dungeon, a tough duel or a raid challenge on the agenda. I particularly like the battle events, where I can slip into other roles for a certain time and use new skills. I’d love to see more of that in the future, Yoshi-P!
How much fun do you have with escort, companion and pursuit quests in MMORPGs? Can you think of any positive examples of such missions? How much fun did you have with the missions in Dawntrail? Tell us in the comments! By the way: Final Fantasy XIV is changing half of the classes with patch 7.01, making them much stronger – Patch Notes in German