Final Fantasy XIV: Dawntrail Review

At the best of times it's tough to review an MMO expansion; and sitting down to hash out my final thoughts on the state of the game at launch, Final Fantasy XIV: Dawntrail is no exception. I've dumped hundreds of hours into the expansion since it launched last month; even delaying my review so I could get the new Savage raid tier under my belt. Yet I can't deny that I'm still a bit conflicted about sharing my thoughts here and now, when so much of what promises to make Dawntrail different from what has come before it won't be releasing until months and years ahead.

Let's back up a moment. Dawntrail is the 5th expansion for the current version of Final Fantasy XIV - the 6th if you count the original 1.0 release, which itself was inherently a very different game. Last time around, Endwalker finished up the story arc that Creative Studio 3 had been working towards for the last decade; and with Dawntrail, Creative Studio 3 had to tackle the challenge of both respecting what had come before, while laying the groundwork for the next 10 years of Final Fantasy XIV. This doesn't just include the story, which I've already shared my thoughts on, but also core gameplay systems that can keep players engrossed into the future.

Much like the last two expansions before it - at launch, Dawntrail brings with it 8 dungeons (5 leveling, with 3 endgame), 3 Normal Mode trials, 2 Extreme Trials, and a set of role quests for both combat and crafting/gathering jobs alike. The big ticket upgrade this time around is of course the graphical update; greatly improving material quality, lighting, shadows, and textures across the board. Notably, draw distances for detailed environmental objects has also seen a great boon from the graphics update - and while I'd initially been a bit underwhelmed with the showcase during the Media Tour, I've found the results on my home systems much better.

All of Dawntrail's new zones make great use of the graphical enhancements, and while it's not transformative it absolutely gives the games visuals a depth that they were sorely lacking prior to 7.0. Tural's landscapes all offer something slightly different from what has come before. Unlike with Stormblood where many of the region's zones look too much the same, areas like Kozama'uka, Urqopacha and Yak T'el remind me of the ways that the different regions in basegame A Realm Reborn's city-states melded together, while still having their own unique identity. Even for the few areas that take a sharp turn from the rest of the expansion's aesthetic are well appreciated; with my only real complaint with Solution Nine is that they really need to let players use their mounts in the zone, if it's going to be spread out as much as it is.

The other major addition at launch is the long-anticipated arrival of Female Hrothgar playable characters. My thoughts on their inclusion is far more of a mixed bag; while I love the work that the team has put into their designs, and I would absolutely love to try changing my character to one - we're 5 years on and the dev team still refuses to consistently take Hrothgar and Viera into consideration when designing new outfits. There are cosmetics from Dawntrail that for players running these characters that either won't show at all, or won't show properly, on the new race option; not to mention the existing Hrothgar and Viera populations. It feels like a frustrating limitation of the status quo, especially when the graphical update feels like it would've been a great excuse for the development team to revisit previous equipment to make them more compatible for those races; and yet, matters feel the same as they always have.

Things are even more dire when it comes to combat jobs. While most of the jobs in the game have seen very minimal changes from Endwalker, a choice few have seen some overhauls. Astrologian has seen yet another rework, and tanks such as Gunbreaker and Dark Knight have received some tweaks to accomodate the removal of any damage on their gap closer. Despite there mostly being only minor changes, there's been some turbulence already when it comes to both Job balance and Job identity. One of the new jobs, Viper, has already seen a fairly major rework that many - including myself - feel that it removes much of its identity. Pictomancer, meanwhile, has been utterly broken - and may have been a contributing factor to the expansion's first Savage tier being as easy as it has been, seeing as instead of nerfing it the rest of the combat jobs were buffed to play catch-up. There's even been a rather quick reversion to a controversial Black Mage change, which feels uncharacteristic with how the development team has reacted to such feedback in the past.

There's a very real sense, between Dawntrail feeling like a very safe expansion as of launch, and some of these weird changes to jobs, that perhaps the development team is struggling to decide which way to take the game next. Maybe that's me reading too deeply into things, but it's undeniable for anyone who has played XIV for any considerable amount of time just how weirdly identical the overall gameplay loop for Dawntrail is compared to Endwalker, and a lesser extent Shadowbringers. The same could've been said for Endwalker, of course, but there was the promise of exciting new gameplay systems in the patches ahead. The PvP rework, Variant and Criterion Dungeons, Island Sanctuary and the like. While there are new gameplay systems scheduled for the future, many of them aren't so much new features, but rather content adding on to existing systems already in the game. Combine that with some of the statements from the Creative Studio 3 putting extra emphasis on how much more of a shake-up they want the next expansion after Dawntrail to be, while at the same time describing 7.x as a "summer vacation" for players, it doesn't feel like a stretch to assume that there won't be too much to excite players in the upcoming patch cycle.

So, where does that leave Dawntrail? Truthfully, I don't know yet. One silver lining is that so far the combat content has been pretty great. The dungeons are some of the best we've ever received, and the same goes for the Trials. The first Savage Raid tier was, if not easier than expected, still very tightly designed - with fights that are quite simply fun to engage with. Next patch will bring with it the Alliance Raid series - this time a crossover with Final Fantasy XI - and the next Ultimate raid. Beyond that, however, it's hard to determine exactly what players looking for something truly new have to look forward to. That's not to say that Dawntrail is bad, or boring, but rather it's shaping up to be an expansion that won't rock the boat much, if at all. Beastmaster has some promise, but beyond that? It's all stuff we've seen before.

I'm fine with that, and I wager most of the active playerbase will feel the same. Yet if you've found yourself burnt out on the current formula, there's very little reason to stick around for long. Dawntrail is less a sprint ahead to the game's future, and rather a leisurely pit-stop while we all get to figure out where things go from here.