Final Fantasy XIV is still going strong. Perhaps strengthened by the coronavirus pandemic, where a lot of people have had the luxury of spending more time stuck at home being able to play the popular MMORPG, we’re on to 20 million players, and game version 5.4, which will arrive just in time for Christmas in early December.
During the Letter from the Producer live event, details about version 5.4, titled Futures Rewritten, were unveiled. Following on from 5.3, where the Shadowbringers story was concluded, players will set out on “a new adventure,” claim Square Enix. The patch will also introduce the next chapters in both the 8-player Eden raid series and the Sorrow of Werlyt questline, the latter reintroducing the Emerald Weapon to the series (after making its debut in Final Fantasy VII). Players will be able to challenge the boss in both normal and extreme difficulties for the added challenge.
The patch will also include a new Unreal trial and a new dungeon, titled Matoya’s Relict. A new Explorer mode will allow more photography-focused players to traverse dungeons without any enemies to fight so they can take the best screenshots without worrying about anything getting in the way.
Other updates include the addition of violins to the list of playable instruments, revised Triple Triad parameters, adjustments to PvE and PvP actions, updates to Ocean Fishing and Doman Mahjong, treasure hunt dungeon updates, new UI skins, and more.
Patch 5.35 will arrive in a couple of days, on October 13, and will bring the next chapter in the Save the Queen questline and the new Bozjan Southern Front battle content.
As well as informing players about upcoming updates, Square Enix also confirmed that Final Fantasy XIV would also be backward compatible with the upcoming PlayStation 5, and the next-gen version will benefit from higher quality visuals like what was seen on the PS4 Pro. Still, crucially, load times will be drastically improved thanks to the PS5’s SSD.
Fans who appreciate the art of Final Fantasy will be pleased to know that the art books will be getting reprints – read that here. Square Enix’s other massive JRPG series, Dragon Quest, recently made an appearance at their TGS show – see more here.
