Today Square Enix hosted the 78th Letter from the Producer Live dedicated to Final Fantasy XIV, focusing on the next major update, numbered 6.5.
Following yesterday's news about the new expansion "Dawntrail," the first details and screenshots about it including the visual overhaul it'll bring, and the brand new Xbox Series X|S version, today we hear more about what's coming in the near future.
As usual, the news was provided by producer and director Naoki Yoshida and global community producer Toshio Murouchi, translated by localization lead Kate Cwynar.
We start by hearing the title of the update, which is "Growing Light." The main scenario will be divided into two parts. Part 1 will launch in early October 2023 (if all goes to plan). Part 2 will release in Mid-January 2024.
Below you can take a look at the upcoming schedule. Patch 6.1 will be in the middle between the two, in late October 2023. The story coming in update 6.55 in Mid-January will connect to the expansion.
Update 6.5 will include new main scenario quests, and we get to see a couple of screenshots. Apparently, Zero is going places.
We'll get the Endwalker Tribal Alliance Quests in update 6.55. These require completion of the quests for the Arkasodara, the Omicron, and Loporrit quests.
The Tataru's Grand Endeavor questline will continue. You can check out the screenshots below.
More Somehow Further Hildibrand Adventure will also come in 6.55. Here's what it looks like.
Update 6.55 will also bring another content of Further Manderville Weapons.
Of course, another stage will also be added to More Splendorous Tools.
A new Dungein will be implemented, titled The Lunar Subterrane.
New Trials will include The Abyssal Fracture and its Extreme version. We're going to fight against Zeromus.
The new Unreal trial will be The Singularity Reactor.
The new stage of the current Alliance Raid will be Myths of the Realm Part 3: Thaleia.
Moving on to system updates, we'll get the addition of Duty Support for the Drowned City of Skalla, The Burn, and Ghimlyt Dark dungeons, which means that all the story dungeons will have the feature when 6.5 launches.
The third Variant & Criterion Dungeon is Aloalo Island. As usual, it'll have Normal, Criterion, and Criterion Savage difficulty level and the previous Variant and Criterion dungeons to unlock them. This time around, we'll team up with Matsya.
Jost adjustments for both PvP and PvE will be included in the update. They won't be major overhauls since 7.0 is coming soon anyway.
PvP updates will include the beginning of Series Five. Season Eight will have a slightly unusual run in terms of timing, from 6.48 on August 8 until Patch 6.51.
Speaking of Crystalline Conflict, the minimap and UI will get an update and more details are coming at the next broadcast. A new arena will be added, named The Red Sands.
Island Sanctuary will get new ranks and visions on top of a new gathering area in the wilds. This will come with new materials, craftable items, crops, animals, isleworks handicrafts, and structures. Below you can see a screenshot of one of the structures, and one of a new "animal" you can capture.
The "Felicitous Favors" feature will be added. They'll be unlocked with the completion of the sanctuary progression added in Patch 6.5. The felicitous furball will issue individualized requests for handicraft production. Shipping the requested items yields special tokens that can be traded for exclusive rewards.
The Fall Guys Collaboration for Gold Saurcer was announced yesterday. It'll come at some point in the 6.5X cycle.
We're getting new custom deliveries, and below you can see the recipient, Margrat.
We're also getting a consecutive aetherial reduction feature for collectibles and green dot indicators for newly logged fish in the Fishing Log. Finally, optional items will fit in the storage armoire, which the audience certainly reacted strongly to.
Item level restrictions will be implemented based on the level for Duty Roulette: Alliance Raid. Another welcome change will be the option to sort teleport destinations by expansion. Of course, the old sorting won't be removed and you'll be able to toggle it from the settings menu.
A new reward will be added for getting all the trial mounts in the 6.X series, and you can see it below.
To close off the event, below you can check out some new merchandise up for pre-orders, including a blindingly expensive Final Fantasy XIV-themed high-end turntable and art pieces you can hang on your wall.
Final Fantasy XIV is currently available for PC, PS5, and PS4, while an Xbox Series X|S version has just been announced yesterday and will soon enter its open beta with a release window in spring 2024.
We already know that the next expansion titled "Dawntrail" will launch in the summer of 2024.
