Final Fantasy XIV Dawntrail Live Letter launch trailer raids mounts

Final Fantasy XIV director Naoki Yoshida and global community producer Toshio Murouchi delivered more Dawntrail news in another "Live Letter from the Producer" over the weekend. They were joined by English translator Aimi Tokutake who helped them share all these exciting tidbits to a bilingual audience.

After kicking off the presentation with the official Dawntrail launch trailer, Yoshida, aka Yoshi-P, pulled the cover off of welcomed Patch 7.0 quality-of-life changes and even gave us a taste of Dawntrail’s raid combat. As always, here are the highlights.

Dawntrail Trial and Raid Gameplay

Thanks to the Dawntrail promotional site that launched at the beginning of the month, we’re not completely unfamiliar with what awaits us in the next expansion’s 8-person boss instances. But we got a closer look at the dangers ahead with Yoshi-P taking his Lalafell black mage into the game for 15 to 20 seconds of trial and raid combat.

First, we got a glimpse at the legendary Valigarmanda, who, until now, we’ve only seen in Dawntrail promotional art. It turns out that Valigarmanda is very reminiscent of Eden’s Gate Leviathan introduced in Shadowbringers. After getting walloped by a few map-sized AoEs, Yoshi-P ran off the map before too much was revealed.

This short combat demonstration was also our first look at the new attack warning system coming in Patch 7.0. Hard-hitting boss attacks will be indicated at the center of the screen in a red bar, giving players a clearer reminder to avoid danger and reposition if needed. Yoshi-P elaborated that this new warning system was designed mostly to help new players and that the feature will slowly be added to all pre-Dawntrail content.

*The new attack warnings appear at the center of the screen.*

We then got to see Yoshi-P square up against “Black Cat” (name translated from Japanese), a boss featured in Dawntrail’s 8-person raid series, “The Arcadian.” The Dawntrail promotional site has already laid down some context which gets further confirmed in this gameplay demonstration. The map’s “Cyberpunk” aesthetic aligns with the promotional art released in early June, and the huge crowds surrounding the WWE ring-like arena play into the tournament-style spectator sport our Warrior of Light is thrust into.

Yoshi-P revealed that “The Arcadian” will be arriving in Patch 7.01 that drops on July 16, and the first set of Savage content will arrive a couple of weeks later on July 30.

*The Black Cat is a boss in "The Arcadian" raid series.*

New System Adjustments

Some of the more surprising features announced in this Live Letter were the system adjustments and quality-of-life changes coming in Dawntrail. A lot of these enhancements apply to gear and glamouring and we’re totally okay with that! Here are the ones that have us really excited.

Two dyes can be applied to gear.

That’s right! This long-requested feature is coming to Dawntrail to make the glamour endgame even more compelling. Presumably, all new gear sets coming in Dawntrail will have this feature available, but more equipment will receive the two-dye treatment over time with Yoshi-P hoping that all gear will have it by Patch 7.4.

*Yoshi-P shows of two dyes being applied to gear.*

Additionally, players will also be able to select “favorite” dyes for easy access and save and use previously applied dies for quick color matching.

Facewear will be separate from headwear.

*Characters will be able to wear Facewear with head gear.*

There will be new parasols, minions, mounts, and WINGS!

New minions and mounts arriving in a new expansion are expected and Yoshi-P spent some time in-game showing off some of the incoming accessories players can look forward to. By far the coolest item shown was the wing mount. Beautifully designed and elegant while in flight, the wing mounts appear behind Yoshi-P’s Lalafell with a flowing tail added while flying around.

The one shown during the Live Letter is just one in an expected series that will be unblocked via Dawntrail trials.

*Wings mounts are arriving in Dawntrail!*

Dawntrail launch schedule

Yoshi-P ended the presentation with a look at Dawntrail’s upcoming launch schedule. These dates cover early access to the end of July. Mark your calendars because Dawntrail is just 15 days away!