Final Fantasy XIV's Preliminary Patch Notes for their upcoming patch, Patch 4.2 - Rise of a New Sun - are here. This patch includes the long-awaited balance changes to classes, as well as other important updates.
Final Fantasy XIV Producer and Director Naoki “Yoshi-P” Yoshida took to the Lodestone to share a New Year’s greeting for the fan with some talk on what’s to come for the Square Enix MMORPG.
In 2017, the MMORPG title saw a busy year with the release of its second expansion, Final Fantasy XIV: Stormblood, along with its annual Fan Festival events that take place three times a year. In the New Year’s message Yoshi-P talks about upcoming events online and offline, along with a prophetic passage that appears to be teasing something for the realm.
Here’s the message from Yoshi-P:
Hello there, everyone. Producer and Director Yoshi-P here to wish you all a Happy New Year!
2017 was a fantastic year. The release of our second expansion, Stormblood, was a great success, and we’ve seen more players online than ever before. It goes without saying our accomplishments over the past year wouldn’t have been possible without your support. I can’t thank you enough for your continued patronage.
As mentioned during the LIVE letter in December, our first major update of the year, patch 4.2, will be released at the end of this month. Plans for the FFXIV Fan Festival 2018-2019 are also well underway. With a year’s worth of preparation going into the event anything can happen, but I’m afraid you’ll have to wait to learn what we have in store.
It’s also worth mentioning we aim to do more than hold Fan Festivals. In fact, I’ve already settled on plans for another event over a year from now. I suggest keeping a look out for future announcements to find out what it is.
Strange… I was expecting perhaps another ancient Eastern proverb, or even a passage from the diary of the late Archon Louisoix. What could this mean for the future of the realm? I suppose we can only speculate until the truth reveals itself.
The FFXIV team is taking a short break for New Years, but you can be sure we’ll hit the ground running when we get back to the office. There’s much to do this year, and we intend to give our all to provide you with the greatest gaming experience possible.
Again, to our players and all fans of the Final Fantasy series, I wish you a happy new year, and hope you enjoy what we have in store for 2018!
Coinciding with PAX West 2017 that concludes today on September 4th, Square Enix released its Letter from the Producer regarding FINAL FANTASY XIV: STORMBLOOD. For those that don't know, these letters are essentially long-form livestreams hosted by Naoki Yoshida, the executive producer of Final Fantasy XIV.
These letters are typically used for major announcements of changes and additions to the popular MMORPG. In this case, the 38th letter was a special one, as it was also in celebration of the game's fourth anniversary since its launch on August 27th, 2013.
In celebration of the anniversary, this particular letter was a part of the 14-hour long annual livestream over Labor Day weekend for Final Fantasy XIV. With this special occasion, Producer Yoshi-P announced some brand new features coming to it, many of which have been long-awaited for fans of the game.
Patch 4.1 entitled "The Legend Returns" is only a month away, scheduled to release in early October. With it, comes the first part of expansion Stormblood's 24-player raid Return to Ivalice. This particular raid will have players returning to the setting of this year's Final Fantasy XII: The Zodiac Age with the scenario penned by Final Fantasy Tactics director Yasumi Matsuno.
Also: Final Fantasy XV is Coming to PC
To the excitement of players, 4.1 will finally introduce new housing for sale. These houses will be located in Shirogane in Stormblood's main city of Kugane. This will add more available houses to the game's currently extremely limited allotment. In addition, there will be a new relocation service offered for those that would like to easily transfer their current estates to the new area of Shirogane.
Stormblood is Final Fantasy XIV's second expansion. The game officially launches Tuesday for PC and PlayStation 4 in Japan, North America, and Europe.
Here's the rundown of everything Stormblood brings to the table for players new and old:
Players can also look forward to a variety of additional content that has been announced for release in upcoming patches:
Yesterday during E3, Square Enix hosted a Letter from the Producer Live featuring a little bit more information on Final Fantasy XIV’s upcoming expansion, Stormblood, which releases in less than a week. Producer Naoki Yoshida shared a look at what players can expect from the expansion, including a primal fight, swimming, and more.
First off, Yoshida shared a glimpse at “The Pool of Tribute,” a fight with the primal Susano, which will be available to players at level 63 and once certain main scenario requirements have been met. Yoshida noted that Susano does something that’s very “unique” and that players should look out for it during the battle.
Next, Yoshida took to the ocean to show off the brand-new swimming feature. All players will be able to swim on the surface of the water at the start of Stormblood, though you will have to progress through a certain point in the main scenario to unlock the ability to dive below.
