FFXIV Tokyo Fanfest Reveals New Information For Dawntrail
Last Saturday, FFXIV Fanfest for 2024 was held in Tokyo, and Creative Business Unit 3 released the full trailer for the Dawntrail expansion. Naoki Yoshida, also known as Yoshi-P by fans, has stepped up to the stage and personally reports on the new content with his keynote presentation. Much like the previous expansion reveals, CBU3 first releases a small teaser trailer highlighting half of the available zones and classes then releases an extended trailer with more story beats, and the class is not revealed in the teaser. In light of the new information we got at the 2024 Tokyo Fanfest, here are the new things we can expect in Dawntrail.
Table of Contents
Patch 6.55: Growing Light Part 2
As the months approach the release date, Growing Light Part 2 will be the final patch for Endwalker before heading right into Dawntrail. Here, the aforementioned female Hrothgar will make her appearance in the MSQ and kick off the story of Dawntrail. According to Yoshi-P, she is the daughter of Tural’s royalty and will ask the Warrior of Light for aid in her succession as the nation’s ruler. This patch will launch on January 16, 2024, which is just around the corner. Expect to see the final phases of Endwalker’s Hildibrand questline and relic weapons, Arkasodara, Omicron, and Loporritt tribe quests, as well as more Tataru’s Grand Endeavour quests.
The Path Infernal Crossover Event
Teased last year at the London Fanfest, FFXIV will receive a crossover event with Yoshi-P’s other project: Final Fantasy XVI. Warriors of Light will have the chance to fight Eikons (FFXVI’s version of the classic Summons) with FFXVI’s protagonist, Clive Rosfield, and use the same abilities featured in FFXVI. Just recently, the release date has been slated for early April, a few months before the Summer season arrives.
New Class: Pictomancer
Part of the extended trailer is the reveal of Dawntrail’s other new job, the Pictomancer, as shown by one of the game’s main characters, Krile. In the keynote speech Yoshi-P gave during the presentation, he said that the Pictomancer is a ranged magical DPS more similar to the Black Mage job and will share the same Caster gear. This job is implied to be cast-time heavy and will also have support skills in its kit, functioning almost like Dancer as a hybrid DPS and support job, but will not have a Raise spell like Red Mage or all other healer jobs. The job’s quest giver will be found in Gridania as soon as the expansion is released. Like the Viper class, there is no prerequisite class to play, and players will start the class at level 80.
New Female Option for Hrothgar
Back in the Shadowbringers period of FFXIV, two new races, Viera and Hrothgar, were introduced to the game, with only the female variant for Viera and male for Hrothgar. Initially, CBU3 stated that getting the model skeleton variation for every armor piece to each race is a time consuming effort. Fans have since then clamored for male Viera and female Hrothgar. With both Endwalker and Dawntrail, that wish has finally come true as not only will female Hrothgar be available soon, but they will also be represented by a central character in the Dawntrail story. Yoshi-P says that they may potentially add more playable races after adding female Hrothgar
New Zones
Dawntrail will feature many aesthetically diverse zones as players will explore the Tural continent that is separated into two subcontinents, connected by a massive bridge. As shown in development footage, this expansion will see many thematically diverse areas, from the WIld West-styled zone on the northern part of the continent to the cyberpunk-like zone of Solution Nine, Dawntrail has a theme for everyone. With the graphical update to FFXIV’s engine, the reveal shots of these new zones are breathtaking. There will be many more places that CBU3 has yet to show, so expect even more areas to come when Dawntrail goes live.
Cosmic Exploration
Players will soon explore the final frontier of Final Fantasy with the new lifestyle activity, Cosmic Exploration. Like Island Sanctuaries, this activity will have players explore new planets either solo or with friends. According to the team, players can leave their mark on the planets that they visit, giving a visual sense of progression. Based on the art for this activity, we may expect this mode to involve gathering and crafting job mechanics.
Raids: Alliance, Savage, and Ultimate
More endgame content is coming this Summer, with the first one being the Echoes of Vanadiel Alliance. This raid series is a crossover between FFXIV and FFXI, with some of the old MMO’s races returning, as a celebration of FFXI’s 20th anniversary. FFXI fans will rejoice as the Echoes of Vanadiel raid will make many callbacks to Square Enix’s first MMORPG for the Playstation 2. Yoshi-P has not revealed any further details about the raid but promises that old FFXI fans will truly enjoy what this series has to offer. Dawntrail’s main raid series is called The Arcadion and judging from the key art for this activity, will likely take place in Solution 9. This will be one of FFXIV’s raids with a completely original storyline and theme. The Arcadion will be released a few months after the 7.0 release, so players will have time to gear up and level their jobs to become raid-ready. Lastly, the Eden raid series from Shadowbringers will be given an Ultimate variant known as Futures Rewritten (Ultimate), so expect a new exciting World’s First race after Dawntrail launches.
Beastmaster Limited Job
CBU3 has been teasing about a new Limited Job since Endwalker. The Beastmaster job has been around since Final Fantasy V and will make a return in FFXIV. Beastmasters in older Final Fantasy games collect monsters and use them As a Limited Job, Beastmaster does not gain its skills through traditional leveling, instead opting to collect them by exploring the open world and fighting specific mobs. Like Blue Mage, this job will receive its own content, similar to the Masked Carnival. Beastmaster will arrive sometime in the middle of Dawntrail’s cycle, marked as 7.x
Dual Dye System
Fashionistas will enjoy this update as the armor dyeing system will soon receive an update, giving more accessibility to their customization option. Currently, players can dye their armor with only one color, and feel this may be too restrictive. CBU3 has made the system more intuitive, with the main dye coloring all the major parts of the armor and the secondary dye coloring smaller cloth pieces.
Minimum and Recommended System Requirements
As the graphical overhaul to FFXIV’s engine is on its way, Square Enix has published FFXIV’s new system requirements ahead of time. With new lighting and texturing technology comes new system demands. Players with lower-end PC specs will want to read this and compare to see if their machine meets the updated requirements.
Minimum System Requirements
- OS: Windows 10 x64 bit or Windows 11 x64 bit
- CPU: Intel Core i7-6700 or higher
- Memory: 8GB
- Available HDD/SSD space: 140GB
- Graphics Card: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 970 or AMD Radeon RX 480
- Screen Resolution: 1280×720
Recommended System Requirements
- OS: Windows 10 x64 bit or Windows 11 x64 bit
- CPU: Intel Core i7-9700 or higher
- Memory: 16GB
- Available HDD/SSD space: 140GB
- Graphics Card: NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2060 or AMD Radeon RX 5600 XT
- Screen Resolution: 1920×1080
CBU3 has only given a vague date for the release of Dawntrail as they did not want a repeat of Endwalker’s delay announcement. With the launch period in Summer, the team is given more flexibility on when to launch the expansion as they work to polish the game and iron out any bugs. Anticipate more Live Letters from the developers as we approach Summer, so in the meantime, prepare your best gear and make ready for Dawntrail.
