Final Fantasy 14 Director Apologizes for Dawntrail Early Access Issues

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Final Fantasy 14 director Naoki Yoshida has apologized for the issues present in Dawntrail, the latest expansion currently available in early access.


In a blog post, Yoshida apoligized to fans who preordered the game and thus unlocked the early access version, and explained what has caused certain issues and how the development team at Square Enix plans to address them. He also suggested a hotfix would arrive sometime "this week" alongside a brief server maintenance period.

"Firstly, I would like to thank everyone who has been playing Dawntrail since the start of early access," Yoshida said. "However, I would like to offer my sincere apologies regarding the issues that we have identified."

Xbox version issues have perhaps been most prominent, as the game client can become completely unresponsive when moving between locations. "Our preliminary investigation suggests that this issue is likely due to a phenomenon known as memory fragmentation," Yoshida said.

I would like to offer my sincere apologies regarding the issues that we have identified.

Square Enix is looking into a fix for the problem but it will be "several days" before one is released, Yoshida said. This is because a patch must go through myriad checks by the quality assurance team.

"We are working to expedite the release of this patch at the earliest possible opportunity," he said. "However, we regret to say that this process will require some time. We sincerely apologize for the inconvenience this causes and appreciate your patience and understanding as we work to address the issue."

Players, in the meantime, may encounter the issue less if they play on worlds with low populations. "Until we have resolved the issue, we kindly suggest you consider playing on either the Dynamis, Shadow, or Oceania data centers," Yoshida said.

An incoming patch will also address freezing abilities not functioning properly and an issue with the display and animations of cerain characters.


"The aforementioned issues are being classified as a high priority," Yoshida said. "They are under investigation on our development server and are being addressed in a systematic manner. We are considering the release of a hot fix, which is likely to occur sometime this week, which would be accompanied by a brief maintenance period."

It's therefore likely all of these issues will still be in Dawntrail upon its full launch tomorrow, July 2, 2024. The accompanying Version 7.0 patch hade made plenty of positive changes to the game too, such as new areas, quests, quality-of-life improvement, a huge graphical upgrade, and the Viper and Pictomancer jobs, but seemingly not without a few frustrating bugs.

Dawntrail's Steam page is also full of middling reviews, as while Final Fantasy 14 expansions are usually widely praised by fans and critics, Dawntrail has dropped to a "mixed" rating. Despite "review bombing" being a common tactic for players looking to express frustration, Dawntrail's current Steam user review rating appears to be the result of genuine grievances and not bugs.


Ryan Dinsdale is an IGN freelance reporter. He'll talk about The Witcher all day.