The new expansion for Final Fantasy XIV Dawntrail is nearly two months old and received mixed feedback from users at release. Director and Producer Naoki Yoshida was recently asked if he was shocked by this. His answer: No
.
What does the feedback on Dawntrail look like? Final Fantasy XIV Dawntrail has received mixed feedback from the players so far:
- The most criticism relates to the game’s story, which is mandatory for all players. Its quality is therefore important.
- The player’s character is no longer the hero at the center of the story in Dawntrail. Instead, you travel with the new protagonist Wuk Lamat and support her.
- Overall, many are comparing Dawntrail to the previously
worst
expansion Stormblood. - Many are also upset about the large number of fetch and escort quests. MeinMMO editor Karsten Scholz can understand this: Final Fantasy XIV: Dawntrail celebrates a certain type of quests that I simply hate.
In fact, the mixed feedback is limited to the leveling process and the story so far. The first new raid – the first fresh MMORPG content – really excites the players.
The mixed feedback was expected
What does Naoki Yoshida say about the reviews? During the gamescom 2024, colleagues from PC Gamer spoke with Naoki Yoshida, the Director and Producer of the game, about the topic. He had the following to say about the mixed reviews:
Since it is a game, it is a form of entertainment, and entertainment always receives mixed reactions. A second factor is that we reached a major peak with Endwalker in a long-standing, far-reaching story. To some extent, I had anticipated that we would have mixed feedback this time.
So if the question is whether I was particularly shocked, the answer is no, not really.
Naoki Yoshida in an interview with PC Gamer, 27.08.2024
Even before the release, Yoshi-P repeatedly reminded that Dawntrail would start a completely new story – similar to how they implemented it with the reboot through A Realm Reborn.
With the new continent Tural, players will also enter a completely new area that, like in 2.0, needs to be familiarized with first. According to PC Gamer, Naoki Yoshida sees the biggest problem of Dawntrail in the pacing of the story.
Worse than A Realm Reborn – Dawntrail in Metascore comparison
How does Dawntrail actually compare? Comparing the Metacritic scores of A Realm Reborn and all expansions, Dawntrail actually stands as the worst
addon:
- A Realm Reborn: 86 Metacore; 7.7 User-Score – via Metacritic
- Heavensward: 86 Metascore; 8.7 User-Score – via Metacritic
- Stormblood: 87 Metascore; 8.9 User-Score – via Metacritic
- Shadowbringers: 90 Metascore; 9.1 User-Score – via Metacritic
- Endwalker: 92 Metascore; 8.8 User-Score – via Metacritic
- Dawntrail: 79 Metascore; 6.1 User-Score – via Metacritic
Only the original version 1.0 from 2010 stands worse, with a Metascore of 49 and a User-Score of 4.0.
This doesn’t look very good, of course. However, Dawntrail lays the groundwork for the next expansions: Looking at the progression from the reboot with A Realm Reborn to the story peak of Endwalker, one can see that the game improved with each expansion. The bar was probably set too high for a completely new story start.
At the same time, it’s good to know that the person who can improve the game is already aware. Naoki Yoshida often takes the players’ feedback into account and incorporates it into development decisions.
Recently, he was even accused of listening too much to user feedback: Just a month after the release of Dawntrail, one of the two new classes was simplified. Many in the community did not like this: “They were happy with it” – The head of Final Fantasy XIV talks about the controversial changes to a new class
