Whereas the style of MMORPGs is already a really tight-knit membership of just a few stronghold titles, Remaining Fantasy XIV has stood out for years now as its most unusual success story. After getting the proverbial phoenix down from impassioned director Naoki (“Yoshi-P”) Yoshida simply over a decade in the past, the sport not solely made an excellent comeback however has since grown into one of the beloved RPGs in current reminiscence, thanks largely to its spectacular storytelling, a faithful group that’s now over 50 million sturdy, and an ongoing expertise that pays the utmost respect to all the Remaining Fantasy universe.
The earlier Endwalker growth, which dropped proper in the course of the worldwide pandemic, orchestrated an emotional conclusion to the longtime battle between the Ascians and the Scions of the Seventh Daybreak, which culminated in an epic showdown with each Hydaelyn and Zodiark that took our Warrior of Gentle to the furthest reaches of the universe. The period that began all of it got here to a heartfelt shut, and gamers all over the world grew excited and anxious to see what the brand new period would entail.
Thus, to ring in the summertime season, we had been formally launched to Dawntrail and the huge new continent of Tural, ripe for exploration. The growth grew to become one of the extremely anticipated ones thus far, and pre-orders skyrocketed regardless of gamers nonetheless contending with Mog Station’s finicky transaction points.
The hype in flip fueled a pre-emptive debate on how the launch of Dawntrail would transpire after its predecessor confronted catastrophic server issues that left a lot of the group struggling to even log into the sport for weeks. Nevertheless, with semiconductor provide chain shortages now not a difficulty, Yoshi-P and his staff labored tirelessly to arrange further information facilities and develop server area by a whopping 50% to stop such a state of affairs with Dawntrail in any respect prices.
When Dawntrail’s Early Entry interval formally started on June 28, I logged in with cautious optimism, and fortunately it was rewarded with a queue that took surprisingly little time to get by, not less than within the morning hours. I did discover that later within the night and into the growth’s inaugural weekend, the queue did develop significantly (no greater than 2,500), however nonetheless nowhere close to the numbers that Endwalker begrudgingly confronted. That, in and of itself, was Dawntrail’s first victory.
The contemporary new storyline kicks off with the Warrior of Gentle touring by sea to Tural to uncover the reality behind the mysterious disappearance of Krile’s grandfather and likewise, in fact, to embark on a brand new journey alongside Wuk Lamat. Our new Hrothgar protagonist and heroine, Wuk Lamat curiously takes the narrative highlight way over the Warrior of Gentle in comparison with earlier expansions. She’s brightly spirited, proactive and, regardless of her younger age and lack of expertise in politics, her unwavering respect and regard for Tural’s residents resonates warmly with these she meets.
She’s additionally in line to succeed her father for Tural’s throne within the capital of Tuliyollal. Nevertheless, to assert the title of Dawnservant she should first compete in opposition to three different contestants.
The primary is her fellow adopted brother Koana, who firmly believes that Tural must embrace new-age know-how and worldwide commerce with Sharlayan to prosper. The second is the brash, two-headed Mamool Ja named Bakool Ja Ja, who thinks strong-arming his solution to the crown is the reply. The third and most consequential competitor is Zoraal Ja, the trueborn son of present ruler Gulool Ja Ja who, regardless of his aloof demeanor, unflinchingly believes that not solely is he destined for the throne, however that Tural and the remainder of the world have to be educated by the horrors of warfare as soon as extra to actually unify and be worthy of the peace they at present take pleasure in.
This fateful contest serves as the place to begin for our new journey, and our introduction to the assorted areas of Tural and its inhabitants. As Wuk Lamat seeks out every area’s elector and progresses by the culturally vital duties they bestow, we additionally regularly be taught extra about her rivals as they every deal with mentioned duties otherwise.
Koana shares in Wuk Lamat’s real regard for Tural’s residents and employs his technological intelligence to achieve success, however his strictly goal standpoint tends to get in the best way of seeing the larger image. In the meantime, Bakool Ja Ja typically resorts to reckless violence and dishonest to realize his ends, whereas the extremely sturdy however poker-faced Zoraal Ja performs by the foundations, however solely as a result of he should.
These duties usually are not the one requirement for the longer term Dawnservant, nevertheless, as Gulool Ja Ja additionally decrees that his successor should additionally find and unlock the fabled Metropolis of Gold. It’s not fully clear what such a spot is meant to comprise, but it surely stands as the ultimate job for Wuk Lamat and her rivals. Whereas we received’t spoil what transpires later within the story, the results of the competition culminate in an unexpectedly emotional and even deeper battle that takes our Warrior of Gentle and the Scions to a spot the place actuality bends, deceives, and causes sure characters to unfurl.
As an entire, the story took a much more dramatic flip than I (and certain many people) anticipated, contemplating how Dawntrail was initially portrayed as a tropical getaway journey, although actually with loads of mysteries nonetheless to discover. Nevertheless, the flip it in the end takes isn’t essentially to its detriment, and it does properly to check Wuk Lamat to her limits whereas revealing some startling truths about others alongside the best way. There are a few lulls right here and there the place it feels just like the stream stumbles a bit, however nothing that I really feel hinders it considerably.
There are specific narrative parts which have divided among the group, notably that Wuk Lamat takes the wheel a lot of the best way by Dawntrail quite than the Warrior of Gentle, and likewise significantly how the story performs out within the last two zones.
Whereas these factors are up for ongoing debate, I’d nonetheless argue with absolute confidence that Dawntrail gave us among the best new villains the sport has had in a very long time. They stuffed complicated narrative gaps that different antagonists, even Zenos, merely didn’t fulfill.
After all, a big contributing issue that helped present us with such a riveting story is the sport’s newly upgraded graphics. Most of the story’s cutscenes had been noticeably extra complicated and theatrical, reaching moments that the sport wouldn’t have been in a position to in earlier expansions.
This helped make the narrative much more compelling, and naturally, gave our characters a much-needed glow-up from head to toe. With options like much more expressive eyes and detailed textures to pores and skin, hair, clothes, and armor, the graphic replace additionally gave explorable environments extra sensible particulars and dynamic lighting, additional serving to to convey FFXIV into a brand new period of gameplay. It’s one thing that was sorely wanted and we’d argue that with out it, the sport would start to lose its luster in additional methods than one. Nevertheless, Yoshi-P timed it completely and even provided gamers a free fantasia to commemorate the modifications.
Dawntrail additionally provides us loads of new starter content material to sink our enamel into, from fight to crafting, two new DPS jobs, and many extra is because of drop within the coming weeks, with a very massive highlight on the primary tier of Arcadion raids. Let’s face it, we’re all itching to do battle inside that enormous GPU tower. Past that, now we have many extra issues to look ahead to, from Shades Triangle’ (Area Operations), to no matter Cosmic Exploration is supposed to be, the brand new Beastmaster Restricted Job, the Vana’diel Alliance Raids, and extra. Dawntrail will hopefully hold us so much busier for longer and keep away from the infamously huge gaps between updates that Endwalker handled.
When it comes to post-patch story content material, there are lots of avenues that it may well take with nonetheless lots to discover in Tural, and we are able to solely speculate at finest the place it may presumably go, which is thrilling in itself. Tural undoubtedly has lots extra to present us, and fortunately we received’t should take care of agonizingly lengthy login queues to take pleasure in it.
We give a heartfelt taco toast to Dawntrail and what it’s endeavoring to do, and whereas some might disagree, we really feel it deserves to take a seat alongside the likes of Heavensward and Shadowbringers, because it stands proper now. If it fulfills its promise, it may well hold that pedestal.