Final Fantasy XIV: Dawntrail Review – A Step Forward Where it Counts

Introduction to Dawntrail:

It’s always a little strange to review a game that’s already accessible to the public, particularly one as significant as an expansion to the world’s most beloved MMORPG. I can’t help but come across innumerable opinions from others that I have to work not to internalize so I can form my own thoughts. But thus far, roughly a week and a half after the game’s launch, the primary word I would use to describe Final Fantasy XIV: Dawntrail‘s reception is “polarizing,” which begs the question: Did we play the same game? Because I was enthralled almost from beginning to end.

Just to establish at the top of what I’m reviewing, I have completed the entire Main Scenario Quest of Dawntrail, which I did with my existing main job of White Mage. I also played during the media tour in both of the new jobs, Pictomancer and Viper. Still, I don’t typically play DPS jobs, and I felt it would be the easiest to compare my experience to other expansions by playing my personal favorite job. Both of the new jobs are about to see small updates anyway. You can expect individual job reviews from me over the next several months once the dust has more or less settled on the changes. I also completed both of the new Expert-difficulty dungeons multiple times, unlocked flying in every zone, and at least attempted the new Extreme fights.

Exploring the Land of Tural:

Dawntrail is a fresh start for Final Fantasy XIV in a lot of ways. Where the previous expansion, Endwalker, took full advantage of the previous decade of set-ups and worldbuilding, Dawntrail is a significantly more accessible story that tells the story of the Warrior of Light traveling to the South America-inspired continent of Tural to assist new character Wuk Lamat in her bid to become the next rightful ruler of her civilization. Effectively, this puts the player character in the backseat of someone else’s story, which has easily been the most divisive element of the new plot. But I’m going to be honest: I thought this was a brilliant move.

As of this expansion, the Warrior of Light is essentially a world-renowned walking god, with the salvation of multiple entire dimensions under their belt and a power level that most people couldn’t even dream of. If the intention of Dawntrail was to soft-reboot the story of Final Fantasy XIV, it makes complete sense to make the Warrior a supporting player in someone else’s story, with much lower stakes, because the plot now needs to build itself up from the bottom again. And, particularly in the first half, Dawntrail definitely feels much smaller in scope than Endwalker or Shadowbringers, but it easily makes up for this with its new cast.

Wuk Lamat, functionally the protagonist of this story, is an absolute delight that had me already attached beforehand from her introduction in Patch 6.55, and I only fell more for her as the expansion proper went on. She’s a tall, friendly lion lady with strong, shounen protagonist energy, giving her a different vibe than the more reserved nature of much of the existing cast, and Sena Bryer’s performance brings her to life. Wuk Lamat is the soul of Dawntrail, and one of the first thoughts I had upon rolling the credits was being sad that my journey with her was likely almost over.

A New Approach to Storytelling:

The other two central characters are not new but are given a much more important role than they’d had before. The Viera Erenville was previously just a helper in the Warrior of Light’s passage to the isolationist country of Old Sharlayan, but Dawntrail gives him a full spotlight as he hails from Tural and was childhood friends with Wuk Lamat. He has an engaging character arc that lets the player in on his perspective and backstory much more than they had previously.

Finally, Krile Baldesion has been a recurring member of the heroic Scions of the Seventh Dawn for several expansions now but is finally given a starring role and party member slot here as she ventures to Tural to find out why the Dawnservant (Tural’s ruler) invited her adoptive grandfather to visit him two decades ago, and what that might have to do with her mysterious origins. Krile was infamously a glorified background character before now, but getting a full adventure with her finally gives her all the character development she deserves, and Gemma Lawrence gets a lot to do with the character.

The rest of the new cast doesn’t slouch either, from Wuk Lamat’s father and current Dawnservent Gulool Ja Ja to her competitors for the crown and all the locals the party meets along the way. Every one of these characters was memorable to me, but without going into spoilers, I will say that the other claimants were all excellently plotted and incredibly performed.

Dawntrail is a fresh start for Final Fantasy XIV in a lot of ways.

