Last Fantasy 14: Dawntrail is supposed to be a story reset. Contemplating Endwalker had us travelling to the sting of the universe on an precise spaceship to throw arms with nihilism incarnate and save… effectively, all the things? It is warranted. Director and producer Naoki Yoshida (Yoshi-P) has referred to as it “the perfect summer season trip a hero might have.”
Pay attention, I am right here for that. Endwalker’s fundamental questline made me weep a dozen occasions over, and I do not know if my little G’raha-loving coronary heart might take any extra harm. I used to be excited to play via ‘Seashore Episode: The Growth’, however I wasn’t essentially hyped in regards to the story.
Going to Tural, lizard-man politics, watching Urianger drink a pina colada—these are all far cries from the sprawling narrative I am accustomed to. My normal response has been: oh, that is neat—not the obsessive, back-of-the-napkin fan theories I might usually be cooking up with my associates.
London fanfest final 12 months launched Viper—the primary of two new jobs—and likewise hinted at some extra advanced themes that have been decidedly non-beachy. There is a wild wild west to the north, traces of cowboy, and a splash of one thing technological. It had my curiosity piqued, however nothing main—you may’t stroll ten ft in FF14 with out stubbing your toe on some historic wreck, so I believed nothing of it.
Then the Tokyo fanfest rolled round, and I really feel like Yoshi-P has personally grabbed my expectations, thrown them in a blender, meticulously poured them right into a cup, then demanded I drink up. I really feel downright concussed.
After sidelining us with the brand new Pictomancer job and exhibiting us some pretty movies of some new zones, Yoshi-P obtained into introducing the sport’s new city: “[This] is fairly completely different from what you have seen thus far … so we won’t inform you a complete lot about them,” interprets english localisation lead Kate Cwynar. “We’ll begin with a video.”
It is a full flashbang. Not solely will Dawntrail spiral into sci-fi blue techno, this factor goes to be the sport’s second city—the Radz-at-Han to Endwalker’s Sharleyan. In case you do not play FF14, every enlargement has two main hubs, which makes this futuristic neon skyline crucial to the sport’s story.
The outline of Answer 9, “A towering metropolis of facades constructed by a completely completely different civilisation than that of Tuliyollal”, has me feeling ravenous for more information. That one phrase—facade—is important, too.
The uninitiated would possibly assume that is just a few translation oddness, however the english localisation staff for FF14 is a few of the greatest within the enterprise. I’m 100% sure they selected that phrase on function. Is Answer 9 a fraud? Are all of us hallucinating it? Are the buildings made from cake, Yoshi-P? I am nice, I am regular about this.
The Keynote additionally revealed a bit of about how we would get there, travelling via a lightning-flooded zone referred to as “Heritage Discovered”. That additionally has a ton of implications for what we’re entering into. Are the cowboys of Shaaloani (who’ve stumbled throughout Ceruleum, the late Garlean Empire’s favorite gamer gasoline) forging their technique to Answer 9?
In case you could not inform, I am again on my conspiracy nonsense and I am going full Pepe Silvia about all of this—the final puzzle piece has clicked into place. Better of all this guarantees to be the beginning of a brand new 10-year arc, so all of my guesses could possibly be fully off-base.
My present (fully unsubstantiated) guess is that Answer 9 is a few sort of Sharleyan offshoot constructed to resist the Last Days. Nevertheless it might additionally simply be one thing fully new—a complete new historic civilisation on the extent of Allag. Or possibly it is simply an excuse for holographic catboys, and canonical VTubers.
Dawntrail plans to launch someday Summer season 2024, although Yoshi-P says there is not any agency launch date—a cautionary measure, seeing as he took Endwalker’s delay to coronary heart.