Ultimate 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 fingers with nihilism incarnate and saveā¦ effectively, all the pieces? It is warranted. Director and producer Naoki Yoshida (Yoshi-P) has known as it “the easiest summer season trip a hero may have.”
Pay attention, I am right here for that. Endwalker’s essential questline made me weep a dozen occasions over, and I do not know if my little G’raha-loving coronary heart may take any extra damage. I used to be excited to play by means of ‘Seaside Episode: The Enlargement’, however I wasn’t essentially hyped concerning the story.
Going to Tural, lizard-man politics, watching Urianger drink a pina coladaāthese are all far cries from the sprawling narrative I am accustomed to. My common response has been: oh, that is neatānot the obsessive, back-of-the-napkin fan theories I would usually be cooking up with my pals.
London fanfest final 12 months launched Viperāthe primary of two new jobsāand in addition hinted at some extra advanced themes that had 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 maināyou’ll be able to’t stroll ten ft in FF14 with out stubbing your toe on some historical spoil, 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 displaying 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’ve got seen up to now ā¦ so we won’t let you know an entire 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 cityāthe Radz-at-Han to Endwalker’s Sharleyan. In case you do not play FF14, every growth 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 wholly completely different civilisation than that of Tuliyollal”, has me feeling ravenous for more information. That one phraseāfacadeāis important, too.Ā
The uninitiated may suppose that is just a few translation oddness, however the english localisation group for FF14 is among the finest within the enterprise. I’m 100% sure they selected that phrase on goal. Is Answer 9 a fraud? Are all of us hallucinating it? Are the buildings product of cake, Yoshi-P? I am high quality, I am regular about this.
The Keynote additionally revealed a bit of about how we might get there, travelling by means of a lightning-flooded zone known as “Heritage Discovered”. That additionally has a ton of implications for what we’re stepping into. Are the cowboys of Shaaloani (who’ve stumbled throughout Ceruleum, the late Garlean Empire’s favorite gamer gas) forging their solution to Answer 9?Ā
In case you could not inform, I am again on my conspiracy nonsense and I am going full Pepe Silvia about all of thisāthe 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.Ā
My present (fully unsubstantiated) guess is that Answer 9 is a few sort of Sharleyan offshoot constructed to face up to the Ultimate Days. Nevertheless it may additionally simply be one thing fully newāan entire new historical civilisation on the extent of Allag. Or possibly it is simply an excuse for holographic catboys, and canonical VTubers.Ā
Dawntrail plans to launch someday Summer time 2024, although Yoshi-P says there is not any agency launch dateāa cautionary measure, seeing as he took Endwalker’s delay to coronary heart.