Well, well well, ladies, gentlemen and all in between. A week from now things will be very interesting for MMO players and Final Fantasy fans. We have a long overdue expansion announcement.
Now if you are reading this article, who am I kidding this is a blog post, you are interested in FFXIV, but maybe you are a new player or just considering playing so you might not know how things go normally.
Sooo a very quick version. Since the game was relaunched 2.0 is the new base game (Imagine if Cataclysm directly followed Vanilla) so 6.0 will be the fourth expansion. Each expansion last for two years with five major content patches 3.5 months appart (things like exhausted devs or covid pandemic might cause a slight delay). The first three patches wrap up the expansion story while the last two steer the story in the direction of the next expansion. Often quite literally. It is not uncommon for the last story mission to end right where the new zones will appear.
Now just as Blizzard has BlizzCon, the FFXIV dev team has the Fan Fest. The first major difference is that the Fan Fest is dedicated to one game only not everything. Makes sense considering Square Enix is a gigantic company and even if we only look at the Final Fantasy series, they usually have a lot more going on than just XIV. This is a bummer because their profit often goes to other projects, leading to a game with far smaller budget than WoW. Additionally since expansions come every two years and patches are discussed at length during live letters, Fan Fests are only held every two years. The second major difference is that there isn't just one Fest. There are three, One for Europe, one for North America and one for Japan. This is used to generate hype by only revealing some of the information first leaving the audience and the players to want more. We can often get job (our world for class) hints from Director Yoshi-P's T-shirt. And I'm not even joking. Also people will have time to gather smart questions for the QnA and not just nonsense like 'Don't you guys have phones?'. Also also Japanese fans don't have to travel to the other side of the planet and vica versa.
Unfortunately due to covid all the Fan Fests were cancelled. And the first one should have been in November, much like BlizzCon, another gaming event that will be online in February. So at this time we would have known quite a lot. Also there were no leaks. When Shadowbringers was revealed we knew the title, the races and the jobs. Now all we have is a trademark filling that some people, including Yoshida himself, are disputing. According to the rumor the next expansion will be called Forspoken.
Now let's look at the title. It certainly fits in with the others. Don't count A Realm Reborn, because that is not really an expansion. Heavensward, Stormblood, Shadowbringers, Forspoken. It means somebody bewitched, A victim of a malicious spell. Sounds ominous and magical. So far my favorite title was Heavensward. It sounds cool, rolls of the tongue nicely and has multiple meanings. First, in said expansion we travel to the icy north, up mountains and even to floating continents. It also introduced flying mounts. Oh and the personal guard of the Archbishop of Ishgard (the new hub city) is called the Heavens' Ward. Compared to it Stormblood is meaningless and neadlessly edgy. Still not as bad as World of Warcraft: Warlords of Draenor though. and Shadowbringers....well as much as I like the story, the music and the zone design of 5.0 they really dropped the ball with the title. Sure it makes sense considering we are to bring back the night sky to a world drowning in light and we are fighting the Ascians, the harbingers of shadow, but the title is a bit too long, awkward to say with none of the natural flow of Heavensward, and following SB with ShB is just inconvenient. But Forspoken is pretty good. FP or maybe 4P since it is expansion 4.
But what will we get in Forspoken if that is indeed the title? Well your guess is as good as mine, but since you got this far, you are probably interested in my oppinion.
Races: Most likely none. Yoshida did explain that there is a very finite number of armor sets they can fit onto every body for any given content update. Any more races and we would have less patches, more time between patches or less new gear in patches. It is why when confronted with the last time he can add a race without isssue, he went with the, admittedly controversial, choice of doing female only Viera for the crowd that asked for them and male only Hrothgar for the crowd that wanted a more beastly race. Now a lot of people would love to make these races nonif .gender locked, but unless something changed, this is unlikely to happen. Anyway if for some reason we DO get races it will be female Hrothgar an male Viera (a first for the franchise).
Jobs: I think it goes without saying that we will get a new healer. Last time we had one was Heavensward. Besides with the homogenization and the dps pruning for healers, many are unhappy. Then again whatever kinds of criticism comes, there are always those who like things this way. Sooo, new healer. And likely a new dps job as well. Why do I think so? Well because at the end of 5.3 Alisie, the voice for all players, expressed frustration that she didn't get new gear like her friends who changed jobs, and her twin brother, Alphinaud reassured her that their time will also come. In that very same patch we had the Heroe's Gauntlet, a dungeon filled with enemies corresponding to playable jobs. There were two exceptions: Necromancer and Berserker. Makes you thing, doesn't it? Of course a Necromancer is not very likely in a game that really doesn't want to offends players by asking them to do evil stuff, and making it a healer is even weirder, but Necro did appear in Final Fantasy V, a lot of other important MMOs have them nowadays, ESO and GW2 for example, and it can heal in both of those game.
