Final Fantasy XIV: Dawntrail - Review

We’re finally back in Hydaelyn, although this time we’ve taken a trek across the sea to a brand-new land. Taking place in Tural, a place known as the New World to the Eorzeans, we are ready for a brand-new adventure, hopefully with slightly less total planetary destruction and trips to the moon.

Final Fantasy XIV brings us a brand-new expansion full of new classes, new quests with a new continent to explore and an array of new dungeons to explore. Taking place relatively soon after the events of Endwalker, Dawntrail is the start of a new story arc. Venturing out of Eorzea to the land of Tural, we get to experience firsthand the journey of Wuk Lamat, one of four persons competing for the right to become the new leader of Tuliyollal and become the new Vow of Reason.

Tural is genuinely interesting new continent to explore. There is a significant amount of care put in place to make it feel like a part of the world that has been thriving and developing during the time that we were busy off saving the world and giving it a drop historical depth. I can’t help but draw a lot of comparisons between Radz-at-Han, and Thavnair as a whole, however. It is likely a case of similar cultures breeding similar seeming groups, but the early parts of exploring Tural made me feel like I was simply stepping into the start of Endwalker again, except with Mamool Ja (lizard-like race) taking the place of the Arkasadora (elephant-like race).

The Mamool Ja place a central point in the entirety of the story. Previous leaders in Tural had been what is referred to as ‘Blessed Siblings’, a two-headed Mamool Ja. The current leader of Tuliyollal is Bagool Ja Ja is one of these two-headed Mamool Ja, who united the different tribes and groups of Tural some eighty years ago. This is easily the most thought-out piece of lore throughout the story and does lend some credence to the more simplified and cultural city designs and comparison to Radz-at-Han, but it does feel a little bit lazy in overall design coming from Endwalker to Dawntrail.

The second half of the story takes place in a technological super city of sorts, which does offer an extreme opposite to the more simplified and traditional feeling of Tural. This too however feels sort of like going from Thavnair to the moon or the end-game digital area of Endwalker. It almost at times feels like they were too afraid to try something new and in turn just took what they thought was the successful parts of previous expansions to make a new one around.

Which is the sum of the story of Dawntrail. The story starts off strong enough, even with Wuk Lamat, Koana, Bakool Ja Ja and Zoraal Ja all being kind of bland as characters. Wuk Lamat did grow on me over the length of the story, but I do feel they were a little stereotypical of a Final Fantasy protagonist. Young and naïve child must learn the ways of her people before she can become the leader. Others who are avidly opposing her have their hearts swayed and rally to her side because they believe she is the best fit. Scorned prodigal son of the current leader gives into dark temptation in order to seize control after losing the succession contest. It’s all very typical fantasy storytelling. There are all these points of interest that are dotted throughout but they never eventuate to anything, and it feels almost too perfect at times. The biggest problem is half the story occurs in the first 20ish hours, and then the second half is over in 10 or so, in a story that probably didn’t need the second half to be ‘wrapped’ up.

Which is a shame. The nuance of the story is interesting. The Mamool Ja, and the Yok Huy are super interesting additions to the world. I don’t entirely understand why we can’t get something like the Mamool Ja as a playable race, as it would be nice to actually have a non-humanoid race. Female Hrothgar introduction to the game exists with the Xbr’aal (which are just Hrothgar but from Tural), explaining the rarity of female born Hrothgar. Which is a nice little bit of in world explanation for the late introduction of female Hrothgar. Moblins also exist here, which are just Goblins, but they are from somewhere different, so they are Moblins and not Goblins. Pelupelu are also introduced, and if you remember that really annoying face talking NPC Tobli from Final Fantasy X-2, then are you in for a treat. The Pelupelu are just an entire group of Tobli-style NPCs, and in a nice nostalgic throwback the main one of them is called… Tobli. Hanu are the final addition here, which are just a colour palette swap of the Vanu, that are obsessed with reeds rather than clouds. These aren’t super offensive, because they do a good job of exploring the background of the Hanu and Pelupelu at least.

