Today Square Enix hosted the 79th Letter from the Producer Live broadcast dedicated to its popular MMORPG Final Fantasy XIV, focusing on the next major update, numbered 6.5 and titled "Growing Light.".
As usual, the goodies were delivered by producer and director Naoki Yoshida and global community producer Toshio Murouchi.
We already know that Part 1 of the update will be released on October 3, while Part 2 (Update 6.55) will come in mid-January.
Below you can see how the patches align with the upcoming Fan Festivals.
Update 6.5 will bring adjustments to jobs to balance damage output between them within each rose. The potency of certain job actions will also be increased.
We then move on to the new Trial, The Abyssal Fracture, which will feature Zeromus. We get to take the first glimpse of gameplay and you can watch it in the recording of the official livestream (the link will set you up at the correct timestamps, like all the similar links in this article.)
Moving on to Crystalline Conflict, it'll get minimap and UI adjustments, including new settings to permanently display your team to the left of the minimap and HUD.
A new line on the field will indicate the "Comeback Point," which is how far the losing team must reach to turn the tide.
There will also be a setting to display a countdown timer ten seconds before the start of overtime.
The progress bar will also be enhanced to provide better and more readable information, as you can see below.
Effects for certain actions, pets, and more, have been adjusted to appear different depending on whether they're friendly or cast by enemies, coming in update 6.51.
Lastly, there will be a new arena, named the "Red Sands" coming in update 6.51. You can watch some footage showing it off from the livestream's recording.
We then take a look at PvP rewards. The second picture shows glamours that you can get for trophy crystals.
Next we hear about Thaleia, the next alliance raid. Of this, you can also watch more footage from the livestream's recording. Incidentally, we get the first look at Thaliak.
We go back to the traditional paper prints for a look at the armor that you can earn in Thaleia and some new housing items, including a stair that will let us climb on top of roofs and a Magitek armor bay.
More images show a preview of new glamours, including a cute one related to Island Sanctuary with cat ears and a Kappa mascot costume. The Kappa will come later in the 6.5X cycle.
The next gameplay segment shows a new fairy that will appear somewhere in the 6.5X update series (which will also serve as a mount), new mounts, and minions. As usual, you can check out the recording of the footage.
Not directly related to the update, Square Enix is considering the use of cloud data centers in order to expand its server infrastructure options in the future.
A North American cloud data center will be temporarily implemented for a public stress test to be held during the 6.5x patch series. Further information will be shared at a later time.
Next, we get the announcement of a collaboration with Kentucky Fried Chicken. It will start in Japan on October 4, 2023.
You can purchase a dedicated combo meal at participating retailers across the country to receive stickers and the "Eat Chicken" in-game emote.
The campaign is only for Japan, but usually, the related in-game items come to the West as well, at some point.
We also hear of a fireworks event on November 3 in Chiba, Japan. Ticket pre-orders are now open. A similar event was held in Osaka last month.
We also hear the official announcement of the Final Fantasy XIV TTRPG leaked a few days ago.
You can watch the full livestream below.
Below you can find a handy primer on which parts of the update will come in Part 1 (Update 6.5) and which features will come in Part 2 (Update 6.55). Some will also come in.between (Updayte 6.51)
Many of these features and content were explained in the previous Letter from the Producer Live.
- New main scenario quests.
- Growing Light, Part 1 (Patch 6.5)
- Growing Light Part 2 (Patch 6.55)
- Tataru's Grand Endeavor Continues (Patch 6.55)
- Endwalker Tribal Alliance Quests (Patch 6.55)
- Requires the completion of the Arkasodara, Omicron, and Loporrit Tribal Quests
- Somehow Further Hildibrand Adventures (Patch 6.55)
- Further Manderville Weapons (Patch 6.55)
- Splendorous Tools (Patch 6.51)
- New Dungeion (Patch 6.5)
- The Lunar Subterrane
- New Trials (Patch 6.5)
- The Abyssal Fracture
- The Abyssal Fracture (Extreme)
- New Alliance Raid (Patch 6.5)
- Myths of the Realm Part 3: Thaleia
- New Unreal Trial (Patch 6.5)
- The Sungularity Reactor (Unreal)
- New Variant & Criterion Dungein (Patch 6.51)
- Aloalo Island
- In response to feedback, new rewards intended to increase item level are in the works for Savage mode.
- Aloalo Island
- Duty Support for Stormblooed (Patch 6.5)
- Duty Suppirt added for:
- The Drowned City of Skalla
- The Burn
- The Ghimlyt Dark
- Duty Suoport will now be available for all main scenario dungeons from A Realm Rebiorn through Endwalker!
- Duty Suppirt added for:
- Jod Adjusttments (Patch 6.5)
- PvP Updates (Patch 6.5)
- PvP Series 5 Begins
- Crystalline Conflict Update (some in Patch 6.5 and some in 6.51)
- Island Sanctuary Updates ( Patch 6.5)
- Nw Sanctuary Ranks and visions
- New Gathering area in the wilds
- New crops., isleworks handicrafts, animals, structures, and more,
- Felicitous Favors
- Fall Guys Collaboration (Patch 6.5X. The precise timing is still unknown)
- Miscellaneous updates (Patch 6.5)
- New Custom Deliveries: Margaret
- New consecutive aetherial reduction function for collectablws
- Green dot indicators on newly logged fish in the Fish Guide
- Ability to store optional items in the Armoire
- Option to sort teleport destinations by expansion
- New reward for obtaining all trial mounts in the 6.x patch series
- Item level restrictions for Duty Roulette: Alliance Raid based on level
- EXP and Allagan tomestone rewards for each alliance raid adjusted according to difficult and time required for completion.
In other Final Fantasy XIV news, the new expansion "Dawntrail" has been announced and it's coming for PS5, PS4, PC, and Xbox Series X|S in summer 2024.
