For the last time ahead of Dawntrail, director and producer of Final Fantasy XIV Naoki "Yoshi-P" Yoshida took the stage in Tokyo to tell fans some more details about what they can expect in the new expansion, including a new race, new job, and more. In case you missed the two-hour presentation, here's everything Yoshi-P talked about during Japan's Fan Fest Keynote.
During the Las Vegas and London Fan Fests, Yoshi-P went into some details about what fans can expect in the new expansion, including some first looks at the setting of the story, new gear, the new Viper job, and even a new limited job. What fans were still waiting on were the details on the new female Hrothgar, the second DPS job that was teased in Las Vegas and at the end of Patch 6.5, and perhaps some new details about the limited job, Alliance Raids, or Ultimate coming in Dawntrail.
For those who missed the broadcast or want to refresh their memory of what was announced, here's everything Yoshi-P talked about during the Japan Fan Fest Keynote:
New job - Pictomancer
While everyone thought Green Mage was coming, Pictomancer is actually the job that players are getting for Dawntrail. This ranged magical job comes from Final Fantasy VI, and uses a brush and palette as its weapons. The FFXIV job expands on the FFVI abilities, and Krile will be taking up the job of Pictomancer. Gridania will house the starting location for the job, and will be playable as soon as the expansion drops. Players got to see the job's outfit, although Yoshi-P gave the job to a model this year instead of wearing it himself, claiming he wouldn't look very good in the very feminine gear.
Patch 6.55 Release Date
Those who are looking forward to the last story patch before Dawntrail won't have to wait long. The release date for Patch 6.55 is Jan. 16 after a whopping 24-hour maintenance to update the Japanese Data Center hardware. Players will get to meet the first female Hrothgar character during this patch, so fans will get a close look at how the race will appear in 7.0. There were no details about exactly what is going into the patch, but the normal content updates are expected, such as new story, side content, and more.
New Areas, and more details about the Dawntrail story
Fans got a really good look at some new, and very interesting places that they'll go in Dawntrail. Some of them didn't even look like it was coming from the same expansion. Some new places, Solution Nine and Heritage Found, were revealed. The new areas were quite the departure from places we've seen in the past. Full of futuristic looking areas, players got a glimpse into some of the more eclectic settings they'll be visiting.
New Beast Tribe and another look at the Mamool Ja
After the Pleupelu and Moblins, there's one more group of friends players will make in Dawntrail. The Hanu Hanu, look a lot like their Vanu Vanu counterparts. It's unclear if they're related in any way, but they sure look very similar.
Core battle content, new gear, and new recipes
There will of course be new FATEs, Hunts, Dungeons, Trials, all of the things players come to expect from new content updates. Players got a first look at some in-game footage of some of the new Dungeons coming to the game. Yoshi-P told fans that the Dungeons are coming along, and also gave them a peek at some of the new enemies that players will come across. For those wanting to go through the Dungeon with the Scions they've spent all of their time fighting next to, Duty Support will be available for the new Dungeon content.
In addition to the new gear and recipes, all of it will have the new graphics update already applied so that Warriors of Light who use the new gear will be doing so with some extra high graphics.
New lifestyle content - Cosmic Exploration
For those who love the Island Sanctuary, the Cosmic Exploration is the new lifestyle content coming to the game. Instead of being a solo experience, Cosmic Exploration is more like the Ishgardian Restoration, where players will be working together to explore different stars. Each patch, the star players explore will change. There isn't a whole lot of information past that, but fans are expecting this to be quite similar to Heavensward's Ishgardian Restoration.
New Alliance Raid and Raid series details - Echos of Vana'diel and The Arcadion
There was some new concept art for the Alliance Raid, which has fans of Final Fantasy XI very excited, since the raid is based off of the setting from the long-running MMO. The Shadow Lord was used in the concept art, an enemy XI players will know very well. Not only that, players got the Raid series name and screenshot. The eight-player Raids are called The Arcadion will release about one month after Dawntrail, but there's no details about when Savage will launch.
New Ultimate Raid - Futures Rewritten (Ultimate)
Players who tackle the highest possible content in the game were excited to hear about the newest Ultimate Raid that is coming with Dawntrail. After the latest one, The Omega Protocol, fans are ready to sink their teeth into a new one, this time based off of the Eden raid series. The Ultimate has the same name as Patch 5.4, and uses the art from that patch as well, meaning players will be revisiting that part of the story when going through the Ultimate. The new Ultimate will be available in 7.1.
New Field Operations
Eureka and Bozja fans rejoice! Explained as content for a lot of players to participate in simultaneously to clear, a new zone will be added sometime during Dawntrail's patch cycle. No other details were given about it, just that it will exist, so players are left guessing exactly what it will entail.
New Limited Job - Beastmaster
Blue Mages and Beastmasters will now be able to group up and complete content together. Not much was revealed about the Beastmaster aside from the name and the fact that it will exist alongside Blue Mages in whatever content is available for it. There is an idea for a collection feature, but the dev team isn't quite ready to reveal anything else yet.
A lot of graphics updates
There were some more examples of how different races will be changing in the new graphics update. The graphics update has been one of the new features coming with Dawntrail that Yoshi-P has been focused on, so it's clear he's passionate about the endeavor, but he also recently told players that it would take years to complete. Getting to see these improvements is interesting to many fans,
Female Hrothgar
Finally, players got to see what the new Hrothgar gender will look like in Dawntrail. Far slimmer than their male counterparts, the female Hrothgars will be playable when Dawntrail launches. A new video showed a variety of faces, how she looks when she runs, and more. In the Keynote, Yoshi-P specifically said that this will be the last race for the game, making fans wonder if they'll ever get another new race or if Dawntrail will see the last addition. He mentioned that adding more races will be "up to [the fans]".
Final Fantasy XIV and Final Fantasy XVI crossover event
The crossover questline that people are waiting for isn't really coming anytime soon. Many fans were hoping that it would be coming with Patch 6.55, but during the Keynote, Yoshi-P revealed that it won't be coming until early April. Those who are looking to get more Final Fantasy XVI content will have to settle with the new DLC that just launched for the PS5 title.
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