Final Fantasy 14 hit a major milestone by recording the highest player count in a decade with the Dawntrail expansion. Naoki Yoshida, the game’s producer and director, posted a blog confirming the game had not seen such player count numbers since A Realm Reborn was released in 2013.
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Usually, the number of players fluctuates depending on the hype. Games typically receive high traffic after new releases or expansions and gradually experience a gradual decline in numbers. Final Fantasy 14 released Dawntrail as the fifth expansion pack for Square Enix. As expected, warriors showed up in numbers to experience the game in the expansion.
The Dawntrail expansion spiked the number of concurrent players to a record high the ten-year-old multiplayer game had not witnessed before, despite mixed reactions on Steam. The expansion included a graphical update that introduced a fresh experience to gamers.
Yoshida apologizes for Final Fantasy 14 issues
In the blog, Yoshida apologized to the gaming community for Final Fantasy’s shortcomings and stated that the team was working on fixing the issues. He assured FF14 players that a community update would be released soon to follow up on the fixes once they were integrated into the game.
I sincerely apologize. We’ve already announced on the Lodestone that a number of these issues are presently under investigation, but rest assured, we will be doing everything in our power to address them as quickly as possible. You can expect a follow-up announcement when fixes are ready for implementation.
Yoshida highlighted that the team will specifically address issues in Patch 7.01 to improve the “effectiveness of area-of-effect” attacks. He also mentioned that fixing Patch 7.01 will prompt minor changes to the job HUD.
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Yoshida apologized for Monk’s failure to meet community members’ expectations, which differed from what the game had previously announced to the public.
Dawntrail experiences mixed reactions on Steam
Players on Steam expressed mixed reactions to the Dawntrail expansion. Some called it the ‘best’ expansion the game has ever unveiled, while others disagreed and expressed contrary opinions.
The positive reviews expressed interest in some elements of the Final Fantasy 14 expansion, such as the new world of Tural and its diverse characters like Hrothgar. Other players stated they enjoyed the game extensively.
Overall, a respectable 8.5/10. It was an excellent expansion that I managed to thoroughly enjoy.
Negative feedback from community members on Steam about the Dawntrail expansion highlighted several main issues, including their dislike of the character Wuk Lamat. Some believe that the character overshadows the Warrior of Light.
Many players described the story as too boring compared to previous expansions like Shadowbringers, Heavensward, and Endwalker.
Whoever wrote the story for this expansion isn’t as good at writing compared to Natsuko Ishikawa, who wrote Heavensward, Shadowbringers, and Endwalker.
Yoshida promised Final Fantasy players the team would continue to collect feedback from gamers and make the necessary adjustments after releasing Patches 7.01 and 7.05. He also congratulated the community members for their patience and participation.
Cryptopolitan reporting by Collins J. Okoth
