Final Fantasy 14 Dawntrail introduces some of the game’s best dungeons and trials yet alongside a compelling story that, while slow to ramp up, delivers resoundingly in its second act, setting a promising precedent for the future of the MMORPG on all counts.
I genuinely believe that Final Fantasy XIV Dawntrail is a phenomenal start to a new story, and that I am very excited to see where the dev team takes us next in the post-expansion patch content. From adding in more EX trials for mounts, new dungeons, raids and more, Final Fantasy XIV fans are feasting with yet more great content from Yoshida-san and the rest of his team.
An excellent way to continue the story of the game and start a new arc. The new characters were highly likable and given appropriate screen time (except for wuk lamat). The dungeons and instances were well-designed and implemented with great mechanics.
Some say the first half of the MSQ was really boring but I felt it was more of a chill adventure which is just what Yoshi P had intended after calling this game for the player's summer vacation.
The new locations in the game were all unique and diverse.
In the end, I'm just surprised by how the dev team at SE continues to make such great stories for each expansion. Kudos to them.
Been playing since 1.0 and I really enjoyed Dawntrail's story and the new characters. This feels a bit like A Realm Reborn in that it's setting up the next 10 years for this game, and has a different and refreshing vibe where our Warrior of Light is now a seasoned veteran and mentor in a whole new continent. It's supposed to be an adventure vacation and I really got the vibe of it. The new zones are beautifully rendered and with the music, it makes it a joy to gather mats or do fates, or to find sightseeing marks. The new main city feels like a real city too, lively and colorful! I enjoyed the voice acting, yes, all of it, and the main storyline made me want to see what was going to happen at the end. Dungeons and trials are a nice challenge, and the two new classes are fun and engaging to play. It's a great expansion and makes me optimistic for what's coming in the future! Where the devs go from here is anyone's guess!
In multiple ways, Dawntrail is all about setting up events that will play out across future chapters. The narrative is certainly the most divisive element at the moment, so there’s a lot riding on where the writers go after the revelations and developments in the final act. The battle content is certainly heading in the right direction, but there’s still a question of whether or not the devs can sustain this momentum. There’s reason to be hopeful with what’s been established in Dawntrail, but what comes next will be crucial to Final Fantasy XIV’s outlook for the future.
Dawntrail has the benefit of years of gameplay and graphical improvements, and puts them to great use in designing some of the best dungeons and trials we’ve seen to date. However, its confused story prevents it from reaching its full potential, and will likely bump Dawntrail down to the bottom-to-middle of most player’s tier lists. These issues aren’t enough to ruin the experience though, so it’s still a good time for Final Fantasy XIV players.
Overall, from stunning new locations, exciting new jobs, multi-dimensional characters and heaps of new content that I will be spending the next few weeks on, Dawntrail was the perfect way to introduce the start of a new arc to Final Fantasy XIV and as a result, still has a lot of story to tell.
Dawntrail shoves your character so far into the background of its story you may as well not be there. That said, the vibrancy and personality of Tural is a real breath of fresh air, and the dungeon bosses have never been more satisfying to take down.
My impressions of Dawntrail at release are as follows:
The most positive aspects would be the game’s music and dungeon / trial design. The more varied mechanics provide a more difficult experience at the higher end but also keeps fights more engaging.
Things which are okay or standard include zone design, side questing, fates, and gathering / crafting. These elements follow the same formula established in the prior expansion Shadowbringers and while some parts, especially when it comes to open-world design, are played very safe to the point of showing their age, they perform their function of adding lore and providing players with a variety of activities to choose from. The graphics update noticeably improved lighting and had noticeable impacts on colour saturation, yet there are still textural detail issues with pixelation on key NPC character jackets in the middle of cutscene close ups, and changes to player character impressions that players may or may not enjoy.
Unfortunately, the weak-point of this expansion is the main story . While the themes are interesting to explore, the way they are executed and put together leaves something to be desired. There is nothing wrong with the idea of our characters taking a more supporting role, yet story pacing drags on in certain moments and feels hasty in others. An example of this is the gratuitous use of recapping or repeating of story points by characters in cutscenes or quests that just tell you to talk to certain NPCs, immediately after said event was completed.
The depths to which serious topics are brought up and explored is shallow, perhaps to appeal to a much younger target audience. This simplification of themes ends up being of detrimental as actions and questing dialogue seem to contradict each other, or plot lines end up proceeding in significantly implausible ways. Also, the disconnect between Dawntrail and prior expansions is jarring, with side characters omitting very relevant fixes / lessons that featured in multiple prior main story expansions. I would’ve expected that references to prior events would be included as they would still need to be played through, assuming that buying full story skips is not the typical player behaviour.
Overall it’s enough to bring down the score to average because I believe that the strength or weakness of the story can strongly determine whether players will feel connected enough and enjoy further exploring the world and its characters in the additional side content.
Edit:
Raids are promising so far. Fun and challenging.
A higher score would unfortunately be anything but appropriate for the truly poor performance that Dawntrail delivers. The story is extremely tedious, revolving endlessly around Wuk Lamat, a character who, as several have already mentioned, is the very definition of a Mary Sue. The world shown to us on this new continent is filled with clichés and stereotypes that would be better suited to a preschool program rather than a game primarily aimed at teenagers and adult players. Nothing remains of the once profound story, and even well known characters like the scions fade into one dimensional shadows of their former selves. As for the WoL, they could have just as well been completely removed from the MSQ without the slightest change. The quality here is unfortunately even worse than in the already mediocre post patches of Endwalker. I have no idea what they were thinking by introducing these superficial new characters instead of further exploring already established ones. In this case, Krile and Erenville, who not only were short-changed but also handled so superficially that in the end, you feel nothing for them. The same goes for characters in Endwalker who were severely underdeveloped, such as Zenos, who received virtually no story, and a host of other aspects like Garlemald in general, which was treated only very briefly as a topic. All in all, Dawntrail was a severe disappointment for me.
Dawntrail is what should be the prologue of an MMO, not the continuation nor the beginning of a new arc for XIV.
The story is forgettable, at least the first half while the second half is more an echo to a precendent FF game.
Also the first half is just “doing others work”. It could be faster if they gave to the main protagonist an illustrated book in order to understand the better other cultures and make a tea party with each of those leaders.
Gameplay is getting boring and boring each new expansion.
Jobs **** makes the gameplay even worse and, moreover the balancing of these jobs was thrown in the trash.
Content mechanics are still the same, new colors but still what every player have already seen millions times.
System like “rewards” has been worsened from EW for two Extreme trials.
System like “the two color dye slot” has been implemented in a rough way, cutting out most of the item which were mostly used by fashion enjoyers.
System like Housing has not been improved.
The overall “graphic upgrade” is just a new paint on the old broken wall.
It’s not a bad expansion,
It would have been a good expansion if it was released for free from and indie company.
SummaryAs hope's light dawns once more, a hero looks to new horizons...
Winds of opportunity bring a visitor from the New World, seeking the Warrior of Light's aid in a rite of succession to determine Tural's next ruler.
Alongside Alphinaud, Alisaie, and Erenville, the Warrior of Light embarks upon a journey across the Indigo Deep. Should rum...