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It's called Endwalker, and will release this fall. Some highlights that I can remember from the (very long) showcase announcement:

* Warrior of Light is a Paladin in this expansion

* two new jobs: Sage (a barrier healer class featuring weapons unique to XIV) and a melee DPS class to be announced later

* Sage was confirmed to start at level 70, no class requirement, quest to unlock will be in Limsa Lominsa

* healers are going to be divided into classical healers (i 'm not sure that's the word they used but it gets the point across) and barrier healers. AST is getting an adjustment due to this new division, and it sounds like duties might ask for a particular kind of healer (this was implied, not firmly stated)

* story will end the arc started way back in patch 1.0. This arc will end with patch 6.0, and patch 6.1 will start an entirely new story arc that should last for years to come

* Yoshi-P is *not* leaving FFXIv. He intends to be around for a long time.

* there will be two new cities. The first announced is the smaller, Radz-at-han. This excited me because the city is mentioned in the Dancer job quests, which I just unlocked. The larger city couldn't be teased as it would be too much of A spoiler.

* the story of 6.0 will take you to the moon

* Alphinaud will be changing jobs to Sage, but you'll need to play to find out why

* Estinien added to the Trust system. When they showed this slide someone said in the stream chat, "Estinien took a shower!" His hair did look glossy! (I once laughed with my linkshell over a retainer named Estinien'needs'a'bath, so apparently this is a common fan thought). Yoshi-P said you'd need to play to find out why a lone wolf such as Estinien decides to join forces with the Scions.

* Some new beast tribes, I already forget the name of the one they showcased (should have taken notes!) but they are reminiscent of elephants

* new enemies to fight, but I can't remember any of them, alas

* Anima! I assume she will be an eikon to fight but they didn't specify

* one of the areas visited is:

Possible spoilers: highlight to view

Garlemald, the capital of the Garlean empire. It's in really rough shape, which had the chat going wild shouting "SUCH DEVASTATION!" (for those who've never played, the bad guy of A Realm Reborn says this during the final dungeon of the base game)

* online fan festival coming in May. Two days, free of charge, but they will be selling digital items: the Lunar Whale mount which can hold 8 people (!!!) plus the minions Edge, Rosa, and Rydia. The festival is going to include live music; these segments will probably not be archived so we were urged to tune in to the stream if we want to see them.

* PlayStation 5 version beta starting in April. It will be free of charge to anyone who owns the PS4 version, and have two modes, a 4K version for beauty and a 2K optimized for frame rate. Should have much faster load times than PS4

* Big news that upset a lot of the chat: they are down scaling numbers. As a person with programming in her background I totally understand why, but everyone was crying NO MY CRITS! sigh. Yoshi-P gave an example of a Black Mage spell that does 50k damage currently might do only 10k afterwards. He stressed that this does not mean your characters are getting weaker; content will be adjusted. But, as a result of this change it might be more difficult to do duties with undersized parties, something they are aware of. The reason for this change has a lot to do with limitations of programming. There were some overflow issues that were causing bugs, and if they had kept on their current pace, more bugs would likely occur. It was stressed that this is partially for the future health of the game, and that in ten years that might have to make a similar adjustment.

* level cap raised to 90, as expected

* removal of belts as an equipable item (chat said they were de-Nomura-ing the game). Inventory slots will be given to weapons and rings, with five slots to be saved for a rainy day. Any belts equipped (including on retainers) at launch of 6.0 will be given to a Calamity salvager. But we were warned to remove any materia we wanted to keep in advance.

* Island Sanctuary, new area to relax in. Lots of comments in chat about Animal Crossing/Harvest Moon. The Sanctuary is not just for crafters/gatherers.

* as expected, housing in Ishgard. When expansion drops you can visit the new housing areas but won't be able to buy a house until 6.1

* New role quests, crafting quests, and gathering quests

* new 8 person raids (not crossover events) and Alliance raids. One of them, I believe the alliance raid, is called Pandemonium:

Possible spoilers: highlight to view

teaser showed someone who looked exactly like Lahabrea. Yoshi-P and translator sang "lala hee!" But didn't confirm for sure it was Lahabrea.

* expansion of The Gold Saucer. Chat all yelled "Blitzball!", was not confirmed what it will be

* new PVP content that should make it easier to find matches.

* data center world travel! Yes, now you will be able to visit other data centers! It sounds like you'll have to log off and log back on to do so, and there will be some limitations to it. They are aware players think this might crash world economies, but they said (a) that didn't happen when then started the world visit system, ( they will monitor the situation

Trailer: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=Uc7fEmS6gIA

* official site: https://na.finalfantasyxiv.com/endwalker

If I think of anything else I'll edit this. It was *long*.

This post has been edited by AltheaValara on 6th February 2021 14:48

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Watch me play games on Twitch!
Schedule:
Mondays: Final Fantasy XIV
Saturdays: Final Fantasy XIV Dawntrail Side Quests & Shenanigans

I'm putting this here rather than make a new thread because it's relevant. Final Fantasy XIV is having its digital Fan Fest this weekend, and the keynote ended about a half hour ago.

It was most of the same information, though they did reveal the second new job: Reaper. To absolutely no one's surprise, it uses a scythe (this was heavily hinted at during the announcement event). Reapers can also tap into the power of the void to call an avatar to their side (um, I think that was the term they used; i'm tired.) A friend says it looks like a reverse Red Mage (red mage is a magic dealer that swoop in for melee attacks; reaper will be melee that perhaps might do some magic).

Endwalker's release date was announced: November 23rd, 2021, with early access on the 19th IIRC. You can get early access if you preorder. There are two in-game digital bonuses for preordering: a minion (I'm memfaulting if it's Palom or Porom, it's one of them) and an earring that boosts experience below 80.

They are doing away with physical copies of the game, however this doesn't mean there won't be a collector's edition! The physical collector's edition includes various goodies: a statue of Paladin WoL, a plushie of one of the new tribes, an Azem pin, a frame, and a collection of artwork, all packaged in a beautiful box.

There is a digital collector's edition too, which includes a new mount, a minion (the other FFIV twin), and I want to say something else that I'm forgetting, hmm.

Other announcements: male Viera as a playable race, the hub city of Old Sharlayan, and the start of the Oceania data center (alas, delayed by a few months due to the pandemic so won't be launching until after Endwalker).

Here's the link to the Fan Fest site:

https://fanfest.finalfantasyxiv.com/2021/na/

Now i'm going to nap for a few hours then get up for the piano concert.

edit early Sunday morning: I failed to link to the updated trailer yesterday! Here it is:

https://youtu.be/zTTtd6bnhFs

I also need to link this video of Soken-san performing La Hee, because it's hilarious. I totally believe he's in on the joke and knows how bad he sings.

https://youtu.be/aBt4zT_PBmw

This post has been edited by AltheaValara on 16th May 2021 08:08

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Watch me play games on Twitch!
Schedule:
Mondays: Final Fantasy XIV
Saturdays: Final Fantasy XIV Dawntrail Side Quests & Shenanigans