Damascus

Or more accurately: Immediately dropping later gen quests onto fresh characters on new accounts is going to be exceedingly confusing when players unfamiliar with the game are being treated like world-weary adventurers with years of experience under their belts. This is especially bad since the first step of g19 is to speak to Duncan, who is involved with the non-Blaanid tutorial quests, and soon after sends the player to Kristell, who is heavily involved in G1. It's an incredibly awkward and confusing moment that disrupts the introductory segment of Mabinogi and I can only imagine it sours the initial experience of most new players.

From what I recall, Apocalypse is also dropped onto new players (at least, one of my lower-level characters who had only completed up to g3 had access to it), which is an equally confusing design decision but not quite as bonkers considering it doesn't require you to speak to NPCs involved with the tutorial section right away.

If it was a decision made to allow current players to rush the later content on newer characters, it's a poor reason considering we've always been able to start storylines we didn't automatically qualify for at Duncan, and Sagas I and II have always only been accessible via menus. Current players are aware of these tools and can start any story quest they want at any time on any character.

If I were to choose a point where the game automatically started G19 for you, it would be after the completion of both G16 and Saga I, not only because it would fill the player in on most of the past events referenced in the Divine Knights and Apocalypse chapters, but G16's finale is actually kind of brutal for unprepared players and Saga I has... mobs that spam final hit, but once a player is able to deal with those, they can handle the boss enemies with advanced heavy stander in the following story content.

So, yeah, it's dumb and stupid and I am biased and nitpicking, change it.

(Please, before the inevitable Josh Strife Hayes review, I'm begging you)