Last Fantasy XIV: Dawntrail Evaluate (PS5)

Last Fantasy 14 is in a transitional interval. The 2021 enlargement Endwalker was successfully the finale to a narrative that started with 2013’s A Realm Reborn method again on PlayStation 3. It was a form of Last Fantasy meets Avengers Endgame; a narrative that capped off eight years, 4 expansions, and over 200 hours of story content material in a spectacular emotional rollercoaster of a climax with the destiny of the universe within the steadiness.

However the place do you go from there? What do you do as soon as you have crossed a lot of the t’s and dotted a lot of the i’s, as soon as you have battled a foe of unfathomable energy hell-bent on wiping out actually all the things? How do you high a narrative as large as Endwalker, itself simply the ultimate chapter of an already large story? Dawntrail is the following chapter within the Last Fantasy 14 story and it solutions that query with a shrug. You do not high it. And what’s extra, you do not even attempt to — a minimum of, not straight away.

It is a daring transfer. Dawntrail dials all the things again to zero. It is a story that begins out not with low stakes, however no stakes. You are employed by a Hrothgar (mainly, a lion girl) known as Wuk Lamat, who’s the adopted daughter of the ruler of Tural, a continent largely unknown to the folks of Eorzea. She’s certainly one of 4 rivals in a contest to seek out the fabled metropolis of gold and decide who will take over from the growing old Dawnservant when he relinquishes the throne.

And so with little left to do in Eorzea following the occasions of Endwalker and in dire want of a bit little bit of enjoyable within the solar, you and some of your comrades comply with Wuk Lamat to Tural to behave as her entourage within the succession contest. What follows is a largely light-hearted journey within the astonishingly stunning Tural, serving to the endlessly optimistic and likeable Wuk Lamat as she visits the completely different areas of the continent and takes half in all the things from cooking an area delicacy to catching and driving an alpaca.

The opening hours of Dawntrail are charming, and humorous, however they are not precisely riveting. It is a large change of tempo from the pressing and continuously dire Endwalker, however then that was most likely mandatory, and we would by no means go so far as to say the opening to Dawntrail is boring. Tural is an interesting and wondrous place, and the world-building within the early hours of the enlargement is generally glorious. All of it simply feels a bit frivolous.

However then about half method by way of the enlargement all of it kicks off, and when it does it actually kicks off. The story takes some fairly wild turns within the second half of the journey, and it is a type of the place in case you tried to guess what the tip can be after the primary 10 hours, you’d not get it proper in 100 makes an attempt. The emotional beats within the latter half of the story actually land due to the work put into establishing characters and places earlier, and there is even some revelations for a few of our previous pals too. We actually love this story.

It is not simply Dawntrail’s narrative that landed for us, although. The dungeons on this enlargement are the very best the sport has ever had, that includes quite a few sophisticated mechanics, jaw-dropping locales, wonderful music, and superior bosses. We discovered ourselves continuously bamboozled by a boss using techniques we would by no means seen earlier than in FF14, and for a sport you have performed for hundreds of hours to nonetheless be capable to shock you is a uncommon deal with.

Fight is additional enhanced by the brand new jobs you possibly can play as in Dawntrail. First there’s the Viper, a bodily DPS (injury per second) class which makes use of two blades similarly to Zidane from Last Fantasy 9. Enjoying Viper means managing buffs to haste and injury, in addition to getting your self into the proper place to maximise your offence — sure assaults do extra injury from the aspect or from behind an enemy. It is quick and flashy, however for our cash it is overshadowed considerably by the opposite new class.

Pictomancer is the second new job, and it is fairly spectacular. The Pictomancer is a magical DPS class that makes use of an enchanted paint brush to attract assaults and buffs in battle. You initially have three canvases to work with – one weapon, one creature, one panorama. You employ expertise such as you would with some other class, solely a few of these add one thing to one of many canvases. Utilizing the suitable expertise to complete the portray of a hammer on the weapon canvas, for instance, offers you a comical outsized mallet which you could bop enemies with.

Utilizing the moogle’s pom ability causes a whole lot of balls to drop from the sky onto your enemies whereas including a pom to the creature canvas, and utilizing the moogle’s wing ability damages baddies whereas including wings to the canvas and ending the portray of a moogle. You then have entry to the Mog of the Ages ability, and utilizing it causes your newly painted moogle to spring to life and blast all foes with a large spell.

We discovered Pictomancer powerful to get the cling of initially, however as soon as we did it grew to become certainly one of our favorite courses in the whole sport. It is all about build up assaults in phases for the massive payoff in the long run and it is a tonne of enjoyable. In any other case, there have been tweaks to different, present courses, however nothing earth-shattering from what we performed, and nothing as drastic as the entire Summoner rework from Endwalker.

Elsewhere, there are adjustments to how dyes work on garments, and now you can alter two completely different colors on most objects of clothes relatively than only one, which is nice information for glamour followers. Spectacles now have their very own tools slot as a substitute of being thought of headgear, so you possibly can put on a cool hat and glasses on the identical time. There’s additionally a brand new playable race within the feminine Hrothgar – a humanoid lion – in case you fancy a personality change.

After which there’s the graphical replace. We surprise in case you’d discover the graphical replace in any respect if you have not performed Last Fantasy 14 shortly, however for frequent gamers it is fairly apparent. Hair, clothes textures, and faces all appear to be a step-up from what got here earlier than. The brand new places, too, make glorious use of the graphical enhancements, with areas trying a lot much less empty than beforehand seen within the sport, and with far more foliage current.

Talking of places, there are some stunning sights in Dawntrail, from darkish forests to lush grasslands and majestic mountains. Tural is generally South American in inspiration, solely with a Last Fantasy twist similarly to how earlier enlargement Stormblood riffed on Japan. Within the latter half of the sport the places you may go to are aesthetically very completely different however no much less pleasing on the attention.

Dawntrail additionally continues Last Fantasy 14’s development of unbelievable soundtracks. There is a large band monitor that performs each time you go to the primary metropolis within the enlargement and it is an actual toe-tapper. It’s very misplaced as a city theme for when you’re wandering round doing all of your purchasing, nevertheless it’s so good that we simply do not care. There are bombastic boss tracks, quiet reflective items, and one dungeon theme that we will solely describe as a trance banger mashed up with ’80s type guitar solos. It is splendidly bonkers.

Conclusion

Dawntrail is one other glorious enlargement for Last Fantasy 14. The story takes some time to get going, however as soon as it is completed setting the scene it takes some fairly large swings within the second half that left us captivated. The dungeons are the very best the sport has ever had, the brand new Pictomancer class is an absolute pleasure to play, it is bought unbelievable artwork design, and a soundtrack that is beautiful. This is to a different 10 years of Last Fantasy 14.