Final Fantasy 14's Dawntrail is getting its first major patch next week, adding the expansion's first alliance raid, ultimate raid, and new main story quests. It's also sprinkling a fair amount of quality-of-life changes in. There's a much-needed portrait update, new glamour dresser features, and, uh. Well, there's toes. Improved toes. 1,180 of them.
Yup, tucked pretty far down the list of upcoming changes in the patch notes is this: "Character toe detail when wearing the following foot gear has been improved," along with a list of 118 footwear items across A Realm Reborn, Shadowbringers, Endwalker and Dawntrail getting the HD toe treatment.
Now, to be fair to Square Enix, a handy before-and-after image included with the patch notes does show some very improved toe detail. The "before" toes have been pretty blocky for as long as I can remember, complete with some low-poly toenails. It's not exactly the worst looking foot in the world, but it does give "PS2 character with mittens for hands" vibes.
The upcoming improvements look far more foot-like, softening up some of the uglier shadows and making the toes look a lot more round, and less like a 2D texture. Did I expect to be going into this much detail about some videogame toes today? Absolutely not.
I'm not entirely sure if this includes every open-toe shoe in the game—Heavensward and Stormblood are notably absent on the list of impacted expansions—but I'm not exactly keeping track of where you can obtain every flip-flop and strappy wedge. Safe to presume most of them have been enhanced.
While a small detail, it's a welcome change in Square Enix's ongoing attempt to zhush up the game. The crusty-blockiness of those little piggies has definitely been something I've noticed every time I throw a pair of sandals on my Warrior of Light, often a strange outlier in what is otherwise a pretty serviceable character model.
It's not the only graphical change, either. Vegetation is getting a nice facelift in A Realm Reborn zones along with Endwalker's Island Sanctuary mode. There are also some gorgeous environmental additions happening in a handful of the vanilla zones—not including the Gold Saucer, Coerthas Central Highlands, or Mor Dhona. The patch notes promise extra polygons, objects, and better texture resolutions to boot.
What’s more, the walk from Horizon to the Waking Sands—one you'll find yourself making regularly in the early game—is getting a smattering of greenery and vibrant lily pads that give the zone real oomph. The patch notes also include a comparison pic between two versions of a market stall in Ul'dah, that appears to have high-res beans? Peas? Of sorts, now, plus some more appetising-looking meat.
Patch 7.1 is set to release on November 12.
