Dawntrail

''Final Fantasy XIV: Dawntrail'' is the fifth expansion pack to ''Final Fantasy XIV'', a massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG) developed and published by Square Enix for Windows, macOS, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series X/S. It was released on July 2, 2024, over two years after ''Endwalker'', the previous expansion. Like its predecessors, Naoki Yoshida served as director and producer and Masayoshi Soken composed the soundtrack. The expansion pack will be released as a standalone product for current players; for new players, the "Complete Edition" that originally launched with '' Heavensward'' was updated to include all expansions including ''Dawntrail''.

In ''Dawntrail'', players travel to Tural, a continent across the sea, to participate in a rite of succession to determine the next leader of Tuliyollal. They will serve as champion for Wuk Lamat, one of the current leader's children. They are joined by allies from Eorzea who support different candidates. After the climactic events of ''Endwalker'', ''Dawntrail'' was designed as a "summer vacation" for the player's character, the Warrior of Light. In addition to adding new areas, the expansion pack increased the level cap, debuted two character classes and a new playable race, and initiated the game's first major graphical overhaul since its relaunch in 2013.

At launch, ''Dawntrail'' received generally positive reviews, though it was notably not as well received as its widely acclaimed previous expansions, ''Shadowbringers'' and ''Endwalker''.

Gameplay

The gameplay of ''Dawntrail'' largely matches that of the base game. Players interact with each other in a persistent world that responds to their actions. The two new jobs in ''Dawntrail'' are Viper, a dextrous dual-wielding swordsmaster, and Pictomancer, a paint-based mage. Viper is inspired by other agile swordsmen in the ''Final Fantasy'' series, such as Zidane from ''Final Fantasy IX''. Vipers can combine their two swords into a stronger two-handed weapon for certain attacks. Pictomancers brush their magical paint directly into the air, casting both damaging and supportive spells for the party. It is based on Relm Arrowny's magic in ''Final Fantasy VI''. Krile, a fan-favorite character, changes her class to Pictomancer in this expansion. Director Yoshida stated that the more recently designed classes, including Viper and Pictomancer, feel "more complete" compared to ones introduced in earlier expansions. Additionally, Beastmaster will be added as a "Limited" job, with the same restrictions on player matchmaking as Blue Mage.

A new Field Operations activity called "Cosmic Exploration" was added in the patch 7.2 cycle. Working similarly to Ishgardian Restoration in ''Shadowbringers'', Cosmic Exploration is a player-driven initiative spearheaded by the Loporrits and the people of Etheirys to explore the stars following the end of the Final Days, and is planned to unfold over the course of several patches to serve as content for beginners and experienced crafters and gatherers.

Another Field Operations activity for combat classes called "Occult Crescent" was also introduced in the patch 7.2 cycle. Like Eureka and Save the Queen before it in ''Stormblood'' and ''Shadowbringers'', respectively, it features "old school" MMORPG gameplay such as leveling down and allows the use of unique actions and spells from "phantom jobs," based on those from ''Final Fantasy V''. Players work together to increase their Knowledge levels, unlock more phantom jobs, and eventually take on a high-tier raid called Forked Tower: Blood, which permits up to 48 players to attempt to overcome it.

Plot

Setting and characters

''Dawntrail'' takes place on Tural, a continent across the sea far to the west. Tural is inspired by Latin America and Southeast Asia. Yok Tural, the southern half of the continent, includes the capital of Tuliyollal, a coastal metropolitan inspired by Mexico City, and Urqopacha, a mountainous region reminiscent of the Andes with Peruvian and Incan architecture. Kozama'uka is an Amazon rainforest-like region, homeland of the birdlike Hanuhanu. Yak T'el is a cenote-covered jungle resembling the Yucatán Peninsula, the southern portion of which is a meteor-bombarded forest featuring the Mamool Ja homeland of Mamook. Xak Tural in the north contains Shaaloani, which is similar to the "Wild West" of America. A new Field Operations area called Shades' Triangle derives from the Bermuda Triangle.

