I finally defeated the boss of FFXIV Dawntrail after 2 years and for the first time skipped the credits

Sophia Weiss from MeinMMO has been unable to get away from Final Fantasy XIV since 2016. But on the occasion of her 10th anniversary, she is still struggling to get excited about the current expansion. Over two years after its release, she has finally reached the end of the 7.0 story.

Final Fantasy XIV has kept me engaged much longer than any game ever has. In October 2026, it will have been a Warrior of Light for 10 full years. I own a house, I’ve leveled almost all craftsmen and gatherers, and besides playing Dragoon, I also play a Tank and a Healer.

I love tackling raids with my friends, farming mounts, or just running the evening roulettes. But the best thing about Final Fantasy XIV has always been the story for me. Like almost everyone else, I struggled through the long-winded base game. Since Heavensward though I’ve been hooked – I played every patch on release day (as soon as I was up-to-date) and I have tried most content at least once.

But Dawntrail has truly made it hard for me to still love my favorite game. After over two years, it finally happened and I finished 7.0. I was so frustrated that I skipped the credits for the first time in my FFXIV career.

Kids, the vacation is canceled! We are making Naruto the Hokage!

I wasn’t particularly happy with the story of the 6.X patch series, but I pushed through: In the end, 7.0 promised adventures in Tural and especially a beach episode – a simply vacation for my Warrior of Light.

What I got was a new role for my character.

The Warrior of Light became the Jiraiya to the Naruto of the new main character Wuk Lamat. She faces several challenges alongside her brothers – one is a very clever Sai-like colleague and the other a Sasuke-adjacent stubborn one. The victor would inherit the rule over Tural, who was also the (adoptive) father of the three challengers. (I must admit, this is where the Naruto comparision falters.)

Naruto is a great anime. But when I’ve been the heroine of my own story for years, then suddenly get demoted to being the mentor of such a difficult character, it has to be written brilliantly for it to work.

Unfortunately, Wuk Lamat feels like she is in the spotlight of the story the whole time, even in the cutscenes. She is now the protagonist. I’m just a supporting character, cool. Cool, cool, cool.

Here are a few selected screenshots – we often just stand next to her in cutscenes. Not always, but often:

On paper, Wuk Lamat is not a bad character. She is curious, enthusiastic, and has a good heart. That she wants to take up her father’s role is perfectly fine. What child should be denied that?

But, difficulty arises from the fact that she has no knowledge of the land she wants to govern. This could have informational reasons, as somehow the lore pieces need to be conveyed to us players.

Lyse from the second expansion Stormblood, for example, also knew little about Ala Mhigo, her homeland – because she was driven from there as a child. Wuk Lamat simply has never left the palace and seen the world. Which is a horrible reason to not be knowledgable about your own home country, especially if you wish to rule it.

This is how the new main character is degraded to being an expositor. None of this fits.

From heartfelt sobbing to indifference and a skip

The last third of Dawntrail is actually really good again. First, there was a road trip with pleasantly relaxed company, but without the remaining new cast. The storyline surrounding Solution 9 and the Endless finally gave me what has made many Final Fantasy stories amazing: A profound philosophical dilemma.

In this case, the question is how much one is willing to give, if through enough effort, beloved people need never be lost forever through death. If everyone could live forever through technology, what would one be willing to risk for it?

Honestly, I thought: Finally, my competences as Warrior of Light are needed once again. But instead, we went to pick up Wuk Lamat from her new job ruling Tural. She literally talked the antagonist into submission.

Wuk Lamat even intervened in my final battle, and in the end, the villain said something like: Wuk Lamat, I heard you. You have reached me. That was talk no jutsu at its finest – Naruto’s powerful ability to talk villains over to his side.

Which means not even my victory over the big bad of the expansion was my victory, but my newest protégé’s. That feels silly.

In hindsight, I have never been so indifferent to the credits as I am now with Dawntrail. I cried my eyes out when I defeated the final boss in Shadowbringers. The same was true for the end of 6.0 Endwalker. Both times, my neighbors asked if my partner had broken up with me – it was that bad.

I simply skipped the Dawntrail credits and the So it continued aftershow.

Bad 7.0, good 7.X?

The truly nasty thing is that the current raid series according to my colleague Alexander Mehrwald is supposed to be really good. However, since I couldn’t finish 7.0, I couldn’t unlock them. So I’ve just started that. Alex also kept telling me that the patch story of Dawntrail, that is, 7.1 to 7.55 gets significantly better.

Of course, it wasn’t just the story that spoiled my enjoyment of Dawntrail. The stealth missions were incredibly tedious and exhausting for me. Without a really good story, the MMORPG typical fetch quests were almost unbearable. Ultimately leading to two full years of playtime.

However, I really enjoyed the dungeons and the varied mechanics from the new boss fights. When an area effect is not displayed with an orange marker on the ground but seems to deform the ground, it’s cool and requires more attention. A weak consolation, as there were only three boss fights and six dungeons in ten levels.

Well then, I will go farm some gear and play the patch stories. If they really are as good as Alex says, I might binge them in just a few days.

As soon as I’ve accomplished that and have taken care of the rest of the endgame content (raids, Occult Cresent, and the moon missions), I will write an update to this article. Then I’ll also be curious about Evercold – the aforementioned colleague Alex says about it: For 11 years, FF14 has been my second home, and I say: Evercold is the best thing that can happen to the MMORPG right now