Final Fantasy XIV: Dawntrail Patch 7.1 is a good patch, but maybe not quite what the game needs right now

It's time again, folks - it's yet another Final Fantasy XIV patch, and now that I've had the time to ruminate on it, I've got some thoughts about the state of the game, per usual. The first major patch of an expansion can help set the tone going forward; even if XIV's patch cycle makes it tough to intuit how later updates might impact matters.

Let's start with something simple; patch 7.1's new story was much needed after Dawntrail's MSQ at launch. While I did genuinely enjoy my time with it, I was far from the only one with some lingering qualms. The patch's storyline helped alleviate some of those doubts, while also setting things up for the next two patches - leading to the conclusion of Dawntrail's MSQ, proper. Unlike Endwalker, this time around the game has returned to its usual cadence of an expansion's story lasting through the x.3 patch, before transitioning to and setting up the next expansion to come.

At any rate; I appreciated the moments that Gulool Ja and Koana received. Wuk Lamat wasn't as heavy a focus this go around, but I do think the way that the team handled her was probably more even-handed than in Dawntrail itself; I won't say anymore than that, though, since I do generally enjoy her character, and discussing her has become something of a minefield since the expansion's launch.

What I will say, however, is that it's good that patch 7.1 saw some choice English voice lines from 7.0 redone. While Wuk Lamat was the character which saw the most scrutiny in this regard, she was far from the only one who suffered some unfortunate voice direction. Hopefully this signals that whatever led to these discrepancies have been sorted out; but it's still rather embarrassing that the team let something like this slip through the cracks, particularly as it emboldened some rather nasty harassment towards a trans voice actor.

Continuing the trend Dawntrail has set, battle content for 7.1 (and 7.11) has been excellent. The new Extreme Trial is incredible, one of the best the team has released; a stark contrast to Endwalker's x.1 trial, which was one of the worst. The new dungeon is probably my favorite in Dawntrail so far; The FFXI crossover, similarly, is off to an explosive start with an incredible Alliance Raid to start off the new series. While I enjoyed Endwalker's Alliance Raids more than most, it's undeniable that the team flexed some of their muscles to deliver something a bit outside of the norm. Whether it's the knockback mechanics in the first encounter, the adds in the second, the sheer number of bosses in the 3rd - etc, etc.

Even beyond the raid itself, the rewards for doing it are worth mentioning. Bolstered by the fact that FFXI has a soundtrack that is only dwarfed by XIV itself, there were so many orchestrion rewards attached to the new Alliance Raid, that the team tried something different - instead of having all these songs in a pool for a small chance for them to drop, instead players can roll for an item that can then be exchanged for an orchestrion of their choosing. It makes going for all of these orchestrion's far less annoying, and more doable - and offers another reason for players to keep running the raid, even outside of the weekly lockout.

One of the other, smaller updates that 7.1 brought feels in a similar vein - we once again had a wave of community designed weapons added to XIV, but unlike previous inclusions which were easily unlocked with some currency that many players have plenty of, and can be grinded for rather painlessly, the devteam took a devious approach - by adding them to Dawntrail's Treasure Dungeon loot pool. If you want, say, the incredible new Dark Knight weapon - you better be ready to run Treasure Dungeons for hours on end with your friends, or you better hope you have the cash on hand to pay the 12+ million gil that players are charging for a weapon coffer on the market board.

To say that this has been met with some mixed reception is a bit of an understatement; but I actually like the change. We always expected for Dawntrail's Treasure Dungeon loot pool to be updated after launch, but Creative Studio 3 locking such highly sought-after items behind the feature has led to a major rebound in Treasure Maps activity; glam is the real endgame, and the double whammy of the incredible Wintertide glam set, and these new weapons, means that you'd be hard-pressed to log into the game and not see Party Finder advertising a Treasure Map party or two. The price of maps themselves also saw a brief spike where the maps themselves would go for 250k gil on the market board; a far cry from the usual fare of maps costing 50k, to 70k. Even a few weeks later they're hovering above 100k on the weekends.

I'll save discussion of the recent Ultimate Raid for later - especially as I've been progging it myself - but Futures Rewritten (Ultimate) has been a huge success, and a great relief after The Omega Protocol burned many high-end raiders out. It's easier than both of Endwalker's Ultimate Raids, but not egregiously so - and most importantly, it's a really fun fight with engaging mechanics. With even more high-end battle content coming in just a few short weeks with 7.15, it's fair to say that raiders are eating well early-on in Dawntrail's patch cycle.

Which does, of course, leave a question; if you're not a raider, and you don't care to chase glams, what else has 7.1 brought to the table for the average XIV player? While 7.1 has been an incredible patch for raiders and glam enthusiasts, if you don't find yourself in either of those camps it's been a rather boring and restrained update - those players will have to wait until sometime after March for the type of content that might appeal to their interests. While there was the first Allied Society quest added to Dawntrail with 7.1, that content is only ever good for spending 10 to 15 minutes each day on your dailies; it's far from the sort of long-term engagement that I'd wager those players are looking for.

That being said; one undersold element of 7.1 I should mention is the graphical updates to older zones. Plenty of ARR and other zones have seen a graphical glow-up; most players that are now solidly playing through later expansions won't notice, of course, but it's still ultimately good for the health of the game as a whole, and greatly appreciated.

Beyond that, though - Endwalker brought a new housing ward, the new PvP update, and of course Adventurer Plates; meanwhile Dawntrail mostly feels like more of the same. If you're still hooked that won't be a problem, but I do worry that the game might need something truly fresh in the near future. So far Dawntrail isn't that; and I wonder how that might shake out long-term.

RPG Site received Final Fantasy XIV game time for the purposes of this patch review.