Final Fantasy XIV Reveals New Info Ahead of Dawntrail

Final Fantasy XIV is one of the rare MMORPGs that I haven’t played over the years. I have not played a single Final Fantasy game, not one, though I did enjoy watching 2001’s Final Fantasy: The Spirit’s Within. It wasn’t so much about the story, more about the wonder of the special effects for that era. Fast Forward to the first Sunday morning of 2024 and I turn on Twitch to see the Final Fantasy XIV Fan Festival 2024 is live streaming. I tuned in partway through as they were showcasing the changes to character models and funnily enough, it’s the first time I have got the urge to play the game. Seeing the changes of each character model and their upcoming visual changes was interesting to watch. They also showed previews for a new job, the Beastmaster, a new race, the female Hrothgar, and a trailer for the upcoming expansion, Dawntrail, and I have to admit, it got me excited enough to finally take the leap and dive into the game for the first time.

Back in 2019, there was a cross promotion with Dominos Pizza where if you placed a certain order during the promo period, you would receive a key to Final Fantasy XIV which included the Shadowbringer expansion that had just released at that time. It turns out I did order pizza during that time, and I was sent a promotional key, I just hadn’t activated it yet. So here I am in 2024 playing Final Fantasy XIV for the very first time and have to admit that I’m enjoying it. It’s not blowing me away in terms of gameplay as I have played majority of the big AAA MMORPGs on the market, but I’m also only level 19 and there’s plenty of content to get through yet before I even get to the more recent expansion content, Endwalker. But back to the Fan Fest content.

Square Enix announced that Final Fantaxy XIV has reached more than 30 million registered players globally which is a pretty damn good statistic. They also revealed new information about Dawntrail which is the fifth expansion pack that is set to launch in winter 2024. During the opening keynote, Producer and Director Naoki Yoshida revealed Pictomancer as the second of two new jobs arriving in Dawntrail. Pictomancer is a magical ranged DPS job that works in the medium of mixed aether, wielding a specialised brush to render their imaginings reality. These creations include not only creatures and weapons, but landscapes as well.

Yoshida also unveiled the female Hrothgar, a new playable race arriving with the launch of the expansion. The Hrothgar people hail from Ilsabard. A Turali people with shared ancestry, The Xbr’aal, call Yak T’el home. Females number relatively few among the population, but are readily identified by their lithe, muscular forms. Equally distinctive is their predisposition for leadership.

In addition, there is a heap of new content in the works:

• New City: Solution Nine – A city of towering facades constructed by an entirely different civilization than that of Tuliyollal. A walkthrough video can be seen here: https://youtu.be/riOrSqKzqgM
• New Area: Heritage Found – In this region overflowing with lightning energies, thick thunderclouds blot out the sun, while streaks of purple levin illuminate the land day and night.
• New Raid Series: The Arcadion
• A New Ultimate Raid: Futures Rewritten (Ultimate)
• New dungeons – A walkthrough video featuring some of the new dungeons coming in Dawntrail can be seen here: https://youtu.be/DWCU9pRrfOQ
• Expansive New Lifestyle Content: Cosmic Exploration
• New Field Operations – New field operations akin to “The Forbidden Land, Eureka” and “Save the Queen” will arrive in Dawntrail.
• A New Limited Job: Beastmaster

As revealed last year at the Final Fantasy XIV Fan Festival 2023 in London, a crossover questline with Final Fantasy XVI titled “The Path Infernal” is set to release in early April of this year.

Prior to its official launch in autumn 2024, the Open Beta Test of the Xbox Series X|S version of the game will begin in February, allowing players on the Xbox family of consoles to join the Warriors of Light in Eorzea and beyond! Releasing on Tuesday January 16 is Patch 6.55 which includes a number of updates including the continuation of the main scenario in Growing Light – Part 2, the next installment of Somehow Further Hildibrand Adventures, and a new trial titled The Gilded Araya as we begin the journey to the release of Dawntrail.

In addition to these features, the game’s first graphical update for character and world visuals is set to release alongside Dawntrail, including:

• Improvements to screen-wide aesthetic appeal
• Higher resolution textures and shadows
• Improved material qualities

For a full roundup of announcements, you can head over to the official Dawntrail site here: http://eu.finalfantasyxiv.com/dawntrail/. This gives me a few months to grind away at my new gladiator/paladin and work my way steadily through existing content. 

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