Final Fantasy XIV: Dawntrail - Review

Dawntrail had me thinking on which expansion I'd say was the best in ffxiv.

I'd personally have to put it at Shadowbringers I think. ShB is the reason EW feels so good, and really expands the world building and magic system. HW started expanding on who the Scions were, but StB really kicked that into gear. ShB compared to that put it all into perspective I think.

That may also be the reason I like it best.

IMO, ShB set EW up amazingly, and for the end of a story, the end of an era, I'd say it was very well done. Stories like this can't be finished or handled like people want, and you'll never be able to please everyone. EW tied up a very large number of lose threads very nicely.

Previous expansion spoilers:

Though it was ShB that also set the stage for DT. As it was the fight with Hades, and Emet-Selch entrusting the future of the world that causes us to still fight for it, to still explore. It was the reason (at least the one I accepted) why we went to Tural. It was the reason the golden city/cities of that continent are still connected and somewhat special.

Spoilers for previous expansion feel and context:

I'm curious to see where we go from here to be honest. Dawntrail, compared to where it stands from a story standpoint, feel very close to Stormblood in my opinion. Heavensward and ARR felt like us exploring the world for the first time, and really getting to know it, where Stormblood started setting the seeds properly for the story to escalate and resolve in EW. Dawntrail doesn't really escalate. It pretty much gives us a reason and method to investigate other reflections, but doesn't set out any seeds.

Dawntrail feel spoilers

Dawntrail isn't a bad story, by no means it is, and it was fascinating to see how a story could be written where ||you are not the actual main character||. We are ||the last line of defence, not the first one in|| which is very, very interesting. If I'd put a number to it, I'd say it was "all right" out of 10. They've done better, but my memory tells me ARR was also significantly worse. With most plot threads resolved in EW, and there not really being anything else they needed to do something, and being put into a position as awkward as this, I think they did a fine job.

General critique:

only real bit of critique I'd give, as I have very little experience with this style of game, is that you needn't raise the stakes so high. We, the warriors of light are adventurers. The threat left by the ancient ones has been resolved, and now we can seek to truly understand the legacy they left behind. We went ||to the edge of existence and back||, so there's very little that'll faze or destroy us (honestly, refreshing to have that respected in DT). At this point, we could easily go back to HW stakes,and still have it be satisfying. Suspense of disbelief will handle any power/strength discrepancies, at least for me, and otherwise there's still the strength of other planets, as showcased in the Sea of Stars that could easily pose enough of a challenge for the players to grow and change, get more abilities and keep the RPG scaling going. An example of this would be the dragons, and their histories.

Notes for later

Ways to improve spoilers: Koharas basement translation of Terraria wiki's spoilers

• Requires:
  • spoilers gadget
  • spoilers javascript for click interaction
  • Their wikis css with a snippet for the template (still need to figure templates out...)
• Alternative: Terraria wiki's spoiler tags, with appropriate warning xD