by Tuesday PopeToday at 8:30 EST, Square Enix held a direct showcase livestream about Final Fantasy XIV, the MMO. Square Enix gave only one word to prepare us “keep your expectations high.” With that, everyone expected that this would announce the new expansion and our expectations were met. Slated for release in Fall 2021, Endwalkers was announced with a special trailer. The open beta for the PS5 version open Beta will begin on April 13th, 2021!
The trailer shows our favorite twins battling alongside the warrior of light (us). Alphinaud is shown using an unusual and really cool weapon. Along with that we are shown some truly Geiger-eske art design as well as the character standing on the moon.
Yoshida said that the Warrior of light and members of the scions will be battling against the second coming of the final days.
As for new jobs, there will be two; one will be healer and one will be melee DPS. Alphinaud was showcasing the new healer job. Only one is revealed today, which is the healer job for now. And that is Sage. The sage showcase showed four laser drones looking weapons surrounding the character which are called Nouliths. These are unique to FFXIV. These will be unique aether imbued weapons. The look is very surgical. There will be no required starting class. The starting level is planned to be 70 and you must have at least one other class at level 70 and have the DLC to access this new job.
The Sage is a barrier type healer, something that’s not yet in the game. There will also be some retooling of the astrogian job. There will also be a distinction in raids between barrier healers and pure healers (a pure healer would be for example a white mage). As it sounds, they will heal and protect the party using barriers. They are also able to temporarily augment their own abilities.
There is a huge emphasis on final with this expansion. All setting the field for the ending of the ten year saga of life, Zodiark, and Hydaelyn. The story will actually end with the DLC instead of future updates like previous updates. Starting with update 6.1, there will be an entirely new story and arc for the MMO saga. Yoshida assures he will be with the project until he’s forced to retire as this is his life’s work.
As for the content of the story, it will be the conclusion of the story with Hydaelyn and Zodiark. The warrior of light will journey to the moon to discover how to save everyone from this conflict. The expansion will answer many questions about the two and bring everything to a closure. The big question for the expansion is why are we going to the moon and what will you find there as well as what is the fate of the Garlean Empire and what brought about the final days.
The level cap has changed to 90, no surprise there. As usual, there will be massive new areas (aside from the Moon). There was a town showed off, Radz-at-han. It was beautiful, very colorful architecture set on the top of a small, tall plateau looking land formation. It will be in the region of Thavnair. The entire area of Thavnir, from which dancers originate, will be in the expansion. It all has a very tropical atmosphere. Very India inspired.
You also will finally get to go to Garlemald, the capital of the Garlean Empire. It looks pretty run down, what could have happened? You will also be meeting some new beast tribes. One of those new tribes will be the Matanga which is the Arkasodara tribe. They are India inspired elephants.
New threats will include Anima from FFX! Anima was Seymour’s summon in that game! The designer who created Anima was brought on to design him to be coherent with the FFXIV aesthetic. There will be of course new dungeons. There was just artwork shown teasing a flaming ruin, another Geiger biological horror setting, and a train station to name a few. A new high end raid was announced, but only the name “Pandeminium” as well as a familiar face. Also a new alliance raid will be coming. No real details yet, more to be revealed later. There will also be a new small-scale PVP mode. It will be more casual and less restrictive in feel. There will be a new type of reward system that’s less fear focused.
And of course there will be a ton of new quests, side quests, role quests, and crafter and gatherer quests. Estinien will now be joining the trust system. Which means he’ll be joining the Scions. There is a planned update to the Gold Saucer. There will be a big game addition to the gambling capital (chat was comedically calling for blitzball or Fall Guys). There will be an Island Sanctuary where you can enjoy a slower paced break from the action. Not many details are available except there’s something here to do for everyone and not just crafters and gatherers. You’ll also be able to do some fun with your minions, everything was very vague other than comparing it to a Japanese show Dash.
There will be a new residential district: Ishgard. This is a good thing for fans as housing can be hard to save for and come by! There will be the usual amount of wards, plenty of plots, and apartments available as well. There will also be some adjustments to the battle system. It’s typical fine tuning, new job actions, rebalancing of values, and so forth
We will receive more information about the other job and more about the expansion itself at the next Final Fantasy Digital Fest. So what do you think of all this awesome FFXIV news? Let us know in the comments below!