The nation of Tuliyollal is a multi-ethnic federated monarchy led by Gulool Ja Ja, a two-headed Mamool Ja who united the continent under one banner during an epic journey eighty years ago. Two-headed members of his species possess fearsome strength and potent magical abilities. He and his legendary companions traveled across Tural, forging alliances, quelling conflict between warring peoples, and even sealed away the flying calamity known as Valigarmanda. As Dawnservant, his reign has been characterized by an unprecedented era of peace and prosperity. Shortly before the events of ''Dawntrail'', Gulool Ja Ja announced a contest to determine the next ruler of the nation. Three of the candidates are his children: Zoraal Ja, his one-headed biological son known as the 'miracle' due to the belief that two-head Mamool Ja are sterile; Koana, his adopted son who studied abroad in Old Sharlayan to bring their technologies back to Tural; and Wuk Lamat, his adopted daughter who is earnest and headstrong but sheltered. Whereas both Koana and Wuk Lamat hope to maintain the peace that Gulool Ja Ja established, Zoraal Ja has ambitions to conquer and colonize the rest of the world, motivated by his inferiority complex with respect to his father's accomplishments. The last candidate is Bakool Ja Ja, another two-headed Mamool Ja from Mamook who aims to institute Mamool Ja supremacy in Tuliyollal. Wuk Lamat journeys to Old Sharlayan to recruit the player's character, a hero known as the Warrior of Light, to aid in her succession bid. They are joined by some of the player's allies from the Scions of the Seventh Dawn, including the twins Alphinaud and Alisaie; Krile, who is pursuing the truth about her grandfather Galuf's travels to Tural; and Wuk Lamat's childhood friend Erenville. Koana, meanwhile, enlists the aid of the Scions Thancred and Urianger.

Story

The Warrior of Light's sea voyage to Tural is rocked by a massive thunderstorm, which damages structures throughout the continent. Upon arrival, Wuk Lamat introduces her entourage to the city of Tuliyollal, and Gulool Ja Ja assembles the candidates to explain the rules of the contest. The winner is the candidate who first discovers the fabled ' city of gold' after completing all seven Feats in the Tuliyollal Saga, which retells the story of the nation's founding. Wuk Lamat and her companions travel across the land to find the electors of each clan, who are in charge of administering the Feats and awarding keystones. Following in her father's footsteps, Wuk Lamat tames an alpaca in Urqopacha and revives the failing reed crop in Kozama'uka. The candidates help the Moblins restore their economy following the devastation of the storm, completing another Feat. During a brief respite, Gulool Ja Ja confides in the player that he believes none of the candidates possess the character to become Dawnservant, and that the contest was designed to develop them. Bakool Ja Ja, who was absent during the previous Feat, abducts Wuk Lamat to steal her keystone. Her companions cooperate with Koana's entourage to rescue her. In the highlands of Urqopacha, they seek the elector of the giants, who waits at the mountain peak. While the other candidates climb, Bakool Ja Ja sabotages the ice prison encasing Valigarmanda, freeing the calamity to terrorize the region. Zoraal Ja, Koana, Wuk Lamat, and their allies work together to vanquish the fiend, earning them keystones.

