I lately acquired to preview Closing Fantasy XIV: Dawntrail (with my journey and lodging furnished by Sq. Enix), and I’d wish to share with you an anecdote from my time with the sport. I feel it’ll assist underscore why I’m so personally excited for this enlargement to a sport I’ve lately fallen in love with.
After just a few hours of hands-on time with each of Dawntrail’s new lessons, and some runs of the preview’s sole dungeon, lots of the gamers at my preview occasion took to exploring the sunkissed lands of Tural as greatest as they may. Two of my pals got here throughout a Queen Bee, which was an exceptionally highly effective goal that might be hunted in Dawntrail’s open environments. They couldn’t tackle it themselves, ultimately asking for help from me and another close by pals.
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A handful of us tried our hand on the struggle and nonetheless failed. The aides on the occasion went round buzzing at different gamers, letting them know what we have been as much as, and indicating that we’d want additional assist. Earlier than lengthy, our numbers grew till there have been a few dozen of us preventing this one monster. Even with our higher ranks, we appeared to be wiping fairly shortly.
Then, one participant took the initiative and began calling out the buffs, debuffs, and skills that the Queen Bee was utilizing. In addition they issued instructions, similar to telling us when to hurry in or keep again to keep away from a few of her assaults. Earlier than lengthy, our occasion of gamers, who for essentially the most half didn’t know one another, whittled her down and vanquished her, with everybody concerned letting out a triumphant roar throughout the preview corridor. We had completed it, we’d achieved a pointless purpose we’d set for ourselves for no explicit purpose, however we had completed it collectively.
I’ve largely handled Closing Fantasy XIV as a prolonged narrative sport. I’ve performed stretches of it with pals and others by my lonesome, however the story has all the time been entrance and middle. I’ve largely been taking part in catch up since choosing up the sport proper across the launch of Endwalker on the finish of 2021, and so at any time when I go surfing, I’m heads down within the ever-evolving saga of the Scions of the Seventh Daybreak, hardly ever touching any of FF14’s aspect content material, not to mention its endgame actions. I don’t benefit from the sport with others a lot as I get pleasure from it whereas I occur to be round them.
Dawntrail will mark my first enlargement that I’m taking part in alongside FF14’s famend neighborhood. I lastly get to expertise firsthand the thrill of the fandom as we get to unravel the mysteries of Tural collectively. I get to run the identical dungeons, trials, and raids as everybody else, and I’ll seemingly be colliding with extra gamers than ever earlier than as we tackle creatures within the wilds. Leaping into Dawntrail holds the promise of extra experiences like my preview encounter towards the Queen Bee.
That phase of the preview is what I maintain turning over in my head. I actually loved sampling Dawntrail’s new jobs and one in every of its new dungeons, and getting to speak to the sport’s director, Naoki Yoshida, however the unplanned Queen Bee struggle is the factor to beat. I grew to become a PC participant at this preview, and but the largest factor to occur was this singular second the place I felt like half of a bigger neighborhood. The potential for having fun with the world of FF14 alongside others immediately unfurled as if for the primary time, even though I’ve been taking part in this MMO for greater than two years now. And it felt joyous in a means that FF14 has by no means fairly felt for me.
It feels as if I’ve been closing myself off to this entire different solution to expertise FF14, and it took this fully innocuous struggle to shake me from my unhealthy behavior. Now, I wish to be inundated within the sport’s neighborhood at launch, assist choose Dawntrail aside, and really feel like I’m embarking on a complete new journey with a village at my again, one who’s prepared to lift me once I’ve fallen and have my again within the trials to return. It appears like I’m lastly ready to get pleasure from FF14 the way in which it must be loved. And I owe all of it to that Queen Bee that fortunately knocked sense into me.
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Disclaimer: This text is predicated on play of an in-development construct of FINAL FANTASY XIV: Dawntrail, and content material within the remaining model is topic to vary.
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