After saving the fabric of reality from being erased, even the stoutest of heroes need a vacation.
For the last decade, Final Fantasy XIV has been all about building your legend, becoming the mythical Warrior of Light. The world revolves around you. Following up on a lengthy and beloved story is no small task, but Square Enix’s answer is an astounding success, one that feels like it lays meaningful groundwork for the next decade of the massively multiplayer online role-playing game.
In 2013, Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn was relaunched as a new and improved version of the original, a catastrophically disappointing MMORPG which Square Enix first launched in 2010. Over the last decade FFXIV has received universal praise and five expansions, with 2019’s Shadowbringers becoming one of the highest-rated MMO expansions of all time. As an ongoing live service game, FFXIV has told one continuous story about a war between gods named Hydaelyn and Zodiark, with that saga coming to a close with the previous expansion, Endwalker. Dawntrail is put in a precarious position, having to kick off a brand new storyline that moves past all the baggage of the last ten years. It’s no small task, but this expansion takes to it with gusto.
Dawntrail is a massive expansion that strikes out in surprising directions, simultaneously giving players a pulpy beach vacation and an introspective meditation on family, culture, and existence. It’s a bold addition that makes all of FFXIV richer, even if it stumbles a bit on the road there.
Because of that, its tone is decidedly more lighthearted, seeing the player’s Warrior of Light and his faithful companions, the Scions, head to the far western continent of Tural. There they help Wuk Lamat, daughter of Tural’s King, compete in a ceremony called the Rite of Succession, which determines the country’s next ruler. Because of the structure of the MMO, you do need to play through past expansions to reach Dawntrail, or purchase a skip-ahead to the current point. But ostensibly this is the start of a new tale with no extra knowledge needed, although the emotional weight won’t be the same if you aren’t familiar with XIV’s characters and past events.
Wuk Lamat is the most fascinating piece of Dawntrail’s plot because she’s the protagonist, not you. It’s a bold move, but in every regard, your Warrior of Light feels like a party member, someone along for the ride of Wuk Lamat earning her place as an illustrious ruler. It’s a fascinating change that gives Dawntrail’s narrative a much different flavor and pacing, but it works.
The majority of Dawntrail’s story is much more methodical and slow-paced than past expansions, all about teaching both the player and Wuk Lamat about the wonderfully rich cultures that make up Tural. Each step of your journey focuses on a different group that lives in Tural, like the diminutive trade-obsessed Pelupelu or the surprisingly spiritual giants known as Yok Huy. The game is structured for you to visit each culture one by one, diving into their society, role in the larger country, politics, and history. Dawntrail goes to great lengths to give you an intimate understanding of how these people live, and how their cultures intermingle, which makes the game’s setting one of the most well-realized and immersive locations FFXIV has had yet.
There are a lot of Latin and South American inspirations at the heart of Dawntrail, and the game generally does a great job of embracing those cultures to create a rich tapestry. You aren’t just learning about the various people of Tural, you’re gathering ingredients and making traditional dishes alongside them, taking part in festivals, opening trade routes, and helping honor the memory of fallen comrades.
Dawntrail’s cultural exploration is utterly phenomenal, and seeing Wuk Lamat grow as a character alongside all that is equally engrossing. In a roundabout way, she feels a bit like a classic RPG character – the heart-of-gold young hero who wants to save the world, but is inevitably naive. She’s a refreshing addition to XIV’s ensemble cast, and her journey brings a handful of other fantastic characters, like the hulking two-headed Bakool Jaja, who starts out as a violent blockhead, but sports some truly engrossing character development.
But what’s truly astounding about Dawntrail’s story is how the first half of cultural exploration is used to segway into some truly remarkable explorations of heavy themes, including the nature of loss and acceptance. Those elements of culture and diversity loop into family, parents leaving a legacy for children, and the nature of memory and mourning — how losing someone alters your life.
