If you happen to be familiar with my big, long grumbles about Final Fantasy 14—which has entered somewhat of a fugue state due to not making pace with its competitors and a stagnating formula—you'll know I had some major problems with Dawntrail's story.
At a conceptual level, it was great—but the moment-to-moment yarn spinning, the meat and bones of the whole experience, left so much to be desired that it nearly spoiled the whole thing. Patch 7.1 didn't quite impress me, either—Koana returning for his home, only for a convenient plot device man to wander in from stage right and explain how all his problems with his tribe weren't actually problems at all, was uh. Not superb.
But the cliffhanger 7.1 left off on did have me intrigued. Spoilers for Dawntrail, up to patch 7.2, to follow.
In the last moments of Patch 7.1, it was revealed that Sphene (the expansion's antagonist) had returned. Not only that, but she was all creepy and icky and evil, too—this isn't exactly a new story beat, mind. Shadowbringers did something similar with Ardbert, who briefly became a skinsuit for an Ascian, but it was at least interesting.
It was with trepidation that I sat down, all cosy in my blanket, and made my way through Patch 7.2 yesterday. As I wrapped up the brisk MSQ, I stared at my screen and said, you know what? I really rather quite enjoyed that. Which hasn't happened in a while.
Two of them
One of my major complaints with Dawntrail is that it had a bunch of interesting ideas, but it unfailingly chose to use those ideas in the least interesting way. Just to name a few examples:
- Zoraal Ja loses his mind while duelling a shade of his father, but we arrive too late to actually see it.
- We follow Galool Ja Ja's prior adventuring journeys, but he never suffered any of the same hardships that forged us.
- Pairs are randomly selected from a hat, but Wuk Lamat isn't forced to team with her sworn enemy.
- We never get a single flashback that shows us what Wuk Lamat, Koana, and Zoraal Ja—siblings whose conflict the entire story is arguably about—were like as kids.
- Krile's entire backstory reveal happens offscreen, for some unknowable, unfathomable reason. Because who cares about an interesting mystery centered around one of our steadfast allies? Me. I cared.
This tendency is, by far, the area patch 7.2 improves most upon. At the start of the patch, it's revealed that Queen Sphene—the original one, not the digital copy we beat up in 7.0 or the creepypasta version we saw in 7.1—is still alive. She's been in magic stasis for a few centuries after suffering a debilitating levin sickness, and now we've stumbled into her cyro-pod.
The patch wastes absolutely zero time characterising her and setting her apart from the new digital Sphene—which the story dubs a 'simulant'. She shares her sudden feeling of isolation, which is fair, given she went to bed in fantasy land and woke up in Cyberpunk 2077. She recounts watching her proud knights spar, and laments how she was held back while her people were at war to keep her safe.
And you know what? It works. It's nothing groundbreaking, it's very bread-and-butter basics, but it's all done competently enough and at a brisk enough pace that I found myself outright invested. Our new Sphene is essentially a different character, a flesh-and-blood human who isn't hampered by her programming.
Through her, we get to see the person the Alexandrians loved so much they preserved their likeness as an undying digitized nightmare—when real-Sphene bellows that a digital mockery of one of her beloved knights would not stand, I found myself unexpectedly and instantly becoming a Sphene fan.
It helps that there's a real sense of theatrical fun and drama, too. Simulant-Sphene hams up cutscenes and taunts Wuk Lamat. Our new mopey twink of a villain, Calyx, chews the scenery and spins his stylus. And the Alexandrians (the poor Alexandrians) get traumatised once more as their machines turn on them in a cutscene that's downright impactful. Real-Sphene confronting the fact her people are still in danger after 400 years of progress, something that motivates her to finally take a stand, now that she's free to do so herself? Dawntrail's finally making good use of its own material, praise the Twelve!
My favourite moment, by far, was when Calyx does the smart thing and tries to kill us immediately by redirecting most of Solution 9's power grid into a literal bolt out of the blue. While it smarts, it's almost like a reverse, more heroic version of the "you must be the Belmont" scene from Netflix's Castlevania. Someone sucker punches us as hard as they can manage, and our response is to snarl and say 'that all you got?' It's kinda peak.
However, the patch isn't perfect. We have to endure yet another city tour quest, and while it is relevant to exploring real-Sphene's response to her new environment, it's still something Dawntrail's already worn thin. We are also retreading a fair bit of ground—the Alexandrians have already been attacked by their own machines, for instance. But it's all done well enough that I'm glad to come along for Square Enix's second run at some similar concepts.
So, is FF14's story returning to form at last? Are we so back? Not necessarily—patch 7.3 will likely tie off this storyline, and even if it sticks the landing with both feet, I've still got a lot of lost good will to make up for. But as of today, I'm cautiously optimistic and, dare I say it, feeling good about where we're headed again.
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