Dawntrail is Final Fantasy 14 at its most colourful

It's about time the Scions of the Seventh Dawn had a holiday, right? After the adventures of A Realm Reborn and its four expansions - the latest of which took them to the moon and beyond - the heroes of Final Fantasy 14 deserve some sun.

And so they land in Tural, with its crystal waters, sandy beaches, lush jungles, and low poly tacos. Between its vibrant setting, its graphical update, and a new paint-splatting Job, Dawntrail is Final Fantasy 14 at its most colourful.

Of course, it's unlikely the holiday spirit will last too long. But at a recent hands-on preview, I was able to soak up the sights and explore a small portion of this new region in relative peace. All story details and NPC quest givers were removed to avoid spoilers, yet from what I played Dawntrail has a more playful tone compared to the existential crisis of 2022's Endwalker.

Indeed, Endwalker was the end of a ten year story arc, with Dawntrail beginning a new chapter for the Scions. I asked producer and director Naoki Yoshida if this had been freeing for the development team.

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"For Endwalker, we were presenting the first finale and we really wanted to show it in a grand way," said Yoshida. "When it comes to the content this time, I don't feel as much pressure.

"Although there's not so much requirement for us to carry over the settings from the old world, it is still a connected story arc. It is still a continuation of what's happened so far, so it's not exactly like we're starting from a zero basis. However, it is an opportunity for us in the development team to take on new challenges. And from that perspective, it feels liberating in that sense."

Perhaps one of the team's biggest challenges has been the graphical update. While its art style is arguably timeless, the game first released on PlayStation 3 and PC and is certainly dated from a technical standpoint. The graphical update will overhaul textures and lighting, but as Yoshida stated at the Las Vegas Fan Fest event, the team is keen to maintain the appeal of the graphics.

The real test will be revisiting old areas after the update, but the South America-inspired Tural certainly feels tailored towards showing off the improvements. The Kozama'uka region features dense jungle filled with plants and vegetation that help make the world feel less empty, with small settlements nestled in the trees between thunderous waterfalls. Even the grass feels thicker. I stood at the highest point of central city Tuliyollal watching the sun rise over ruby straw roofs and beach huts. My favourite region, though, was Urqopacha, a sort of Peruvian mountain region with bubbling volcanic pits, rainbow fields in the distance, and adorable alpacas.

So far, Tural's environments feel rich and warm, existing in a perpetual summer haze. Zoom in close, though, and the real difference from the graphical update is apparent. The texture work on armour and weapons is a vast improvement, while animal races - like the new female Hrothgar - seem more realistically furry.

Is this enough to futureproof the game for a further ten years? PS3 support was dropped back in 2017, but Yoshida explained the graphical update has been implemented with PS4 in mind, with graphic settings optimised for each PlayStation console, Xbox consoles, and PC. Throughout the 7.0 series (Dawntrail and its subsequent patches), PS4 will be "100 percent supported", said Yoshida. However, beyond that the team would "need to look at the situation at that time" and base a decision on the proportion of players still on PS4. His biggest advice? Get yourself an SSD, especially for older consoles.

There's certainly room for further improvement, but considering the playerbase of Final Fantasy 14, the need to maintain a low barrier of entry is understandable. In 2015, the MMO had four million players for the Heavensward expansion; this has grown to 30 million registered accounts by 2024's Tokyo Fan Fest. Even by 2021 it had become the most profitable game in the long-running series and that will only have increased since, not to mention the game's release this year on Xbox and the likely boost to sales Dawntrail will provide. Fear not, though: Yoshida told me there's "almost no chance" of server woes at launch.

Back to Tural, and the music mirrors the new colourful setting. Masayoshi Soken's score shifts from Endwalker's mournful soprano songs to Big Band brass and jaunty melodies. There's sultry saxophone and jungle drums, cute little flute teases and fuzzy, buoyant basslines, plus a sprinkling of guitar for Latin flair. Night time brings gentle piano accompanied by bird song as you trot past luminescent plants. The new battle music, meanwhile, is all flamenco guitars, hand claps and dancing strings. In all it's a fun, rhythmic score that feels less like the accompaniment to warring factions and more of a carnival.