It was then revealed that the Genji armor, a recurring set of armor from previous Final Fantasy titles, would be the reward for the next raid series, The Bend of Time – Omega.
Additionally, during the last half of the show, Yoshida took questions from the official forums. Among them, one inquired about the way the odd and even-numbered patches were set up, with two new instanced dungeons being added on even-numbered patches and one new instanced dungeon being added on odd-numbered patches. Yoshida explained the reason behind this being that even patches would focus on players raising item level, thus the need for two dungeons. Odd-numbered patches would have only one instnaced dungeon because the development team found that players were earning Allagan tomestones, the currency used to buy new gear, by different means other than running dungeon roulettes.
Lastly, an infographic was shared detailing the plans for the four weeks after the initial release of the expansion.
As shown in the image above, approximately two weeks after the official launch of Storm blood, The Bend of Time – Omega raid series will be available. Two weeks after that, the Savage mode of that same raid will launch alongside The Lost Canals of Uznair and the implementation of Allagan tomestones of Creation.
Final Fantasy XIV is available for PC, PlayStation 4, and PlayStation 3. PS3 support will end with the start of the Stormblood expansion on June 20th.
Square Enix sent in a media kit giving the full rundown on the upcoming Final Fantasy XIV expansion dubbed “Stormblood.”
The Stormblood expansion for Square Enix’s MMORPG introduce a new continent to the game as well as two new character classes.
The new class is Red Mage, and it won’t be the only one coming with the expansion. The announcement was welcomed by loud cheering from the audience, which isn’t very surprising considering that Red Mage is one of the most beloved classic jobs of the Final Fantasy series, and many players have been asking about it for a long time. We shouldn’t forget that it’s the first mage class that ever appeared in a Final Fantasy game, right on the character selection screen of the original Final Fantasy.
The jo will be mainly a ranged DPS, fighting with a rapier and a magicked crystal medium. The two weapons can be joined to become a single staff-like composite weapon.
The fighting style is actually a hybrid between ranged red magic (which is itself a hybrid between black and white magic) and melee. You will use a “chainspell” feature to link multiple spells from range to unlock a final melee action, including quick positional abilities activated during the chain.
Players that will purchase Stormblood will be able to start playing Red Mage from level 50, without needing to level a prerequisite class, as it happened with Dark Knight in the previous expansion Heavensward.
we know the second: Samurai.
The crimson-clad, katana-wielding warriors will be a damage-based class aimed at unloading on enemies on the front lines of fights and will favor STR gear. Samurai will not have a base class and will start at level 50. Best of all, the character looks to share at least a passing resemblance to Final Fantasy X’s Auron, unquestionably the series’ most bad ass swordsman.
The news was also accompanied by a trailer for the expansion’s opening cinematic (above) which shows off the look and feel of Othard, one of the game’s three main continents where Stormblood will take place, as well as both a Red Mage and Samurai tearing shit up. The new player hub will be the port town of Kugane, with a new residential area called Shirogane. And of course there will be new dungeons in areas called Yanaxia and The Azim Steppe.
The team behind Stormblood is reportedly also working on a version of Bliztball, the aquatic mini-game from FFX, as well. At one point in the opening cinematic there’s a giant floating sphere filling up with water, only further bolstering the expansion’s spiritual connection to Spira.
The Stormblood expansion for Square Enix’s MMORPG will introduce a new continent to the game as well as two new character classes. We knew the first was Red Mage and now we know the second: Samurai.
The crimson-clad, katana-wielding warriors will be a damage-based class aimed at unloading on enemies on the front lines of fights and will favor STR gear. Samurai will not have a base class and will start at level 50. Best of all, the character looks to share at least a passing resemblance to Final Fantasy X’s Auron, unquestionably the series’ most bad ass swordsman.
The news was also accompanied by a trailer for the expansion’s opening cinematic (above) which shows off the look and feel of Othard, one of the game’s three main continents where Stormblood will take place, as well as both a Red Mage and Samurai tearing shit up. The new player hub will be the port town of Kugane, with a new residential area called Shirogane. And of course there will be new dungeons in areas called Yanaxia and The Azim Steppe.
The team behind Stormblood is reportedly also working on a version of Bliztball, the aquatic mini-game from FFX, as well. At one point in the opening cinematic there’s a giant floating sphere filling up with water, only further bolstering the expansion’s spiritual connection to Spira.
Square Enix USA provided live commentary on its Twitter account Saturday morning for those who were unable to travel to Germany for the event. The publisher and developer of Final Fantasy 14 noted that Samurai will join the previously announced Red Mage class as another DPS job for the expansion.
