Two and a half years after the prior Final Fantasy 14 expansion wrapped up a massive, decade-long story arc, the more casual Dawntrail is finally out to the masses, and players have wasted no time in traveling to Tural for the next adventure.
The Main Scenario Quests and new content have given people a lot to say—and a full review of that and this patch is forthcoming (and I know there’s going to be a lot to talk about). However, regardless of how one feels about it, I’m optimistic about the game’s quality of life so far, as both the graphical update and the server stability have held up beautifully throughout Early Access and the first days of the official launch.
During the Endwalker FanFest in 2021, the team announced its plans to create some longevity for FFXIV, with a goal of lasting at least the next ten years. The first major part of the plan was scaling down the numbers affiliated with combat, such as XP and HP, and this was implemented during the 6.0 patch for Endwalker. Making a game last that long means a lot of changes had to happen, though, and the 7.0 patch is the biggest jump so far.
Stunning visual changes
The graphics update is more than a start, even if it requires some updates from players. In all fairness, FFXIV hasn’t been shy in the past of growing out of its own requirements; for Stormblood’s launch, the game departed from its Playstation 3 compatibility as its maps and other requirements grew.
These new graphics aren’t incredibly perfect; I mentioned previously from the media tour build that it suffers from classic edge-of-object blockiness that plagues older video games in general. However, now that we’ve seen the final update in action, we’re learning about the true power of good lighting, which feels like that cinematic trick where everything looks natural despite being obviously set up by a rig, enhancing things while not coming off as too harsh.
More than that, the shine on objects and characters is much more refined. I’ve been recommending going to my friends’ favorite aetherytes to see how much better they look (I’m a Shadowbringers fan, and my jaw dropped in the major hub). The new lighting also looks great on the characters, adding depth by way of highlights and shadows to faces, removing the flatness that frustrated many players.
Here's a shot of Gridania before and after the update, for example:
New Gridania's aetheryte hub, before the update.
New Gridania's aetheryte hub, after the update.
And just as a brief preview of how I feel about the settings the team has crafted as a result, I spent literally 90 minutes one night with a friend walking around one hub, looking at the NPCs, the details, and even the little visual tricks used to make one new Dawntrail hub look gorgeous. The changes to the visuals make me want to explore more of FFXIV’s world(s), both past and present.
A Server Reborn
Most importantly to literally everyone, as it concerns anyone who wants to log in and play the game, the servers are working almost like a dream. And not a nightmare, mind you.
Granted, it involved a lot of server lockdown measures. For instance, players still can't make a new toon on most data centers, except for the ones that are nearly infamous for being dead. However, for the sake of getting players in and out of most of their home servers, and even traveling between areas, the measures are doing their job.
The most my friends and I waited for, I believe, was a 2,400+ person queue within 15 minutes of launch—and that ticked down in less than half an hour. We estimated the server was letting in about 120 people at a time, which is a huge improvement over what was estimated to be between 20-50 during the Endwalker launch. Moreover, once on the servers, we saw minimal issues. In fact, several days in, I found out they quietly lifted World Travel restrictions, meaning travel within my own Crystal Database was possible.
What’s even more than that, I was already doing “Hunt Trains,” which involves no less than 100 people, quite often more, hopping between maps and instances to kill bosses—and not once did I have a queue to enter an instance. The only cap I saw was trying to get into an instance to kill the Serpentlord, a massive FATE boss, with the game saying that that instance was capped at about 220+ people.
If you still experienced constant issues, then chances are you have one of two issues: you’re trying to create a character on a Data Center that they hinted for a few weeks was going to be “Congested" (which will be lifted about the 16th), or you’re on Aether.
And, if I can point this out for a second, everyone told everyone to join Aether and to ignore the other North American Data Centers, since even before Data Center Travel, and now, all these same people are stunned that Aether is too packed to get into. Which warrants this:
Y’all. No wonder they asked Aether users at least three times on official social media accounts to please go to Dynamis…
Anyway.
Preparation and luck
At this point, too, other small quality of life updates are adding up. With the difficulty of the dungeons (a good thing that I’ll talk about in the review), I appreciate the new shortcuts being placed before bosses. The Blacklisting is neat, too, though I’ve yet to be able to check if older names apply in the new system. And now, I can finally use the Aesthetician with fully-equipped outfits, versus just seeing my toon with nothing on her head at all, an important touch because my catgirl wears a bandana over her eye.
In summary, when I talked to Naoki Yoshida at the media tour and asked for a reflection on the game’s population increase, he basically pointed to a popular perspective that opportunity is preparation plus luck. Making the game good was essentially the preparation, and the “luck” was COVID and the influx of influencers—but the team wouldn’t “rest on their laurels,” and they’d focus on keeping players by actually making the game better.
With the team’s vision set ten years ahead, it finally does feel like FFXIV is going to make it that far. It’s not because it’s perfect now, of course; there are many flaws that are being tackled, both short- and long-term; there was emergency maintenance in the early morning before I wrote this. It feels better because the game is always striving to come closer to a better version of itself, and for a game hoping to make it to 20 years old, that’s a necessary course.
If you’re interested in the verdict on Dawntrail’s actual new content, that’ll be coming soon, once the dust of the launch has settled—and, again, there’s definitely a lot to say about it.
For now, please look at how good Erenville looks this expansion thanks to the graphics upgrades, and especially the lighting.
He will be discussed further at a later date. That's all. Thank you.