On to the Jobs, and this preview offered a chance to play as both Viper and Pictomancer, the two new DPS classes. I began with Viper, which seemed the more straightforward of the two as an up close melee fighter. Essentially, Vipers have a number of three ability combos in single and multi-target flavours using their twin blades, which have different buffing and debilitating effects. Build up enough energy in the Serpent's Ire Gauge and Reawaken can be activated, combining the blades into a joined weapon to deal huge damage for a limited time. As a Reaper main for Endwalker, the Viper combo rotation slotted neatly into my brain, but the unique weapon retains its own flair.

Pictomancer, I found, was the more interesting of the two, with abilities summoning bright pastel hues and effects as if painting on the world. Basic damage dealing is done through Aetherhue magic in a three part combo: Fire in Red, Aero in Green, and Water in Blue. This accumulates the Palette Gauge which can be spent for a souped up combo: Blizzard in Cyan, Stone in Yellow, Thunder in Magenta. White Paint can also be accumulated to execute Holy in White, which converts to Black Paint for Comet in Black by again spending the Palette Gauge.

It's like a mix of white and black magic, then, but the use of Motif Magicks adds an extra layer of complexity. Pictomancers have three canvases on which to paint a Creature Motif, Weapon Motif, and Landscape Motif. Motifs can be prepped outside of battle ready to be summoned during a fight: Starry Muse, for instance, is painted on the Landscape canvas to buff damage dealt, while Steel Muse goes on the Weapon canvas to bop enemies with a hammer. Creatures are more complicated, comprising multiple stages of wings, claws, and fangs to culminate in a powerful summon attack.

As you might expect, playing as a Pictomancer is particularly flamboyant with its whirls of radiant paint and splat effects. Together with Viper the two Jobs form an opposing pair: one has cool armour and feels more traditional, while the other wears cutesy gear and uses a more creative form of combat. Again, with Dawntrail the development team is pushing the boundaries of the game for a more inventive and playful experience.

I was able to put both Jobs into practice in a dungeon that was more elaborate and varied than in previous expansions. While story elements were removed, it began as a jungle cruise chase down river rapids, eventually exploring forest tunnels and softly-lit grottos while battling giant lizards, birds, insects, and other bizarre flora and fauna. Yoshida has promised more large-scale duties as part of a "fulfilling" gaming experience and this particular dungeon - presumably from early in the expansion - already sets a high bar.

Beyond its colourful exterior, it's the story of Dawntrail that intrigues me most, though this was entirely absent in the preview build. Still, Yoshida said the expansion is a fresh start for the Scions but not an entry point for new players. And while an option to skip up until patch 6.1 with a support system in place to teach new players about the story was considered, it was ultimately scrapped.

"We found that players in the Final Fantasy 14 community, if they want their friends to join in the game, they don't encourage them to skip the story," said Yoshida, "because they want their friends to experience the story and experience content in the same way that they did. So rather, they would say 'come join us in the game, just take it slow and if you ever need support, I'll be there to help'."

With content creators and streamers, too, audiences enjoy watching their reactions from the start. "So having considered that situation, I thought it would not be good of me to implement a simple button press where you could skip through all of that," said Yoshida. "So rather than making the system available, I would want people to start the story, take it slow at their own pace, and then they have enjoyed the story and that would deepen their experience while playing Final Fantasy 14."

He added, however: "I do understand that moving forward, we will have more expansions with maybe 8.0, 9.0, and 10.0. And then at some point, we may need to consider this type of system."

If you're looking forward to Dawntrail, then, there's hundreds of hours of game to get through first - I can attest to that myself. But getting through that should be a little easier knowing there's a colourful holiday awaiting you at the end.

This article is based on play of an in-development build of Final Fantasy 14: Dawntrail, and content in the final version is subject to change.