Final Fantasy 14: Dawntrail leads PLAY’s massive Final Fantasy special

gamesradar.com:

And in the beginning there was… Final Fantasy. Or at least that’s how I remember it, anyway, with the seventh outing on the classic grey box completely changing the way many of us thought about games. All these years on, and it’s still happening, which makes this big takeover for the PLAY #38 Final Fantasy special a really (ahem) fantastic one.

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Leading the way is Final Fantasy 14: Dawntrail. The start of a bold new era for the online RPG, we’re setting sail for new adventures, and Naoki Yoshisa sits down to tell us all about it.

As ambitious as ever, this might be a new expansion but make no mistake: this is the next big, new Final Fantasy. With a massive story arc brought to a closure, this is a fresh start in many ways, creating opportunity for new gameplay twists, some stunning new locations, and technical improvements as well. Final Fantasy 14 is here to stay.

But for something older made new again, we’ve Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth. The biggest PS5 exclusive of the year, we’ve spent hours upon hours in this truly humongous quest to bring you our first verdict, ahead of our scored review. Needless to say, we’re stoked so far.

FF14 and FF7 have something in common beyond being two meaty quests. They’re both expanding on the series’ well-crafted worlds. It’s not the first time the anthology series has aimed to make an entry into something bigger.

Here, we take a look at the different approaches through the years, including epilogues, spin-offs, cameos, the original FF7 Compilation, and, of course, FF13’s Fabula Nova Crystallis project.

With those huge 2024 games out the way, what about the years ahead? Leading our Insider section, Hideo Kojima has the answers across next year’s wildly ambitious Death Stranding 2: On The Beach and a spiritual successor to Metal Gear.

We also chat with New Star