On the latest Letter from the Producer Live broadcast, the Final Fantasy XIV team set about a lengthy QA session on the game’s recent 4.2 patch titled “Rise of a New Sun.” We also got a look at The Forbidden Land, Eureka Anemos, a new type of content scheduled for patch 4.25 that will use a unique progression system based on your mastery of the elements and your ability to work cooperatively with other players.

Special guest Masayoshi Soken, composer and sound director for Final Fantasy XIV, revealed that The Primals will have a debut album and tour, and that the Eorzean Symphony will travel abroad to Los Angeles in June and Germany in August.

Check out our full summary below!

Patch 4.2 QA

• Yoshida apologized on behalf of the team for an issue that occurred at 4.2 launch where story progression was bottlenecked around a certain battle instance. While the scenario dictates when instanced battles will happen, they will take care to design around anticipated congestion.

• When asked about the balance between the three tank jobs, the team feels their party support abilities an important aspect to each job’s identity. They feel that Warrior is “very strong” now compared to Paladin and Dark Knight.

• The team is currently discussing how to adjust Dark Knight. Content is balanced around the recast time on buffs, so they need to proceed carefully. More information will be shared later.

• Discussions are underway regarding crafted accessories fully melded with Direct Hit being stronger than raid token rewards. The team shared that these players may be using the melded gear for a higher DPS output early in the raid cycle, but would eventually swap to other gear as not as much DPS will be needed to clear.

• There aren’t any plans to change Red Mage and Samurai at the moment, but since Monk was buffed, they are deliberating buffs to Samurai so that it can continue to reflect their job concept.

• No new support abilities are planned to be added in the Patch 4.x series. The team wants each job to feel like it has a unique playstyle. There seems to be a trend where players believe they are at a disadvantage when they bring certain jobs to raids, but there won’t be any major disadvantage or advantage no matter what setup you have.

• The Support Center is getting a lot of requests to restore items stored in the Glamour Dresser. They may adjust the point on how it cannot be used as normal gear; however, inventory size may still be a factor, so there hasn’t been a decision yet. A system within the glamour dresser to directly glamour items is also being developed.

• A decision has to be made whether to increase the amount of Glamour Plates or the areas where players can use them, and they are leaning towards more Plates. They need to proceed carefully as it will increase the amount of data passed through the network.

• For low level players who don’t have access to most of the game’s gear, the Fashion Report mini-game may seem inaccessible, but they want players to think about how they’ll be able to enjoy glamouring as their levels increase.

• Fishers were designed in a special way and do not need the use of a secondary tool — and haven’t been balanced around it.

• Items retrieved by the Calamity Salvager are based around the achievement system, so they aren’t set up in a way where purchased MogStation items can be retrieved. However, the team is considering adding these items to the armoire.

• They are not able to store the data for an item’s dye color data in the Glamour Dresser.

• Regarding the changes to Main Scenario Roulette, the team says they no longer design long cutscenes in the same way for instanced content. They feel the reward also needs tweaking for the time spent in these two dungeons.

• In The Jade Stoa (Extreme), there is a strategy where some players use the tank limit break to ignore through the Roar of Thunder. The team says that they did not predict that strategy, and since it was conceived by players they are ok with people using it.

• Lots of players are challenging Omega: Sigmascape (Savage), but compared to the Deltascape, some players might feel like their progression is slower. The team wants you to not rush and enjoy it.

• The next beast tribe quests will be geared towards crafters and gatherers. Characters from the main scenario will show up.

• The team is currently making adjustments to the Triple Triad mini-game regarding the limitations around cards you can use.

• Since there are a lot of minions, the team is looking into the minions tab a bit easier to navigate through. They’re looking for your feedback on this on the official forums.

• Large-scale FATEs will be adjusted for smaller groups. No plans for additional rewards.

• You’ll be able to exchange 99 totems from Lakshmi and Susano’s extreme trials for their respective mount drops in Patch 4.25.

• A mount that seats four to eight players may be planned for a future update…

• The Companion system is complicated, and the team will need more time to introduce new features to it.

• They will ask the team if they can modify the emote list to be more easy to find specific emotes.

• The mobile companion app is planned to deploy around Patch 4.3, and they will show it off in a later live letter.

• It’ll be easier to fish up octopus to make takoyaki.

• A mannequin furnishing is in the works. It would be easy to just make a placeable furnishing, but the team wants you to be able to dress it with equipment.

• The team hinted at plans for Alpha merchandise. They say to look forward to future story developments regarding the chocobo…

• They want to add more locations you can visit that were only visitable once before.

• System-wise it’s not impossible to add old Final Fantasy games to the toy box, but there may be issues related to rights that may prevent that from happening. However, Yoshida says he’d like to do something for older games related to Ivalice, which are hard to play on current systems.

