This post is a April 2026 transcription of this video. The text has been edited for readability while preserving my original sentiment.

We are back for the final day of my discussion on Dawntrail, but I will have a full review of Dawntrail including ranking all the expansions. For now, let’s enjoy what I played for the finale! The first thing we went through was the Origenics Dungeon. That was a very cool dungeon. Not only did they actually seep in lore about each of the soul processing facilities, the music was incredible. You know, it’s still maybe not as good as Vanguard. I’m still a huge fan of the Vanguard music. It’s still a pretty awesome banger.

Next, we move right into the Everkeep trial where we fight Zoraal Ja. This one was amazing because Zoraal Ja had so many cool patterns to dodge. Like, I’m not kidding you. He had the ones where the patterns would appear on like other aspects of the cube, and then you would have to trace it with your eyes of like which, like because it would be on some other cubes outside of the main platform. And then they would all link up to different areas of the platform you’re on. So you had to kind of figure out a small little puzzle as you’re trying to dodge. And that was just so much fun. And then his second form looked so dope. I don’t know what it was, but that second form was just so awesome. I freaking loved that. So, yeah, that was super much that was so much fun.

And it was also like a very sad moment because we had the moment where Zoraal Ja is like kind of feeling this like sense of not guilt, but like the sense of like, I failed to live up to expectations. You know, this very like believable reason for why he’s doing what he’s doing. And it’s because he just felt like he could never live up to the expectations his father set. And he tried his own way to exceed those expectations. So I love that. We also learned that atop of Everkeep was a portal to another reflection, which was obviously the Alexandria reflection, which was so cool. We still don’t know what number reflection it is. I’m still saying it’s nine just because of Solution 9, because it’s Final Fantasy based off Final Fantasy 9, all these different things. But who knows? It might not be.

And then we learn that Sphene is like, yo, you killed Zoraal Ja, but my people still need help. Because what we learned in Origenics and what Sphene also learns, also tells us is like, in order for my people to survive, in order for the Endless to continue surviving, we need the life of people. And the only way we can do that is by killing. And G’raha mentions this great point to her and he’s like, no matter what you do, even if you go and destroy another world, you’re still going to run into the same issue because people will always be dying. You’ll always need some more life. And so he’s like, you will still continuously wipe out all other reflections, all other worlds, and you would still run into the same issue. But she was like, you know what? I’m done speaking with you. Peace out. She takes the artifact and then she heads up to the reflection. And we’re just like, oh no.

And when she closes the reflection, we learn that Cahciua is actually an Endless, which I was debating on whether she was an Endless or whether she was like very similar to Otis or all these different things. But it definitely seems like, oh, the connection to Alexandria to here was only accessible to the Endless because the portal was always open and now it’s sealed. And we’re like, so we’re like, how do we get to it? And I was like, oh yeah, the city of the gold. Let’s go there. So we get to the city of gold. Really awesome moment where everyone is like coming together of like, we’re going to we’re going to keep this portal open because we don’t know if Sphene’s going to close it or not. So we’re going to try our best to keep it open. Everyone’s like, I’ll defend it, I’ll defend it. And then we got our expedition here. We have G’raha, we have Krile, we got Wuk Lamat and we got me and we’re like, all right, we’re going in and we’re like, we’re going to go to expedition. We go inside and we see the city of gold.

And this is where the belief that Yok Huy had about the memories of someone and how they don’t die. I think it came from Alexandria because, you know, they talk about how the Yok Huy had these dreams and visions of the city of gold. Because Sphene constantly says that, like, because they’re in our memories, they’re never forgotten. Obviously, the way she implies that it means something different to the way giants are are implementing it in their own culture. But I really feel like because the giants learned about the city of gold and they had visions of the city of gold, I think that is where they came to the understanding that death is not permanent. Once if you remember someone, you keep them always in your heart, that they’ll always live on. And I think that’s where they they pulled that understanding from Alexandria in the city of gold.

