Despite the name of its latest expansion, it doesn’t seem as if the end(walker) of the critically acclaimed MMO Final Fantasy XIV is anywhere in sight. In the latest Letter from the Producer Live event the game’s director and all-around beloved figurehead, Naoki Yoshida announced a roadmap of patches and support for the game that would run for the next decade – a massive commitment to improving the game for years to come. Yoshida highlighted the team’s desire to make the game a long-lasting RPG experience for both solo and co-operative play, as well as a host of quality of life improvements, mechanical and visual upgrades and much more.
FFXIV’s Ten Year Roadmap
Endwalker recently saw the conclusion of many of the game’s overarching narrative threads but Yoshida and the team are already hard at work on what’s coming next for Final Fantasy XIV. Patch 6.1 will see some changes coming to the game’s fantastic Trust System – a mechanic that allows players to tackle dungeons using a party of NPCs rather than other players so as to better facilitate solo play. The upcoming patch will allow players to use the Trust System for all main dungeons in A Realm Reborn, the game’s base campaign, with more support coming soon.
While we’re talking improvements to solo play, it seems like the more accessible version of the game Yoshida spoke to us about previously is finally on the horizon. Patch 6.1, due out in April, will begin implementing changes to several low-level main scenario trials and dungeons to make them more approachable for solo players who want to take the game at their own pace.
Casting our gaze to what lies ahead for Final Fantasy XIV, the game is set to receive some graphical overhauls and a myriad of content tweaks across several upcoming patches. Yoshida has said that we can look forward to higher resolution textures and updated world and character visuals starting, hopefully, with the next expansion. Elsewhere the next few patches will be bringing too many changes to list here (go check out the full breakdown) but highlights include new quests, weapon enhancements and the previous mentioned Trust System changes.
The new roadmap of content hits as the game finally resumes its much memed and adored Free Trial, which allows players to play the critically acclaimed MMORPG up to level 60 and now includes the award-winning expansion pack Heavansward. Head over to the official site for more details on signing up but it is a huge amount of content for free and Heavansward remains one of the best gaming experiences I’ve ever had.
Go forth, Warrior of Light and settle in for another decade of this beautiful game.
