Final Fantasy XIV: Dawntrail Review In Progress

thesixthaxis.com:

Following the chaotic and potentially world-ending events of both Endwalker and its successive updates, Final Fantasy XIV: Dawntrail promises new adventures in Tural that have a more laid back, summer holiday tone to them. The past week has seen me dive into a little bit of everything that this grand new expansion offers, already racing up to around level 96, for anyone keeping count.

Narratively, Dawntrail follows the Warrior of Light in their objective to aid Wuk Lumat in the rite of succession for what is essentially the throne of Tural, a nation to the west of Sharlayan. This rite comes with challenges aplenty, but also brings with it returning characters we all love, new characters to fall in love with, and – even by the point I’m at in the story – enough twists to round out a decent mystery novel.

The thing I want to strongly stress early on is the relaxed nature of this new story arc overall. This is essentially starting an entirely new tale for the world of Final Fantasy XIV, so it has a slower pace than previously. I’m personally loving the lower stakes at play here, but those coming into this expecting another Shadowbringers will be greatly disappointed. However, Wuk Lamat herself is incredible and I won’t hear anything opposing that view.

By and large, you’ll be running around Tural helping out various NPCs with various returning gameplay mechanics while exploring, such as following folks without them noticing. As and when you get into a scrape with enemies, the combat is much the same as before, though with all of the existing Jobs having been tweaked in small or severe ways. Thankfully my precious White Mage has been changed very little, but your go-to favourite might have had a bigger overhaul.

Then there’s the new Jobs – Pictomancer and Viper. I’ve not been able to spend a great deal of time with either of them, but in my early impressions they feel like completely different ends of the spectrum from one another. Viper is the smooth-brained, push buttons