Our Verdict
Final Fantasy 14 Dawntrail introduces some of the game’s best dungeons and trials yet alongside a compelling story that, while slow to ramp up, delivers resoundingly in its second act, setting a promising precedent for the future of the MMORPG on all counts.
Final Fantasy 14 Dawntrail has a tough act to follow. The previous FF14 expansion, Endwalker, managed to largely stick the landing on a ten-year story arc, and that in turn followed on from its most-lauded story to date in Shadowbringers. While endings are hard, new beginnings can be even more challenging. Yet in Dawntrail, Square Enix manages to deliver a story that’s both powerful and emotional – if a little corny at times – and, perhaps more importantly, an overall experience that leaves me excited for the future of the MMORPG.
With a pretty bow tied on its previous long-running story arc, Final Fantasy 14 Dawntrail sails a small group of the MMORPG’s core cast away to the far-off lands of Tural, guided by Endwalker fan favorite Erenville and his childhood friend Wuk Lamat. Along with being the primary representative for the female Hrothgar, the latest addition to the list of playable FF14 races, Wuk Lamat is the adopted daughter of Tural’s ruler, a two-headed Mamool Ja named Gulool Ja Ja, and as such is one of four contenders in a contest designed to determine his successor.
Wuk Lamat’s rivals are Gulool’s natural-born son and head of the military Zoraal Ja; his second adopted child, studied catboy scholar Koana; and Bakool Ja Ja, a brash two-headed Mamool Ja who earned his chance to compete by winning a wildcard tournament. Putting aside any potential concerns about nepotism in favor of embracing a fun story setup, your job is therefore to guide Wuk Lamat to success – or, perhaps more accurately, to help her grow into the leader she needs to be if she’s going to rule.
With all four candidates strong in some areas but notably lacking in others, the tournament is less about determining the most able, and rather helping to form them into well-rounded individuals. This pushes our Warrior of Light and their fellow Scions into the role of mentors, with Wuk Lamat’s journey acting as a reflection of our beginning days through A Realm Reborn. It’s a smart decision that allows characters that have already had extensive development to take a back seat to newcomers, while also giving us a crash course in the various regions and cultures of Tural.
As a strong yet peace-loving figure who is relentlessly overexuberant and naive, Wuk Lamat’s setup reflects that of Lyse during Stormblood, and indeed her growth feels like a more successful attempt at a similar story from a writing team that’s gotten better at this over time. There’s too much early reliance on goofy bits that wear a little thin, in particular Wuk Lamat’s repeated struggles with seasickness, but ultimately it largely earns its conclusion.
She’s far from the only person in a prominent role here, however. Aside from the rival claimants, Dawntrail finally shines a long-overdue spotlight on Krile, and elevates Erenville to the main cast in response to his Endwalker popularity. While the latter remains almost agonizingly quiet for a large part of the expansion, both come out of it with fantastically satisfying resolutions.
The tournament arc is a delight. After the high-stakes start of Endwalker, some may find it a little too laid-back, but I was absolutely ready for a holiday and there’s definitely a lot of that in here. It’s also worth noting that it leans very heavily on that core trio of Krile, Erenville, and Wuk Lamat in particular – so your enjoyment of it will ultimately be affected by how you feel about them. Fortunately, I love Wuk Lamat, but her near-constant presence, and her relentless boisterousness reminiscent of shonen anime protagonists like Naruto, Goku, and Luffy, will probably cause some to feel like they’re trapped in a Saturday morning cartoon. Whether you consider that a good or bad thing depends on your own tastes.
Regardless of how you feel about its early hours, the leadership contest is ultimately the setup for a more interesting proposal – that of finding the long-hidden City of Gold. I won’t dig into this in any real detail, but suffice to say that once things start to pick up speed, you’ll probably be wishing for the days of cooking competitions and chasing alpacas. While the pacing throughout is pretty robust, the latter half of Dawntrail’s campaign is where its story really kicks into gear, and at that point I was completely hooked.
