Final Fantasy XIV: Dawntrail Expansion Announced for Summer 2024

Square Enix’s Creative Business Unit III and producer Naoki Yoshida kicked off their 2024 Final Fantasy XIV Fan Festival Keynote with an announcement trailer for the game’s fifth expansion, Dawntrail.

Dawntrail is currently scheduled for release in Summer 2024. The delay was expected due to the previous announcement before Endwalker‘s release that the COVID-19 pandemic had permanently slowed down the game’s release cycle. Not much was revealed immediately due to the length of time before the release, but we already know that it will be accompanied by a major graphical update to the entire game, which is sorely needed given that the game just celebrated its ten-year anniversary since being relaunched as Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn.

The trailer featured much of the main cast of the game, including a new figure in a cloak named Erenville that is described as “a visitor from the New World,” which also appears to be the main location for the new storyline of the expansion.

Producer Yoshida described the story as “the best summer vacation you could ever have,” with the teaser:

“As hope’s light dawns once more, a hero looks to new horizons…

“Alongside Alphinaud, Alisaie, and Erenville,
the Warrior of Light embarks upon a journey across the
Indigo Deep. Should rumor be true, the contest may lead them
to the fabled gates of a city of gold.

“Little do they know that it will also see the Scions divided…”

The theme of the expansion is “A Journey of Discovery,” with the setting being heavily inspired by Incan and Mayan folklore and the story of El Dorado.

The game’s level cap is being increased from 90 to 100, breaking the series tradition of maxing character level out at 99. The expansion will add two new jobs as the previous ones did, but no further details were given outside of both being DPS-based, one being a melee class and the other being a magic class, with Yoshida jokingly asking the audience “what jobs do you want?”, followed by the crowd attempting to shout to him. Yoshida is well-known for teasing upcoming content with his choice of t-shirts at presentations, and he took a moment to dramatically and deliberately reveal that he was wearing a shirt for the new Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles film, Mutant Mayhem.

The first new Beast Tribe of the expansion was also shared, being the “diminutive” Pelupelu. It is currently unknown whether this is the combat, gathering, or crafting tribe.

One of the new bosses was revealed to be Valigarmanda, previously seen in Final Fantasy V. Though we don’t yet know what dungeon it will appear in (or whether it will be a standalone fight), new concept art was revealed with the announcement.

New Duty Support options were teased, including more characters and options for new content outside of the main Scions of the Seventh Dawn party members that generally accompany the player in the current single-player supported content. “Expansive New Lifestyle Content” was also announced, and noted to be in a similar vein to the Island Sanctuary feature that debuted during Endwalker.

The branching “variant dungeons” introduced during the 6.x patch cycle will be returning in Dawntrail, along with a new 24-player Alliance Raid series and 8-player Raid series with details to come, and a new Ultimate-tier raid. The “Ultimate” content is generally seen as the most difficult in the entire game.

Additional Player-Vs-Player content was announced, with more details to come, as well as new maps for the existing Crystalline Conflict and Frontline modes.

Finally, the Blue Mage limited job will be getting an update with a level cap increase, another Hildibrand quest line is on the way, the team has plans for more Deep Dungeon content, and the Gold Saucer feature will receive an update as well. (Yoshida noted that it is specifically not a Blitzball minigame, referencing a frequently-requested feature to integrate the minigame from Final Fantasy X.)

You can watch the reveal trailer below: