For the hands-on preview of Dawntrail, I couldn't do my usual as we only had a limited glimpse into what the next expansion will offer. We had access to Tuliyollal city, two open world areas, Urqopacha and Kozama'uka, and the Ihuykatumu dungeon. That might seem like a lot, but these weren't as alive as they will be at launch, and I don't just mean because there were only about 30 of us running around at any given time.
Naturally, the team had masked or removed any important NPCs or anything and anyone related to the plot, and the only vendors you could interact with were gear menders. The NPCs all said the same line, too, 'Welcome to Tural!'. I'm ashamed to say it took me speaking with about five different NPCs before I realized this was purposefully done for the preview and not that I just kept meeting boring NPCs. There were no main scenario quests, no side quests, nada. So all the interesting story revelations are still under lock and key until launch.
Distracted By The Beauty Of The Graphical Update
However, all of my plans about what to do first went out the window as soon as I logged in. It was impossible not to fixate on the graphical update and ooh and aah at every scrap of clothing and fabric, character, and detail. Based on the squeals of delight of other players saying, "Look at this texture!", I was far from the only one to be immediately impressed by the upgrade. I doubt my own PC will be quite as good at rendering the improvements, so I lapped it all up while I could.
I spent a lot of time flying across the maps just to soak in how gorgeous it all looked, running through Tuliyollal, snapping screenshots of any and all NPCs and sights that I came across. I went diving in the water, I travelled to the farthest reaches of the map, and I even stumbled into a cave in Urqopacha with some murals on the wall that had me spouting theories to anyone who would hear them, including the poor people directly next to me who had no choice but to listen.
It's not the first time a cave painting featured in the game has been a clue about what was to come, and so I couldn't help but wonder what these new depictions meant. Will we see some of these figures appear as dungeon or trial bosses? Is this part of the new mythos and story arc that will take years to unfold? Or perhaps this is simply nothing, instead thrown in as a red herring to drive us up the wall as we try to attach some reason and importance to it? Only time will tell.
Of course, I've included screenshots of the murals so you can obsess and theorize over them yourself, too.
We had an inventory full of Fantasia, so checking out a Hrothgal was high on my to-do list, largely because I thought my default character looked boring and I wanted someone else to stare at while playing. The options were more limited for female Hrothgar, for example, we didn't have many hairstyles to choose from, but it didn't take me long to settle on a Warrior of Light that would fit the bill for a temporary companion.
I also checked out the new multi-dye option for gear. I can promise you now that picking your perfect outfit will take you even longer, but it'll be well worth it as your WoL will look proper swish!
Taking The New Jobs For A Test Drive
We could also switch between most jobs, including the new Viper and Pictomancer roles, all of which were at Level 100. The only jobs we didn't have access to were Disciples of the Hand/Land and Blue Mage, but like most other previewers, my focus was on taking the new jobs for a test drive and checking out changes to my main, Bard.
As far as Bard goes: cool guitar bow is cool but not being able to cast songs out of battle felt unnatural.
I started with Viper, trying to follow along with the rotation notes we were given on how to play. I didn't stay with it long. Don't get me wrong, it was fun and felt swift and easy to get the hang of, but the lure of Pictomancer called to me in a much stronger way, and the lack of proper rotation in the notes was the exact sort of chaos I wanted to experience. Can you really go wrong if you haven't been given a right way to do things?
It turns out you can. I'm sure I was far from efficient as I muddled through creating the three different types of canvases and blundered through spells. You need to cast a series of different Depiction spells to complete a canvas, for example, casting Depiction of Pom followed by Depiction of Wings will allow you to cast Mog of the Ages, sending a Moogle in to attack your opponent. For the most part, I used whichever action was highlighted as the one to use next, but I did fall into a familiar, enjoyable pattern with Pictomancer quite quickly. The Weapon Canvas that has you attacking enemies with a giant mallet was a firm favorite that I found myself using the most.
If At First You Don't Succeed At New Content, Try, Try Again
I felt familiar enough with enough with Pictomancer to think I could tackle the Ihuykatumu dungeon with my trusty paintbrush. By the time I reached the dungeon's final boss, I realised I was very much mistaken on this point, but up until then I felt like I breezed through on Pictomancer.
Ihuykatumu felt well-paced. While some dungeons can feel like they drag (and perhaps we'll still have some of those in Dawntrail), this felt snappy and exciting. You start aboard a boat battling enemies before taking to the land and navigating through, climbing ladders on the way, and tackling the usual three bosses, which included a giant manatee, an adorable Ghibli-esque creature called Drowsie, and a horrifying bug that killed me multiple times.
The small bits of cutscene and text dialogue we were given here didn't really give anything more away other than what we already know: your Warrior of Light is helping one contender for Tural's throne, Wuk Lamat, while your old buddies, Thancred and Urianger, are supporting another contender in their own endeavour. We had a glimpse of a new character in this dungeon, Koana, who I assume is the contender the other Scions are supporting.
I have to admit, I feel like I cheated a bit at first. I went in with NPCs so it's easy to just follow them to avoid mechanics. The know where to stand to not get hit, so you just follow them. That was until I hit that final boss, and the mechanics felt like they were personally targeting me that no amount of effort to keep up with the NPCs saved me. My lack of skill in the dungeon was further emphasized when I grouped up with others, this time on Bard, and still died an embarrassing number of times.
It was far from my only embarrassment. Hunts were one of the things available to us, and we grouped up more than once. Our first attempt that led to multiple failures was in taking down a bug called Queen Hawk (bugs just aren't my strong point, it seems) and we all promptly wiped when it used a move called Bee Be Here. Another hunt mark had everyone stumped for ages when it caused us all to dance uncontrollably.
One thing's for certain, there are going to be plenty of new surprises, mechanics, and abilities to get used to in Dawntrail, and I can't wait to suffer through trying to work them out some more. The preview was almost painful in that in the grand scheme of the expansion, it was just a small tantalizingly exciting taste of what's to come. I can't wait to experience it all properly with my own Warrior of Light, and more importantly, with friends who can carry me through the battles I keep dying in.