In Yak T'el, the candidates cook a traditional roast pork pibil, a recipe devised by Gulool Ja Ja during his journey. It was first prepared during the peace negotiations between the Xbr'aal and Mamool Ja people, and represents their mutual understanding. After the trial, Wuk Lamat bests Bakool Ja Ja in single combat and reclaims her stolen keystone. They proceed to Mamook, where the final challenge is to defeat an apparition of Gulool Ja Ja in his prime. Zoraal Ja fails and is disqualified when he attacks the elector. Bakool Ja Ja fails too when the elector, his father, banishes him for lacking keystones from the previous Feats. Before attempting the Feat herself, Wuk Lamat seeks to understand the Mamool Ja people as she did with each of the prior clans. Bakool Ja Ja's mother reveals the secret of producing two-headed Mamool Ja: a selective breeding program with a 99% mortality rate. With Bakool Ja Ja's support, the Mamool Ja reject the brutal practice; Wuk Lamat and Koana help them discover new crops that thrive in their forest, alleviating the conflict with the Xbr'aal. Koana relinquishes his candidacy to help Wuk Lamat defeat Gulool Ja Ja's apparition, completing the last Feat. Beneath the Mamool Ja cenotaph, they find the entrance to the city of gold, though it is blocked by a technologically advanced seal.

Gulool Ja Ja announces that Wuk Lamat is the winner of the contest. She nominates Koana to become co-Dawnservant with her, mirroring Gulool Ja Ja's two heads representing Resolve and Reason. During the coronation ceremony, Zoraal Ja steals the key to the golden city, which he learns is Alexandria, a civilization in an alternate dimension facing a crisis. He disposes of his lieutenant Sareel Ja when he reveals his ambitions to usurp Zoraal Ja, and allies with the queen of Alexandria, Sphene. He pledges to deliver them from disaster and becomes their king. While exploring Xak Tural after the coronation, the Warrior of Light discovers a massive electric barrier has descended over a region called Yyasulani. Airships emerge from the barrier, carrying mechanical shock troops who lay siege upon Tuliyollal. Their commander is Zoraal Ja, now augmented by Alexandrian technology, who challenges Gulool Ja Ja to a duel for the throne. Though Gulool Ja Ja defeats him easily, his headpiece activates, resurrecting him from the dead and empowering him to victory. Unsatisfied that he needed a handicap to kill his elderly father, he challenges Wuk Lamat to find and kill him in Alexandria, or his army will resume its assault. The Scions devise a plan to pierce the barrier using a train-delivered bomb, which succeeds with the help of all the Turali clans. Inside, they discover that thirty years have passed within the dome since Zoraal Ja first arrived and used the power of the key to fuse the land of Yyasulani with a portion of Alexandria's dimension. The people of Xak Tural who were trapped inside the dome have assimilated into Alexandrian society, including the use of regulators—headpieces which allow the user to come back to life by expending souls harvested from the dead. Citizens who die of natural causes have their memories uploaded to a server in the Everkeep, Alexandria's central fortress, but this also causes any living regulator users to lose all memories and knowledge of the deceased.

Wuk Lamat befriends Queen Sphene, who is beloved by her people, both ex-Turali and Alexandrian, and is devoted to their welfare. Sphene dislikes Zoraal Ja's methods, and entreats Wuk Lamat to help her remove him from power. They also meet Cahciua, Erenville's mother, who leads a resistance group called Oblivion, which is dedicated to ousting Zoraal Ja and stopping the process of dimensional fusion. While exploring Everkeep, they encounter a vagabond child who resembles Zoraal Ja and occasionally accepts food and shelter from Oblivion. They follow the child, Gulool Ja, to the ruins of Old Alexandria where they meet his guardian, Otis, a knight who volunteered as the first test subject for memory extraction centuries ago, and has since been trapped in a robotic body. This technology allowed scientists to revive Sphene as a digital avatar who has been ruling Alexandria since.