Once it’s content that you’re familiar with its world, the FF14 writing team begins jabbing at your emotions in the ways for which it has become notorious. There was a specific moment where it began to click, but beyond that, every subsequent punch hits harder than the last. This culminates in an arc that feels tantamount to emotional bullying, yet strides the line just deftly enough to be genuine, thoughtful, and affecting rather than simply manipulative.
It’s certainly not all sad, however – far from it. A lot of the new cast are delightful additions, and the establishment of the Tuliyollal crew feels as effortless as our initial trek around the First in Shadowbringers. A couple of specific characters do deliver some rather cheesy performances, but it actually suits the zone they appear in so well that I can’t help but wonder if it was a deliberate choice.
We’ll round out the narrative pondering Dawntrail’s antagonistic figures, who I won’t name directly. There’s no-one here who quite tops the unforgettable highs of Emet-Selch in Shadowbringers, but that’s more a testament to just how striking he felt at the time. All of them have fulfilling development that frequently challenges your perspective, feeling a little more on-par with the likes of Yotsuyu’s tale or Endwalker’s ultimate threat. In true FF14 fashion, by the end I understood everyone’s motivations – and was in some cases moved to sympathize with their plights, even when circumstances put us on opposite sides.
Beyond that, perhaps the most exciting factor of the Dawntrail story is where it leaves things. Game director Naoki Yoshida has long emphasized that this is just the first step in what his team sees as another potentially decade-long story. By the time Dawntrail’s main scenario quest concludes, it’s managed to tie up its immediate dangers, yet the potential for where the patch stories can take us is immense. The post-Endwalker MSQ might have opened the door for future possibilities, but Dawntrail demolishes the wall and hands you the keys to the car.
Of course, while the story is the easiest thing to talk about and is arguably the aspect that has helped FF14 grow into such a popular phenomenon, it’s just one part of the whole package. The good news is that, while any narrative is bound to split opinion, in almost every other aspect beyond that Dawntrail unequivocally raises the bar.
The comprehensive graphics update manages the seemingly impossible, looking just like FF14 as you’ve always known it and yet, somehow, completely different across the board. The real winners are probably the clothing options and the environments, and it’s something the art team has taken great advantage of. All of Dawntrail’s zones are stunning; perhaps its weakest is the Old West-themed Shaaloani and even that is still majestic, while some of its other offerings are up there as the most striking I’ve ever seen.
With this comes the most important part of the entire game: fashion. Dawntrail offers some of the most bold enhancements to your wardrobe yet, ranging from traditional garb inspired by Latin American culture to Mad Max-style spiked leathers that are sure to raise an eyebrow, and colorful, futuristic gear that’s perfect for strutting around its much-showcased cyberpunk city, Solution Nine. If you’ve been looking for some fresh outfits, you’re spoiled for choice here, and the addition of a second dye slot on your gear only further enhances that potential.
Dawntrail’s two new jobs are a resounding success. The Viper is a mechanical delight, with a combat rotation that makes use of branching combos and feels notably distinct from all its melee DPS counterparts. The Pictomancer, meanwhile, is a loving throwback to FF6 that expands on that game’s painterly concept and, in doing so, offers both a unique playstyle and perhaps the most vibrant and pretty set of animations we’ve seen on a class so far.
Every other job gets tweaks, too. I spent most of my time as a Ninja, my go-to favorite ever since its inception. Its frustrating requirement to maintain a constant buff is gone, replaced by a series of conditional upgrades that reward smart skill ordering with both bonus damage and delightful animations. Not every job has been so lucky – Black Mage in particular seems left in the dust, especially with how strong Pictomancer feels at this early stage – but class balance is one of the easier issues to solve, and Yoshida has expressed a desire to improve this by the next expansion.
