FFXIV’s latest expansion “Dawntrail” finally gets an official release date! Read on to learn more about what was revealed during FFXIV’s “Journey to Dawntrail” segment during PAX East 2024.
FFXIV Dawntrail Officially Reveals Release Date
FFXIV’s 13-Year Long History
Last weekend during PAX East 2024, FFXIV Director Naoki "Yoshi-P" Yoshida showcased the "Journey to Dawntrail" on the main stage, detailing the 10-year journey of the critically acclaimed MMO leading up to the release of their newest expansion. He briefly talked about the highlights and lowlights of each expansion during the MMO’s long lifespan.
These included the different additions and changes they’ve made in every expansion through the years like the ever-changing job skill rotations, duty and quest improvements, integrating the narrative into the combat of different raids, and finally even capping off the story arc every since the beginning of A Realm Reborn in Endwalker.
Yoshi-P wants FFXIV to “Evolve Ever Further”
With the upcoming expansion Dawntrail, Yoshi-P expressed their goal for FFXIV to "evolve ever further as an MMORPG" with the focus on refining the multiplayer gameplay, adding more large-scale duties, having a more fulfilling gaming experience, and improving rewards. In relation to this, Yoshi-P addressed that a lot of the community feedback along with his personal experience of Endwalker’s latest raids and fights has been lackluster and unfulfilling saying:
"For example – and this is one of many pieces of feedback that we’ve received – the target circle of your enemy, the hitbox, is ridiculously large at this point. And in terms of your battle mechanics, they tend to be very similar from content to content, and some people might feel that it’s very repetitive, it feels like a pattern almost."
He also mentioned that he wanted to "spice things up," for Dawntrail as even he fell asleep during a raid in his experience. He even reiterated that the focus is to not make things difficult but to make them more unique and original saying:
"When I talk about something like this I know some people might get a knee-jerk reaction of, ‘Oh no, Yoshida is going to make everything difficult again.’ For the most part, we’re not trying to trouble people, we’re not trying to make your lives difficult, we just want to bring a little bit more uniqueness, something that is unique and original into these battles. So rest assured."
He also reinforces that he wants the new expansion to encourage the kind of gameplay that encourages players to "build their own strategies and to talk to each other in your party to strategize." He also added that he wants his team to improve and build upon risky ideas solely to make Final Fantasy 14 exciting saying:
"I would like for my developers to be able to take on challenges, take risks, in creating their content. And of course we may screw up, we may have a misstep, and we might be up here apologizing to our players once again,” he smiles, “but we don’t want things to be mundane. We want you guys to be excited as you play Final Fantasy 14."
With Dawntrail reaching a new level cap of 100, he also reiterated that they’re only building upon their current design of adding onto the jobs rather than changing everything up again to focus on the content itself is exciting. With the rewards, Yoshi-P stated that his team is looking to make improvements and changes to the reward systems by saying:
"We are looking at improving rewards, so we can bolster that aspect of it. With the different expansions up to this point, we were unable to increase the amount of rewards we give in terms of things like gear and mounts."
Yoshi-P Gives Players One Week to Play the Elden Ring DLC
After talking about the goals they want to achieve with the release of Dawntrail, Yoshi-P finally revealed the exact date for the expansion’s release date being July 2, 2024 with Early Access for those who pre-order on June 28, 2024.
He also mentioned that the early access release date was supposed to be released a week earlier, but with the Elden Ring DLC coming out at the same time, the team figured that everyone would be interested in playing that as well. So, they opted to go with a week later afterward. Yoshi-P stated that he’s also looking forward to its release, and said: "I’ll give you one week to enjoy the Elden Ring DLC, and then go on to your summer vacation to Dawntrail."
FFXIV Dawntrail Collector’s Edition Contents Revealed!
Yoshi-P also revealed the physical Collector’s Edition contents of the game, showcasing the exclusive Warrior of Light in the new Viper class as a figurine, a physical map of the game’s world– Eorzea, the "Unending Journey" in journal form, an intricately designed pen case, and finally the box’s artwork featuring the Warrior of Light in the Viper class made by Yoshitaka Amano.
Moreover, he also revealed the in-game items of the Collector’s Edition featuring FF9-themed items including a brand new "Ark" mount which was a boss in that respective game, a wind-up garnet minion, and finally a Chocobo brush.
FFXIV Dawntrail Pre-Orders Go Live on March 26, 2024
Alongside the Collector’s Edition contents being revealed, he also showed the pre-order in-game items which are the Wind-Up Zidane Minion and the Azeyma’s Earrings. He even noted that people may be wondering why there are a lot of Final Fantasy IX references with the pre-order and collector’s edition items, and said that the reason for this is a secret.
Afterwards, Yoshi-P also revealed the date of when pre-orders go live which is on March 26, 2024, 9 AM JST/GMT/PDT as well as the respective system requirements for both Windows and MAC OS.
Yoshi-P Thanks the “Warriors of Light” for Thirteen Fruitful Years and Announced the Date of FFXVI Crossover Event
Lastly, Yoshi-P just asks for a little more patience for more information on Dawntrail as they are planning another Letter from the Producer Live in April featuring the new graphical updates being showcased in-game and the media tour to be conducted around May. He even announced the date for the FFXVI Collaboration which will start on April 2, 2024, and will last until May 8, 2024, which will reward players with multiple FFXVI-related items like the Torgal mount, Clive’s attire, and more.
He ends the presentation by thanking the fans for thirteen years of support saying, "The reason why we were able to get this far in our journey is truly, truly, truly, because of the players – our Warriors of Light."
"We will continue to strive forward, aiming for the next 10, 20 years, you know, till the day I die basically, to bring you Final Fantasy XIV."
Source:
PAX - Journey to Dawntrail FFXIV FULL VOD
