Today, during the Letter from the Producer Live broadcast, Final Fantasy XIV Producer and Director Naoki Yoshida and Global Community Producer Toshio Murouchi provided more information about update 5.0 that will be released at the same time as the Shadowbringers expansion next month.
Things started with a look at Yoshida-san’s own lalafell and a Hrothgar in dancer gear, doing what they do best.
You can check out the video below.
We then got to take a look at the new menu screen for the expansion:
The next section of the broadcast detailed new adjustments made to the gameplay.
The FATE system will offer new rewards other than experience. You’ll get special tokens that can be exchanged for items.
On the other hand, side quests in the new regions will be level synced and enemies will be scaled to the player’s level. All side quests are doable at level 70.
Role Quests will be implemented, letting players follow the adventures of the First’s fallen heroes. One line for one role will be required to complete the main scenario. You can do all four lines if you like. They closely tie into the story.
New jobs will get job quests at level 60 and 70, while old jobs will get theirs at level 80 after completing the main scenario.
Crafters and gathers will get five sets of new quests, two for gatherers and three for crafters.
The user interface will be changed. It’ll have dark and light skins. More will be added down the line.
All UI elements will be expanded. Cross-world linkshells will get eight channels. Target information will be improved and will display decimal percentages. Party list information will also be improved, and a placement preview will be added to housing.
The battle system will also get its own updates.
A new system will be implemented, named Charged Action System. When the recast timer of actions cycles, select actions will receive charges up to a set maximum.
A new system has been implemented to interrupt the enemy to make things more easily be visible. It’ll use a set of dedicated actions for tanks and ranged DPS.
Role action customization will be removed, and there will be less of them available.
The MP and TP system will be changed as well. MP will be capped to 10,000, while TP will be completely removed. Piety will affect only healers and will increase MP recharge rate.
The materia system is the next one to get a big change. Main attribute materia will not be meldable or obtainable anymore. Of course, items have also been revised to balance this.
Weekly Token gear and Savage accessories will get two slots.
The pet system will receive major changes. Pets will no longer be affected by enemy attacks or player actions. You can find a summary in the images below. Of course, tank pets will be revised to reflect this change.
There will be additional battle system adjustments to improve usability.
Chain EXP bonuses will be removed from dungeons to standardize EXP gain. They have been absorbed into base EXP, so players won’t receive less experience.
The damage limit will be increased to 9,999,999. You might get to see that when an enemy enrages. By 6.0 (confirmed!) the damage system may require redenomination.
The party bonus will be adjusted to account for the number of players filling a certain role.
In new regions only, the rate at which the limit gauge fills will also be tweaked.
The HP of barriers shielding players will be showcased visually in the UI.
There will be more changes, but that’s all we get for now.
Below you can see a snazzy video with the new job actions from Shadowbringers. Incidentally, the trailer announces that the game passed 16 million registered players.
We learn that job synergy will still exist, but it’ll be weaker. Resistance debuffs will be removed. The developers aim to avoid certain jobs being pretty much required for a high-end party. Certain actions will also be removed.
While Dancer will emphasize synergy, the job won’t be required.
Speaking of tanks, all four tank classes will be viable as main tanks or off tanks. They will have defensive buffs for party members, additional buffs to support the main tank, and buffs to increase their own defense.
Offensive stances will be completely removed, while tank stances will simply be an on/off toggle. Damage reductions and max HP increases will be removed. The tank stance will be basically only about generating more enmity. All actions in tank stance will generate enmity.
Combos that generate enmity will be removed. Tanks will be able to use the same skill rotation whether they play as MT or OT.
The Tank Mastery trait will be added, reducing all damage received by 20% regardless of stance. It will also apply bonuses to HP and damage dealt based on certain attributes.
Paladins will lose Sword Oath, while Riot Sword will have no casting time. Sheltron has been changed to be active over time.
Warriors will have a new buff that’s much more powerful than Fell Cleave.
The Dark Knights won’t have Dark Arts anymore, they’ll get defense buffs and will be able to draw out their inner soul.
Below you can see a video showing the new Gunbreaker job in action and an explanation of the way they fight.
Moving on to healers, Protect is gone. Each healer will get new actions to fill the gaps in their abilities.
White Mage will get an instant heal and a “Black Lily” that will open up to a powerful offensive spell.
The scholar hasn’t changed much, but they’ll get more healing spells and pet actions will be revised. The fairies are pretty much the same so you can simply pick the one you like better. You’ll be able to summon the Seraph to cast more powerful healing spells.
Astrologians will have their stances and card effects adjusted. The recast time for draw and play will be separate so that they don’t conflict. At higher levels, you’ll get an action that lets you use both stances for a limited time.
Speaking of DPS, Monk, Dragoon, Ninja, Samurai, Black Mage, and Red had evolutionary changes. Monks will be able to stack Greased Lightning four times. Dragoons will have one of their combos routes simplified, and jumps will be very quick.
Speaking of Samurai, it hasn’t changed much. Hagakure has been revised in its effect so the Midare Setsugekka can be activated more smoothly.
Ninjas will lose actions that remove enmity. Below you can see a video showing and explaining the changes for Black Mage and Red Mage.
Bard, Machinist, and Summoner received more significant changes. As a matter of fact, Machinist has been changed so much that it’s basically a new job.
Job gauges have been changed so that now it’s always a good thing to accumulate them. Machinist has the Heat Gauge and the Battery Gauge that lets you summon the new robot.
Mechanics for Bards and Summoners have been reworked partially. For Summoner, Run IV is now tied to the pet’s actions so it should be easier to cast. Egis will become instant, requiring no casting time. You won’t have to accumulate Aetherflow before combat.
The Final Fantasy XIV team wanted to address issues with the Bard job. The songs that increase the critical rate have been removed. The condition to execute Warden’s Paeon will change to the proc of a damage-over-time ability. The overall direction of the changes aims to enable more comfortable gameplay.
At higher levels bards receive the Soul Voice Gauge. Once full, you’ll be able to use more powerful actions.
Below you can see two videos breaking down the Dancer job and showing gameplay.
We learn that the game will appear at E3 next month, and will be included in the Square Enix livestream. There will also be a Letter from the Producer Live on June 14.
We also hear that Hori is making a left-handed device for Final Fantasy XIV. It was co-developed by Naoki Yoshida himself. It’ll come worldwide roughly around November. It’s actually compatible with PS4 on top of PC.
Hori is looking to keep the cost around the $100 range.
The Eorzean Symphony concerts are coming back in Late November in Yokohama, Japan. Apparently, they will include music from Stormblood.
Lastly, the new Shadowbringer benchmark is coming at 7 PM Pacific Time today. It will include the character creation for the new Viera and Hrothgar races.
You can check it out in the trailer below.
If you’d like to know more about Final Fantasy XIV and its upcoming expansion Shadowbringers, you can check out the latest information on the new races, the reveals from Tokyo FanFest including the Dancer job and the Hrothgar race, an official batch of screenshots, and a look on how the new city of Crystarium has been created.
Just a few days ago, Yoshida-san himself also explained why there won’t be male Viera and female Hrothgar, and why the expansion won’t include a healer job.
If you want to get ready before the expansion’s release, Final Fantasy XIV: Stormblood is currently available for PS4 and PC, and a few more updates are coming. Update 4.57 has just been released.
Final Fantasy XIV: Shadowbringers will officially launch on July 2 for PS4 and PC.
