Square-Enix announces Shadowbringers expansion for FINAL FANTASY XIV Online

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Reuben Mount
November 19, 2018
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After an initially lukewarm launch, FINAL FANTASY XIV Online has seen a huge boom since the reset of the game with A Realm Reborn in 2013. With the current player base exceeding 14 million registered players, it’s undeniably an ongoing success. To continue this success, Square-Enix announced Shadowbringers last week, the third expansion for the MMO that will take players on new adventures to battle against the threats to the realm as they become Warriors of Darkness in early summer 2019.

Shadowbringers made its debut during the Fan Festival 2018 in Las Vegas, as Producer and Director Naoki Yoshida presented a stunning trailer which set the stage for the beginning of this next chapter in the FINAL FANTASY XIV Online epic. The new expansion will bring an abundance of new content, including a new player race, multiple new jobs, an increased level cap up, sprawling new areas, adjustments to the battle system, as well as a variety of new battle, crafter and gatherer content.

In addition to these core features, a number of new systems will be introduced with Shadowbringers:

NPC “Trust” System – Players will now be able to fight alongside familiar NPCs.
New Game+ Feature – A feature that allows players to “replay” the FINAL FANTASY XIV main scenario stories.
World Visit System – Players will be able to travel to other servers on the same data center and interact with more players than ever before.

As a surprise announcement at the event, Yoshida also revealed the addition of blue mage to FINAL FANTASY XIV Online at the release of Patch 4.5. Blue mage will be available to all players that own A Realm Reborn, have reached level 50 as a Disciple of War or Magic, and have completed the 2.0 main scenario. Taking inspiration from previous FINAL FANTASY titles, the blue mage job will provide a unique solo gameplay experience in which players will learn monster actions and advance through blue mage-specific content. Blue mage will begin with a level cap of 50, and increase in the future with the addition of new content for the job.

More information on Shadowbringers will be shared at the Paris Fan Festival event on 2^nd – 3^rd February, 2019, as well as during the Tokyo Fan Festival, scheduled for 23^rd – 24^th March, 2019. All Fan Festival events will be streamed free of charge on the official FINAL FANTASY XIV Twitch channel: https://www.twitch.tv/finalfantasyxiv; so if you’re interested, make sure you keep and eye on that Twitch channel.

Do you play FINAL FANTASY XIV Online? Are you interested in the Shadowbringers expansion, or the addition of the Blue Mage job? Let us know in the comments, or on Twitter, and check back for more coverage of this game and other Japanese titles!