During Square Enix’s announcement show, Final Fantasy XIV’s producer and director Naoki Yoshida revealed the game’s fourth expansion. Final Fantasy XIV: Endwalker concludes the epic saga with Zodiark and Haidaelin, takes players to new locations, raises the maximum level from 80 to 90, and introduces all-new dungeons, raids and other unique content. The advertising showcase opened with a trailer showing the Warrior of Light as a paladin fighting alongside Alfino and Alisai as the world seems to be coming to an end.
Naoki Yoshida then announced the release of Endwalker in the fall of 2021. Due to the coronavirus pandemic, the team had to delay work between patches 5.2 and 5.3 by about 3 months. All previous expansions were released around summer time, but unfortunately Endwalker will be released later due to the delays.
Final Fantasy XIV: Endwalker will also introduce two new missions, a healer and a melee DPS. So far, Yoshida has only revealed details about Sage’s work as a healer. Sage will act as a barrier healer, just like the scientist. The Devils plan to make the Astrologer a pure healer, like a White Mage, although they haven’t revealed many details about that yet. The Sages use four sword-like weapons that fly around them, called Nulitas. They use these Nulitas to do damage and send barrier healing to other party members.
Statue on the Place de l’Enix
While completing the main missions of the scenario, players will eventually find their way to Thavnair, a place mentioned throughout the story. The colorful Radz-at-Han will become a new hub location, similar to Elmore at level 80. The Warriors of Light will also travel to Garlemald, although the kingdom seems rather damaged and not in the best shape. Players will find out why by playing the story.
Statue on the Place de l’Enix
Yoshida also announced tons of other Endwalker content, such as a new Alliance raid centered on Ascian, a small PvP, a sanctuary island where players can grow plants and raise animals, a surprise update for the Golden Saucer (Blitzball? Snowboard?), and a new residential area in Ishgard after the restoration of Ishgard for crafters and collectors.
Players can also expect a “downgrading” of statistics with the release of version 6.0. Combat stats such as strength and agility, as well as player and enemy HP, will be lowered to reduce overall damage. Mr. Yoshida emphasized that players will not become weaker, they will only see their stats reduced. With this change, the developers will also remove belts as equipment. All belts equipped at Launch 6.0 will go directly to the NPC Calamity Salvager in the launch cities.
Statue on the Place de l’Enix
Finally, Yoshida has introduced Data Center Travel, similar to the world visitation system currently used in the game. Players will be able to move through the data centers to visit any server, collaborate in dungeons, take screenshots together, purchase items on their server in a forum, etc. This should bring Final Fantasy XIV closer to a serverless remake.
Square Enix will announce even more during the free online fanfest on May 15 and 16.
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