074
different jobs – which means you
can experiment a huge deal with
how you play without having to
juggle new characters and replay
quests if you don’t want to.
It’s an incredibly approachable
MMORPG, and it’s only becoming
more so over time.WORLDORDER
To accommodate how much
FFXIV is still growing, Square Enix
is also tweaking the data servers- essentially adding more. But to
accommodate, it’s also making it
easier than ever to hop between
the worlds your characters are
bound to, so you can play and
hang out with your online friends
with less hassle. Simply bolting
more on isn’t the dev team’s
style with FFXIV. Instead it’s
thinking about how to make
things consistently approachable.
Shadowbringers is bringing (ahem)
a lot more than just this – a
substantial continuation of the
storyline, a heap of new dungeonsand high-end raids, new endgame
content for crafting and gathering
classes, sprawling new areas, a new
beast type, and multiple new jobs
(yet to be announced, though Blue
Mage is coming in a free update
preceding Shadowbringers), to
name just some.
The takeaway is that
Shadowbringers is more than
just an update. Free updates with
hefty content are regularly added
to the game anyway, so when a
full expansion comes out it’s a
big deal. In many respects, this
is a completely new chapter to
FFXIV – an entire new game’s
worth of content. It’s never been
friendlier for newcomers to join,
and as a game it’s about as pure,
unadulterated Final Fantasy joy as
you can get.
We’re at the stage now where
the game has more than proved
itself worthy of the series’ name,
and Final Fantasy fans are missing
out if they don’t sample the rich
fruits of Eorzea. Thankfully, the
development team is aware of the
solo-playing fans of the series, and
no MMORPG is more welcoming
to lone wolves than FFXIV.
Shadowbringers is, ironically, a
beacon of light to those looking
for a brand-new Final Fantasy to
get lost in, and it’s a while since
we had one of those. Now’s the
time to get involved.with the game’s director, Naoki
Yoshida, heavily implying this
may be its take on the Viera
(Fran’s bunny-esque race from
Final Fantasy XII, a game which
FFXIV as a whole is somewhat
reminiscent of).
So important is the story of
FFXIV to fans that Shadowbringers
has a New Game+ feature, which
allows you to play through the
main story all over again with
your character remaining at their
current strength. It’s not yet clear
how that will work with using
lower-levelled jobs, but it couldbe a way to give you a different
experience from how you played
the first time. You can switch
between classes in FFXIV at any
time simply by changing weapons- it’s within the fiction that
your character can follow many
FFXIV: SHADOWBRINGERS
In Shadowbringers your “Warrior Of Light
must become the Warrior Of Darkness”.
But it’s not entirely clear where you’ll
be doing that. The war with the Garlean
Empire that’s been hanging over thegame for some time is causing problems,
and the conflict with the mysterious
Ascians is coming to a head. The new
areas in the game are very “fantasy
inspired”. Beautiful concept art gives usa look at a couple of the areas early – The
Rak’tika Greatwood, a thick wood with
dwellings built into the trees themselves
(above left), and Amh Araeng, a twisty-
turny desert area (above right).Final Fantasy XIV has similarities with Final Fantasy XII – and Shadowbringers is reintroducing a beast tribe, the Nu Mou, from FFXII.“BRINGS SPRAWLING NEW
AREAS, AND A NEW BEAST
TYPE, AND NEW JOBS.”
AGE OF DISCOVERY
The fantastical new expansion brings some colourful new lands to FFXIV