Summary
It’s been over a month sinceFinal Fantasy 14: Dawntraillaunched. The reviews have trickled in and the critics have spoken, cementing Dawntrail as the lowest-scored expansion on Metacritic. You’d be forgiven for thinking this means that Dawntrail is the worst expansion. It’s not.
Dawntrail is the first MMO expansion I’ve reviewed, and it was certainly one of the hardest I’ve ever had to score. It’s difficult to separate an expansion from what came before and from the base game, weighing up its pros and cons by their own merits, and for Dawntrail, this meant trying to pry it out from the shadow of the incredible expansion that came before. My mantra to myself and others while reviewing was thatDawntrail shouldn’t be compared to Endwalker. However, now that the dust has settled, I find myself eying up where all the expansions score beside one another and I can’t help feeling it’s not the most accurate ranking.
Reviews are subjective, depending on the reviewer’s opinion and experience, and I appreciate that. What one person might deem as a stellar game, another might feel is mediocre. Yet when you see all the expansions lined up beside one another on Metacritic, I find it difficult to believe any FF14 player would look at them and think ‘Yeah, that’s about right’.
As it stands, this is the current ranking (including the base game):
Fun fact, the original 1.0 version of Final Fantasy 14 sits at a rather sad score of 49 on Metacritic.
Let’s start with the obvious. Stormblood had long been the least favourite expansion, as players disliked Lyse as the de facto protagonist and the lackluster storyline split between Ala Mhigo and Doma. Until now, that is. Dawntrail has suffered from similar critiques regarding its protagonist and narrative, with some fans arguing both are worse than Stormblood, yet you can’t deny that Dawntrail has raised the bar in terms of gameplay, mechanics, and quality-of-life improvements.
The biggest quality of life improvement is the graphics overhaul, breathing new life into a decade-old MMO and leaving everyone marvelling at the fine texture details we never thought possible. But Square Enix polished Etheirys in other ways too: shortcuts in dungeons are now truly shortcuts to the boss, and follow quests have extra markings to make it clearer where the NPC is facing, to give just a couple of examples.
One of the most impressive aspects of Dawntrail is how much the gameplay in Dungeons and Trials actually challenges players now. New mechanics are thrown at you from every direction, keeping you on your toes, making you kiss the dirt, and ultimately leaving you running around the arena screaming. Most duties feel like utter chaos on your first attempt, maybe even your second and third too, but they’re highly enjoyable. Dawntrail is a new peak for the gameplay; surely all this counts for something?
That should set itaboveStormblood, even if just marginally, by default, yet somehow Dawntrail is a whopping nine points below Stormblood on Metacritic. That’s quite a difference. Even for a player like me who values the story above all else, it just doesn’t balance right.
I personally rank Dawntrail’s narrative and character development above that of Stormblood.
I’m not saying that Dawntrail has been scored incorrectly, per se, but I think the current Metacritic ranking shows that review scores don’t work as well for MMO expansions when you look at the bigger picture, especially with hindsight. Stormblood ranks above Heavensward by one point, despite it being the least favoured by the majority of the community. Really?
People loved both Shadowbringers and Endwalker, but should there really only be two points between them? Endwalker was peak narrative: a dramatic and heartwrenching conclusion to a ten-year arc that hooked players for years. It hit hard. Was that only worth two points more than Shadowbringers?
While it’s not an expansion, I think it’s worth looking at A Realm Reborn. In terms of content, is it really better than Stormblood, Heavensward, and Dawntrail? It’s not. Most players will agree that ARR is a bit of a slow slog, so much so that Square Enix cut some of the quests to streamline it more. If you were to separate the base game and each expansion and boil them down to their pros and cons based on a consensus from players, their ranking would be vastly different.
FF14 is an amazing game, the base game deserved the good scores it received. It’s only as the MMO grows in size and spectacle that the base content starts to look duller compared to the expansions. I think FF14 is a great example of how review scores sometimes work, but sometimes don’t, especially when it comes to an ever-growing and ever-changing MMO. Each expansion should be rated on its own merits. We’re not reviewing them wrong, but we have to understand that those scores mean less and less when the bar keeps moving as the game expands and improves.
Final Fantasy 14 attracts different players for different reasons. Some adore the story and characters, others want the freedom to create plays or displays within the virtual world, while some focus on the endgame content. Everyone is different and so each game will hit differently for them. I personallyweighted my own Dawntrail review based on the narrative, as this is the most important aspect for me. For a game that meets a diverse range of needs in players and is constantly looking to raise the bar, I think we should focus less on review scores because every player would rank the expansions differently.
I think this is the first game ever where I would encourage people to read reviews for their critiques but completely ignore the scores that come at the end. You’ll be surprised how many Dawntrail reviews hit the same notes, praises, and criticisms throughout the article, yet land on wildly different scores. It’s too difficult to put a simple number on such a massive undertaking. Despite what the numbers say, Dawntrail isn’t the worst Final Fantasy 14 expansion.
