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Some welcome quality-of-life changes as the new expansion approaches early access
Image credit:Square Enix
Image credit:Square Enix
We’re only a couple of days away from the early access launch ofDawntrail,Final Fantasy XIV’s latest expansion and first in over two years since the climactic Endwalker. Asthe summery story expansionprepares to drop, Square Enix have run down everything else arriving in theMMO’s 7.0 patch, which notably includes its long-awaited graphical overhaul along with several other nice-to-have improvements whether you’re playing Dawntrail or not.
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As well as Dawntrail’s story quests,locations, dungeons andnew jobs- we won’t spoil anything here - 7.0’s headline feature is atotal visual overhaulof the now decade-old game. Comparisons in the 7.0 patch notes show just how much sharper we can expect environmental textures to look, with other polishes including more fluid animations, better hair and skin textures on characters, softer shadows and more light sources, and various other additions down to more subtle eye movements, glasses lenses, and effects for water and wind. There’ll be some technical additions too, including support for FSR and DLSS upscaling for AMD and Nvidia users respectively, TSCMAA anti-aliasing and an alternative SSAO using GTAO. Plus DualSense owners can now use the PlayStation controller natively on PC.
In case the graphical changes make your character look a bit different, everyone will be gifted a Fantasia to let them remodel their character for free rather than having to buy one from the real-money shop. Character creation itself has been expanded with new lighting options, combat voice line previews and a 60-minute grace period during which you can hop back in to tweak your appearance without using another Fantasia. There’s some new hairstyles and the option to combine glasses and hats for the first time, too.
FINAL FANTASY XIV: DAWNTRAIL Launch TrailerWatch on YouTube
FINAL FANTASY XIV: DAWNTRAIL Launch Trailer
The other change is toFinal FantasyXIV’s stealth missions that involve tailing a certain NPC. While there aren’t many in the MMO, the few that are required can be a frustrating exercise in suddenly being spotted and having to restart. Now, NPCs will have a very clear indicator around them that shows whether you’ll be spotted if they turn around, along with a glowing AoE-like zone around them when you need to stay clear.
I’m also personally relieved to see you can now just click on an emote icon in the Duty List when having to perform specific emotes during a quest, rather than typing them out everytime.
There’s plenty more - such as new house furnishings, including a light fitting that looks suspiciously similar toEndwalker’s iconic low-poly grapes- all of which will be available once FF14 returns from going offline for maintenance ahead of the new expansion tomorrow.
