Final Fantasy 14 Director Apologizes for 'Problems' Identified in Dawntrail Early Access Build

Final Fantasy 14 director Naoki “Youshi P” Yoshida has offered his “sincere apologies” for the “issues” identified in the early access version of its highly anticipated expansion, Dawntrail.

In a blog post on the official website, Yoshida thanked players for playing and assured them that the team is “investigating” the causes of the most pressing issues, including frozen transitions on Xbox and broken animations on all platforms.

“We have confirmed an issue in the Xbox version where the game client may become unresponsive when transitioning between locations, such as terrain areas and towns,” Yoshida explained. “Our preliminary investigation suggests that this problem is likely due to a phenomenon known as memory fragmentation.

“We are currently conducting a thorough investigation into the issue, which we have prioritized to ensure a rapid resolution. However, resolving this issue requires deploying a patch to update the client. This process involves rigorous checks of the from our quality assurance team, among other procedures, which means it may take several days.

Yoshida said the team is working to expedite a fix to address this issue, but since “this process will take some time,” he “apologized for the inconvenience.”

Similarly, issues in Dragonsong's Reprise (Ultimate), Minstrel's Ballad: Shinryu's Domain, and Delubrum Reginae (Savage) where “freezing-related mechanics are not working properly” will be addressed via a “client patch,” though it's not yet clear when it will be rolled out.

“The above-mentioned issues are rated as high priority,” Yoshida added. “They are being investigated on our development server and addressed in a systematic manner. We are considering releasing a patch, expected this week, which would be accompanied by a brief maintenance period.

“I would like to once again apologize for the occurrence of these issues. Rest assured, we are committed to addressing issues such as these that arise after an expansion release and will continue to quickly fix any urgent issues that may arise.”

“So far, Tural’s environments feel rich and warm, existing in a perpetual summer haze,” Ed wrote in his wonderful Final Fantasy 14: Dawntrail preview.

“Zooming in closer, the real difference with the graphics update is evident. The texture work on armor and weapons is a big improvement, while animal races, like the new female Hrothgar, look more realistic in terms of fur. »

In 2015, the MMO had four million players for the Heavensward expansion; that figure grew to 30 million registered accounts by Tokyo Fan Fest 2024. Even by 2021, it had become the highest-grossing game in the long-running series and that has only increased since then, not to mention the game's release this year on Xbox and the likely sales boost that Dawntrail will bring.

Yoshida told Eurogamer that there is “almost no risk” of server issues at launch, when the expansion goes live on July 2, 2024.