DawnTrail is over. FF14 7.3 This week’s patch concluded with Final Fantasy 14’s Divisive Expansion Story and did so in style. But I’m not here to talk about the story. Without going too deep into the spoilers, the finale was relatively unfolding as I thought I’d have hoped for, but that didn’t stop me from yelling out loud twice in the closing scene. This is pretty standard for MMORPGs. The “third patch” climax is usually great, but usually in a known amount by the time it arrives, with all the pieces already on the board. Everything else is what I’m most excited about the future. Rittany, a smaller but important change, suggesting that Square Enix is listening to feedback.
The biggest problem with DawnTrail is not really new. Many of them repeat much longer in Final Fantasy 14, but the stories were so fascinating and when you were hanging from all the words they were easy to ignore. As someone who actually enjoyed a bit of waste in my MMORPG and discovered that the heritage setup was pretty intriguing, I was still able to squeeze out the constant barrage of “talking to three NPCs” into all the other quests. However, as a key indicator of the FF14’s extremely safe, By-Books Quest design, it is undoubtedly a big topic. Thankfully, the MSQ in Patch 7.3 feels like a direct response to this and a prominent step in the right direction.
We’ll do our best to avoid spoilers for notable stories, but here are some mentions on the mechanics, so be sure to keep in mind if you haven’t played the new update yet. There are still a lot of talk, but pacing feels good and is used in a better way in the days when it was sent to look for some NPC conversations. After gathering information, your peers ask you to look into the details and reach your own conclusions, rather than simply telling you what you have actually learned.
The highlight is a lab sequence that presents a series of actual puzzles. These are relatively simple, nothing more complicated than Endwalker’s “Box Secret” option quests, reborn the legendary Riddlefest from the territory, the “biggest story never told”. After all, this is MSQ and it feels like Yoshida’s team is gently testing the water to see what the players are happy with. Personally, I give them a smile and thumbs up. Even if the challenge isn’t high, it’s great to feel like I’m actually involved in a quest mission rather than just being dragged over when things happen around me.
I’m also very obsessed with the New Dungeon. This is no surprise given the high quality battle designs of the Daunt Trail. Nevertheless, there is a continuation of experiments I’ve seen recently. One boss plays with visualtel by creating false warnings, while another boss separates the party and forces you into a one-on-one showdown in a personal cramped arena. It’s not the mechanic I always want to be repeated over and over, but it’s one of the most novel and exciting encounters for a while.
It also continues to step up production value. Dawntrail has made some good progress here (I think the camerawork and cutscenes have actually been improved because of why it felt so remarkable when key moments remained voiced), but the pure expressiveness of the characters continues to improve. I often point to the incredibly stupid balcony cutscene at the end of Shadowbringers patch 5.3, which was made early in lockdown as a particular high point in FF14 animation.
The patch title, “The Promise of Tomorrow,” may have been ostensibly about the central theme of the post-Dawn Trail story, but it also feels like an attempt to make changes to Creative Studio 3 that will affect the future of Final Fantasy 14 as a whole. Certainly there is still more to do. The powerful launch, as in Patch 7.3, consists almost entirely of one-off activities, with only alliance raids and extreme trials embracing us until 7.31 paves the way for a new location for space exploration.
Those who are only interested in combat will wait even longer until the deep dungeon arrives at Patch 7.35. However, this is a sign of what’s going forward. Yoshida said in his live letter 88 that the Pilgrim Traverse is a testbed for “some things I want to change across FF14.” The real evidence is in the 8.0 pudding and I’ll have to wait a little longer to see what it looks like, but based on current trends, I’ve already booked a seat at the table.
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