Growing impatient, Zoraal Ja orders the attack on Tuliyollal, but the better prepared Koana and the Scions rebuff it with the aid of Bakool Ja Ja and new allies from the east. Zoraal Ja reveals that the reason for the attack is to harvest the nation's souls, in order to power the server that maintains the memories of all of Alexandria's dead citizens—the energy crisis that forced Sphene to ally with Zoraal Ja. With the genocide of Tuliyollal thwarted, he turns his soldiers on the living residents of Everkeep to power his ambitions. Sphene, Wuk Lamat, and the Scions do what they can to protect the citizens, and confront Zoraal Ja at the summit of Everkeep. He spends all of his souls on enhancing his strength, saving none for resurrection; but he is ultimately defeated, entrusting his authority to Gulool Ja, his son. Sphene claims the key and uses it to continue dimensional fusion—she considers the memories of her people to be worth the sacrifice of all of Tural. The Scions travel to Living Memory in Sphene's dimension, a place where dead Alexandrians' memories can manifest in corporeal form as the Endless. There, they find the memory of Cahciua, who asks them to help her shut down the storage servers and allow their digital shades to rest. They encounter Otis in his human form, and Krile's parents, the founders of Oblivion, who sent her with the key across dimensions as an infant to stop Sphene from using it. With the servers deactivated, the Scions pursue Sphene through her digitized memories of Alexandria, before confronting her as Queen Eternal, who purges the Warrior's allies from the servers. During the final battle, Queen Eternal attempts to delete Sphene's human memories to prevent remorse for her actions, but Wuk Lamat breaks through to her, restoring her personality. They reconcile and lament not meeting sooner when Sphene was alive, as the last servers shut down. Sphene entrusts the safety of her living citizens to Wuk Lamat, and the key to the Warrior and Scions, before she too is deactivated. Young Gulool Ja becomes king of Alexandria, and Tuliyollal celebrates the Dawnservants' victory.

Mourning

Wuk Lamat and Koana invite the Warrior of Light to attend Sphene's funeral in Everkeep, where its citizens, for the first time being able to remember death, struggle to process their grief. During the funeral, Gulool Ja expresses desire to know about his mother, leading the Scions to an abandoned research facility where Zoraal Ja performed soul transfer experiments on captive beasts. They recover audio logs recorded by Teeshal Ja, one of the scientists who worked there. In Shaaloani, the Warrior, Wuk Lamat, and Erenville assist Koana in restarting railway operations by neutralizing an apex predator disrupting its ecosystem.

The group returns to Everkeep, where Gulool Ja listens to the logs of Teeshal Ja and the infant Gulool Ja being spurned by Zoraal Ja, but is satisfied with his answers. Wuk Lamat and the Warrior return to the funeral site, but are surprised to see Sphene apparently alive and unharmed, declaring to the people that they are to be made Endless to alleviate their fears of death using "neo regulators". The Alexandrians' memories have been altered to remember the funeral being held for those killed in Zoraal Ja's attack, rather than Sphene's death. With no way of proving to the Alexandrians that Sphene died, they return to Oblivion's headquarters to plan their next move.

Meanwhile, Y'shtola visits Living Memory with Oblivion member Shale, and discover the original Queen Sphene of Alexandria, thought to have died 400 years prior, collapsed on the ground. They bring Sphene to Oblivion's headquarters. It is revealed that she had been kept in cryostasis, but the stasis ended upon Living Memory's shutdown. The Scions tell Sphene about the state of Alexandria; to differentiate this Sphene from the ones they'd seen prior, they begin to refer to the fake as a simulant, and the one they first met as Endless Sphene. While exploring Solution Nine, Wuk Lamat, Sphene and the Warrior of Light encounter the simulant. The simulant goads the group and tells them that she wants the key to dimensional fusion returned, so she can resume collecting souls from other shards and continue the Endless lives of Alexandrians. She also reveals that she is working for a young man called Calyx, the original genius that mastered electrope technology and the founder of Preservation. Appearing remotely via a video screen, he too demands the key or promises consequences. Sphene recognizes him, so deduces by his existence 400 years later that he too is an Endless.

