The finalLetter from the Producer Livehas debuted just ahead of Dawntrail’s release, with Naoki Yoshi and Toshio Murouchi once more debuting brand-new content for the upcoming expansion. At the forefront of the announcement was a brand newLaunch Trailerthat showcases the story like never before. While we’ve seen a handful of snippets of the story in past trailers, this goes into far more detail than ever before, showcasing the events that will transpire throughout our time in the New World.
A Whole New World
It wasn’t just the trailer that was being debuted, but this was a four-hour-long broadcast where the two sat down and revealed various new aspects of the upcoming release in a couple of weeks. They showed off the various new areas: Tuliyollal will be the beautiful city of Dawntrail, Urqopacha will be the hinterlands, Kozama’uka is a luscious backdrop, Yak T’el is the forest area, Shaaloani brings us to the outskirts of a desert, Heritage Found is a mix of old and new technology, and Solution Nine is the futuristic looking area. All offer a vastly different visual concept than each other, establishing quite a variety of areas to explore.
As one would expect, there will be new role quests for each of the different roles in FFXIV, exploring vastly different scenarios. These are unlocked at level 92. On top of that, both Viper and Pictomancers will also get their own handful of quests before merging into the role quests themselves. The former looks to take us to La Noscea and potentially Thanalan whereas the latter looks to have a deeper root in Kugane.
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There will also be new Disciples of Hand and Land quests in the Dawntrail areas in the form of Wachumeqimeqi deliveries. Similar to Endwalker, these will be separated into five different questlines: Blacksmith, Armorer and Goldsmith are clumped together, Carpenter, Leatherworker and Weaver are bonded, Alchemist and Culinarian share a story, Miner and Botanist focus on the gathering portion, and finally, Fisher gets its own unique plot. There will also be additional quests post 7.1 patch for when you complete all these stories.
New Raids and Trials
While they didn’t show off the new dungeons, concept art was displayed for what we can expect, and they look quite varied. More excitedly, Yoshi-P showed off a quick demonstration of an upcoming trial and a sneak peek inside The Arcadion raid series. Not a lot of mechanics were shown, but the latter got us particularly excited as it looked like he was fighting inside a bustling arena with adoring fans in the crowd. As we expected, the normal version will launch with patch 7.01 two weeks after Dawntrail launches (July 16), and then July 30 patch 7.05 for the savage version.
Outside of this, there will be a new Treasure dungeon, Cenote Ja Ja Gural starting in patch 7.05. New Tomestones will be introduced at launch and then on July 30. Max bicolor gemstones (from FATES) will increase to 1,500. The ability to hide players in the environment has been added to avoid clutter on screen (especially during busy times like the expansion’s launch). And finally, the new dye system was shown, alongside a number of unique mounts that will be added to Dawntrail.
Of course, Yoshi-P also debuted various new gear and housing options that players will be excited to get their hands on, and just as ever, he did it not by showcasing them through the slideshow of the presentation, but by holding up printed out concept art of various classes. This wouldn’t be a live letter without it.
It’s an exciting time for Final Fantasy XIV as the expansion is looking to usher in a brand-new saga, but whether they’ll be able to top what they established ten years ago is still hard to say. Final Fantasy XIV: Dawntrail will be available July 2 for PC, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series S|X.
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