During this weekends fan festival in Tokyo, Square Enix's Naoki Yoshida shared a lot of new details for the upcoming expansion for Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn, Heavensward as well as the next patch. We've covered Heavensward and patch 2.4 previously with the details that were previously let out so you should look there for details that had come out previously. It had long been promised we would get more in December and it seems that they have delivered with a lot of details for it.
While new Beast tribes were announced previously - this time we got to see a new playable race. The Au Ra will be the 6th playable race in the game and like other races will have 2 clans. The first Au Ra has already been introduced, but she has previously hid herself with an all concealing costume that will be coming off in patch 2.5 to reveal that Yugiri is an Au Ra.
Two new jobs are also coming in, and like the Dark Knight that was previously announced, they won't require a class before hand. The Astrologian will channel celestial magic through their star globe to heal others and use a divining deck to support the party members making them a healing/support character. Teased over a month ago, the second one is a Machinist - a DPS firearm wielder who shoots a lot and can deploy turrets to further the bloodshed around.
For those looking for more to do towards the end game, we have the Mechanical Fortress Alexander. The pictures of it definitely make it look huge, and it is possible like the Coils of Bahamut will have multiple parts to go through that get added over time. Word is that it will also have a special hard mode for those who want it extra tough but how that will be implemented isn't sure.
Final Fantasy has been renown for its music in part to great composers, and Heavensward promises to be no different as Nobuo Uematsu will be composing the music with his considerable talent.
The Heavensward Collectors Edition was announced while they were there, and its going to promise a mixture of in-game stuff and some pretty nice physical products. A dragon figurine, an art book, a disc with various videos and trailers make up the physical parts, while in-game items exclusive to it include a special griffin flying mount, a helmet designed after Final Fantasy IV's Dark Knight Cecil, and a wind-up Kain minion.
Patch 2.5 will be called "Before the Fall", and was discussed there at the Fan Festival. There are going to be three new dungeons - The Keeper of the Lake, Amdapor Keep (Hard), and Wanderer's Palace (Hard). The Crystal Tower raid series will also be coming to an end with the World of Darkness in it. There are going to be some new minigames in it as well - which of course means the return of the Gold Saucer and games like Triple Triad and Chocobo Racing.
You can pick up a copy of Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn on Amazon.
Do you play Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn? Does Heavensward excite you at all with what it has promised to bring to the game? What would you like to see implemented in Heavensward or Patch 2.5? Tell us in the comments below!
