Final Fantasy 14 Dawntrail: A near-flawless start to the next great adventure

Final Fantasy 14 Dawntrail's finally come to life, and after about 100 hours, I'm ready to talk about it. The game has come a long way from the days of the 1.0 servers, to A Realm Reborn, and with Endwalker, that story arc finally wrapped up. Every expansion offers a different experience, and with Dawntrail, players go on what could be considered a "Summer Vacation."

Players head off to Tural, in the New World. Although this story definitely takes some wild twists and turns, you can rest assured that there will be no spoilers in this article. Final Fantasy 14 Dawntrail is an experience that players really need to see for themselves and experience without spoilers. I loved dipping my toes in during the Media Tour, and now that I’ve completed the adventure, I can’t wait to see what’s next.

The Warrior of Light isn’t the star of the show in Final Fantasy 14 Dawntrail, and that’s fine

Wuk Lamat is a treasure - what a great protagonist (Image via Square Enix)

One major complaint I’ve heard about Final Fantasy 14 Dawntrail is one that holds absolutely no water with me: Certain parts of the fanbase have been upset about the Warrior of Light not being the focus of the story. The main protagonist is Wuk Lamat, one of the participants in a contest to see who will be the new Dawnservant—the ruler of Tural. I don’t understand why this is such a point of contention, though.

We, as the player, aren’t the primary focus, because this isn’t our contest and isn’t our land. We’re just here to help out and go on a casual adventure. Others have suggested that it starts entirely too slow. When Final Fantasy 14 Dawntrail begins, we aren’t in the middle of a life-or-death clash. It’s a vacation to a gorgeous, scenic land we’ve never visited. Also, consider A Realm Reborn.

When that story started, it was a pretty slow pace as well. We weren’t locked in a contest to save the world, we were just starting a brand-new adventure. The two feel similar to me in that way, and it was a smart idea. Wuk Lamat is a fantastic, flawed character, and seeing her grow and learn throughout the course of the story was one I genuinely enjoyed experiencing.

There was nothing wrong with the pace of the story, either. Final Fantasy 14 Dawntrail starts off at a nice, leisurely pace, picks up for the contest, and then slows back down once that wraps up. There’s so much more to the story, but I don’t want to reveal anything major. For us, it all came together nicely.

Final Fantasy 14 Dawntrail’s story starts slowly but really packs an emotional wallop

There are so many great moments to experience in Dawntrail (Image via Square Enix)

Some people, as I said, were upset with the pace of Final Fantasy 14 Dawntrail’s story, but I can’t say that I agree. It made perfect sense to start nice and slow, and then build up to all the climatic, fun moments. This story had something for everyone—comedy, tragedy, and unforgettable moments. Several of the main characters had satisfying character arcs, where they came out better than they started, emotionally or otherwise.

If I had to pick my favorite characters, it would definitely be between Erenville, Wuk Lamat, and Bakool Ja Ja. If I had to pick characters that really got the most interesting character development, it would be this group, for reasons you’ll just have to find out for yourself.

The only major complaint I had when it came to the main story was that once we were really in the third act, I could guess exactly what the outcome was going to be. I didn’t think it was a bad thing, I honestly loved the idea. But it makes me very curious where we’re going next. This is just the start of the story arc, after all. It has me craving more, that’s for certain.

How were the new jobs - Viper and Pictomancer?

Viper has such an awesome aesthetic (Image via Square Enix)

I had a bit of hands-on time with both the Viper and Pictomancer previously, and once the expansion launched, I took some time away from the MSQ to explore both of them. While I’m not a master of either class, that will definitely take time, I’ve found that I enjoyed both of them in different ways.

Viper, while I don’t think it does too much that is new or exciting, it’s a perfectly fun melee DPS class. The combos are fun to use, and bursting into Super Saiyan Blue for bigger hits is satisfying. They’re also capable of dealing monstrous amounts of damage in even the hardest content.

The Pictomancer also has an incredible burst, for their two-minute cooldown. Unless they’re activating their canvas attacks, their regular spells feel mediocre—fun, splashy effects, and enjoyable to use—but not as potent as that big burst window they have. That said, I love the class, even if I’m having a hard time putting a hotbar together that I’m happy with.

