I have been completely out of the loop on all things Final Fantasy XIV for awhile now. I bounced pretty hard after completing the phenomenal Shadowbringers storyline and never quite came back. So it completely snuck up on me when Friday night they were having a big reveal stream about the next expansion. So if you were like me, here is an attempt to catch you up. Granted this is by no means going to be a detailed rundown of the events. If you want to see the entire presentation you can check it out here. If you want a highly detailed rundown then I suggest Nova Crystallis which tends to be where I watch via twitter.
Based on what I have gathered, this expansion is going to represent the end of the Hydaelyn and Zodiark storyline. I don’t want to go into too much detail about that given that you really should play the story content to experience what we know up to this point for yourself. I myself plan on playing catch up soon and working through the story quests to get wrapped up and prepared for the expansion. Essentially there has been a story arc that has been lovingly crafted that starts with A Realm Reborn and will end with this expansion. Yoshi-P made it very clear to point out that this is not the end of Final Fantasy XIV nor is it the end of his involvement with the project.
Where are we going? Apparently the moon! It seems like it is finally time to mine Final Fantasy IV for story tidbits and that means we are visiting the moon and all the weirdness that it entails. They have announced a Lunar Whale mount that you can get as part of the digital fanfest package… which makes me wonder if we will in fact be riding a giant whale to the moon and back like we did in the 16 bit era game. I am super on board with this if it is in fact a thing that happens. Additionally since each expansion has had a chosen class to represent the Warrior of Light/Darkness it seems that for this one we are going with Paladin. So lets run down the sequence of classes so far…
FFXIV 1.0 – Archer and Gladiator depending on the marketing
A Realm Reborn – Warrior
Heavensward – Dragoon
Stormblood – Monk and Samurai at different times
Shadowbringers – Dark Knight
Endwalker – Paladin
Other places we are going apparently includes Thavnair and apparently the city of Radz-at-Han. I am not sure if this is going to be a main destination or something crafting related given that this city shows up so much in crafting lore. The city this artwork shows off seems really freaking cool to explore and it almost gives a whole walled city vibe but suspended in the air. Maybe we will just be able to buy the onions in the market?
We are also apparently visiting Garlemald proper, rather than just through a series of cutscenes not involving our character. I think more than anything this proves that this is in fact the end of this storyline and maybe even this world. Garlemald has been something held over us from day one, and I figured we would finally arrive there and visit in the final expansion. The last expansion gave us a way out of this being the end of the game, but I think it might be the end of this world since we are finally seeing the evil empire for what it is.
As has been the standard when an expansion is released, we get one new class reveal early on. It seems we are getting a new healer this time in the form of the Sage. The thing is… this version of the Sage is nothing like I remember from other games. It looks very Allagan in theme with weird floating swords called Nouliths. It was described as a “Barrier-Type” healer which sounds like the realm that the Scholar already occupies? They seem to be splitting the healers into two categories of Barrier and Pure, which is only going to serve to cause much drama among the healers. I forsee gatekeeping in the future.
Allisae got her “glow-up” during Stormblood when she was announced to be a Red Mage. This time around it is time for Alphinaud to get his turn and instead of forever being an Arcanist, he finally gets a proper job in the form of Sage. I will sorta miss his grossly overpowered Carbunkle action. I do think that the class looks sorta badass and if I ever play a healer I might run one of these up. Other tidbits of note is that there is a level increase but also at the same time a stat squish of sorts to bring the numbers down. It seems like any game that successfully runs a sufficient amount of time has to have one of these.
I’m linking the full sage reveal trailer so you can find that easily if you so choose. As far as the other class they have announced that it is a melee class but we don’t have many solid lead to go on. Some folks are saying Templar which apparently is sort of like the Mystic Knight from FFV. Others are saying that it is going to be Necromancer using a scythe as the weapon. Others still are claiming once again that we are going to get Beastmaster which never seems to work out given how hard that class is going to be to implement properly. I have no ideas at all because most of the classes that I could think of that would be interesting are casters.
The thing that honestly interests me the most is supposedly there is going to be an Island Sanctuary we can go to that is essentially Stardew Valley meets Final Fantasy XIV. Depending on how well this is carried out and how grindy it feels… this might be that thing that keeps me engaged with Final Fantasy XIV for the long run. If we got our own version of Stardew/Animal Crossing in Final Fantasy with adorable Final Fantasy themed encounters… I would probably be completely there for it.
So have you been following the news about Endwalker? What are your thoughts? Drop me a line below.
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