The Yok Huy who are giants with massive bugeyes but no chin are easily the most impressive new addition to the game. Again, I’m not entirely sure why the developers are so reluctant in letting us play these new races, but the Yok Huy are given at least slightly more of an in-world reason than the Mamool Ja. The problem being the Yok Huy are easily the most interesting and get almost the least amount of actual time dedicated to them. This is an inherent problem of Dawntrail feeling like it had two half complete stories and decided to slap them together, rather than expand both stories into full fledged expansion level content. We didn’t need an entirely wrapped up narrative in Dawntrail. We had experienced an entire continuous story arc from A Realm Reborn all the way to Endwalker, which had Heavensward, Stormblood and Shadowbringers in between them. They’ve shown that they can make these single focused stories that blend into the next part over multiple expansions, but because Dawntrail doesn’t do this, the individual characters and stories suffer as a result.

I would really like the developers to stop playing it so far in the next expansion and possibly give us Bangaa or Mamool Ja as playable races, because as it stands. Having 7 versions of human with animal-like features or just being big or tall, and 1 race of really small people is kind of bland for a fantasy world with so many different races in it. I don’t expect us to get Yok Huy as a playable race, but it’s egregious for races like the Mamool Ja, the Bangaa and hell even things like the Pelupelu to being only in the world but not playable. We don’t need new classes at this point, but we could do with new races and customization to pick from. Dawntrail should have been the start of a new era for the game, and it just isn’t.

Which is a shame, because Dawntrail has good parts, but it plays way too safe. The streamlining of dungeons has become upsetting at this point. Three mobs, boss, three mobs, boss, three mobs, final boss, for every dungeon for the last three expansions is a joke. There’s no wonder or life to the dungeons anymore. No cool interactive mechanics like that which we saw in A Realm Reborn and Heavensward. For the sake of making the game more focused, we’ve lost the life and feeling of the dungeons. There are semi unique mini-boss style mobs thrown in now, but they don’t do enough to make it justifiable for the dungeons to become as few as there is per expansion now, with as bland of content as they have. As usual the bosses themselves are highlights of the dungeons, but the first two dungeons are ridiculously bland overall with kind of lacklustre bosses in them. The end game bosses are more enjoyable as a result but being that you have to slog through a potential thirty to forty hours of content to see the good stuff is upsetting.

A quick note, the soundtrack is as good as ever here. Maybe not quite on par with Heavensward just yet (those raid songs are hard to beat), but it is solid work here. If in doubt about everything else, the music is always a standout for the game. The slight remixes of iconic songs of the past, with brand new variations thrown out there as well as completely new tracks for all the dungeons and trials that match the theme and energy perfectly. If anything, the soundtrack is worth grabbing when it becomes available.

Dawntrail is a generally fine and safe expansion. With new trials and raids to come, it has potential to be as good as previous entries but does run the risk of falling off exceptionally quick. It suffers from the Stormblood feeling in a way. A solid enough expansion but kind of weak compared to everything before it. Final Fantasy XIV is formulaic at this point. Every new entry feels like a copy and paste of the previous, and the oversimplification of everything as a result. I’d like to see growth, experimentation and change coming out of Dawntrail. New races, an expansion of the current combat system rather than new classes which are perhaps too simple. Dawntrail should have been a brand-new start, but it feels like Endwalker part 2, and in a weird ending, wraps up the story arc completely, which means it sort of stands alone. It doesn’t feel like a new story has begun, and that is frustrating after how impactful Endwalker was.

The Score

7.0

Review code provided by Square Enix

The Pros

Soundtrack is amazing

Viper is fun and easy to pick up and play

Mamool Ja and Yok Huy are great additions to the world

The Cons

Two half stories forced together results in a lack of forward direction

Dungeon simplification continues here, and the early ones are very bland as a result

Feels like a repeat of Endwalker, but without the grandiose decade long backstory