Rank 4 – Dawntrail
Dawntrail is currently in its prime and will receive a lot of new story and fresh content in the coming months. Therefore, the ranking in fourth place is just a snapshot. And definitely one that could change in the future.
Dawntrail has a tough challenge as the successor to Endwalker. After this pompous, final fireworks full of emotions, it was clear that it wouldn’t be easy to stand against it. It doesn’t actually have to, because Dawntrail is supposed to mark the beginning of a completely new era for our Warrior of Light. You can feel the sense of adventure in the expansion. Unfortunately, so far it has remained just that feeling.
The feeling of a new adventure is somewhat dampened by the renewed withdrawal from the protagonist position. While Wuk Lamat is genuinely likable and the story surrounding her trial is generally fun, it somehow lacked a bit of excitement. Similar to the times of Stormblood – with this feeling, I seem to not be alone.
However, I am much more impressed by the design of the areas here than I was with Kugane and Ala Mhigo, offering more diverse approaches. Even if I had subtle flashback moments in Shaaloani.
The battles, on the other hand, are really cool. The current dungeons and trials add the appropriate spice that the story unfortunately lacks. The difficulty of the content has been slightly raised compared to previous expansions, so they finally offer a certain challenge again even on “normal” difficulty.
In particular, the new raid series surrounding the Arkadion has immensely captivated me and is simply enjoyable as difficult content with my raid group. Not to mention the absolutely heavy earworm from the second raid that I couldn’t shake off for weeks.
Rank 3 – Heavensward
For my first contender for the podium, I really only have to say one thing: Dragons. Dragons are just cool. Dragons make everything better. So too in Heavensward.
But joking aside. Also aside from the truly great story surrounding Nidhogg, Midgardsormr, and Hraesvelgr, the expansion had a lot to offer, which has simply carved itself into my heart to this day. From dramatic death scenes (you all know which ones I mean) to twists, new friendships with well-developed NPCs, and epic battles, the story had almost everything I could have wished for.
Although the areas of the expansion are not necessarily a visual delight (like in Stormblood), the story and the incredibly good soundtrack make up for a lot.
The dungeons complemented the really strong story incredibly well. Followed by diverse trials (except one – that battle on the bridge is simply terrible) and fun alliance raids with the novel mechanics at the time – it was simply a strong overall package.
Only the Alexander raids sometimes drove me crazy. It didn’t matter whether I played them on normal difficulty or as a challenging content. Unfortunately, the catchy music didn’t help much.
On the next page, we continue with ranks 2 and 1 of the Power Ranking for the expansions of Final Fantasy XIV.
