Dawntrail teases a swashbuckling adventure with newcomer Wuk Lamat, a Hrothgal on a quest to inherit the throne and become Dawnservant in Tural’s Rite of Succession. You’re on the precipice of something fresh and exciting, as you hop off the ship full of beans and raring to go. The first major city, Tuliyollal, gets the blood pumping with bombastic, big band music – kicking the bar high for the expansion’s sweeping score, and thanks to the graphical overhaul, Final Fantasy 14 is the best it’s ever looked. Areas feel densely populated and show-stopping zones play with verticality and scale to stunning effect; the land is vast, full of lush vegetation, and has never felt more alive.
And then: back to reality. There’s nothing quite like landing in a bold and beautiful new world, only to be met with vitriol in chat, players yelling about how awful everything is before giving the expansion a chance to get its groove on, mere hours after early access began.
Appropriately, one of Dawntrail’s most predominant themes is what the weight of expectation does to someone’s spirit, and the consequences of external pressures and perceptions. As I forged a bond with Wuk Lamat, my lalafell tells her, “you can’t measure your worth by the success of others.” It’s ironic, then, that this also directly reflects the division over the game’s new direction and story. Its launch has seen a clash of player expectations, which are largely based on the heights of the prior ten year saga. Dawntrail is a perfect case of expectation versus reality, and measuring its worth against the culmination of an ever-escalating narrative is futile. So let’s take a step back and see if it really is worth getting your knickers in a twist.
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