I don’t envy the narrative team in Square Enix’s Creative Business Unit III, tasked with creating a fresh, new start for the decade-old, critically acclaimed MMO Final Fantasy XIV. Contrary to what we see in the modern media landscape, it’s okay (and necessary) for stories to end when the time is right, and I eyed Dawntrail, FFXIV’s new expansion, with some trepidation, wondering if there’s really room for a new story or even a need for one. Whether FFXIV needed Dawntrail depends on how Square Enix builds on it in the future – but for now, I’m glad it exists. Despite some pacing issues and a bit of idealism, Dawntrail is a strong new start and a fresh narrative vision dense with meaningful, relevant themes and ideas.
Dawntrail picks up where the final Endwalker quest left off. The Warrior of Light (you) and a few of the Scions of the Seventh Dawn leave Sharlayan with Wuk Lamat, a Hrothgar from across the sea who enlists your aid in her bid to become leader of her people. You’ll want to brush up on your in-game journal entries if none of those words make sense. Dawntrail might be a fresh break from the Hydaelyn and Zodiark saga that finished in Endwalker, but it’s still very much tied to everything that came before.
One thing I appreciate the most about Dawntrail’s narrative structure is how you’re just kind of there. After 10 years – or one year, if you believe Square Enix’s questionable timeline – of saving the world and being generally amazing, you’re just an adventurer again, on a journey to see fresh sights and meet new people. Dawntrail ends up being Wuk Lamat’s story and the story of Tural more broadly, and it works more effectively as a fresh chapter for FFXIV as a result. Without much baggage from the last five expansions, Dawntrail is free to set a new tone and explore different ideas.
Familiar characters still have a role to play, but Dawntrail’s new cast steals the show. The most important among them is Wuk Lamat. It might be tempting to write her off as a standard hero at first – well, for a bit longer than “at first” thanks to how long Dawntrail’s opening acts last. She’s charming in her earnestness and relatable in her foibles and failings in ways that make her more endearing than the usual shonen-style protagonist, but what really makes Wuk Lamat stand out as a character is that she’s willing to face her shortcomings and works to improve them. Sure, some of that improvement comes a little too easily and quickly at times, but Dawntrail’s primary goal is to show how Wuk Lamat learns to embody her ideals.
Saying you want the best for your people is all well and good, but if you don’t actually know what that means, let alone who your people are and how they live, then it’s just empty posturing. Wuk Lamat does the mental equivalent of rolling up her sleeves and getting to work by understanding her people and what they want and need, and the kind of resolute ruler she becomes is a strong and intentional contrast to a very spoilery development in Dawntrail’s final third.
The rest of Dawntrail’s cast is equally strong in their own way. Erenville is a delight, despite Square Enix’s later efforts at turning him into a mystery box rabbit. Koana is another highlight and a little microcosm of one of Dawntrail’s smaller themes. He’s a Miqo’te from a nomadic tribe whose crappy nomadic childhood pushed him to study in Sharlayan and advocate a technologically advanced future for Tural at the expense of his country’s varied cultures.
Zoreel Ja is the rare case of an RPG villain who really is just a psychopath with few redeeming qualities, as you’d hope from the character Square Enix set up as a would-be fascist ruler, and Bakool Ja Ja has more going on than you’d think after his introduction as a one-dimensional bully. And no, what he has going on isn’t connected to how much he has in his little leather thong.
Even the minor characters feel more interesting in Dawntrail. What it might not have in high narrative stakes – for a while, anyway – it makes up for with a strong setting that’s alive and gives you a reason to feel emotionally invested long before the big threats start emerging.
That’s a good thing, as it seems evident from the slow, deliberate pace of the game’s first half that Square Enix wants you to adopt a vacation mentality and not stick to an itinerary. You can push on with the main scenario, sure, or you could take a break, stumble on some surprise lore and unexpectedly deep stories in the crafting quests, go explore, or, like me, accidentally attract a hunt mark’s attention and die before you have a chance to react.
