★★★★ | Baby steps
When I interviewed FFXIV producer Naoki Yoshida last year, one of my major concerns regarding the MMOs future was how to avoid power creep from settling in. After all, by the finale of Endwalker, players had vanquished a cosmic threat and ended a conflict spanning centuries. The most dedicated Warriors of Light were clearing dungeons like no tomorrow.
Yoshida shared the same concerns: “It doesn’t work to just exponentially increase the scale,” he told me. “At some point, as storytellers, we can tell the story has gotten away from us. The conflict becomes so large that we can’t see the big picture.”
Which is probably why Dawntrail, the first expansion into a new decade of Final Fantasy XIV, feels like a step back. A knowing breather before things will escalate once again. The relaxed pace and often maddeningly simplistic missions at the start are a testament to that. For almost twenty hours, Dawntrail forced me into taking it easy, whether I wanted to or not.
As a solution, it’s elegant from a storytelling perspective. But from a gameplay point of view, I can see how it will rub some players the wrong way. At level 90, which is required to access the new world, players want to see their skills and gear put to good use. For a good while, that doesn’t happen. Instead, the Warriors of Light almost retreat into the background, turning into supportive champions. Those who help out others through wisdom and gentle guidance.
Wuk Lamat, introduced at the end of Endwalker, is ostensibly a main character now. Making for an interesting shift in perspective. The Warriors of Light have always had to share the glory with millions of others, in theory at least. But how does the experience change when most of your game time is spent on handling the emotional needs of an NPC you’ve just met?
After the initial whiplash, I settled into the new storyline remarkably happily. The vibes on Tural — the new world that’s more Costa del Sol than the European Gothic of past expansions — certainly helped. From lush jungles to mountainous regions, every subsection felt ripe for exploration. The new cities are vibrant and with their own unique feel, and I instantly fell for the new characters, who are as charming and well-written as anything in previous expansions.
Not everything is sunshine and daisies. Occasionally, Dawntrail takes it maybe a little too easy. Most notably in the cutscenes, which tend to drag in the first half of the game. Things that could be said with a sentence are dragged out into multiple bits of back-and-forth. Final Fantasy XIV has always loved the sound of its own voice — and that’s fine, we’re all guilty of it — but this time it is more pronounced than before.
Then again, perhaps that’s the nature of new beginnings. In the past, when a series returned with a new season after a long hiatus, the first few episodes always felt like retreads to get the audiences up to speed. Dawntrail has to do that and get new players, those who haven’t had the chance to explore every past expansion, into the groove of things.
It’s a difficult proposal, one that Dawntrail mostly accomplishes. If you’re a newcomer or, like me, someone who didn’t really get into the game until recently, Dawntrail is a natural entry point into the saga. A gentle landing into a lore-heavy adventure that still feels remarkably cozy to play.
That kind of accessibility extends to the new dungeons, which finally have a quality of life improvement that I’ve been waiting for a solo player. This time, if you get knocked out during a boss encounter, you can teleport directly back to it instead of having to cross the entire dungeon all over again. Thank you, Yoshi-P.
Similarly, combat feels equally fun, especially with the new Viper class. While I couldn’t break away for too long from my beloved Warrior, I found the high-DPS character a blast to fool around with.
Once the story picks up, the combat encounters become significantly more fun. Even while playing solo. While a few big bosses felt “unfair” in how easily they knocked me off the combat arena, it feels like Dawntrail is the most balanced experience in this regard, even at launch. I mostly played with NPCs as my party, but the few times that I ventured into the unknown with other players, I found the experience the same how I wrote about it last year: Fun, inclusive, and thoroughly supportive. When it comes to a communal experience, no other MMO can compete with Final Fantasy XIV.
I’ve spent a few weeks with Dawntrail at the time of writing, and I feel like I’m only getting started. Final Fantasy XIV, after all, is a continuous journey, one that never ends if we’re lucky. It’s something you get lost in, not for the sake of completing it, but to escape from reality. In that regard, the new expansion fulfills its promise entirely. I’ve spent countless hours just wandering, exploring, admiring, and daydreaming. Even the simple act of watching other players mess around in the cities is a therapeutic experience. An act of connecting with the world in a place that’s both real and imagined.
It’s not a perfect new beginning, but new beginnings rarely are. Instead, it has the growing pains of every long form story that has taken a shift into uncharted territory. We’re only just diving into a big new mythology, and there’s a certain excitement to that uncertainty. Wherever this adventure takes us is still years in the making. As it stands, I’m glad we’re getting a breather. Something that we can look back on three expansions from now and think: “Wow, can you imagine where we started from?”
It’s the nature of all great stories. The creation of memories from even the smallest event. In that regard, Dawntrail is a triumph.