Over the weekend Square Enix held the third and final of its series of global Fanfests in the Tokoyo Dome. I watched the keynote address and some reactions to the presentation. While Yoshi-P will flesh all the points out in future producer live letters (PLLs), I had a few initial thoughts that may or may not pan out.
Jockeying for position with Microsoft/Blizzard: Near the beginning of the presentation Final Fantasy XIV Producer and Director Naoki Yoshida announced that unlike at previous Japan fanfests, he would not announce a release date for the next expansion at this time. The stated reason was that after missing the initial Endwalker launch date, he didn't want to miss another.
But I have to believe another factor is trying not to let the fine folks in charge of World of Warcraft interfere with the launch of Dawntrail. Blizzard already announced the launch of both The War Within and Cataclysm Classic in the summer of 2024. Trying to get a clean launch window is something video game makers strive to capture. WoW has a reputation of attempting to crash the competition's party.
Think I'm buying into conspiracy theories? Possibly. But both FFXIV's patch 6.55 and retail WoW's patch 10.2.5 are launching on 16 January.
Krile has a job: A member of the group formerly known as the Scions of the Seventh Dawn and head of the Students of Baldesion, Krile was first introduced into FFXIV in the Heavensward expansion. After all these years, Krile became the new job announced in the Tokoyo Dome, Pictomancer. Perhaps more importantly, she will now join the Duty Support system. I was a little unclear if that means she is part of the Trust system.
If Krile is added to the Trust system, we have the following cast to choose from:
- G'raha Tia - Any role
- Thancred - Gunbreaker (Tank)
- Alphinaud - Sage (Barrier Healer)
- Urianger - Astrologan (Pure Healer)
- Estinien - Dragoon (Melee DPS)
- Alisaie - Red Mage (Magical Ranged DPS)
- Krile - Pictomancer (Magical Ranged DPS)
- Y'shtola - Black Mage (Magical Ranged DPS)
In the past Yoshi-P teased that the MSQ 8 character trials could also fall under the Duty Support/Trust system. With a fourth dedicated DPS member, is a conversion of trials during the 7.x patches possible?
The new limited job: We don't know any details but the name, but Dawntrail will bring another limited job like Blue Mage in the 7.x patches. The name? Beastmaster. Are there any MMORPGs where players don't want such a job or class? I recall Beastmaster as a desired class when I played Everquest 2 almost 15 years ago.
Is Yoshi-P finished with new character races? With the introduction of female Hrothgars, Yoshi-P indicated, yet again, he will add no more playable races to FFXIV. Because new playable races are hard.
In my opinion, the world will see a drop in female Roegadyn and male Hrothgar in favor of female Hrothgars. But Yoshi-P needs someone to remind him he's not done with Hrothgars and Viera yet. What about their hats?
The graphical upgrade is on track: With the next generation of consoles now widely available, the graphics update was a no-brainer. The updates to the character models looked really good. For those playing on PCs, check out the new system requirements.
Return of Bozja-type content: While I'm not a fan, a lot of people loved the Bozja content in Shadowbringers. In Dawntrail the developers are including a Bozja-type zone for people who love grinding in addition to variant dungeons.
Returning to Eden: Every expansion always has an Ultimate trial. For Dawntrail, players will return to the First and revisit Eden. I have the feeling Yoshi-P and the design team plans to ensure each expansion has some sort of tie to Shadowbringers content.
New Lifestyle Content: The Island Sanctuary, at least to me, was a good start to another type of fun, out-of-the-way non-mandatory content. For Dawntrail, instead of staying in one place, players will travel from world to world in a system called Cosmic Exploration.
Once I saw the Lopporits in the artwork, I knew the developers were going for some fan service. I can't wait for the 7.x patches to come out to try out the new system.
Cross-overs: From the release of patch 6.55 next Tuesday until some point this summer, Yoshi-P is going to bury us in cross-overs with other games. For newer players the cross-overs will allow them to catch up to a bit of history. And for older players, we get a cross-over with Final Fantasy XVI.
I'm sure I missed a thing or three people find important, but these were just some quick thoughts I typed out. We will be hearing more details when the next few producer live letters come out. So we still have hours and hours of Yoshi-P talking to players about the new expansion coming this summer.
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