FFXIV Fan Fest Frankfurt Keynote Roundup
Final Fantasy XIV Fan Festival 2017 Frankfurt opened with director Yoshi-P’s Stormblood keynote. Alongside the Samurai job reveal and a brief summary of previously-released information, we received some tidbits of new content featured the upcoming expansion.
Doma
The keynote opened with an extended Stormblood trailer, taking us not just to Ala Mhigo but all the way to Doma on the Othard continent. It seems like we will be liberating both cities, before eventually putting Garlemald in a pincer attack.
New Main City
Stormblood’s main player city, “Kugane”, was revealed as a port town on the island chain of Hingashi – a far Eastern nation with a strict isolationist policy. The team were unable to tell us why the nation had this strict policy, but said that Kugane was the only port open to foreigners for trade. The images of Kugane were gorgeous, and very reminiscent of Cantha from Guild Wars Factions in terms of scope and level design.
“Challenging” New Dungeons
The development team are currently in the process of creating several new dungeons, though only a couple were displayed. There were images of a series of shipwrecks, a underground labyrinth, and a mountainous dungeon, but not much was shown of the encounters within. Yoshi-P hinted that the shipwreck dungeon would be one of the first in Stormblood, stating “I hope your sea travels are safe.”
Field Areas
The first area, the Ruby Sea (or Ruby Tide, as Yoshi-P referred to it) is a large, open water area rife with pirates. The Kojin, a teenage mutant ninja turtle Beast Tribe, was revealed to live in this area.
The second area, Yanxia, is located in Doma and therefore controlled by the Garlean Empire. The last area shown was Azim Steppe, the first expansive plains area in the MMO. This area will be a meeting place between the Warrior of Light and numerous nomadic tribes, possibly Beast Trbes. Each of the areas have a very distinct Asian feel, with huge natural rock formations fusing with large man-made temple structures and shanties.
New Primal, Susano
Following the announcement of a new Beast Tribe was the reveal of the newest primal: “Susano, lord of the revel.” The second completely new primal to FFXIV, following Ravana, Susano is an armoured humanoid figure wielding a huge katana. So, now we have Red Mage, Samurai, Susano, and the main antagonist Zenos all wielding swords in Stormblood.
New residential area, Shirogane
The fourth residential district will be far-eastern themed and will also bring with it a load of new eastern furniture. The furniture cap is also being doubled, it 32bit clients may not be able to display all of the items. Shirogane will be available after the release of 4.0, to allow the players to enjoy the new content before rushing to purchase an estate.
- Dynasty Warriors 9 Review (PS4) - February 15, 2018
- Final Fantasy XIV Stormblood Review (PC) - July 12, 2017
- FFXIV FanFest Yoshi-P Q&A – Letter from the Producer Live - February 19, 2017
