Final Fantasy XIV Dawntrail Highlights First Graphical Update

The new expansion for Final Fantasy XIV will bring about the first graphical update for the game. This won’t be a simple upgrade to character models but into the environment, lighting, and texture details of the entire world of Eorzea.

This will make the game’s overall presentation and lead to a much better experience for players as the update happens. Further, this will vastly improve the look of an area beyond the texture fidelity and can already be seen in screenshots from the showcase earlier.

• In case you missed the announcement of Dawntrail, view our coverage.
• The areas of Tural explained.

The significant updates for character models will include better eyes and screen textures, making characters more expressive and less blurry. For example, the Hrothgar, a fully beastlike race, will have more defined fur throughout their face and body, making them appear slightly more realistic.

Hair will also be more realistic and not clump as it has been since the original launch. NPC characters will also receive these updates. However, this will be in waves as the team updates each model individually.

So there will be instances of an updated character being around a non-updated NPC. Armor will also be affected in waves as there is too much armor to update at once, starting with Dawntrail and moving up from A Realm Reborn content until all armor has been brought up to date.

You can view the update in the example screenshots below.

Final Fantasy XIV is an MMO that has players work together through a story worthy of any Final Fantasy title. Dawntrail is the latest expansion that will have players in a contest searching for the fabled City of Gold, which will have the Scions work with and against each other to decide who will ascend the throne of Tural.

The game was confirmed to release for Xbox in Spring 2024.

The Final Fantasy XIV: Dawntrail Expansion was announced for Summer 2024.

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.