From its its preliminary reveal, the newest Last Fantasy XIV enlargement Dawntrail has had some lofty expectations to dwell as much as. It’s the follow-up to a decade-long story arc, which ended robust with Endwalker (regardless of some points post-launch.)
And, going into Last Fantasy XIV: Dawntrail, I knew that this could be a extra subdued enlargement — one which units issues up for the last decade to return moderately than a bombastic finale. Nevertheless, even with my lowered expectations Dawntrail nonetheless manages to stumble in numerous unlucky methods.
Heading West
Dawntrail sees the Warrior of Mild heading west to the continent of Tural. Right here, they have to assist Wuk Lamat — a personality launched on the tail finish of Endwalker’s patch content material — grow to be the subsequent chief of Tuliyollal, in any other case referred to as the Dawnservant.
This goal is the principle focus of Dawntrail’s early story, with the participant accompanying Wuk Lamat throughout the varied zones of Tural as she competes within the Dawnservant competitors. Her rivals within the race to the throne are her brothers Koana and Zoraal Ja, together with the loudmouthed two-headed Bakool Ja Ja.
It’s a far cry from the world-ending stakes that usually accompany the Warrior of Mild’s journey, with solely a touch of hazard alongside the way in which. This was one thing I used to be greater than positive with because it nearly mirrors the calmer starting of A Realm Reborn. When you have numerous achievements beneath your belt, you’re comparatively unknown on this new area
Wuk Lamat is completely the principle focus of this enlargement, making her presence recognized throughout most of your time in Tural. The Warrior of Mild finally ends up taking a backseat, performing as extra of a mentor determine however nonetheless getting their time to shine occasionally.
Whereas I can completely see why this setup would annoy some individuals — we’ve got been saving the world for over 10 years now — I used to be personally on board with this completely different model of story.
Nevertheless, there are some things that I believe Dawntrail will get fallacious that squander this narrative’s potential.
For starters, Wuk Lamat is supposed to be handled as somebody which means effectively, but doesn’t have that a lot life expertise. However at instances she usually comes throughout as somewhat too ignorant, mainly not understanding issues that the Warrior of Mild learns inside a couple of hours of arriving in every space.
The method of changing into a Dawnservant additionally finally ends up being somewhat uninteresting. Every a part of the problem is designed to have the members study extra about Tural, corresponding to working with the locals to tame an alpaca or cook dinner a regional dish. I get the thought behind it — it’s a straightforward method to give the participant extra information on a brand new area.
My situation with it’s that you just usually study issues that ought to have been primary data to somebody in Wuk Lamat’s place. If she was so lifeless set on changing into the subsequent Dawnservant and following in her father’s footsteps, then naturally you’d additionally need to study extra concerning the place you’d wish to rule forward of time.
Once more, her lack of information just isn’t one thing that’s utterly ignored by the story. The issue is that, with how shortly she learns issues throughout Dawntrail, the truth that she mainly knew nothing beforehand comes throughout as unusual.
One other situation that additionally pertains to Wuk Lamat is that, frankly, she’s current for a lot an excessive amount of of the story. Positive, she’s primarily the principle character of the enlargement, but it takes away display time from mainly everybody else.
That is most felt with each Erenville and Krile. For Erenville, this enlargement may have been a great way for the sport to offer extra time to a personality that was solely briefly current in Endwalker. For Krile, you’re led to imagine that she’ll find yourself being an essential character that ties into upcoming occasions.
In actuality, neither actually will get the time they want for his or her respective arcs. Erenville at the least has a while to shine, although he’s principally relegated to commenting on Wuk Lamat’s troublemaking — satirically, you get to spend essentially the most time with Erenville throughout the one part the place Wuk Lamat is barely current.
In the meantime, Krile’s entire plotline is seemingly ignored for 90% of the principle story. Her objective of discovering out the reality behind her grandfather’s journeys in Tural is pushed to the facet outdoors of the occasional point out. And when it does grow to be the main focus, it’s all resolved with out that a lot fanfare.
With out going into spoiler territory, Last Fantasy XIV: Dawntrail’s foremost plot additionally finally ends up falling into Stormblood’s acquainted pitfall: it tries to inform a number of tales with out having sufficient time to cope with every. Conflicts are began and resolved inside a couple of ranges, as a result of that’s all of the story construction has time for.
The Dawnservant part comes throughout as an abridged model of a earlier draft attributable to ending partway by means of the enlargement. In truth, this may be why the competitors plotline is used at al,l because it needed to be crammed into half an enlargement.
From there, what comes after can be not fairly given the time it wants. This partially performs into the issues I discussed earlier with Erenville and Krile — the previous does get a bit of their very own, nevertheless it’s tied to a zone that nearly looks like filler on the similar time.
Ultimately, I did like seeing a number of the new zones and characters throughout Tural, even when the precise plot didn’t do a lot for me. Even Wuk Lamat wasn’t that unhealthy, regardless of the overexposure and a few questionable voice course for the English dub. Nevertheless, it’s positively one of many weaker elements of Dawntrail for me, and I don’t suppose the patches will enhance issues.
Higher Battle Content material, Regardless of Some Unusual Job Design
On the extra constructive facet of issues, dungeon content material is best than it’s ever been.
For some time now, it’s felt like dungeons in Last Fantasy XIV have been taking part in it somewhat too protected. Not simply by way of their layouts (dungeons are nonetheless primarily only one lengthy line), however in mechanics. Many bosses in Endwalker would throw out a couple of completely different mechanics, after which simply loop the identical factor once more.
In Dawntrail, many of the bosses have extra going for them. Mechanics shall be remixed for the second half of a boss encounter, and plenty of of them require you to suppose a lot sooner than earlier than.
You’re clearly not getting something too excessive (common dungeon content material is designed to be cleared by most talent ranges) although I’m blissful to have some extra participating content material even whereas leveling.
This extends to the 8-player trials as effectively, or at the least the latter two. Fairly than simply having a few mechanics that don’t evolve, you’re required to control how issues change later within the fights. It positively looks as if the design staff for battle content material is attempting to problem gamers somewhat extra, even when it took 5 expansions to get to that time.
I’m particularly trying ahead to Dawntrail raid collection The Arcadion, which has the potential to be a number of the recreation’s finest battle content material if dealt with proper. Hopefully, it lives as much as the enhancements seen throughout battle content material within the base model of the enlargement.
Alternatively, job design is in a wierd spot. For some like Summoner, they mainly stayed precisely the identical (I do not know what the thought was behind Photo voltaic Bahamaut.) Others obtained some noticeable adjustments. For Astrologian, the cardboard adjustments convey it somewhat nearer to the unique Heavensward design (with much less RNG).
Within the case of Black Mage, adjustments to rotations and MP regeneration have put the job in a wierd spot. A lot in order that adjustments are already deliberate for an upcoming patch, which additionally consists of tweaks to Monk and tank enmity technology.
The general design selection behind jobs in Dawntrail is generally simply so as to add additional abilities that don’t require any additional buttons in your hotbars. Most simply rework present strikes into new ones, including the top of present combos or buff abilities.
Typically, I believe most present jobs aren’t significantly better or worse than in Endwalker. It’s shocking to see that strikes with positional harm bonuses are nonetheless within the recreation — for a time, it appeared like these would go away fully — and I do like a number of the additions yo jobs like White Mage and Warrior obtained.
Relating to the 2 new jobs, Pictomancer and Viper, it’s a combined bag. Pictomancer has ended up changing into one in all my new favourite jobs to play. The portray mechanic offers it an identification with out being overly sophisticated to grasp, with numerous huge harm assaults to make up for downtime.
Inversely, Viper is considerably underwhelming (although nonetheless robust.) Its combos are distinctive within the sense that you just change backwards and forwards between two buttons that rework after every hit. You even have speedy assaults in an identical vein to Monk and Ninja, with many buttons to hit throughout your burst phases.
However outdoors of animations — together with some cool mixed dual-blade assaults — I principally really feel that the reworking combos don’t add that a lot new to the desk.
A Realm Reborn, Once more
One other key side of Dawntrail that applies to all gamers is the visible adjustments which have began with the enlargement’s launch. Character fashions have obtained noticeable touch-ups, the brand new zones have extra element than earlier than, gear units are extra detailed, and you may even dye (sure) gear between two dye channels.
That is nonetheless a piece in progress, as most earlier content material continues to be but to obtain these adjustments. It may be somewhat jarring seeing the brand new character fashions mixed with older gear — the truth is, even a number of the new characters are utilizing gear with pixelated textures. However for essentially the most half, the staff has executed job of touching up a decade-old recreation for newer audiences.
Whereas it’d nonetheless be a couple of years at first is improved, and it clearly will not match the visuals of modern-day non-MMO titles, I like what I’ve seen to this point.
Oddly, whereas the sport improved visually throughout the board, the audio appears to have suffered somewhat bit. Not by way of music, as Dawntrail’s OST is constantly wonderful and retains up the standard proven all through every enlargement. As a substitute, it’s the English voice performing that I’ve some gripes with.
Early Last Fantasy XIV was somewhat bizarre with English voice performing, some have been nice however principally a bit inconsistent. This has improved through the years, with solely the occasional outlier bringing it down. With Dawntrail, we appear to have gone again to the inconsistency seen from the early days of XIV.
That’s to not say there isn’t some wonderful voice performing, particularly on the subject of characters from the non-playable races. Mamool Ja like Bakool Ja Ja and Zoraal Ja are excellently voiced, and plenty of facet characters get some high quality voiced scenes.
However as talked about earlier, Wuk Lamat has some bizarre course within the English dub. Regular voiced strains are typically fairly good, however on the subject of shouts and emotional scenes, she simply falls flat. For different characters, there’s occasional unusual dialect selection, mispronunciation of phrases, and even poor audio high quality.
Naturally, a whole lot of this won’t apply to the opposite languages (Japanese presumably being essentially the most constant because the supply materials.) It’s only a disgrace to see the English voice performing regress in some methods, when different areas proceed to enhance.
Last Fantasy XIV: Dawntrail Evaluation | Last Ideas
Endwalker was at all times going to be a troublesome act to comply with, and I’d say that Last Fantasy XIV: Dawntrail falls brief within the story division. Although with the principle conflicts wrapped up, it does at the least imply that the patch content material may convey one thing completely different to the desk.
On the very least, battle content material appears to lastly be attempting to problem gamers, even ones that aren’t trying the Excessive-tier encounters and past. I’m trying ahead to seeing extra dungeons and trails within the following years, together with a number of the teased facet content material that’s set to launch in later patches.
Last Fantasy XIV: Dawntrail was reviewed on PC with a replica supplied by the Developer over the course of 70 hours of gameplay – all screenshots have been taken throughout the strategy of evaluation.
