I would like to begin this piece with an apology. I have been so enthralled with my Nintendo Switch 2 that I’ve been seldomly able to dedicate my time to Final Fantasy XIV as of late. July was overall a month that was pretty much dedicated to getting my backlog in order (which, if I may add, is still towering, even with this). But now, it’s yet again time!
Welcome back to Unending Horizons, where I’ll be regularly posting my impressions of both new and old content of Final Fantasy XIV. In this edition, we’ll be covering the main content of Patch 7.3. This includes the Main Scenario, the quality of life improvements, and a small dive into the current state of the game.
Disclaimer: The following article contains spoilers for the Patch 7.3 quests. Reader discretion is advised.
Final Fantasy XIV Patch 7.3 — Story Thoughts
When it comes to the main story, the way patches are structured, Patch 7.3 is meant to be the ending of Dawntrail as a whole. Then, with Patch 7.4 and 7.5, we’ll have some plot points that will eventually evolve into the main theme around Version 8.0, the next expansion for Final Fantasy XIV Online.
There are so many theories that I discussed with my friends after the ending. And I must say, while it did not make me cry like what happened during Shadowbringers, I still think this was a good conclusion to the tale. Admittedly, there are still a few unanswered questions, but it really felt like the team listened to feedback on how the story is presented. I can’t wait to see what they’ve got planned for Patch 7.4.
During the main scenario quests, there was a puzzle section that was incredibly fun to do, as it felt really fleshed out. It wasn’t as complex as some might think, but it was still a nice puzzle to scratch your head against, and a very funny moment that had me wheezing. Without spoiling it too much, the keyword I give is ‘locker’. If you know, you know. This part of the main scenario quest felt like a nice change of pace, even if they were a tad easy to grasp, thanks to the way hints were presented. Additionally, the cutscenes weren’t too long-winded.
As I was very impatient, I decided to do the new dungeon and the new trial using the Duty Support system. And honestly, I’m happy to say that the system has matured to such an extent that you can experience the dungeons yourself without waiting for the matchmaking queue to fill with other players.
While the game does boot you back to the beginning if you die during the dungeon, the shortcut portals spawn you very close to the boss rooms. You can literally follow the NPCs’ guidance and manage to dodge the attacks without much effort. Personally, I did not find the dungeon bosses, or even the trial that follows after it, particularly challenging. I’m not sure if this may be because I’ve been progressing through high-end duties as of late.
Throughout the weekend, I even decided to try out the Extreme version of that trial, and I must say, it is incredibly self-explanatory. Even without reading deep into the raidplans and guides, I still managed to understand what is basically 60% of the fight. I’d say it’s even easier when compared to previous Extreme duties. I guess the Minstrel wanted to give us a bit of a break.
Echoes of Vana’diel – San d’Oria: The Second Walk
Our next topic of discussion is Echoes of Vana’diel, the alliance raid series made in collaboration with Final Fantasy XI Online. Patch 7.3 introduces the second raid, which is titled San d’Oria: The Second Walk. Understanding the mechanics wasn’t too hard, though I will say that this felt a lot more than a “Second Walk”. The number of different locations this time around was astonishing. I especially enjoyed the part where your character flies across the sky to get to the next boss arena.
I would argue that the combat and the bosses of Echoes of Vana’diel are its best parts. The mechanics are a good mix of complex and easy, and learning those mechanics makes it that much more enjoyable. The camera angles and how the battlefields transition between each other are amazing. Unfortunately, I cannot say the same for the story itself.
Don’t get me wrong. The Final Fantasy XI references are cute, but they keep trying to remind you about how exactly this world came to be, and the antagonist’s whole motive is just so…forgive the use of the word, utterly dull. It’s definitely not as exciting as the Arcadion storyline, or even the Myths of the Realm storyline in Endwalker. I do wonder how they’re going to close it off in Patch 7.5, but I can’t say I’m terribly hyped for it.
The Current State of Final Fantasy XIV
I’m sure this has been talked about before ad nauseam on social media, but now, I must dedicate this one heading to something that has been brewing among the community. Final Fantasy XIV‘s content quality has been steadily dropping. When Patch 7.25 dropped with Occult Crescent, there were a lot of dissatisfied players, casual and hardcore alike, and I don’t blame them for thinking so. I mean, we just had an emergency 4-hour maintenance on the morning of August 8th to fix some bugs, barely a few days into the patch.
Dawntrail is far from being the perfect expansion. Still, if I may be so blunt, none of the other expansions is exactly perfect either, and there’s no other way to put it. I would argue that every single one of them has a moment or two where you kind of feel bogged down, waiting for the next big plot twist to make itself known. Though I can’t deny that I did start thinking about how my love for the game was starting to wane.
In a Live Letter two years ago, Naoki Yoshida talked about how he’s fine with the player base unsubbing from the game during these bouts of content droughts, and only returning when a new patch comes around. It was never his intention to make Final Fantasy XIV into a time sink, which is a respectable vision to have.
Make no mistake, however: The content quality did suffer. It definitely showed that the team had become a bit complacent, which is something that was even addressed extensively during the Live Letter. In fact, a lot of Patch 7.3 included several changes to already existing content to make it a little more enjoyable. These changes include reworking how missions in Cosmic Exploration work and changing how the server frees up instances for Occult Crescent. But this doesn’t excuse the fact that, yes, QA should’ve absolutely been performed better on this.
Now, am I saying that the game is dying? Certainly not. There’s still a sizable number of active players. All it takes is just looking at the lively Aetheryte Plaza of the three major cities, the regular hunt trains where players get together, and, as one of my friends puts it, “getting together on a Discord call and playing together with the homies.” There is still a lot to be enjoyed with Dawntrail, and I, for one, have been enjoying the expansion a lot, as divisive as it may have been.
Final Fantasy XIV Patch 7.3 Is a Step In the Right Direction
It’s not often that I get to comment on the status of a live service game, but I’m happy that Patch 7.3 feels like a huge step in the right direction. While a lot of the initial patch content has been focused on fixing the issues players have been having, it’s at least better than just leaving them in and hoping for the best.
In a way, Dawntrail was an expansion where I’ve learned the most about the game’s update cycle. After all, I had only caught up with the Main Scenario Quest when Patch 6.5 was about to release, so I had a lot of ground to cover. But now that I’ve been mostly caught up, I started to view the game very differently when compared to two years ago. And only time will tell what will happen next in this ever-expansive tale throughout Eorzea.
Final Fantasy XIV: Dawntrail is available now for PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S, and PC via Steam.