Destructoid reports that while the Samurai is the main focus of the trailer, Square Enix also revealed several other new additions that will soon be coming to Final Fantasy 14. Players will be able to explore a new Eastern-themed region called Shirogane and a new player hub in the port town of Kugane. Stormblood will also introduce a new Beast Tribe called the Kojin, a new Primal named Susano and new dungeons including Yanxia and The Azim Steppe. The official box art for the Japanese release of the game, designed by Akihiko Yoshida, was also revealed.
Stormblood was first announced during another fan convention last year in Las Vegas and game director Naoki Yoshida noted at the time that Stormblood‘s arrival would mark more than just one transition for the game. Yoshida said that Square Enix would officially drop PlayStation 3 support for Final Fantasy 14 with the arrival of the new expansion and announced plans are being discussed with Sony to allow PS3 owners to transfer their account and characters to a PS4 version of the game for free. This was mostly welcome news for fans, who have long felt that the PS3 version of the game was holding Final Fantasy 14 back from a design standpoint because it’s a much less powerful system than the PlayStation 4 or a PC.
Square Enix may also be considering bringing Final Fantasy 14 to the Xbox One or even the Nintendo Switch but the company has not mentioned either of those topics since early 2016. The MMO’s most recent major update was Patch 3.5 The Far Edge of Fate which arrived in mid-January. Players are currently working their way through a new main Scenario, new dungeons and collecting one last batch of new gear as they prepare to take the fight into Stormblood this June.
Final Fantasy 14 is out now on PC, PlayStation 4 and PlayStation 3. The Stormblood expansion arrives June 20, 2017.
On June 20th, 2017, Final Fantasy 14 will launch its second expansion pack, the details of which were unveiled at Final Fantasy Fanfest in Japan over the Christmas holidays. Expected to be roughly in size to its previous expansion, players will venture to the subjugated empire of Ala Mhigo to once again do battle with the Garlean Empire.
During Fanfest, one new class (called a 'job' in FF14) was revealed with another to be announced closer to launch. That first job will be the Red Mage, a hybrid DPS character that uses both ranged magic and melee attacks. True to their nature, Red Mages will wield magic that wavers somewhere between life-giving white magic and deadly black magic. As they chain spells together, Red Mages build up power that they can unleash in a combo of melee thrusts punctuated by a devastating magical attack. Red Mages are also expected to start at level 50, so players won't need to worry about leveling them up from scratch.
A long-standing tradition for game director Naoki Yoshida is to tease a new job using the shirt he's wearing during the keynote presentation. Earlier in the year, he took the stage wearing a shirt featuring Marvel heroine Scarlet Witch as a clue for the upcoming reveal of Red Mages. This time, Yoshida gave his keynote speech while sporting a Spider-Man shirt, dividing fans on what that might mean for the next job. The most popular theory is that the shirt is an allusion to Blue Mages, who, similar to Spider-Man's origin story, adopt powers from monsters. Blue Mages would make a good fit for the desert setting of Ala Mhigo as well, as they've often had an eastern-inspired aesthetic. A second popular theory posits that the new job could be the Samurai as a play on name Sam Raimi, the director of the first three Spiderman films. Color me skeptical, though, as that seems like a bit of stretch.
One of the most exciting announcements for Final Fantasy fans is that Yasumi Matsuno, the mind behind classics like Final Fantasy Tactics and Final Fantasy XII, will be writing the story for the new 24-person raid coming in Stormblood. Called Return to Ivalice, this raid will hopefully be a fun romp down nostalgia lane as players return to one of the most popular settings for Final Fantasy games that hasn't been seen in a decade. Details are scarce, but Keita Amemiya, the character artist from Shin Megami Tensei IV, will be designing the bosses. That means we can probably expect some pretty stellar enemies if his previous work is anything to go by.
Of course, Stormblood also has a new eight-person raid, new dungeons, and primals (one-off boss battles).
Similar Heavensward's flying mounts, Stormblood will also add a new way to traverse the environment through swimming and diving. If you've played the former, swimming seems like a cut-and-paste of flying but, well, underwater and minus the need for a mount. You won't be able to fight underwater, so it seems the new system is primarily for exploring and traversing the environment. Special harvesting nodes, especially for fisherman, can be found underwater and Yoshida confirmed regular interactions with NPCs are also possible.
Of all the features coming in Stormblood, this is the one that I'm least interested in. Swimming will have a slower movement speed than walking, and without underwater battles I'm not sure it'll be all that exciting. It sure looks gorgeous, though.