Final Fantasy XIV's new expansion, Dawntrail, is set to launch in early access on June 28 and fully on July 2. While fans wait for the game to become available, the producer and director of FFXIV, Naoki "Yoshi-P" Yoshida gave fans a closer look at what might come in the 80th Live Letter from the Producer.
This Live Letter was part of a bigger broadcast that Square Enix puts on occasionally, where the developers of the game plan 14 hours of broadcasted content. The event kicked off with an introduction, and the Live Letter started shortly after. The information was flowing for two hours, giving fans a closer look at what they can expect for the new expansion.
If you missed the Live Letter or just want a brief recap of what was said, below is a summary of everything Yoshi-P talked about during the two-hour broadcast. Japanese translation to English was provided by the FFXIV Discord.
FFXIV Live Letter 80 Recap
- The Benchmark will be available Sunday, April 14 at 12am PDT
- Graphics update
- Graphics for the environment will receive an update.
- Foliage moves when players move through it
- Mounts now tilt when they turn
- Textures for things such as the aetheryte crystal, stones on the ground, trees and rocks have been improved
- Resolution and textures for characters and materials has been improved
- Colors are more vibrant
- Two new anti-aliasing methods
- New "soft shadow" option
- Shadows will be softer or more intense based on the setting
- This option is only for Windows and Mac, PlayStation 5 will be set to max settings
- Shadows will be softer or more intense based on the setting
- Graphics Upscale Types will be added
- AMD FSR
- NVIDIA DLSS
- Super resolution will be implemented on all platofrms
- This will restore the image quality of low-resolution images and reduce resolution degradation
- 3D Graphics Resolution Scaling will be added
- This will help reduce stress on your device
- Enabling Dynamic Resolution
- Automatically adjusts the resolution of your screen when the frame rate goes below the desired threshold
- PS4 and Xbox Series S will be included in the graphical update, but certain features my not appear
- PS4 will have supersampling reduced, while dynamic resolution and LOD will be standard
- Xbox Series X will have LOD for shadows as standard
- Blacklist improvements
- Enhanced blacklist functionality
- Players on the blacklist will have their model hidden
- Blacklisted players can still join Duties through matchmaking, though their messages will be completely hidden
- New "Mute List"
- Muted players will still be visible to you, but their messages will be hidden from chat
- Added term filter
- Specific words and term added to the filter will remove other players' messages that contain the filtered term
- The term filter will apply to most chat types, like Say, Shout, Yell, and Linkshells
- Specific words and term added to the filter will remove other players' messages that contain the filtered term
- Ability to kick or prevent players from private housing
- Characters added to the "No Entry" list for an estate will be removed from the grounds immediately
- Players added to new blacklist will automatically be barred from entering an estate
- The "No Entry" permission can be given to four housemate or Free Company members with sufficient permissions
- Enhanced blacklist functionality
- Previous and recurring events returning
- Yo-kai Watch event returns April 23, ending on May 24
- Moogle Treasure Trove continues with Part Two – The Second Hunt for Genesis on May 13 and ends June 23, days before Dawntrail's early access on June 28
- Make it Rain Campaign returns May 15. The Gold Saucer-focused event ends until May 31
- Dragon Quest X event returns June 5 and lasts for around two weeks, ending June 20
