The second day of Final Fantasy Fan Fest 2021 kicked off with a Live Letter From the Producer that outlined the next major update to Final Fantasy XIV. Director and producer Naoki Yoshida led the presentation and detailed what’s coming to patch 5.55 with regards to the new main story quests, the Save the Queen questline, the full PS5 version of the game, and much more. Lead story designer Natsuko Ishikawa also joined the presentation to discuss her work in creating FFXIV’s narrative.
Patch 5.55 is set to go live on May 25 and it’ll be the last major update leading into the upcoming Endwalker expansion. Additionally, the PS5 version of the game will officially go into service on May 25–this updated version of the game went into live beta in April and has been playable ever since for owners of the PS4 version playing on PS5, so the official service date is more of a formality, but it’s the date nonetheless.
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FFXIV on the PS5 supports native 4K resolution, higher frame rates, a high resolution UI, DualSense haptic feedback, new trophies, and 3D audio support. There are also graphics options for 1440p resolution and better frame rate and 1080p for an even consistent frame rate. Owners of the PS4 version of the game can upgrade to the PS5 version for free. You can read about our experience and watch gameplay footage of the PS5 beta for FFXIV in our previous coverage.
The optional Save the Queen questline is getting some major updates: A new battlefield called Zadnor, an increase in the resistance cap from 15 to 25, new skirmishes and critical engagements, a new large-scale raid-like instance called The Dalriada with 48 players, and a difficult decision for players to make that’ll affect the questline’s story. Players will need to complete the patch 5.4 main story and 5.45 Save the Queen quests.
A broad overview of the event schedule for FFXIV was also revealed, which features the following:
- July 7: Make it Rain campaign in the Gold Saucer
- June 7 and July 8: Patch 5.57 and Patch 5.58, respectively
- August 8: Moonfire Faire and The Rising events
- September 9: Final Fantasy XV collaboration event returns
- November 11: The last bits of Endwalker release details
Ishikawa-san then joined the group to talk about how she creates stories and her methods of writing for FFXIV, particularly her work for the Shadowbringers expansion and up to patch 5.3, in addition to answering questions about the FFXIV story. Yoshida-san also joined the discussion to talk about crunch and working long hours–you can get his comments on the subject around the 1:49:00-mark in the Twitch replay of the day two event.
With regards to existing content outside of the main story that will play into Endwalker’s story, Ishikawa-san mentioned a slew of things that she’d recommend players do, but called out two specific questlines that she’d highly encourage players to play before Endwalker. First was the Binding Coil of Bahamut raid series from A Realm Reborn–this is because it relevant to Alisaie and Alphinaud when you visit their family’s homeland of Old Sharlayan in Endwalker. The second was the Omega (Interdimensional Rift) raid series from Stormblood, since it’ll tie into the presence of dragons and traveling to the moon in Endwalker. Note that there will be no requirements for side content (such as the case with the Crystal Tower raid series leading into the 5.3 quests).
For the last thing related to Endwalker’s story, Ishikawa-san said, “We keep calling Endwalker the finale of this story arc, but it’s also a sort of curtain call where you get to say goodbye to some of the characters you’ve met along the way. I hope you will greet them once again this final time with all the love in your heart.”
Among the number of merchandise revealed during the live letter, the biggest item was for the FFXIV and Fender collaboration–a $3,500 FFXIV-designed Stratocaster guitar was revealed. It’ll be available for order in Western territories by the end of this year and will ship in early 2022. Composer Masayoshi Soken talked about its features and used one for his band’s live performance at the end of the event. This special edition guitar will also be an in-game item with patch 5.55 as a playable instrument for Bards in their performance mode.
For more on all the news about Square Enix’s popular MMORPG, read our breakdowns on the full Endwalker trailer and the new Reaper melee DPS job–also check out male Viera (bunny boys) in action, which are coming to Endwalker as well. FFXIV: Endwalker launches on November 23 and will go live on November 19 for those who preorder the expansion.
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