The land of Tural also strongly benefits from a wide variety of minor characters and the heavily increased level of detail in the landscaping, modeling, and texturing that Dawntrail features compared to previous iterations of the game. The story’s first half sends the player on a journey to seriously engage with all of Tural’s different but connected civilizations and peoples. It gives the player enough insight into how they all work and live to make them feel alive. Even a week after finishing the game, I remember every individual town and person I met, and given my ADHD, that’s a serious accomplishment.

After its inspirations started to be revealed, many fans began to memeify the concept of it being the “racist expansion”, given how easy it might be to write a story where the foreign player character comes in and saves the ancient-civilization-inspired continent. Centering the story around Wuk Lamat easily sidesteps this issue by framing the player character as a friend, ally, and mentor to a local whose primary motivation is the preservation of all of the cultures of Tural. I consider it a stroke of brilliance on the part of the writing team.

Dawntrail‘s story can be split easily into two parts, and while the first half wraps up very well, the largest flaw of the expansion rears its head shortly afterward as the tale transitions in a much less conventional direction. While much of this content breaks from tradition and ups the ante in exciting ways, it also very rigidly adheres to the pattern set by the previous entries – one hundred quests and six large playable zones. The first half ends with a major tease for what’s about to happen, but a major momentum reset immediately undermines this, as the player will spend the next few hours in the expansion’s fourth zone, which could have easily been completely excised from the story.

Wuk Lamat is the soul of Dawntrail, and one of the first thoughts I had upon rolling the credits was being sad that my journey with her was likely almost over.

This rigid structure feels like an unnecessary shackle placed upon Dawntrail, which is otherwise a huge jump forward, and it creates an odd filler episode right when a lot of players are going to be really craving answers to the questions set up toward the halfway mark. I enjoyed the characters I met here, but I was also keenly aware that I was basically just going through the motions and waiting for the Big Moment I knew was coming.

But on the other side of the coin, the storyline of this expansion is something that Final Fantasy XIV has really not had before – an accessible, concisely-told tale that provides an immediate sense of resolution and satisfaction. This isn’t by any means a dig at the previous releases, but a statement that I found Dawntrail‘s story to be a refreshing change of pace that hones in on a few key characters and makes them shine. If a player were to skip right to Dawntrail, this story – while providing satisfying answers to longtime players as well – can be easily understood and engaged with in spite of lacking the prior context.

Graphical Overhaul and Visual Enhancements:

The second major element of this expansion (really the patch that it comes with, as all players will benefit from it even if they haven’t bought Dawntrail) is the game’s first massive graphical overhaul. The entire game has gotten a fresh coat of paint, and the increased level of detail is especially apparent in the new zones. The heightened texture resolution allows the intricate patterns on much of the cast’s clothing to come through clearly and spectacularly, and the entire experience is a visual treat. That being said, not all the existing equipment has seen all the changes yet. There are still areas that could be improved – the shadows cast on characters can still look rather goofy and inconsistent. I would have appreciated adding hair physics that would stop predesigned characters from frequently clipping through their clothes.

Last but certainly not least, an exciting change in Dawntrail is a step up in the difficulty level of the base content. For context, after the release of the Media Tour coverage, where a skilled group cleared the first dungeon of players with no healer, a small but vocal group of healer mains figured that that was going to be the average challenge level for the whole expansion, and began to organize a “strike” in protest. Rest assured, as a healer main myself, I don’t think that the average player is going to be able to make it through most of this content without HP refills.

After that first dungeon more or less reacquaints the player with the structure and a simple set of mechanics, every fight afterward was a serious but not unattainable challenge that was exciting to figure out. From what I’ve seen in person, this also helps to highlight the camaraderie between players that Final Fantasy XIV is famous for, as everyone I’ve met has been patient and eager to teach. I’ve always loved the process of new content coming out and tens of thousands of us learning how it all works together, and Dawntrail pushes players beyond what they’ve seen before in a way that I think only stands to unite them more.

Conclusion:

Dawntrail may not be as much of a reinvention of the wheel as it was made out to be. However, it also proves that this formula is still capable of featuring incredible stories and taking us to places that can surprise and challenge our understanding of the world, both in and out of the game. It represents a huge step forward in the worldbuilding of Final Fantasy XIV and its gameplay, giving the player appropriate challenges for the hundreds of hours they likely poured into it to get to this point. If this is any indication of what’s to come, then FFXIV’s next decade is looking as bright as dawn.