I just lately bought to preview Closing Fantasy XIV: Dawntrail (with my journey and lodging furnished by Sq. Enix), and I’d wish to share with you an anecdote from my time with the sport. I feel it’ll assist underscore why I’m so personally excited for this enlargement to a recreation I’ve just lately fallen in love with.
After a number of hours of hands-on time with each of Dawntrail’s new lessons, and some runs of the preview’s sole dungeon, lots of the gamers at my preview occasion took to exploring the sunkissed lands of Tural as greatest as they may. Two of my buddies got here throughout a Queen Bee, which was an exceptionally highly effective goal that may very well be hunted in Dawntrail’s open environments. They couldn’t tackle it themselves, finally asking for help from me and another close by buddies.
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A handful of us tried our hand on the struggle and nonetheless failed. The aides on the occasion went round buzzing at different gamers, letting them know what we had been as much as, and indicating that we’d want additional assist. Earlier than lengthy, our numbers grew till there have been a few dozen of us preventing this one monster. Even with our larger ranks, we gave the impression to be wiping fairly rapidly.
Then, one participant took the initiative and began calling out the buffs, debuffs, and skills that the Queen Bee was utilizing. Additionally they issued instructions, akin to telling us when to hurry in or keep again to keep away from a few of her assaults. Earlier than lengthy, our get together of gamers, who for essentially the most half didn’t know one another, whittled her down and vanquished her, with everybody concerned letting out a triumphant roar throughout the preview corridor. We had achieved it, we’d achieved a pointless objective we’d set for ourselves for no specific purpose, however we had achieved it collectively.
I’ve largely handled Closing Fantasy XIV as a prolonged narrative recreation. I’ve performed stretches of it with buddies and others by my lonesome, however the story has at all times been entrance and heart. I’ve principally been taking part in catch up since choosing up the sport proper across the launch of Endwalker on the finish of 2021, and so each time I go online, I’m heads down within the ever-evolving saga of the Scions of the Seventh Daybreak, not often touching any of FF14’s facet content material, not to mention its endgame actions. I don’t benefit from the recreation with others a lot as I take pleasure in it whereas I occur to be round them.
Dawntrail will mark my first enlargement that I’m taking part in alongside FF14’s famend neighborhood. I lastly get to expertise firsthand the joy of the fandom as we get to unravel the mysteries of Tural collectively. I get to run the identical dungeons, trials, and raids as everybody else, and I’ll doubtless be colliding with extra gamers than ever earlier than as we tackle creatures within the wilds. Leaping into Dawntrail holds the promise of extra experiences like my preview encounter in opposition to the Queen Bee.
That phase of the preview is what I maintain turning over in my head. I actually loved sampling Dawntrail’s new jobs and one among its new dungeons, and getting to speak to the sport’s director, Naoki Yoshida, however the unplanned Queen Bee struggle is the factor to beat. I turned a PC participant at this preview, and but the most important factor to occur was this singular second the place I felt like half of a bigger neighborhood. The potential of having fun with the world of FF14 alongside others immediately unfurled as if for the primary time, even if I’ve been taking part in this MMO for greater than two years now. And it felt joyous in a manner that FF14 has by no means fairly felt for me.
It feels as if I’ve been closing myself off to this complete different strategy to expertise FF14, and it took this utterly innocuous struggle to shake me from my dangerous behavior. Now, I need to be inundated within the recreation’s neighborhood at launch, assist decide Dawntrail aside, and really feel like I’m embarking on a complete new journey with a village at my again, one who’s prepared to lift me after I’ve fallen and have my again within the trials to return. It seems like I’m lastly ready to take pleasure in FF14 the way in which it must be loved. And I owe all of it to that Queen Bee that fortunately knocked sense into me.
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Disclaimer: This text relies on play of an in-development construct of FINAL FANTASY XIV: Dawntrail, and content material within the closing model is topic to vary.
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