Final Fantasy XIV's second expansion which has been tentatively referred to by fans as "4.0" has been officially announced at both Fanfest and on the official Twitter account. Titled Stormblood, the story will see players visit the Garlean-occupied city state of Ala Mhigo at long last, with the goal to break the nation free from two decades of imperial oppression.
After nearly four years, the PlayStation 3 version of the game will no longer receive new content support after Patch 3.5. PS3 support for the game will cease with Stormblood.
Teaser trailer
- Stormblood will explore Ala Mhigo
- Main focus is to regain control of Ala Mhigo from the Garlean Empire
- 20 years have passed since Garleans have had control
- Main antagonist to be Zenos Yae Galvus, XIIth Legion Legatus and de-facto ruler of Ala Mhigo
- Woman depicted in trailer to potentially be revealed in future 3.X patch
- Warrior of Light's main job in 4.0 is Monk (akin to DRG for 3.0)
- Area shown in teaser trailer is Rhalgr's Reach, the HQ of Ala Migho's main resistance.
- Multiple new jobs to be discussed at future date
- Yoshi-P wore a t-shirt of Marvel's Scarlet Witch, said that was the only hint he'd give at this time (Red Mage?)
Battle system miscellany
- New Level Cap: 70 (for all classes)
- More actions for each job to go with new cap
- Revamped battle system to go with new actions
- Additional Skill System to be overhauled, with skills shared by roles instead of jobs, and can choose from shared role ability options
- Reassessment of unused/ineffective actions
- Example used is Dragoon's Blood of the Dragon buff, where in 4.0 an icon/gauge showing how much time is left will be better visible on screen so players aren't just staring at the current icon.
Other additions
- New Areas to be introduced, comparable in size to Heavensward areas
- Stormblood will be a full standalone game's worth of content
- New Primals to be introduced, including known names and all-new original-to-FF14 ones.
- New Dungeons to be introduced with new battle and dungeon concepts to be introduced
- High-End Raids to also be added, with possibility of different story depending on difficulty, with normal on odd patches, savage on even
- New Alliance Raids to be added. Big news, but will wait until Tokyo Fan Fest, but will be, "very, very Final Fantasy"
- Expanded form of Exploration to be introduced: The Forbidden Land of Eureka (a dungeon from Final Fantasy III), something different from Diadem and will expand its own entire area, unique to Stormblood. There might even be Notorious Monsters that only appear once every 72 hours.
- Eureka may also be used for next set of high-end weapons, akin to Relic/Anima, rather than upgrades in "normal areas."
- New Gear and Recipes, including winners of Fan's Gear Design Contest
- Item Inventory Expansion (this got the biggest cheers so far), looking to increase "as much as humanly possible." There is uncertainty in how this will be implemented due to the server needs, and it will be addressed in a future Live Letter
- A 4th Residential Area to be added. Where? "Sorry, can't tell ya."
A small preview of the new zones
Like with FFXIV: Heavensward, players will be able to fly in the Stormblood zones. Once again, be prepared to trek across the land like an earthbound peon until you have collected all Aether Currents to allow you and your mount of choice to take up your majestic wings.
A new exploration area? Diadem 2.0?
But the loudest cheer goes to:
Any necessary updates will be made in this space.
FFXIV Twitter | Reddit
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