Today Square Enix hosted the 67th Final Fantasy XIV Letter From the Producer Live broadcast revealing new details about the upcoming expansion Endwalker.
As usual, Producer and Director Naoki Yoshida and Global Community Producer Toshio Murouchi delivered the news following the announcement of the delay of the expansion and the premiere of the launch trailer.
We start with a few new images of the locations we’ll be able to visit.
We also get images of the relevant NPCs in the story. You’ll notice that a few of them have new costumes, while one is new.
A new element of the main story lets players be followed along by NPCs during certain sequences. At times they’ll even board the same mount. This will be automatic and not player-controlled. /Gpose will be available during those sequences.
Speaking of role questlines (there will be 5), extra quests for completing all of them will be added in update 6.1. They won’t be mandatory to complete the main story. Crafters and gatherers will have the Studium Deliveries.
We also see new screenshots of the dungeons.
The first Pandaemonium raid will be called “Asphodelos,” coming in 6.01 and 6.05. We get to see the very first video.
The new Treasure Dungeon named “The Excitatron” will also come in 6.05. Below you can see a screenshot.
We then take a look at the new PvP content. Crystal Conflict is a new small-scale PvP battle that will be introduced in update 6.1. It’ll also come alongside a new reward system.
It’ll be 5v5 and will have simple rules. Players will be able to play casually and the matches will be short. It also won’t include role-based matchmaking. Distinctive PvP action and job-specific adrenalin rushes will be added, alongside an ability for everyone to heal themselves. Each team will include 5 different jobs.
There will be casual, ranked, and custom matches available. Matchmaking will be skill-based. There will be different maps and they will have different mechanics.
Yoshida-san mentioned that the cross-shaped explosion in the screenshot below totally has nothing to do with his history of working on the Bomberman series.
There will be seasonal rewards related to ranking (both related to the specific placement and tier). There will be tiers, achievements, and other accolades.
The PvP reward system in general will be overhauled with the addition of “series.” Players will be able to earn series rewards by participating in any PvP content during the series. This series will run in parallel with the seasons of Crystal Conflict
Rewards are earned by accumulating series EXP and raising series level. Levels will be reset with each new series and the rewards will change.
Special tokens can be earned and can be exchanged for various rewards and carried over to the next series. Previous series’ rewards will be made available via token exchange. This has been designed so that players can enjoy the feature at their own pace.
Incidentally, a return of the Garo collaboration rewards have been requested by many, and the team is trying to negotiate to achieve that.
Interestingly, a “calling card” (the name is not final) system will be implemented, allowing players to display a customized profile. This won’t just be for PvP but will work across the game.
The Feast will become unavailable as of Patch 6.1. The team would like to focus on Crystal Conflict and hope that players will move on to that.
Next, we take a look at the adjustments for crafting and gathering. You can find the list below., Interesting, spearfishing will be radially changed getting its own minigame which you can see in the video.
Leve rewards will be adjusted in light of gil inflation. Both XP and gil rewards will be reduced for levels that require a large number of items. On the other end, certain other levels will be buffed.
We talk more about the change in the system numbers. It’s worth mentioning that players will retain their levels, but any experience in excess of their current level will be lost.
The new Allagain Tomestones introduced with the expansion are Aphorism and Astronomy. We also see some of the gear we’ll be able to earn with Aphorism tombstones and more, on top of new glamors. Tomestones of Poetry will remain.
The team is also working on improving the capacity of armory chest and glamor plates, and they may be close to a solution by 6.1.
New hairstyles for Viera females will come in 6.0 (including Lightning and 2B), while new hairstyles for Hrothgar will come at a later time (6.1).
New Scrips will be added and the Achievement UI will be updated. We get to see that in action in the video alongside the bonus mount and new minions and a look at Thavnair. We’re getting a peaceable picnic basket similar to the campfire.
More miscellaneous adjustments can be found below. This includes support for Embody’s Immerse Spatial Audio on the PC version.
Incidentally, composer Masayoshi Soken gave an update on his health, mentioning that he’s fine.
We then take a look at the housing update centered on Empyreum, the residential district in Ishgard. It’s predictably based on the Firmament. 24 wards and 24 subdivisions are planned.
That means 1440 new houses per server. Land will be available for purchase only since 6.1.
A new land purchase system will also be implemented. Relocation to land that is not yet ready for purchase will no longer ve available and land devaluation will be removed in 6.1. At the same time, it won’t be possible to grant brand new FC members the authorization to purchase land or the rank of master.
Lastly, a lottery system will be implemented. The development team will be able to manually designate this to apply to only some of the wards or lots depending on the situation. For now, the team is still debating the percentage, but at the moment the plan is to have the majority of lots assigned by lottery.
Below you can also see the requirements to enter the lottery and the rules.
New housing items have also been showcased.
Next, we learn that the Oceanian data center will open in February 2022. It’ll be called “Materia.”
Lastly, we get news about two manga that will be released in Japan, as you can see below.
The new Final Fantasy XIV expansion Endwalker will release December 7 (with early access starting on December 3). for PS5, PS4, and PC. A benchmark has been released for PC, including the male viera character creation. You can also read our hands-on preview.
If you want to see more about it, you can check out the latest details from a few weeks ago, the reveal of the extended trailer and the reaper job, and that of the male viera, locations, and release date.
You can also take a look at plenty of images, the original announcement, tons of initial details, and the first official screenshots and art.
Final Fantasy XIV is currently available for PlayStation 4, PS5, and PC. The upgrade to PS5 is offered free of charge to those who own the PS4 version.
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