Today, Square Enix held the first day of Berlin's Final Fantasy XIV Fan Fest. They showed an extended look at the cinematic for Evercold, revealed the Bastion job, and more.
The new job revealed, Bastion, is a tank that wields a pair of greatshields called skyltborg. The shields are used to punch in one configuration, and shoot with another mode.
Evercold will also mark a shift in the game's narrative structure, allowing players a bit more freedom with different paths through the man scenario. Presumably, this will allow you to tackle different areas in the expansion in any order you wish. The new Auto Content Balancing will scale levels and difficulty to accommodate this.
We also got a look at Character Action Skins, a feature that lets players assign alternative animations to General actions like Teleport and Return. Additional skins for job actions will be coming in future updates. To help your Warrior of Light stand out, character customization will also be expanded with a new color picker, the ability to fine tune features like eyes and lips, new makeup options like eye shadow, and more.
We also got more info on the Evangelion crossover raid series, Ghosts of Desire, which you can view in the above trailer. Director and animator Mahiro Maeda is joining the project as a special guest artist and designer.
The new 8 man raid series in Evercold is also a crossover, this time themed around Final Fantasy VII, titled Beyond the Lifestream. The Final Fantasy XIV and Final Fantasy VII Remake Project teams are working closely together to develop this.
The Nintendo Switch 2 version is now available for pre-order and will launch on August 4th with a one-month free subscription period. The Free Trial, Starter Edition, and Complete Editions will also be available.
There are a few technical changes coming as well, with an overhaul of the chocobo raising system, including the ability to call them in dungeons, and Same-Region Player Matching. Rather than being limited by logical data centers, players in the same general region will be able to play together more easily. This is coming to Japan in mid-October with other regions to follow.
Finally, we got a look at the Evercold Collector's Bundle, which includes a special box, a Reaper figure, an Ethos Metal Keychain, a Köttr Mini Plush, and a Tapestry of the Fourth. As of writing the Day 1 stream is still ongoing, and you can catch up on YouTube via this link.
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