Dawntrail’s new zones are gorgeous, with visual detail spilling over the edges, even in the comparatively barren Shaaloani. Whether they’re worth exploring aside from taking in the sights is another matter. These zones and settlements are where you can feel FFXIV straining against its nature as an MMO again. They feel more lived in than most settlements in previous expansions, but the extent of what you can do with them stops at general side quests. These quests are tied to the region’s culture in some way and have more insight to offer than if you stuck with just the main scenario, admittedly, but there’s still a sense that Dawntrail is keeping you at arm’s length.
It’s not a new complaint for FFXIV or MMOs in general, and Dawntrail’s upcoming society quests will probably go some way toward forging a stronger connection between you and Tural outside the main story. I can’t help feeling a little disappointed nonetheless, knowing future events will all still take place in Eorzea, while post-Dawntrail scenario quests set up something new for someplace else. I’m hoping the “groundwork” for the next 10 years, as Square Enix called Dawntrail, eventually leads to new innovations in quest styles and how you can interact with FFXIV and its people, but for now, the main scenario and side quests will have to do.
And despite some pacing issues here and there, those main scenario and side quests do just fine. Dawntrail is built more like a traditional Final Fantasy than FFXIV’s previous expansions, with a lengthy introduction segment, slowly increasing tensions and a sudden plot twist that recontextualizes everything you thought about the narrative to that point. Roughly the first half or so centers on Tural’s rite of succession, as you and Wuk Lamat travel Tural’s southern half in a competition for Wuk Lamat to earn the right to rule the land against three other candidates. The competition involves a quest for an ancient, legendary city, but before that, you have to acquire seven keystones. A MacGuffin hunt is one of my least favorite things in storytelling, but Dawntrail uses this tired plot structure for something rather more interesting.
Contestants get those keystones by completing tasks that representatives from each of Tural’s cultures set them, which sounds mundane in theory, but Dawntrail uses these feats to explore some ambitious topics. Technology’s hom*ogenizing effect on culture. The dangers of nativism and anti-immigrant sentiment. How people, and more specifically, rulers, project their insecurities on the world around them and cause untold strife with their egos. These and half a dozen other big ideas play a part in the broader narrative, and it’s to the writing team’s credit that it handles pretty much all of them well, minus an occasional stumble.
What impressed me the most is how Dawntrail handles portrayals of the cultures hosting these feats. It would have been easy to just do an Epcot – one-note cultures built around a single, usually shallow idea – and call it a day, and admittedly, most of the cultures in Dawntrail do have just one specific aspect that gets most of the attention. However, there’s more depth in their portrayal and thought behind what purpose they serve in the wider narrative.
Take two of the early-game quests, for example – one where you help a village of bird people put on a parade after tragedy befell them, and another where you learn about why the region’s merchants enjoy making deals. It seems ridiculous on paper, going from dealing with gods and emperors to building a party float, but Dawntrail makes a strong case for why it thinks these things are important. The Hanu aren’t just happy-go-lucky birds with silly little rituals. Those rituals are part of their historical identity and can still teach them something about themselves and their world. The Pelupelu merchant quest runs parallel to the Hanu quest and shows the opposite, a people keen to break free from their past. Turali merchants want to make their profit growth keep going up, and war profiteering is an easy way to do that unless a savvy new ruler has something better to offer.
The point of all these – and the reason Wuk Lamat travels the nation – is to reinforce Dawntrail’s idea of what it takes to live in a multicultural society. The solution as Wuk Lamat learns is creating a society that respects important cultural differences but still finds a way to move forward that benefits everyone. Dawntrail isn’t shy about its worldview or its relevance to politics around the world, but it’s as much commentary on modern social issues as it is an inversion and improved revision of what Square Enix started with A Realm Reborn. It paves over the original game’s weaker parts and creates a more coherent and, in some ways, more interesting foundation for future stories. Harmony and the role normal people can play in bringing it about are what matters, not some magical power only a handful of special warriors possess.
It’s also not shy about showing where its influences come from – namely, Final Fantasy IX. Final Fantasy IX’s influences on Dawntrail are overt and intentional, from seemingly minor details, such as Shaaloani’s nature as a desert zone in the Turali hinterlands, to more than one in-your-face reference leading up to the finale. Despite the material’s obvious origin point, it comes across as an inspired repurposing of FFIX’s central ideas, a natural fit for Dawntrail’s story, Tural’s history, and the future of FFXIV.
