By now, it’s been about six weeks since the Dawntrail expansion came out for Final Fantasy XIV. Usually, I like to try and power through at least a basic, early-stage review by a few days after launch, if not launch day itself—but I found myself stuck for words this time.
So today, I figured I’d share where my head has been at with Dawntrail.
HEADS UP
There will be major spoilers ahead! You’ve been warned.
It was probably FFXIV’s most-advertised expansion.
Dawntrail was scheduled to hit at an unusually busy time for a FFXIV expansion. The last few expansions have collided with maybe one or two other releases for their fanbase, but this one hit both around the hyped-up Elden Ring DLC—which Yoshi-P admitted in a live letter that his own team would be taking time off to play—and ahead of World of Warcraft’s purported twentieth-anniversary expansion, The War Within.
As a marketing person, that knowledge means one thing to me: In that position, my job would be to be as loud, as persuasive, and as widely known as possible.
I do think they accomplished that with Dawntrail. I certainly don’t remember massive posters taking over LA for the Anime Expo for any other expansion, or giant Times Square billboards à la Diablo IV. It was everywhere on social media with its stunning videos showcasing the graphics update and the warm waters of the Cieldalaes and the Turali coast.
It was a perfect storm of advertising, but I don’t know that it should have been.
It was also a bit of a letdown.
The biggest selling point of Dawntrail was that it was supposed to be a vacation for the Warrior of Light, a step back from the heavy drama that took over basically from the end of Stormblood on.
Though it was nice to take that step back, and I definitely enjoyed the early days of vacationing with my husband in a tropical place with our carefully chosen glams, there were a few ways that I feel like they missed.
- You never really get to feel like the real protagonist.
This is a huge point of contention across the internet right now, but as much as it was nice at first to have a character to mentor, the Warrior of Light—the one who traveled to the edge of the universe to destroy the power that could destroy gods—never really gets to step back into the spotlight with Dawntrail.
There’s one part in particular where it felt like we should have finally had that back, and I distinctly remember some colourful language coming out of both myself and Shane when we realized that yet again, at a spot where you’d figure the hero of the universe would get to shine, we’d been shunted to the side.
It felt a lot like a D&D player with main character syndrome, who made what they thought was the best character ever and needed to be the spotlight in everything, even things that had absolutely nothing to do with them. You know, like someone else’s family conversation, or the Scions dealing with what’s happening on the other side of the world.
- Its fetch quests could rival original ARR.
It’s hard to forget how tedious A Realm Reborn got at times, back before they shortened it to make it bearable for new players. There were so many quests where you were left wondering what the point of that was, or why it was stretched out into six quests rather than two.
There were times where it felt like Dawntrail was following the same sort of structure. I had to laugh at one point because it seemed like the writing team’s only way of getting players to explore new areas was Wuk Lamat’s signature habit of talking to people to understand the local customs. It happened in every. single. map.
But at least we got cool furnishings!
I haven’t posted about my favourite furnishings yet for Dawntrail’s initial release, but we did in fact get things like neon lights—dyeable along with their glows, to boot, which is exactly what I was hoping they’d do—and new types of textures that I’ve been workshopping some ideas for building with.
I’ve got a few of them already added to my forest cottage, and I’m just waiting for the prices of the neon lights to come down to give Shane’s house a whole new look!
And I’m hoping it sets us up for the next expansion.
One thought that I’ve been chewing on for a little while now is that Dawntrail kind of had to be the bad expansion.
We’ve had two award-winning stories in a row, and with the last one being the final chapter in the original game’s story, it makes sense to me that starting the next story wouldn’t hit as hard as the nostalgia of reflecting on everyone who’s helped us reach this point in our story.
So my only hope now (aside from, you know, maybe less Wuk Lamat) is that this sets us up for what comes next—which I suspect is going to involve traveling to more reflections.
