Eorzean Evening Post: FFXIV goes PAX .

Little Ladies’ Day is in full swing, at least for a few more days, in Eorzea. It’s an odd celebration, following treasure maps to dig up dolls. Yes, dolls. I like how the event itself is designed, it finally made me get off my lazy behind and learn how to use treasure maps in FFXIV (yeah, I never got around to it – I know, I know), but I’m not very impressed with the rewards. If you own a house and want a nice spot in your garden for a picnic I guess they are great, though.

But never mind that! The important thing this week is of course what happened at PAX East during the weekend, when Yoshi P and his crew visited Boston to give us more information about Heavensward and hype us – once again – into a frenzy. Most importantly, we finally got a date for when we get to head out to Ishgard.

 

Release date!

Yes, we finally have a release date for Final Fantasy XIV: Heavensward, the first proper expansion for Final Fantasy XIV – June 23, 2015. As pointed out during the panel, June doesn’t actually count as spring. Many, including Square Enix themselves, expected the expansion to release in May. Due to the realities of development, and to make sure it’s as polished as possible when it finally drops, the date had to be pushed back. It was, according to Yoshi P, not an easy decision to make.

Personally I was expecting it to drop in the summer, May seemed a bit too optimistic. I guess we can survive another four weeks or so. With my current schedule I need more or less every extra week I can get, if I’m supposed to have a chance at getting more jobs up to 50 before the expansion raises the level cap to 60.

 

Pre-orders and early access

As usual these days, there will be an early access program for the expansion. If you pre-order you can get in on the action four days earlier, on June 19. While early access is of course good for business, since it means more people will pre-order, it’s also nice that the rush to Ishgard will be split into two waves. We’ve all been there when a new expansion or content patch hits, we know what Ishgard will look like during the first couple of days. Two waves of people will alleviate that a bit, at least. I’ll probably just hide out in the Gold Saucer until a week or two after release. I said with a straight face, almost believing myself.

Pre-orders will open up on March 16, so get ready. Two days earlier, on March 14, there will be a special Letter from the Producer Live which will give some more information about what it will include. We do know about two things – a Baron circlet and a flying black Chocobo minion. It’s still a bit unclear if the circlet will just be a vanity item or if it will give you any bonuses while levelling to 60, similar to the way the Helm of Light and other items work at lower levels.

 

Different versions

Of course, there will be different versions of Heavensward – the collector’s edition, the standard version and a bundle of the expansion and the original game for new players. The physical version of the collector’s edition comes with that big dragon statue which, to be honest, I’m not 100% sold on. Had it been a Dragoon statue or some other character from the game I might have thrown it a second glance, or cried bitter tears about not having the money to waste on it, but as it stands I’ll probably sit this one out.

The in-game stuff is nice though – a Dragoon minion, a cool helmet and a Hippogryph flying mount. I wouldn’t have cared that much about the latter, if it wasn’t for the fact that it’s giving me Vanguard: Saga of Heroes flashbacks. After writing that, and googling images of flying mounts in Vanguard, I realise that I’ll probably need to get it after all. Damn it.

The pricing of the A Realm Reborn/Heavensward bundle will be interesting to see. I’d prefer it if they had just included the base game with the expansion, but that’s a minor gripe. Any questions we might have we’ll probably get the answers to come March 14 and the Letter from the Producer.

 

A Tour of the North

Square Enix also released a video at Pax, giving us a bit of a tour from the new areas coming in Heavensward. If I wasn’t sold on the visuals of the expansion before, I am now. Especially the cities – Foundation and The Pillars – are blowing me away. While not my favourite game of all time, Divinity’s Reach in Guild Wars 2 is one of my absolute favourite cities in any MMO, and the Ishgardian cities kind of remind me of that place – in scale, if nothing else.

In general, the new zones look amazing. There’s truly an epic feel to the whole thing and I can’t wait to explore it. I’m still sceptical of flying mounts, and what they will do to the experience (good or bad), but that’s a subject for a later column.

 

Airships! More airships!

Gamer Escape had the opportunity to talk to Yoshi P during PAX and managed to get some interesting information out of him. For example, there will be 20 new cards for you Triple Triad junkies coming out in 3.0 and a new Frontline battle for those of you doing PvP (which I really should do more or, thanks for reminding me).

But what really got my juices flowing was the info on the Free Company airships. We won’t just be able to craft one airship, we’ll be able to have many. A Free Company airship fleet! The system will be continually updated throughout the 3.X series, and we’ll be able to do more and more exploring with them as time goes by. Our FC house is nice and all, but the airships really sound like they will be a great communal project for FCs to work together on.

Be sure to read the interview, there’s some great stuff there on how raids will be updated, how the Relic quests are designed and more information about the Machinist’s attachments.

Three months until Ishgard, in other words. During the live letter on Saturday we should find out more about how the schedule until then will look, with 2.55 just around the corner.