The Forbidden Land, Eureka Anemos

Eureka Anemos is an “unexplored, untamed wild where the very elements are constantly in flux. While exploring Eureka and growing in strength, players will have the opportunity to obtain and enhance Eureka gear and weapons. Up to 144 players can occupy a single instance, and players are encouraged to cooperate with another to progress. Players may form and disband parties with other players at will.

An alternate form of progression exists within Eureka — Elemental Levels and the Magia Board.

Within Eureka, player strength is measured by their ability to endure and harness the elements, represented by their elemental level. All players begin at elemental level 1 and may attain a maximum of elemental level of 20. Elemental level and EXP accrued will be retained between visits – progress will not be lost when players depart Eureka.

Elemental EXP gained may be affected by the number of players in the party and the difficulty of enemies they defeat.

The magia board can be used in conjunction with magicite to strengthen a player’s affinities with the six elements while exploring the Forbidden Land, Eureka. Stronger affinity with a given element will increase the damage a player deals certain enemies, as well as reduce the damage he or she receives from others. By spinning their magia boards, players can quickly change their elemental affinities.

Enemies encountered in the Forbidden Land, Eureka are imbued with powers aspected to a particular element. Through judicious use of their magia boards, players can fight these enemies more effectively.

When players are KO’d in the Forbidden Land, Eureka, they will lose elemental EXP. However if they are revived by another player within ten minutes of being KO’d, they will not suffer an elemental EXP penalty. Furthermore, if a player’s current elemental level is five or below, he or she will not lose elemental EXP when KO’d. If the player’s elemental level is eleven or higher, this penalty may reduce his or her elemental EXP total below 0. Should this happen, the player will lose an elemental level.

While exploring Eureka, players may obtain protean crystals. These crystals may be used to obtain and enhance Eureka gear and weapons with the aid of Gerolt. However, in order to fully upgrade Eureka weapons, players will need to obtain a different item from a notorious monster somewhere in Eureka.

In the Forbidden Land, Eureka, players may encounter exceptionally powerful enemies. Players will need to cooperate with others in order to defeat them. Should they succeed, players will obtain significant elemental EXP and other rewards.

Special Guest: Composer/Sound Director Masayoshi Soken

• There’s an NPC in Azim Steppe that is playing the matouqin. For this sound, Soken used an old Japanese stringed instrument called kokyu and tweaked the sound a bit. For Costa Del Sol, he put some breath mints inside an empty cup noodle container and shook that to make the sound.

• Here are the lyrics for the second phase of Jade Stoa trial — they were written by the lore team including Banri Oda and Michael Christopher Koji-Fox:

• Another composer made the song for the Ananta beast tribe quest location — Soken tells us to ask her about it.

• Several whistle sounds were combined from a sound bank created by another company to make the Phantom Train’s whistle.

• Soken wants to release the Stormblood soundtrack this summer. They’re trying hard to get all the songs to fit on one disc.

• The official piano score for Before Meteor and A Realm Reborn has been restocked — they’ll be available on February 16th on publisher websites and Amazon.

• Regarding more hard rock songs similar to “Metal” from the Alexander series raids, Soken says it depends on the type of content that is designed.

• Soken’s parents both created music, and he cites them when he was asked about his roots. His favorite bands are Rage Against the Machine and Cymbals. He loves rock and classical music too.

• The amount of data for mount background music is getting tight, so not every mount may have unique music. They want your feedback on the ones you want the most.

• The Primals’ self-titled and first album will release on May 16th, 2018. There will be a tour in Japan called “Trial By Shadow” to promote it. Pre-registration on the Japanese Square Enix e-STORE for the album begins at midnight Japan time and a lottery-based pre-registration for other retailers begins February 23rd. Details on the album are here and on the concert here.

• The Eorzean Symphony Final Fantasy XIV Orchestra Concert is headed overseas. The first will be in Los Angeles, USA on June 15th and 16th at the Dolby Theatre — then to Dortmund, Germany on August 24th and 25th at the Konzerthaus Dortmund. Special guests include producer/director Naoki Yoshida, composer/sound director Masayoshi Soken, and vocal artist Susan Calloway.

Announcements

• The Final Fantasy 30th Anniversary Exhibition -Memories of You- continues until February 28th at the Mori Arts Center Gallery 52F in the Roppongi Hills Mori Tower. Details here.

• Artbook Final Fantasy XIV Stormblood Art of the Revolution -Western Memories- goes on sale February 26th in North America and Europe. Includes content through Patch 4.1 and a code for a Wind-up Yotsuyu minion. Details here: (Japan) (North America) (Europe)

• Reservation plans for the Eorzea Cafe’s Osaka branch begin April 1st. Details here.

• The next Final Fantasy XIV Full Active Time Event will be held in Matsuyama, Japan on Saturday, April 14th in the Ehime Prefecture. There is no entry fee and further details will be shared later on the Lodestone.