Because when we go to Living Memory, this was a really dystopian and very unsettling area because you’re seeing all these people who died and the terminal is using their memories to reconstruct how they would how they would act. And even to the point where the terminals would put people who knew each other together so that they would always have these relationships, every character, whether it be Krile, Erenville, Wuk Lamat, they’re all interacting with an AI that is attempting to use the memories of all these people and recreate them in a way that feels like it’s actually them. And it was super unsettling because it’s not something I would ever, ever want to be a part of or participate in. That being said, this was one of the most emotionally heart-wrenching moments because sometimes you never get that opportunity, like with Krile’s parents. Krile’s never got to see her parents. She’s never got to talk to them. She’s never got to have a meal with them. So the fact that we were able to see that opportunity, that she was able to experience that and that she herself was able to say her a goodbye the way she wanted to. And on top of that, she learned about her own people. It’s just, it’s so beautiful.

And the same thing with Erenville. Only just a few days ago did he realize that he lost all contact of his mother because of the dome. And now he is like throughout the entirety of that dungeon, he’s quiet. He is held back because he knows that he lost his mother and that he knows that he lost his mother. And he’s trying so hard to not say anything because he doesn’t know how to process this. And it’s like, it’s so heartbreaking to see a character like that. And what really broke me during that whole scene was there’s a moment where they’re about to say goodbye. There’s a moment where Erenville’s mother is saying goodbye to him. It’s a character who has been so excited and so uplifting and making jokes, cracking jokes. And for the first time she starts to cry. And it’s just really heartbreaking to see. And all is this is to say that the Living Memory is one of those things where I might be against this completely. And it’s something that I’m like, this should not exist in the real world.

But the moments that I saw with Krile, with Wuk Lamat and Namika, with Erenville and his mother, like, it really makes me think that if I was in a situation like theirs, I would not pass down that opportunity, you know? So that was absolutely incredible. We turn off all the terminals in the Living Memory and it falls apart. It becomes this old decrepit area, which I didn’t even talk about how the Living Memory looks.

The Living Memory looks amazing, full of life, looks incredible. It’s very funny how I mentioned that Solution 9 looks like it’s stale and dead, and then how Living Memory looks like it’s alive and well. And it’s kind of the inverse, because one is hosting the dead and one is hosting the living, which is very funny.

We travel forward to the Alexandria dungeon. That was super cool. It definitely reminds me of the dungeon in 6.5 for Endwalker. That was a ton of fun of just exploring this old town. And the cool thing about it is that we explore Alexandria in three different acts, right? The first one is kind of just seeing Alexandria as it has always been. Then the next one is the during the war. And then the last one is during the reconstruction. And what was really cool about each moment is that as we were entering boss battles, it saw us as a virus, right? It saw us as this foreign entity that should be expelled from the terminal. And so we we got introduced to the like creepy, crazy monsters to like the last one being one of the coolest because they had so many awesome attack patterns that it was just a lot of fun to just experience and play.

I think that was the one thing that I realized playing through all of Dawntrail was like, maybe this was one of the first times where I was like truly, truly like all in on like the pattern dodging and the moving around because usually it’s like, oh, you know, it’s cool to fight the boss, but I’m like, I’m ready for the story here. But this one I was like, I was like super engaged, super excited about fighting these bosses. All their designs were incredible. A lot of the fighting was super cool, especially the final boss was so awesome. So that was a really a lot of fun.

And then we move straight into the Interphos fight, which was incredible. Not only was that beginning cutscene just super dope about inviting the warriors of light to join us in this battle, which was so funny because even when I was playing Endwalker, which was playing Endwalker at launch. Even I had to wait at least a minute or so for the trial to start. No, the trial instantly already clicked in. I was like, whoa, what the heck? That was quick.

The music was so good. That entire fight was incredible. Surprisingly, I only died once and the party did not wipe at all, which I was stunned. That whole fight was incredible. There was so many I don’t even know. I was too busy playing the actual dungeon for me to write down the different patterns and things that occurred. But it was just a huge variety of so many cool abilities. There was like one where you saw this like a computer grid on the ground and then you would start seeing the grid start to warp and you’re like, oh, that’s the that’s the attack home. We got to move aside. And that was super cool.

There was one where it would. People, it would follow lasers and it would it would direct people would be controlling the attack line. There is one where it created a like very steep, like a very thin platform. So you had to move across. You played wipe out at some point. It was like there was so many incredible like that was truly one of the coolest fights. And then, of course, get the second form, which this time second form did not happen at 50 percent. It happened towards the very end, because honestly, I think they learned from the Endsinger. The second form is more of just like a hype. You’re about to defeat the enemy so have fun and wail on the boss. Dawntrail has been one of my favorite Final Fantasy 14 experiences. Please check out my full review on the website!