The other jobs mostly felt satisfying - but we wish there were more combo buttons

I enjoy combat a great deal, but I feel like some classes still need a bit of touching up (Image via Square Enix)

I played through a variety of the jobs in Final Fantasy 14 Dawntrail, and while most of the classes still felt fun to play, I had a complaint. I hoped to see more of the cool combo buttons we have on Viper and Pictomancer. There certainly are jobs that could use them to remove more bloat on the hotbars, that’s for sure.

If there is a way to add combo buttons to hotbar-bloat victims like Dragoon, I certainly didn’t find it. Though I will say, to Yoshi-P’s credit, the developers are rolling out some balance/updates for some of the classes that aren’t perhaps where they should be. On the whole, though, combat feels incredible, even if some classes have to work just a bit harder than others.

The content was much more challenging, in ways that were both positive and negative

There are some really incredible battles coming in FF14 (Image via Square Enix)

Before Final Fantasy 14 Dawntrail launched, there was a “Healer Strike” being discussed, because of something that was blown way out of proportion. Some of the participants in the Media Tour completed the first dungeon without a healer.

These were some of the best Final Fantasy players around, so of course they had the knowledge to do it. People assumed healers were being taken for granted, or were unnecessary. While I do think there are some issues to be addressed with healers in FF14, as a WHM main myself, the content isn’t as easy as they might have thought.

The first dungeon of Final Fantasy 14 Dawntrail’s easy, sure. But the difficulty really ramps up beyond that. Each dungeon brings interesting new challenges, and waves of AOE to avoid, and it just gets more and more difficult as time goes on.

Whether seeking out Hunts, Trials, or Dungeons, there's no shortage of content (Image via Square Enix)

I was comfortable with most of the challenge, but I can tell you that one or two boss fights were infuriating. Without spoilers, the final MSQ dungeon’s first boss was a real gut punch. While the final dungeon got frustrating at parts, the final trial on the other hand was an incredible experience.

I feel like perhaps there were simply too many new AOEs going on. I felt like the challenge was definitely higher than previous expansions, and I don’t feel like it was a bad thing. On the other hand, some of the new attacks were very awkwardly teased, making them frustrating to respond to.

The graphical overhaul of Final Fantasy 14 Dawntrail was incredible

It's a whole new (beautiful) world we live in (Image via Square Enix)

We’ve known for a while that the graphics were going to be updated in Final Fantasy 14 Dawntrail, but the Media Tour didn’t do it justice. Sure, the game was pretty there, but really getting into the areas for ourselves, and having the freedom to explore it all? That was another matter entirely.

The character models looked incredible, save one NPC I found early on that looked like they stepped out of the PS2-era Final Fantasy 10. There was only one real moment that looked weak, and it was a crowd of people in one of the cutscenes. If it had randomized the participants a bit, it would've looked so much better. Overall, the visuals were brilliant.

I also cannot say enough good about the soundtrack. Once again, Masayoshi Soken played a blinder, setting up some truly fantastic tracks. The Tuliyollal theme, with its Bossa Nova/Ska blend is something I simply cannot get enough of. From the main Dawntrail theme to boss battles, everything sounded suitably epic.

In Conclusion

The Final Fantasy 14 Dawntrail experience was an incredibly satisfying one (Image via Square Enix)

Final Fantasy 14 Dawntrail is a masterpiece in every sense of the word. I adored this current story arc, and if this is where we start the story, where in the heck is it going? That’s the real mystery for me. FF14 is visually stunning, and it tells a very interesting story that I think will resonate with people around the world.

Combine this with the fact that it was the smoothest expansion launch I can possibly think of for FF14, it's been a really enjoyable experience. Even when I had a few hundred people ahead of me, it didn't take more than a few minutes. Unfortunately, I do know that there were console issues, but I did not experience any of that personally. Overall, the launch was incredibly smooth, and even at peak hours on PC, I was able to log in within a minute or two.

It’s been a blast to play Final Fantasy 14 Dawntrail alongside people all over and see their reactions in real-time as major story moments unfurled. While there have been some very angry and loud voices, I don’t think their complaints about pacing and protagonists are warranted. The pacing wasn’t perfect, sure; there could've been more show rather than tell at the beginning, but it all worked out in the end, for my money. Final Fantasy 14 Dawntrail took me for an unforgettable trip, and I don’t want to get off.