Games Happy

Let’s get it out of the best way; whereas Closing Fantasy XIV: Dawntrail appears to be like to improve Closing Fantasy XIV in a ton of the way, with upgrades to the glamour system, the graphics replace and to not point out the brand new jobs in Viper and Pictomancer – gamers ought to make no mistake, Dawntrail is much less of a reinvention of the sport all of us love, and extra a steadying step because the workforce begins to resolve which course the MMORPG ought to head within the subsequent 10 years. Should you’ve been an current Closing Fantasy XIV participant, Dawntrail will really feel acquainted to you – with many roles having solely minor modifications to their rotations, and the general gameplay loop remaining by and enormous the identical. That is not to say that gamers haven’t got good purpose to be excited for the enlargement’s launch later this month, nevertheless.

Throughout our 7+ hour session with the sport, we had the possibility to mess around with the brand new and returning jobs throughout two of the sport’s new zones; as a Tank major, I took it upon myself to mess around with the brand new kits and was fast to find that the devteams claims that many of the recreation’s jobs would not be seeing main modifications this enlargement weren’t an overexaggeration. Darkish Knight has seen a brand new assault tied to Dwelling Shadow, however the general rotation and burst window is – if something – extra restrained this go round, as the present hole nearer now not offers injury. Warrior will get some a lot appreciated new assaults tied to its rotation; touchdown all 3 Fell Cleaves throughout Inside Launch grants a further follow-up assault, whereas Primal Rend additionally has its personal follow-up. All tanks now have an upgraded mitigation that appear ridiculously robust, providing 40% injury discount alongside a singular impact relying on the Job. 

Throughout an interview that we had with Yoshi-P, he elaborated that the workforce hoped to shock gamers with the high-end raids deliberate for Dawntrail, particularly with what number of mechanics have turn into standardized over the 12 months. Contemplating how DSR and TOP – Endwalker’s two Final Raids – went, seeing the upgrades to Tank mitigations makes me not less than a bit of involved for what us raiders have in retailer for is within the coming weeks and months. It additionally makes me speculate if this may be the explanation why jobs have seen few main modifications this go round, outdoors of outliers equivalent to Astrologian.

Talking of Astrologian – it is one other day that ends with the letter “y”, and Astrologians’ card system has as soon as once more been fully reworked. Gone is the RNG fully, and now drawing playing cards operates like a pendulum, with gamers drawing 1 of two presets of playing cards everytime, and the outcomes predetermined. You will all the time draw one hand, then the subsequent, all through a whole encounter. Whereas it makes Astrologian’s package a lot simpler to plan round, I can not say I am the largest fan of the change – although I am certain the brand new model can have loads of followers. It jogs my memory of how Summoner acquired reworked heading into Endwalker.

As for the 2 new jobs, I am excited to check them out in tougher content material. Viper weirdly seems like if Dancer was a grasping DPS, and with much less RNG. As somebody that likes to play Dancer however hates how a lot my enjoyable felt depending on when sure actions would activate – I am all for one more tackle the rotation. Pictomancer, however, felt like a harder nut to crack. There’s so many choices to play with – however not less than what we performed, I felt like a few of its assaults ought to’ve been oGCD once they have been a part of the common cooldown as an alternative. For such a dynamic set of skills, it felt oddly static in the way you performed. Possibly I am going to really feel in another way as soon as I’ve had extra time to play with it, and I am certain earlier than lengthy gamers will work out how one can take advantage of out of its toolkit.

There’s solely a lot extra I can speak about with what I performed, contemplating that kind of all taste textual content outdoors of FATEs had been scrubbed from the construct we performed. I spent a while grinding a number of of these in an effort to see what I’d discover, but it surely wasn’t like I used to be in a position to spawn one of many enlargement’s main world bosses – not less than, not deliberately. Throughout our session we did handle to take down an A-rank hunt, and later I managed to discover a sure Toad that additionally gave the impression to be one, earlier than it disappeared shortly into our combat. Later, Sq. Enix advised that what I had really found was one of many enlargement’s S-ranks. Neat!

Honestly, a lot of what I am excited for with Dawntrail are components that gamers will not have an opportunity to play with till months after launch, and it is onerous to parse precisely how the story will play out from such a restricted slice of the sport. The dungeon was enjoyable, with some neat gimmicks in fact – however I can not child myself that the majority of what the returning gamers will likely be excited about merely wasn’t part of the preview. Not less than the graphics replace was good, although I nonetheless need to see the way it shapes up on my system at dwelling – and the way it has impacted current zones – earlier than I come to any actual conclusions.

Which sums up my ideas basically; whereas I walked away from my early time with Dawntrail excited, a lot of what the enlargement must provide we merely will not be capable of make a judgment on it till we have all had the possibility to essentially dig deep come launch and past. There’s nothing flawed with that, however not less than for now this “Summer season Trip” actually is feeling just like the calm earlier than the storm.