Final Fantasy XIV: Dawntrail Review

ign.com:

Just as Endwalker opened with you and the crew setting sail for the distant city of Old Sharlayan, Final Fantasy XIV’s Dawntrail expansion kicks off with a long cruise to a place we’ve never been before. But instead of connecting with a long-referenced society, you step into an entire region no one from Eorzea knows very much about. From the outset, venturing into the Mesoamerican and Latin American-inspired land of Tural might lead you to believe that this is a summer vacation for a band of heroes that has saved entire realms from calamity. However, I can assure you that whatever you thought Dawntrail was, that’s exactly what it’s not. It’s the start of a new era for the MMO, and the growing pains of that transition can be apparent at times – but Dawntrail manages to prove once again why FFXIV is the standard-bearer for the Final Fantasy series.

This latest expansion explores culture, family, and legacy in ways FFXIV hasn’t in the past – and before long, it begins to ask questions about the lengths we’ll go to preserve the things we hold dearest. On the surface, that will sound familiar to anyone who has stuck around all these years, but Dawntrail takes its own angle on these themes as to not retread well-worn territory. Instead, it offers new perspectives that, at times, hit just as hard as anything in the MMO’s 14-year history. The main scenario quest (MSQ) takes you in unpredictable directions, blending its deep real-world influences with high-tech sci-fi that incorporates concepts seen in the cyberpunk genre, and then manages to weave in the Final Fantasies of yore and have it all still make sense.

It takes some work to get there, however. I appreciate the groundwork Dawntrail lays in the first half of the main questline, painting such a vivid picture of Tural with all its cultural context at the forefront. Deep cuts are tucked underneath the more obvious references to the inspirations it draws from – we all know what tacos and mezcal are, but having a quest