Over ten years and 4 expansions Sq. Enix explored the story of two warring gods, Hydaelyn and Zodiark, and the fractured worlds created by way of that, coming to a climactic end in Endwalker. How do you comply with up a decade of storytelling that’s garnered tens of hundreds of thousands of followers within the course of?
Remaining Fantasy 14’s reply is to do one thing drastically completely different with its latest growth, Dawntrail, adopting a a lot lighter, extra adventurous tone, super visible adjustments, and introduces a brand new solid of characters. It’s nonetheless a Remaining Fantasy sport by way of and thru, however fascinatingly it seems like Dawntrail has drawn inspiration from one other seminal, perpetually unending sequence: One Piece.
When Dawntrail was first introduced director Naoki Yoshida described it as a “Summer season Trip” for the Warrior of Gentle, that’s to say, your participant character. And it spawned a operating joke inside the group that this was going to be the “seaside arc” — a light-hearted “break” that takes the characters away from the principle drama for a few episodes such as you see in lots of anime. Nevertheless it seems these comparisons could not have been utterly off-base because the additional you dig into Dawntrail’s layers the extra it begins to really feel like a shonen anime like Dragon Ball, Naruto, and most significantly for our comparability, One Piece.
No different anime has captured the sensation of journey fairly like One Piece, and Eichiro Oda’s pirate epic has already been inspiring others for effectively over a decade. With that in thoughts, it seems like a pure line to attract for Dawntrail, an growth that wishes to maneuver previous the big world-hopping story of the final decade, and create one thing extra grounded.
Dawntrail, at its core, is a narrative about its ensemble solid slightly than you the participant. In actual fact, your Warrior of Gentle isn’t even the protagonist within the newest growth. That honor goes to a newcomer named Wuk Lamat who serves because the Luffy of this story. And the 2 share quite a lot of commonalities.
Wuk Lamat is a younger starry-eyed hero who needs to make the world a greater place and obtain her dream of turning into the ruler of the nation of Tural, Dawntrail’s new setting. She’s inherently inexperienced and naive, however has a coronary heart of gold, and most of Dawntrail’s story is about her studying to turn into a pacesetter, whereas gathering a celebration of numerous allies in that course of.
Each Wuk Lamat and Luffy have that happy-go-lucky angle that makes them initially appear aloof, however the deeper layer beneath reveals they’re keen to do completely something for his or her mates. It’s fascinating to see Wuk Lamat’s development mimic Luffy’s, reworking from an unpredictable wild card to a genuinely charismatic and compelling captain.
There are many different parallels you may draw between the Scions and the Straw Hat crew, proper all the way down to the participant filling the identical function as Roronoa Zoro; the world-renowned legendary warrior who acts as a greatest pal and sidekick. However past simply drawing these parallels, Dawntrail ensures that its peppy shonen story nonetheless feels intentionally Remaining Fantasy-esque.
Whereas Dawntrail’s complete narrative construction is almost precisely the identical as these first few arcs in One Piece — journey to new lands, study the native tradition, and inevitably remedy their issues, all whereas on the hunt for a legendary treasure — however the connective tissue is the themes on the coronary heart of Dawnrail, which converse to what the sport has accomplished for years however on a bigger scale.
This story of Dawntrail is all about Wuk Lamat discovering her voice and reworking into a pacesetter, utilizing the assistance of a crew made up of wildly completely different folks, who all expertise their very own development. However at its the core it’s about relationships, and diving into the complexities of how folks work together with one another, and extra largely how cultures combine collectively.
That One Piece type of setup and storytelling is used to nice impact in Dawntrail to ship narrative punches. A lot of this growth is spent meticulously build up large personalities and delivering essential character growth, in service of a bigger message in regards to the nature of grief, acceptance, what it means to be glad, and the way all of these concepts and feelings can exist without delay. Like in One Piece, these themes are all filtered by way of a central character, with Wuk Lamat performing as a type of compass by way of the narrative threads. As a result of the participant Warrior of Gentle is taking over the function of a sidekick this time, we get to see these new components of the sport’s world by way of a novel perspective.
One Piece has usually accomplished this identical factor, utilizing the veil of slapstick comedy or over-the-top characters to ship really exceptional, heartfelt storytelling. Dawntrail does that by way of familiarity, constructing on a world, characters, and lore that gamers have come to know and love throughout a decade. In that sense, Dawntrail is each a recent begin for the MMO and a continuation, utilizing acquainted components to inform a narrative with a a lot completely different tone and magnificence.
It’s a daring change that doubtless isn’t going to resonate with each participant, particularly those that have been enthralled by the Hydaelyn and Zodiark narrative of earlier expansions. But when Remaining Fantasy 14 needs to proceed to interrupt new floor, it additionally feels crucial. Dawntrail couldn’t simply do the identical factor once more, it needed to be drastically completely different, it needed to pull its inspirations from someplace new, and One Piece was a main selection for each the setting and narrative themes.
There’s a motive One Piece has cultivated such a large fan following and continued operating for over 20 years. The best way the franchise set itself up is impeccable, centering a posh solid of characters which have room to develop and alter throughout a dozen completely different arcs.
As Remaining Fantasy 14 strikes previous its final decade, that feels just like the intent right here. It needs to arrange a core solid of characters and ideas that may be stored operating, and fortuitously it already has most of these left over from the earlier narrative arc. Dawntrail is proof that lots of thought has been put into laying a basis for the sport to proceed alongside as a serialized story, and having lots in frequent with One Piece ought to already be thought of a very good signal.
Hayes Madsen is a contract author for IGN.