Final Fantasy XIV Dawntrail review: The start of something new

Final Fantasy XIV’s Dawntrail brings a fresh new start to the MMORPG, and while it doesn’t quite live up to the emotional highs of Endwalker, still provides a solid basis that the developers can continue building upon into the future.

Dawntrail is the latest expansion to hit Final Fantasy XIV. It sets out to forge a new beginning, introducing several new characters, and a more relaxed story while still hitting the same emotional beats that players have come to love about the MMORPG.

With equivalent offerings to the expansion before it, Dawntrail stands as a fine addition to Final Fantasy XIV, and a good basis for the devs to continue to build upon.

An adventure in a new world

It’s no secret that Dawntrail’s story is a bit controversial among the FFXIV community. With a very different pace from Endwalker, this expansion takes a more relaxed approach when it comes to the story and its pacing.

Dawntrail is clearly split into two main story arcs, with the latter being far more climactic and emotional than the former.

One of the main differences between Dawntrail and the stories told beforehand is that we’re finally given the freedom to go from place to place at our own leisure. There’s no longer the need to rush to the next destinations to assist people as the Scions of the Seventh Dawn; we’re simply in Tural as guests to assist Wuk Lamat.

This can definitely make the earlier parts of the story a lot less interesting, as much of it involves visiting the various people who call Tural home. Depending on who you are as a player, you might find immersing yourself in their culture less exciting than what Endwalker offered the player.

This is catalyzed by the fact that most of the story is delivered through cutscenes or by going over to X spot and interacting with an item. While this is what players have come to expect of the genre, it’s understandable why some can see this as more menial labor than an exciting and thrilling story.

Easily the weakest part of Dawntrail is the middle section of the story, where once we finish the first accomplishment of the expansion, we end up meandering a bit aimlessly. There’s still a story there, but it ends up feeling like we’re waiting for the next big event to happen, and the next story arc to rock up.

The second part of Dawntrail’s story kicks things into overdrive, paying off all of the character-building done in the first half. Not only that but the events themselves feel far more monumental, actually pushing the narrative forward to its conclusion.

The expansion also does an excellent job of investing more into characters that were yet to receive much development. Krile, Erenville, and Wuk Lamat all take center stage in this expansion and we learn far more about their backstory, family, and past. This all culminates into a fantastic bittersweet and heartbreaking ending that can easily cause a few tears to be shed.

However, while many characters were invested in the new expansion, some of the Scions being there felt like a bit of a waste. For example, the rivalry set up between the Warrior of Light’s group with Wuk Lamat, Urianger, Thancred, and Koana is never really explored.

This would’ve been the perfect expansion to have some playful banter between the group and would’ve gone down extremely well with the community. Similarly, other Scions like Graha’Tia and Yshtola felt pretty underutilized and didn’t necessarily need to be there.

Fortunately, the time not spent on the Scions makes much more space for Wuk Lamat to shine as the star of the expansion. As the character who invites us to their home, she serves as the main character and grows over the story, culminating in an emotional climax with Sphene.

Without spoiling too much, Dawntrail still provides players with that emotional and devastating storytelling that we’ve come to know from the game. Despite some minor flaws, it’s certainly one of the better stories told in Final Fantasy XIV and sets up for the post-patches and other expansions looking into the future.

Daunting dungeons and terrific trials

Dawntrail was the first content we had gotten after director Naoki Yoshida said he wanted to make the game more stressful. This difficulty bump is immediately seen in the first few dungeons of Dawntrail, which involve mechanics that are a bit more complex than what is usually demanded.

The increase in challenge, while a bit of a system shock at first is rather refreshing, as you actually need to pay attention while going through normal level content. This means you’ll constantly be on your toes, trying to solve what the various tells are of each boss.

Dawntrail comes with six story dungeons, three trials, and two optional dungeons after you complete the story. All of these can take a fair amount of time to complete, but each offers enough variation in locale and visuals to make them distinct.

All the trials in Dawntrail are absolutely superb in terms of design. Not only are their mechanics incredibly satisfying to solve, but they serve as a true spectacle, with each boss wildly shifting and changing the arena to demonstrate their awe-inspiring power.

This helps cement them as some of the toughest enemies the Warrior of Light has faced yet, giving us even more satisfaction when we finally take them down.

Painting the Viper

Not only did we see the introduction of Viper and Pictomancer in Dawntrail, but all jobs had their maximum level cap increased to level 100. This includes new heavy-hitting and flashy spells to go alongside them, letting us live up to our title as the Warrior of Light.

Viper and Pictomancer are both welcome additions to the job roster in Dawntrail, each fulfilling their niche and fantasies well with the Viper’s fast strikes and the Picto’s colorful casts.

There has been a bit of a balancing issue with Pictomancer massively outshining other casters like Black Mage with their damage, but the dev team is constantly checking in and is happy to make adjustments when necessary.

Some of the jobs like healers and tanks still feel the same, and really only received another big button to hit during their burst window. While job homogenization is definitely an issue in Final Fantasy XIV, it’s one that the devs have planned to address going into the future.

Bangers across the great blue

In terms of music, Dawntrail once again hits it out of the park. The leitmotifs, the soundtracks, the battle music, and so much more are just fantastic. This is typically the case for Final Fantasy XIV, with sound director Masayoshi Soken well-known by the community for releasing absolute bangers for the MMORPG.

Highlights include the theme that plays in the city of Tulliyollal, using a far more upbeat and almost tropical sound to accommodate the summer vacation themes the expansion goes with. Much sadder and somber tones are used during the latter part of the expansion, perfectly accentuating what goes on in the story and reinforcing its emotional beats.

There really isn’t much more that can be said about the music in Final Fantasy XIV, as it’s been good throughout the game’s entire lifespan. Dawntrail is no different, with more of the iconic soundtracks that the players have come to love from the team.

Visuals better than before

One of the big selling points of Dawntrail was the graphical update that comes with the expansion. This brings some pretty major changes to lighting, models, and more, which Dawntrail utilized to the absolute maximum.

The land of Tural has never looked more stunning in Final Fantasy XIV, and the latter zones of Solution Nine and Heritage Found would been severely downgraded had this graphical update not been released.

While obviously, the game isn’t quite on the standards of triple-A titles released, it still stands that the graphical update itself was a welcome addition that has really only improved the experience of the new expansion.

Building the foundations

Dawntrail is very clearly the start of a new story in Final Fantasy XIV. Coming off the back of Endwalker, it spends a lot of time introducing us to new characters and making us care about them while also revisiting familiar faces to set them up for the stories ahead.

While Dawntrail doesn’t quite hit the stakes that expansions like Endwalker and Shadowbringers had, it still fulfilled the heartfelt emotional beats that players absolutely adore.

System updates like the graphics, or the change in philosophy for battle design sets us up to continue on a new path going forward, one that the devs can continue to iterate on and only make better for the players.

Verdict: 4 out of 5

Final Fantasy XIV’s Dawntrail may not have been the best expansion the series has ever seen, but it does a damn good job of doing what it set out to do. With updates to the game’s battle content, graphics, and much more, the expansion will propel the MMO into its planned future.

Similarly, the story and investment into several characters both old and new allows the devs to continue setting up threads that are bound to have payoffs in the future. There may have been some qualms with the delivery of the plot, but it still manages to pull off a compelling and touching story within the latter parts.

Dawntrail will still stand out as one of the better Final Fantasy XIV expansions ever released and it looks like it’s only the beginning of a new adventure for the Warrior of Light and friends.