Final Fantasy XIV: Dawntrail is the fifth expansion to Final Fantasy XIV which was released back in 2010, with a very bumpy start and was closed down and re-released titled A Realm Reborn in 2013, Square Enix has been hard at work for many years to keep players happy with so much content with massive expansions filled with lore and patches and limited ran events.

Dawntrail takes the players to the New World in a content called Tural as it starts a new storyline after the events of the past expansion Endwalker which finished off the story arc on the Hydaelyn–Zodiark arc. After the events of Endwalker the Warrior of Light (Player) heads to Tural with three of the key characters Krile, Alphinaud, and Alisaie. They meet with a new major character for Dawntrail Wuk Lamat a Hrothgar female warrior who has sought assistance with her contests of leadership within the land.

New features that Dawntrail has brought to Final Fantasy XIV a graphical update with higher resolution textures and shadows, improved materials and lighting, and additional foliage resolution and density, as well as miscellaneous upgrades to visual presentation.

Players will have brand new zones to explore as they progress the story of Dawntrail, Tuliyollal is the major city hub for Dawntrail which is located next to an open seafront and has a very relaxing vibe throughout with citizens enjoying the sea breeze and taking it easy at dinners and shopping trips, most of the new zones will feature a rich vibrant appeal of untouched forest life and as you progress further inland will come across open plains of land where train tracks are being laid in a desert environment.

Along with the new zones we have new Aether Currents to find scattered around the map which need to be found and attuned with to be able to fly in these new zones, thankfully many location guides went up quickly during the early access period for the locations of the Aether Currents.

Across the new lands to explore we also have eight new dungeons that can be discovered, you will encounter a few of these during the main storyline as you can join into it with an NPC party for story progression, five new trials, and two new raids, an 8 player raid and a 24 player alliance raid which is set to come in a further patch update.

Players will be able to meet two new allied races, the giant Yok Huy which are massive bird-like creatures which is very similar to the Vanu Vanu that were introduced back in 2015’s Heavensward expansion but are more colourful in nature so think of a parrot that hits the gym daily, along with a recurring race in the Final Fantasy series that first made their appearance in Final Fantasy X The Pelupelu, they appear no taller than a human child and wear bird-like masks as they travel across Tural mounted on Alpancas seeking to do trade across the land.

Now for the player side of new features, Hrothgar females can be made as the Warrior of Light as a new playable race, and we have two new damage jobs to learn and master. Firstly, the Pictomancer which is a casting ranged damage class you will be able to pick up the quest to learn this new job if you are level 80 from Gridania, this class uses a magical paintbrush to deal damage to its target with a stylish flare around the outfit and actions it throws out. The other class is Viper a melee-based DPS class that uses twin blades with fast slashes and slower

attacks as they use both blades in one hand, the quest to accept the Viper class can be found in Ul’Dah, both new classes will start at level 80 after earning them so with a bit of prep work players can take on the Dawntrail storyline as one of the two new classes as the new level cap is raised from 90-100, there will be a new limited time job coming called the Beastmaster, not much is known about when this will drop but they will be able to control wild animals and use them for battle.

Final thoughts, while the story of Dawntrail has a slow pace after the events of Endwalker, the focus shifts toward the new main addition to the team Wuk Lamat. The new zones especially the main hub give the feeling of relaxation after the long and hectic fights that the player and other key characters have had to endure, the new classes are amazing to play, especially since I always play a DPS class so making the switch from a Dragoon to Viper is a fun new experience for me.

The new visual update is a welcomed change to add new visual details to the world, while there has been a mixed reaction to Dawntrail as there are no major fights with big bads during the storyline, it is building the plot of the New World so it is not expected to be a big hectic bundle of fights compared to Endwalker’s storyline.

Written by: Shane Walsh