Shale tracks Calyx's transmission to the Underkeep, a location at the base of the tower that houses the original Alexandria castle. Sphene, Wuk Lamat, Krile, G'raha Tia and the Warrior of Light venture into the castle, but Sphene and the Warrior are teleported into the throne room by Calyx and do battle with a robotic recreation of Zelenia, a knight of Alexandria. Upon Zelenia's defeat, Calyx confirms that Alexandria hails from the Ninth shard, and he is aware of the sundering. He leaves Endless Sphene's tiara, which is her regulator, and vanishes. Upon returning to Everkeep, the Scions quickly learn that a number of the city's robots and vehicles have begun acting of their own accord, injuring and killing other citizens. The machines eventually stop their assault, and Gulool Ja restricts their access to weaponry to prevent future incidents. Sphene pledges to relearn how to use magic as she once was able, and Calyx muses to himself in Living Memory that he has an idea of how to move forward with his plan.

Development

After concluding a 10-year long storyline in ''Endwalker'', ''Dawntrail'' was designed as a "summer vacation" for the Warrior of Light, the player's character. Naoki Yoshida, producer and director for the series, considers it the start of "season two" of a long-running television show, and hopes to use it to lay the groundwork for another 10 years of service. For Yoshida, it was important to reset the stakes of the conflict from a universe-ending threat to a more personal one.

A central endeavor of this expansion was the game's first major graphical overhaul since the original 2010 launch, which includes improved shadows, environmental and player textures, realtime lighting, and more detailed and varied environmental features like grass and flowers. It also includes support for a number of graphics upscaling technologies, such as DLSS and FSR. Yoshida called this the "first phase" of graphical improvements to the game because certain techniques were still unfeasible to apply to a realtime online game and he aimed to employ them in the future.

The focus on the "New World" in this expansion drew some pre-release criticism. The development team did additional research to properly and respectfully depict indigenous cultures in the game. A major theme of the game is the coming together of diverse cultures and values into a mutual understanding.

Release and patches

Early access to ''Dawntrail'' began on June 28, 2024 for players who pre-ordered the game with the full release on July 2. To promote the expansion, Square Enix created a parody tourism website, TourTural.com, that depicts activities and locations within the game as part of a travel brochure. Rhys Darby starred in commercials filmed for the website as the new Interim Deputy Director of ' Turalism' tasked with promoting a vacation to Tural.

Square Enix commemorated the release of ''Dawntrail'' in several cities worldwide. A replica of an 'Aetheryte' was installed at King's Cross in London, while murals featuring various characters were painted in Los Angeles, Melbourne, and Sydney.

Music

Masayoshi Soken composed the majority of the expansion's score in addition to his duties as sound director. The soundtrack uses jazz as a basis due to fitting with the theme of diverse elements coming together.

The raid series Arcadion features a number of guest vocalists including Chrissy Costanza of Against the Current, who provided vocals for "Give It All".

Reception

''Dawntrail'' received generally positive reviews, though notably lower than the critical acclaim ''Shadowbringers'' and ''Endwalker'' received. On review aggregator Metacritic, ''Dawntrail'' has an average score of 79/100 based on 35 critic reviews, indicating "generally favorable" reviews, but the lowest score of the five expansions released.

Responding to what ''PC Gamer'' described as a mixed reception of ''Dawntrail'', Yoshida acknowledged players' divided opinions on the expansion's main scenario questline. Despite a generally positive response to the game's new content, the story's pacing and character prioritization have drawn criticism. Yoshida admitted that the development team anticipated some level of mixed reactions, particularly after the high expectations set by previous expansions. Yoshida attributed the pacing issues to the development team's effort to thoroughly introduce the new continent, cultures, and characters in ''Dawntrail''. He recognized that some story elements could have been better suited to side quests, allowing players to explore them at their own pace. Yoshida reflected on the portrayal of and critical reaction to Wuk Lamat, acknowledging that her lack of confidence and complex background may have contributed to the perceived slow pacing and frustration among players.

Notes

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Final Fantasy 14 Dawntrail
2024 video games
Final Fantasy video games
Final Fantasy XIV
Japanese role-playing video games
Massively multiplayer online role-playing games
Role-playing video games
Square Enix games
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Video games developed in Japan
Video games set on fictional planets