Final Fantasy 14 Dawntrail recent reviews drop back to "Mostly Negative" on Steam as Patch 7.25 falls short of MMO fans' expectations: "Occult Crescent has disappointed many people"

It's official – the recent Steam reviews for the latest Final Fantasy 14 expansion, Dawntrail, are now once again sitting at "Mostly Negative" after briefly rising to "Mixed."

Back in April, Dawntrail finally saw its reviews rise to "Mixed" on Steam after eight months of sitting at "Mostly Negative" due to feedback surrounding the expansion's story and content – but now, it seems they've fallen back down after Patch 7.25. While Dawntrail's overall reviews remain Mixed, it's safe to say that the new patch, which adds the new Field Operation, Occult Crescent, and other fresh features to the MMO, isn't being received well by all players, despite Square Enix saying developers took past feedback into account while designing it.

Some of the latest reviews on Steam highlight fans' problems with 7.25, with one writing that "the spark is gone" and "the formula is stale." Another explains that new additions like Occult Crescent are "boring" right now, with "too much repetitive grind with not much to do." In fact, the most recent of Square's Field Operations is cited by others, too, as having "so many issues" and feeling like "recycled Bozja and Eureka" content.

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After a brief rally with 7.2, Dawntrail has dropped back to "Mostly Negative" on Steam from r/ffxivdiscussion

A Reddit thread discussing the expansion's Steam reviews and their drop from "Mixed" to "Mostly Negative" echoes this sentiment. "Was personally hoping that 7.2 would be an indicator of a rebound, but [7.5] is starting to look like a cycle of 'It's so over' and 'We're so back,'" reads the original post. "Occult Crescent has disappointed many people," despite the fact that "the critical engagements are nice."

It simply isn't enough to carry the rest of the content and other complaints, as the poster says, like those revolving around the player limit per instance and "being unable to effectively organize 48 players into the same group." It seems Occult Crescent and its "questionable design choices" are sadly falling short of impressing the community – and as a longtime fan myself, I have to admit I also haven't exactly felt excited about diving into Patch 7.25.

Final Fantasy 14 devs once thought Field Operations would only "resonate" with select fans of the MMO, but now "it feels like even more players than we expected are looking forward to the next piece"