From its its preliminary reveal, the most recent Ultimate Fantasy XIV growth Dawntrail has had some lofty expectations to dwell as much as. It’s the follow-up to a decade-long story arc, which ended sturdy with Endwalker (regardless of some points post-launch.)
And, going into Ultimate Fantasy XIV: Dawntrail, I knew that this could be a extra subdued growth — one which units issues up for the last decade to return slightly than a bombastic finale. Nevertheless, even with my lowered expectations Dawntrail nonetheless manages to stumble in a lot of unlucky methods.
Heading West
Dawntrail sees the Warrior of Mild heading west to the continent of Tural. Right here, they need to assist Wuk Lamat — a personality launched on the tail finish of Endwalker’s patch content material — turn into the following chief of Tuliyollal, in any other case often called the Dawnservant.
This goal is the primary 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 virtually mirrors the calmer starting of A Realm Reborn. Whilst you have numerous achievements underneath your belt, you’re comparatively unknown on this new area
Wuk Lamat is completely the primary focus of this growth, 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 from time to time.
Whereas I can completely see why this setup would annoy some folks — now we have been saving the world for over 10 years now — I used to be personally on board with this totally different fashion of story.
Nevertheless, there are some things that I feel Dawntrail will get unsuitable that squander this narrative’s potential.
For starters, Wuk Lamat is supposed to be handled as somebody meaning properly, but doesn’t have that a lot life expertise. However at instances she typically comes throughout as just a little too ignorant, mainly not figuring out 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 just a little uninteresting. Every a part of the problem is designed to have the individuals study extra about Tural, akin to working with the locals to tame an alpaca or cook dinner a regional dish. I get the thought behind it — it’s a simple strategy to give the participant extra information on a brand new area.
My problem with it’s that you just typically study issues that ought to have been fundamental information to somebody in Wuk Lamat’s place. If she was so useless set on changing into the following Dawnservant and following in her father’s footsteps, then naturally you’d additionally need to study extra in regards to the place you’d wish to rule forward of time.
Once more, her lack of expertise isn’t one thing that’s fully 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 problem that additionally pertains to Wuk Lamat is that, frankly, she’s current for much an excessive amount of of the story. Positive, she’s basically the primary character of the growth, but it takes away display screen time from mainly everybody else.
That is most felt with each Erenville and Krile. For Erenville, this growth may have been a great way for the sport to provide extra time to a personality that was solely briefly current in Endwalker. For Krile, you’re led to consider that she’ll find yourself being an necessary 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 very least has a while to shine, although he’s principally relegated to commenting on Wuk Lamat’s troublemaking — satirically, you get to spend probably the most time with Erenville throughout the one part the place Wuk Lamat is barely current.
In the meantime, Krile’s complete plotline is seemingly ignored for 90% of the primary story. Her aim of discovering out the reality behind her grandfather’s journeys in Tural is pushed to the aspect outdoors of the occasional point out. And when it does turn into the main target, it’s all resolved with out that a lot fanfare.
With out going into spoiler territory, Ultimate Fantasy XIV: Dawntrail’s major 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 take care of 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 growth. The truth is, this is likely to be why the competitors plotline is used at al,l because it needed to be crammed into half an growth.
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 piece of their very own, however it’s tied to a zone that just about 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 dangerous, regardless of the overexposure and a few questionable voice course for the English dub. Nevertheless, it’s undoubtedly one of many weaker features 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 aspect of issues, dungeon content material is healthier than it’s ever been.
For some time now, it’s felt like dungeons in Ultimate Fantasy XIV have been taking part in it just a little too secure. Not simply when it comes to their layouts (dungeons are nonetheless basically only one lengthy line), however in mechanics. Many bosses in Endwalker would throw out a couple of totally different mechanics, after which simply loop the identical factor once more.
In Dawntrail, many of the bosses have extra going for them. Mechanics can be remixed for the second half of a boss encounter, and lots of of them require you to suppose a lot quicker 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 glad to have some extra participating content material even whereas leveling.
This extends to the 8-player trials as properly, or at the very least the latter two. Quite than simply having a few mechanics that don’t evolve, you’re required to regulate how issues change later within the fights. It undoubtedly looks like the design crew for battle content material is attempting to problem gamers just a little extra, even when it took 5 expansions to get to that time.
I’m particularly wanting ahead to Dawntrail raid collection The Arcadion, which has the potential to be a number of the sport’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 growth.
Then again, job design is in a wierd spot. For some like Summoner, they mainly stayed precisely the identical (I don’t know what the thought was behind Photo voltaic Bahamaut.) Others acquired some noticeable adjustments. For Astrologian, the cardboard adjustments deliver it just a little 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 contains tweaks to Monk and tank enmity era.
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 remodel current strikes into new ones, including the tip of current combos or buff abilities.
Usually, I feel most current 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 sport — for a time, it appeared like these would go away solely — and I do like a number of the additions yo jobs like White Mage and Warrior obtained.
On the subject of the 2 new jobs, Pictomancer and Viper, it’s a combined bag. Pictomancer has ended up changing into considered one of my new favourite jobs to play. The portray mechanic offers it an id with out being overly sophisticated to grasp, with numerous massive harm assaults to make up for downtime.
Inversely, Viper is considerably underwhelming (although nonetheless sturdy.) Its combos are distinctive within the sense that you just change forwards and backwards between two buttons that remodel 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 remodeling 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 growth’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’ll even dye (sure) tools 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 just a little jarring seeing the brand new character fashions mixed with older gear — in actual fact, even a number of the new characters are utilizing gear with pixelated textures. However for probably the most half, the crew has finished a superb job of touching up a decade-old sport for newer audiences.
Whereas it’d nonetheless be a couple of years in the beginning is improved, and it clearly will not match the visuals of modern-day non-MMO titles, I like what I’ve seen to date.
Oddly, whereas the sport improved visually throughout the board, the audio appears to have suffered just a little bit. Not when it comes to music, as Dawntrail’s OST is constantly glorious and retains up the standard proven all through every growth. As an alternative, it’s the English voice performing that I’ve some gripes with.
Early Ultimate Fantasy XIV was just a little bizarre with English voice performing, some have been nice however principally a bit inconsistent. This has improved over time, 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 glorious voice performing, particularly in terms of characters from the non-playable races. Mamool Ja like Bakool Ja Ja and Zoraal Ja are excellently voiced, and lots of aspect characters get some high quality voiced scenes.
However as talked about earlier, Wuk Lamat has some bizarre course within the English dub. Regular voiced traces are usually fairly good, however in terms 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, loads of this won’t apply to the opposite languages (Japanese presumably being probably 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.
Ultimate Fantasy XIV: Dawntrail Assessment | Ultimate Ideas
Endwalker was all the time going to be a tricky act to observe, and I’d say that Ultimate Fantasy XIV: Dawntrail falls quick within the story division. Although with the primary conflicts wrapped up, it does at the very least imply that the patch content material may deliver one thing totally 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 wanting ahead to seeing extra dungeons and trails within the following years, together with a number of the teased aspect content material that’s set to launch in later patches.
Ultimate Fantasy XIV: Dawntrail was reviewed on PC with a duplicate supplied by the Developer over the course of 70 hours of gameplay – all screenshots have been taken throughout the strategy of assessment.
