We learned a lot about Final Fantasy XIV: Dawntrail in Las Vegas and London, but were also promised more exciting information and reveals in Tokyo. It may have felt like a long one, but the wait’s been worthwhile. Here’s everything new we learned at FFXIV’s Tokyo Fan Festival 2024.
Before FFXIV director and producer Naoki Yoshida kicked off his long list of reveals, we were gifted the extended-release trailer for Dawntrail, which includes the possibly most awaited piece of information — the reveal of the second Job launching alongside Viper:
Pictomancer in FFXIV
That’s right! For those of you who guessed Pictomancer, give yourself a pat on the back. With its whimsical clothes and equally playful animations, Pictomancer’s reveal largely seemed like a hit. As Krile’s moment stole the show in Dawntrail’s new footage, the fans at Tokyo Fan Fest attendees erupted into cheers.
Sadly, Yoshi decided not to Cosplay as a Pictomancer, stating that “as a 52-year-old man he likely wouldn’t portray it properly.” So, we missed out this time on another Yoshida getup fueling reaction images from the community for another year. Instead, Square Enix brought in new professional cosplay big guns, outfitted in what is presumably the job’s starting gear.
As for Pictomancer specifics, some Job highlights include:
- Begins at Level 80 in Gridania
- Magical Ranged DPS using a brush to create creatures, weapons, and landscapes
- Uses mixed Aether as a medium
- They are not a full support job, but offer several buffs
- Maintain an arsenal of instant casts, as their creations take time
FFXIV Patch 6.55 gets release date
We have finally given a date for FFXIV Patch 6.55 — January 16, 2024. Prior to the patch going live, there will be a 24-hour update period.
In just nine days’ time, we will dive into a whole new adventure with our Warrior of Light, including an introduction to a new face that will lead us into the expansion. She’s the character who comes to Eorzea to request our assistance in Tural, and, very excitingly, she is a Female Hrothgar.
Female Hrothgars
The keynote also gave us our first in-game glance of the female Hrothgar, on the way in Version 7.0. It’s an addition players have pined over for ages, much the same way we waited for the addition of male Viera. While you’ll meet the new Hrothgar companion soon, femme Hrothgar aren’t playable until Dawntrail’s release.
Exploring Tural
There’s a huge variety of areas within Tural, from lush jungles to futuristic cities, and we were given some teasers about them during the speech. Here are some details about the two newly revealed areas:
Solution Nine
A vast city hub of towering facades, which we were informed have been built by an entirely different civilisation than the ones residing in Tural. We were left guessing as to who that civilisation was, though. Yoshida asked us to have a think on why it’s called Solution Nine, and to that end, Solution Nine is the same name of a Trance skill Final Fantasy IX’s Zidane wields. That could be totally unimportant, but it’s neat.
Heritage Found
A town that’s very reminiscent of the Wild West, complete with a Saloon. The area is covered by thick thunderclouds completely blocking out the sun, caused by massive amounts of lightning energy. Day or night, the sky is illuminated by purple levin.
Also, there’s a carousel.
We know nothing about this carousel, and it’s all very mysterious, but Yoshi P decided we must see it, so here it is. We’ll be trying to connect the dots on why this slide pops up today until Dawntrail, even if it doesn’t matter.
The races of Tural
We’ve already been introduced to a couple of races from Tural in 2023 — including Mobils and Pelupelu — but Yoshida did note these others during the day’s keynote:
- Yokui (unconfirmed spelling) – The giant race which inhabits Yok Tural alongside the Pelupelu
- Hanu Hanu – A bird-like race, closely related to the Vanu Vanu
- Diverse groups of Mamool Ja
The next Limited Job, Beastmaster
In a turn of events that will shock almost nobody, Beastmaster was revealed as the next Limited Job. It will be added into FFXIV in the latter half of 7.X, and while we weren’t told much, here’s what we now know:
- Beastmaster will be able to party up with Blue Mage for content
- They’re working on a collection feature for the job
New Field Operations
For those who love the content of Eureka and The Bozjan Southern Front, there will be a new round of field operations coming at some point during 7.x. We’re assured more information coming soon, but we know that this content is designed to cater to large numbers of players.
Battle content and The Arcadion raid series
As is expected from FFXIV at this point, we will receive new FATEs, The Hunt content, and Treasure maps to enjoy alongside a myriad of quest-synced sidequests. While we’ve learned bits and pieces about those updates at events prior, Yoshida got specific in Tokyo, with details including:
- The Arcadion – FFXIV’s 8-man raid set in a futuristic zone, Solution Nine with an FFXIV original storyline. Aracdion launches about a month after Dawntrail’s release.
- One of the bosses from the Alliance Raid series, Echoes of Vana’diel, was shown to be The Shadowlord; a familiar face to anyone who has played Final Fantasy XI.
- The Ultimate Raid for 7.1 is based on the Eden storyline. Named “Futures Rewritten (Ultimate)”, we’re destined to see much more of Ryne and Gaia.
- Krile will now be available for Duty Support and will fight as a Pictomancer.
We were also given many more screenshots and clips from upcoming Dungeons. Yoshi P stated that although the Dungeons are not finished, some of them are in their quality testing stages and good progress is being made.
Lifestyle content
We’re going on another interplanetary adventure – yes, you read that correctly. In new content titled “Cosmic Exploration,” we will apparently be developing stars and planets, which will change with every update. Yoshida also noted that while this content can be completed solo, it is better experienced with friends.
Even more Graphic Update details
In a very in-depth look at the results of the graphical update, we were shown every race’s before and after shots. Every FFXIV Fan Fest celebrating Dawntrail has shown these off, but they’re notably better in each iteration.
As you can see, the shadows, skin textures, and lighting are all more refined. The game has also historically struggled with its darker skin tones — something Yoshida acknowledged in his presentation — but now those models have more depth and lighting to reflect their details and tones. Au Ras also receive a much-needed transformation of their scales, with Female Au Ra scales looking almost lace-like after the update.
Yoshi stated that they intend to gift everyone a Phial of Fantasia in order to allow for fine-tuning of characters after the update is implemented.
Two dye channels
Another update we already knew of, but this time, we saw a few more screenshots. FFXIV is adding more dye channels, so you can get a little more personal and creative with glamour. Yoshida acknowledged some textures still never change hue, but it’s an unfortunate obstacle when working with the MMO’s massive resource library.
Other updates
Of course, that’s the annotated version, and there are always a few extra goodies thrown in at the end of these. We’ll, of course, stick around through the weekend as more updates roll in, and check back as we update this along with other Dawntrail news. For now, please look forward to:
- The FFXIV x FFXVI crossover event is set to take place in April 2024
- Xbox Open Beta will begin in February
- The Dawntrail key art features unknown characters, plus returning Scions