Before that, however, the team has been promising more compelling combat encounters, and what’s on offer here makes me very happy indeed. Ultimately, once the dust settles on the story, it’s the dungeons, trials, and raids that will form the foundation of how we spend our time in FF14, along with open-world activities such as FATEs and hunts. Across the board these are almost universally excellent, with only a couple of minor frustrations such as one particularly tanky adamantoise. Their visual design is fantastic – don’t expect the galaxy-spanning frolics of Endwalker, but that doesn’t mean we’re short on spectacle.
Mechanically, Dawntrail offers some of FF14’s most fun fights yet. Following its work in the post-Endwalker patches, Dawntrail’s solo duties, dungeons, and trials are consistently among the best the game has ever had, and are absolutely packed with new mechanics, clever variations on old ones, and a few long-time favorites. It wraps even familiar tasks in clothing that feels fresh, and despite frequently demanding a little more thinking and observation to figure out I rarely ran into something I didn’t understand after the first time I saw it.
The trials are all phenomenal, with a wide range of interesting mechanics that overlap just enough to keep you on the edge, and that carries over into the extreme versions as well. They’re not necessarily much more difficult than Endwalker’s later extremes, but they feel more engaging in how you approach them. It’s also worth noting that, with the exception of the final boss, you can do all other story material with NPC companions through the duty support system – and I highly recommend trying it for the trials, as they’re packed with charming character moments where certain members of the team struggle with individual mechanics.
Perhaps the most telling offering is the game’s pair of post-story expert dungeons. These are both astonishingly good – arguably some of the best offerings we’ve seen in FF14 yet – and each feature a trio of excellent boss fights. Again, they’re packed with mechanics that are challenging without feeling overly difficult to understand, and if you were one of those players worried that healers don’t have enough to do these days, I think you’ll be pleasantly surprised. If this is a preview of what lies ahead, then I cannot wait to see what the raid and patch updates bring.
I haven’t mentioned the music yet, but FF14’s not-so-secret weapon is out in full force once again. The only track that falls short for me is its end credits song. Outside of that, the stalwart Masayoshi Soken and his team deliver with unwavering consistency. From the early big band swing of Tuliyollal through to its storming late-game dungeon and trial themes, the Dawntrail soundtrack is spectacular. I couldn’t be happier at the idea of spending the next two years with its battle music, and I’ll give particular love to its piano-led night tracks, which are jaw-dropping in some of the later zones.
As you might expect, the soundtrack is also filled with loving nods to Final Fantasy games of the past, and that’s something that echoes across the whole expansion. While Dawntrail includes a few references to the likes of FF6, FF10, and even FF11, by far the standout crossover here is FF9, and without naming specifics it’s safe to say that if you liked that game, you’ll be extremely well-served. Like such references in the past, the actual implementation of these is distinct to FF14 rather than mere facsimile, yet the parallels are clear and will only enhance your enjoyment if you’re familiar with the original.
Structurally, Dawntrail stands in rigid adherence to the formula established around Stormblood. A choice of two opening zones, dungeons at odd-level intervals, and those pesky FF14 Aether currents are reliable standbys but do make it feel a little predictable at times. Role quests also make a return, although with no obvious place to fit into the main story, they instead pit you against a bevy of cartoonish villains in a manner that somewhat evokes the vibe of the Hildibrand quests. I was a little skeptical of this setup at first, but the one I saw to its conclusion delivers a satisfying yet silly story that still manages to tug at the heartstrings.
Yet in perhaps the most important aspect of all, Dawntrail resoundingly delivers: I can’t wait to see what comes next, both mechanically and narratively. That starts with the launch of its Arcadion raid in patch 7.01, but beyond that we’ve got plenty more including the FF11-adjacent alliance raid Echoes of Vana’diel, the planet-hopping Cosmic Exploration feature, more Variant and Criterion dungeons, and the game’s second limited job – the Beastmaster – to look forward to. Much like the sunny shores of Tural, it’s safe to say that the future of FF14 is looking bright.