The specifics go too far into spoiler territory, but its general idea is also one of the through threads that elegantly ties all of Dawntrail’s themes and plot twists together: knowing when to let go. It’s a concept that pops up throughout Dawntrail, and it always serves as a catalyst for growth and change, from the Dawnservant recognizing his glory days are over to Wuk Lamat deciding it’s time to let her insecurities go, and a much bigger – and spoiler-ridden – realization about letting the past die, regardless of how frightening change is or what it means for your own dreams and goals. Dawntrail is as much about the secrets buried in Tural’s past as it is a metaphor for FFXIV itself and, more broadly, creativity and life in general. Nothing lasts forever, Dawntrail is keen to point out, and embracing the new and different is the only way to grow and make room for new and better things.
Soken’s talent as a composer is on full display throughout the expansion’s moments of heavy emotion and, for that matter, everywhere else. Solution 9’s techno lo-fi inversion of Tuliyollal’s theme and Shaaloani’s callbacks to Yoko Shimomoura’s work on FFXV are personal highlights, but outside a few too many repetitions of Dawntrail’s main theme in the opening areas, the soundtrack simply doesn’t miss. Dungeon themes deserve a special note as well. Previous compositions often felt detached from the actual area you explored, as if they were written with the narrative in mind instead. That’s understandable, given how almost every dungeon outside A Realm Reborn has some kind of plot significance, but Dawntrail’s dungeon themes feel like they started life as facets of the actual locations and were built out from there, a welcome touch that adds more character and atmosphere to each trial.
Speaking of dungeons and trials, Dawntrail’s are excellent. Dawntrail is challenging and really expects you to know what you’re doing or, if not, to take a few minutes and figure it out before trying again. Enemy variety and placement demand your full attention, and even mini-bosses play like full-fledged boss encounters, with fast and brutal attack patterns and some memorable gimmicks to boot – roots dancing to the tune of a sleepy monster, for example, or unpredictable mimic blobs who morph into your party members. I also appreciated how varied they are in structure, right from the first dungeon, which starts out as a revised version of the Leviathan fight on a fixed platform before sending you into monster-filled tunnels and through beautiful groves haunted by deadly predators.
Even the FATEs and solo instanced challenges have a satisfying extra layer of challenge to them. They’re tough and fun, and I appreciate how much attention the team gave gameplay this time around instead of making narrative the primary focus.
I experimented with two older jobs during Dawntrail – Reaper and Astrologian – as well as the new additions, Pictomancer and Viper. Viper strikes a strong balance between approachability and enough complexity that you have to think about what you’re doing and when, and its combos give you two distinct playstyles to aim for. Pictomancer is the more visually interesting of the two, with more than a touch of whimsy in its skill rotations. I didn’t have time to level it like I did Viper, but from what I did experience, it’s a refreshing and more involved class and a welcome change compared to the older, fairly one-note magical ranged DPS classes.
Job changes are comparatively minor and mostly just consist of increased power for most skills and some new abilities that act as enhanced versions of previous skills. Every class’ basic combos are intact, but the more advanced ones come with a welcome alteration. Dawntrail introduces a game-wide shift toward actions that change depending on what skill you used previously, which means it’s much easier to keep track of what to do next without having six active hotbars. Using a controller is less complicated as a result, and it keeps the UI from feeling cluttered and overwhelming if you use mouse and keyboard as well.
Finally, despite it technically not being exclusive to Dawntrail, I’d be remiss for not mentioning FFXIV’s big graphics overhaul. It’s impossible to overstate just how much better the more detailed textures, vastly improved lighting, and expressive models make the game. Characters actually have expressions during conversations, ones that don’t make them look like a puppetmaster is pulling a single string to make their faces move, and field zones amount to more than just a handful of blurry rock and dirt textures. There’s color! And flowers! Gushing over the presence of foliage in 2024 seems a bit silly, but for FFXIV, it really is that big of a deal.
Dawntrail is a strong foundation for Square Enix to build on, one with more opportunities for different kinds of characters and narratives and a better balance between its two often-conflicting pillars of storytelling and action. Sure, a few rough edges could benefit from polish in the upcoming patches, and I hope more opportunities for interactive quests show up as well. If Dawntrail represents the future of FFXIV, then it’s a promising future.
Version tested: PC (Windows)
