Summary
Final Fantasy 14’sDawntrail expansion hasproven to be one of the game’s more controversial, whether it be because of the slow story, the lack of Scions, orthe drama surrounding Wuk Lamat. There is one thing that the vast majority of fans seem to agree on though, and that’sDawntrail’sincreased dungeon and raid difficulty.
Over the course of Shadowbringers and Endwalker, I don’t think it’s unfair to say that Final Fantasy 14 has gradually gotten a lot easier. Story dungeons in particular were criticized for being too simple, and even director Naoki Yoshida (better known as Yoshi-P) admitted thathe was regretful about making Final Fantasy 14 less stressful over the years. Thankfully, Dawntrail fixed all of that.
Dawntrail’s dungeons and raids are much spicier and more complex than in previous expansions, and it seems as though Yoshi-P is pretty happy that the increased difficulty has gone down so well with fans. In a new interview withFamitsu(translated byGamesRadar), Yoshi-P claims to have received plenty of feedback on Dawntrail’s dungeon difficulty, and that he hopes to continue with the same level of difficulty moving forward.
Yoshi-P Wants To “Increase The Excitement” Of Final Fantasy 14’s Dungeons And Raids
In fact, Yoshi-P said something similarwhen speaking to TheGamer about Dawntrail. In our interview, he claimed that he wants to “increase the excitement” of Final Fantasy 14’s battle encounters, and he feels “really glad and reassured” that Dawntrails' difficulty levels went down well with fans.
“Firstly, with regards to the battle encounters, we have now a concept where we want to increase the excitement of those encounters,” says Yoshida. “We went through the process of adjusting the battles so that they would be engaging and, particularly for the expert dungeons this time, because of the adjustment of those mechanics, if the players go into the dungeon with a low item level, it will be quite hard for them.
I was very interested to see how players would fare in this regard. But when I saw that they provided a lot of feedback, that they thought this level of difficulty was just fine, and they appreciated this kind of toughness, that made me really glad and reassured.”
With all that in mind, it seems as though trickier dungeons and raids will be the norm going forward, and the difficulty will hopefully also carry forward to other content like Dawntrail’s field operation. In any case, we’ll find out what’s next for Final Fantasy 14 later this month,as the game’s next live letter is scheduled to take place on September 28(September 29 if you’re a European).
Final Fantasy XIV: Dawntrail
WHERE TO PLAY
Dawntrail is the fifth full expansion for Square Enix’s MMORPG Final Fantasy XIV, and marks the start of an all-new story arc. It takes the Warrior of Light across the ocean to the continent of Tural, adds the new Viper and Pictomancer jobs, and a host more dungeons, raids, and more.