It’s shocking how grounded and relatable the narrative themes at play are, and it makes Dawntrail one of the most emotional stories in all of FFXIV, even though the stakes are decidedly lower than the adventures in past expansions.
The only real complaint you can draw with Dawntrail’s story is that events, at times, can feel excruciatingly sluggish, drawing out details that could have been delivered at a better pace. There’s an exorbitant amount of exposition and lore-building, especially considering the hints dropped for where things could head in the future. Much of Dawntrail’s world-building is consistently delightful, but it can lead to times where the actual activities you’re doing are generic tasks for hours on end, without interesting instances or gameplay segments. Even then, some of the new additions to the main gameplay feel misguided, particularly stealth segments that have you following a character, ripped straight out of Assassin’s Creed.
The upside, luckily, is that the major new gameplay elements of Dawntrail (jobs, dungeons, and trials) all feel worthwhile and satisfying. This is some of the best battle content the game has ever seen, period. Each dungeon has its own distinct style and aesthetic, with unique boss mechanics that are always demanding, but not unfair. It feels like Square Enix has directly addressed some of the complaints with recent dungeon design, where you could easily tune out and just blaze through on autopilot.
Danwtrail’s dungeons and trials absolutely demand that you’re engaged at all times, dodging attacks or playing with mechanics. For example, the dungeon Worqor Zormor features a boss that freezes its allies, making you figure out which ones are going to freeze first. The varied design of dungeons is strengthened by the role each one plays in the story, with gameplay and narrative context coming together almost perfectly. It’s clear the studio is putting thought into the fun factor of FFXIV, and that bodes well for future patches and updates. The same can be said for the new jobs, Pictomancer and Viper, which are some of the most involved and enjoyable classes in the entire game at this point. Viper is a blazingly fast melee attacker that gives you very little downtime between rotations, while Pictomancer is a fascinating approach to a magic job that gives you a wealth of options to approach combat situations.
That mentality of looking to the future seeps into every aspect of Dawntrail, with a wealth of little changes meant to provide a new foundation. Chief among these is FFXIV’s very first graphics update, which again, works exceptionally well. The bump in texture quality has worked wonders for the game, with Dawntrail’s zones especially looking vibrant and full of life. That sense of culture and people is ever present in each zone too, from a Texas-style border town that’s basically in the middle of a gold rush, to the crafting heaven of the Goblins, where every building looks like some kind of giant misshapen gourd. But even past areas and characters look great in the graphics update, which manages to still embrace that trademark stylized FFXIV aesthetic, while adding a new high-quality sheen to everything.
But there’s so much more than just that added with Dawntrail and the accompanying update that brings the base game to version 7.0. This includes copious amounts of job changes, quality-of-life elements, user interface adjustments, and more. The official patch notes are filled with dozens of little adjustments, and it all pays off in making Dawntrail the most approachable and streamlined expansion yet, mostly in a good way.
What’s most impressive about Dawntrail is simply how bold it is, and how much it truly feels like a fresh start. Telling a story that revolves around a brand new character is gutsy, and the themes that are woven into its fabric are something special. The expansion stumbles a bit with pacing and gameplay variety, but you can’t fault the sheer ambition it displays on nearly every level.
Dawntrail doesn’t have the same philosophical heft as Shadowbringers or Endwalker, but it doesn’t need to. This is a deep, multifaceted fantasy yarn about loss and forgiveness, and the simplicity is beautiful. While past expansion may feel grander, the raw human emotion at the heart of Dawntrail affected me, in a way I entirely didn’t expect going in.
Longtime players have been to the edge of creation and back, but there’s still plenty of life in the stories and experiences of the MMO. That’s true whether you’ve stuck with the game for a decade or are jumping in for the first time with Dawntrail. This expansion is a prime opportunity to bring in new and old players alike, and have something for everyone. Final Fantasy XIV’s future is looking bright.
Final Fantasy XIV: Dawntrail is available on PS4, PS5, Xbox Series X|S, and PC.
Hoyt Richards as a young man.