As unpopular as this might sound, I think we might also get another limited jobs. For those who don't know, limited jobs have a lower level cap and can't join random parties. So far Blue Mage is the only one. Limited jobs are a good way to mess around with gameplay ideas that break the meta. It can be a good experiment for future content.
The setting: Expansions usually come with 7 zones, minus the cities, with one zone being a mystery. So where are we going? While there is a lot of whisful thinking around, but the most likely are still Ilsabard, and the Moon. Yes, the Moon. Yoshida did say years ago that we will go there, it is the Ascian base, or at least the place where Elidibus liked to hang out, and in 5.4 Fandaniel attacked us with a creature called Lunar Bahamut. It does seem like a good fit for the finalee of the Zodiark vs Hydaelin arc. But there is a slight problem. So far absolutely nothing hinted that there is any sort of like on the Moon beside a few disembodies souls, and even they left. An expansion needs new city hubs, killable mobs, and an aetheryte network. So unless the PuPu from Final Fantasy VIII colonized the dark side of the moon this won't work.
So what about Ilsabard? Well the seat of the Garlean Empire needs a long overdue visit. We are at constant war with them and before details about Shadowbringers surfaced, everyone was sure we would be visiting the imperials. Problem is, the emperor is dead and half the capital is a rubble. I know the people on the lore forum and they would prefer to see the Empire in all its glory. Hell, we could probbably do 7 zones in the capital alone. Plus, they deserve an expansion just for them without the Ascians messing around.
The villain(s): So far we are facing the dynamic duo of Zenos yae Galvus and Fandaniel, but I have a feeling that at least one of them will die. Especially since pre-patch villains like to do that. Teledji and Ilberd both died for example. So did Nabriales. Ysayle changed sides and THEN died. So who will perish? Thicc Sephiroth or OnlyFans? If I had to bet, I would say the former. Zenos had been around since the last cutscene of Heavenward, and we've had multiple fights with him. Just in 4.0 we had two solo duties, one dungeon final boss fight and after he merged with Shinryu a trial. Also at the very end of Stormblood we've had the fight with Elidibus inside Zenos' body. It's the one from the Shadowbringers cinematic. And now the dude is gearing up for a final battle with us. This fucking better be final. Also I bet you his new weapon will be the main hand weapon of one of the new jobs. So yes, please look forward to an expansion with a crazy suicidal nihilist villain. Why? "Because I want wretched creatures who ask such meaningless questions, to die." Yeah, Fandaniel is a real charmer.
Other Features: Everything else should be the standard fair. Dungeons, Raids, Beast Tribes, Primals. I have nothing, absolutely nothing on what it could be, I only have wishes. First, the return of Deep Dungeons. This might actually come true, because Blizzard did their own take on them with Torghast.Granted Shadowlands was released when the first Fan Fest should have been heald, so it is unlikely that Yoshi and co would have the benefit of trying it and looking at player feedback, but they need to have the best iteration of the system. I already mentioned the Pupu, and I wouldn't mind them as a beast tribe. For a Primal I would kill to finally battle Anima. Hands down the coolest looking summon in the series, The Alliance Raid will probably involve a guest again. It seems to be the new norm. I really enjoy the NieR series, but I understand that people are upset that it seems to be a NieR Automate sequel inside FFXIV and not really a part of the lore like the Ivalice raid. If we still go to Ilsabard I could imagine an FFVII raid with Nomura giving us nice glamours for Machinist, Ninja, Monk and Samurai (Vincent, Yuffie, Tifa and Sephiroth). Then again, dude should maybe hurry up with the Remake part 2 instead. Also we need a new Ultimate Fight. You know what? I'm going to blow your fucking mind. The Crysalis, The Aetherochemical research facility, the Dying Gasp, the Seat of Sacrefice, Eden's Promise: Eternity. How about it? Let's fight the freaking convocation! Nabriales, Lahabrea, Igeyorhm, Emet-Selch, Elidibus, Mitron, Loghrif. It's just half of them, so it should be easy. maybe throw in Fandango if we can kill him untill then.
Housing: Just as a final note, since we did the Ishgardian restoration I really hope that means more housing wards. Of course an even better idea would be instanced housing. I understand the idea behind the neighbourhods and ir really can lead to great moments, but people have been begging for instanced housing since forever. At the very least Ishgardian housing is all but given. We just need something new for crafters and gatherers to replace it.
Anyway in a week we will know how much I've got right. Till then, stay hyped.
Epilogue: Yoshida expressed interest in snowboarding and Blitzball for the Gold Saucer, so pretty please with sugar on top.
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