Final Fantasy 14: Dawntrail is entering its “early access” period tomorrow—players who pre-order it’ll be able to get on a boat to Tural before anyone else, though it’s more of a formality (and a chance to get a shiny EXP earring) since the cut-off for the pre-order rewards is July 2 when the game releases.
To celebrate, Square Enix has pulled out all the stops to create a fake tourism website for Tural, the continent we’ll be sailing to—and it’s honestly downright adorable. They even got in Rhys Darby to do some video promotions for Tural tourism—or “Turalism”—who you might recognise as Stede Bonnett from Our Flag Means Death and Russel from Half-Life: Alyx.
Interim Deputy Director of Turalism here!If you’re planning a trip to Tural, visit our website for all your travel needs! 🏖️ https://t.co/ry1piSygHfAdventure awaits – FINAL FANTASY XIV: Dawntrail is available July 2.Pre-order Now: https://t.co/MlPzJuHD9Q #FFXIV #Dawntrail pic.twitter.com/YRtw2Y9kwYJune 26, 2024
It has recommendations for activities like riding a dirigible, or a foodie tour of the bazaar. There’s a travel advisory about loose alpacas, though “no further action is required,” the website promises: “just letting you know in case you like alpacas and want to pet one.”
As you might see in the picture below, it looks like there’s a petite ARG happening, as per a small map fragment tucked away in the bottom left that you can open up by right-clicking and selecting “open image in new tab”.
Solution Nine, the expansion’s most mysterious zone, also has a mysterious password entry form. There might not be an actual solution (nine) yet, though, as one player on the FFXIV subreddit notes: “the submit function just always returns an error regardless of which password you type … In addition, there’s also no network request on submit, so if there was to be a password it would probably be static in the website somewhere; just doesn’t seem to be one.”
Mind, there is a section of the website called “Need Help? Tural talk” that states it’s “coming tomorrow”, so there’s probably more to come. In terms of those hidden map fragments, I’ve only been able to find two, shown below:
Image 1 of 2
My favourite page, though, is by far the Inside the Board, which contains some very small fine print disclaimers that are, ah, concerning:
- “All visitors must acknowledge that death can technically be considered a once-in-a-lifetime experience.”
- “Return not guaranteed.”
- “The Board of Turalism waives any and all legal, moral, existential, and financial responsibility in the event of loss of limb, wing, leg, torso, tail, head, or sanity.”
If you look at my writer’s bio, you already know I’m excited for this expansion, but I am humble enough to admit that I am not immune to marketing, and this website would be a darling slam dunk even if it wasn’t clear a lot of effort had been put into it. Final Fantasy 14: Dawntrail releases into early access tomorrow June 28 at 5 pm PST / 10 am BST, and enters into its full release July 2. Until then, there are always patch notes to peruse.