This is probably going to be the last Dawntrail Containment plurk as I'm on the last stretch of 7.0 MSQ now

Thanks to Krile and Gulool Ja, we've opened the gate to the city of gold - a.k.a. whatever fragment Sphene is from

okay so Y'shtola, Urianger, Alphinaud, and Alisaie are going to be left behind so that we can possibly get back out, fair enough.

Thancred's staying behind as well to guard the mages, smart

Estinien's staying behind too

Alisaie's mad. XD also I liked that my limbal ring was more subtle for the most part, I think this cutscene is the first time I've seen it actively glowing since the graphics update

this is pretty, but.. it also has a somber feel to it...

... so this is where all the dead people go...

there is a reason the saying is "the road to hell is paved with good intentions"

WELP HI CAHCIUA

somehow I saw that coming from a mile away. The request basically being "let us die"

what is that lid for the popcorn buckets

oh no I saw some of these NPCs when we were trying food in Solution Nine didn't I

On a cute boat date with G'raha but...

I can't help but wonder who he's talking about

I feel like I know who we're about to see

She's so pretty! Namikka!

Oh no it's not what you think ;A;

RIP, Namikka...

also this pun

IDK what to pick!

welp

oh dear

her acting is so bad omg

oh no is Otis remembering something

this is wrecking me

welp time to level grind

Krile's parents spotted!

did G'raha just eat like half of that ice cream cone in one go

so this is various parental issues the expansion right

Erenville

About time we see this kind of emotion from her, I was getting frustrated from how blasé she seemed about everything

The finale is at hand

Right, I finished the trial. First half of the trial was fun with lots of wacky mechs and such, but... Sigh. The second part of the fight was a cakewalk and... I admittedly have mixed feelings about the expansion overall.

This feels very sloppily put together, and I genuinely think that Sphene and Living Memory should have been patch content. That the last areas we should have been in would have more to do with the actual city of gold being advanced techno-ruins rather than more dimension hopping

like don't get me wrong the dimension hopping is fun, but with the rest of the expansion being a huge treasure hunt the sudden theme change was extremely jarring

On a gameplay level though, it (mostly) was a ton of fun! I like that the dungeons are more difficult and you have to scramble to learn the tells and you actually have to pay attention to what's happening in order to not die more than ever before. It's an actual game, and the difficulty spike (to me) is a lot of fun

yeah there are a couple of hiccups here and there (Sphene's trial comes to mind) but overall the gameplay experience is really good, and again the treasure hunt parts of the expansion plus Shaaloani were a lot of fun to go through. I was enjoying the much more relaxed pace, as it felt like the vacation-adventure our WoL deserved

overall I'd give the story 6/10 and the gameplay a 9.5/10 for Dawntrail. I enjoyed the experience, the story lost me towards the end but overall I had fun

(no word of a lie Zoraal Ja in Everkeep was definitely more of a final boss trial than Sphene. Like it was REALLY good and fun and had mechs that you could read if you paid enough attention)

and he had an entertaining "oh shit" for a phase two!

Sphene's phase two was... Wuk Lamat breaking into the fight and then starting to do insane amounts of damage to the point where the second half of the trial was almost impossible to lose.

like at least for Seat of Sacrifice and whatever the hell Endsinger's trial was called, you still had to earn the win through phase two even with NPC/divine intervention

Sphene's trial didn't feel earned.

I'm hoping that the patch content from here will be good at least. I'm gonna save the two bonus level 100 dungeons for tomorrow and beyond, hopefully I'll earn enough accessory drops to start the raid series in the process