Final Fantasy XIV Letter from the Producer Live XXVI Summary

Letter from the Producer Live XXVI has wrapped! Live from the Eorzea Café in Akihabara, Japan, the team addressed some of the major content in the game as well as dispensed information on what new content to expect in Patch 3.2. We have a digest of the major developments, including the next Fan Festival reveal, listed below:

You can watch an archive of the stream on Square Enix’s Final Fantasy XIV channel here.

The official digest can also be found here.

on Alexander:
• Player feedback indicated that many felt that the Alexander: Gordias (Savage) raid was far too difficult with insufficient rewards.
• The next tier, Alexander: Midas (Savage), will be less difficult and will have gear with an item level that feels more appropriate as a reward.
• The team is looking into creating a tool similar to Party Finder that has cross-server capability to be used for organizing raids.

on Exploratory Missions: The Diadem:
• Regarding the Diadem, the team feels that there were a lack of specific rules that caused the content to suffer.
• Going forward, future Exploratory Missions content will have more defined rules and a greater focus on exploration. The rewards from this content are intended to bridge players into raiding.

on Anima Weapons:
• Restating the design philosophy behind relic weapons, the team says there are three ways to obtain strong items in Final Fantasy XIV: content with high player skill (raids), obtaining equipment through a weekly tomestone lockout (Esoterics), or a time investment doing non-difficult content (relic).
• The next steps of the Anima Weapon saga will be added in Patch 3.25 and Patch 3.3.
• Beastman tribe FATEs will be adjusted to help with the Anima Weapons quest.
• The team will flag key items involved in creating the relic to be unsellable, so you don’t sell them by mistake.
• They will also address an issue regarding the Anima relic questline and multiple jobs.

on Housing:
• More land for housing will be added in Patch 3.3 — land in Ishgard will be available at some point after.
• A mansion type of housing the team is working on will be able to accommodate 512 residences.
• The team is looking into adding more furnishing slots.

on Patch 3.2 Content:
• In Patch 3.2, the main scenario will continue, and new side quests and beast tribe dailies (Gnath) will be added.
• New Dungeon: The Antitower. The nature of this dungeon’s name will be revealed in the story, and will be unlocked relatively early.
• New Dungeon: The Lost City of Amdapor (Hard). We’ll get to see what happened after Diabolos left…
• New Trial: The Containment Bay S1T7 featuring Sephiroth. This is a trial in an ongoing series involving the Warring Triad. There will be a Normal and Extreme version (the team is eschewing the Hard nomenclature for the story-level encounter), and the fight will be flashy and may include a mechanic where you can fall. The person who designed this fight is also responsible for Titan and Thordan.
• New Raid: Alexander: Midas. This is the next tier of Full Party raiding to follow Alexander: Gordias.
• New PvP mode: The Feast. Originally a deathmatch-type content for Wolves’ Den, it has been adjusted to include five different modes that accommodate four to eight players based on whether they queue solo or in a group.
• An Orchestrion housing item will be added. It’s like a jukebox that will play the game’s music, but you’ll need to collect music sheets. To start, there will be 47, and you’ll find them sold at various vendors in Eorzea or by clearing certain contents. They’ll also be tradable.

on Patch 3.2’s The Hall of the Novice
The Hall of the Novice will help you train you in your class/job’s role in duties and prepare you for endgame content. It’a accessible at Level 15, so you’ll be able to train as you level up. It’s a specific building.
• The Mentor System will allow you to mentor new players, and requires that you clear various content. It’s available for combat, gathering, and crafting classes.
• A new roulette will match you with mentors, who would ideally show you the ropes.
• Training dummies will teach you various mechanics where you’ll have to defeat them in a certain time limit.

on Patch 3.2’s other additions
• The new crafted equipment in this patch is strong, and combined with the materia system changes, they expect a high demand.
• You’ll be able to sell items directly from a retainer’s inventory.
• The mini-map will be adjusted to better display differences in terrain elevation.
• 4K resolution support will be added, more information later.
• A new tier of Allagan Tomestones will be added.
Cloud’s Fenrir bike from Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children had been planned at some point, but the team shows in a video that a bike that ran at the mount speed looked bad. If the bike were to run at an appropriate speed, it would desync from the server. So in the end, it was scrapped. (Video)

on miscellaneous announcements:
• The next tier of Veteran Rewards includes the Tantalus set, featuring Zidane’s clothing from Final Fantasy IX.
• The next printed Final Fantasy XIV guide will go on sale in Japan on January 28th 2016.
• The Final Fantasy XIV Heavensward OST will release on February 24th, 2016 in Japan. Includes Spoony Bard minion.
• Wayward Hatchling plushes will go on sale in the online store — includes in-game Hatchling Lamp housing item.
• The next Letter from the Producer Live will take place in Kagoshima on January 30th, 2016. Topic is Patch 3.2 Preview Part 2.

on Fan Festival 2016-17: (Video)
• North America: October 13-15 2016 @ Las Vegas, Nevada
• Japan: December 24-25 2016 @ Tokyo
• Europe: February 2017 @ Frankfurt, Germany


About the Author

Tony Garsow Tony joined Nova Crystallis in 2015, and has spent more than a decade writing in the Final Fantasy community. He also contributes to the Nova Crystallis Twitch and YouTube channels, where you can watch select gameplay highlights, previews, and streams.

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