If you’ve been dabbling in Final Fantasy XIV but have been vacillating on whether you want to shell out for the expansions just yet, then you might be interested in the game’s latest promotion, which is giving out copies of Heavensward, the game’s first expansion, completely free-of-charge. There are a couple of caveats to the deal, however: Firstly, it is available only to players who already own the base game or the starter edition. Secondly, it is not compatible with the Steam version of FFXIV. But if you meet the criteria and want to snag your own copy of Heavensward, you can do so over at the expansion’s promotional site, though as of this writing, the site hasn’t been updated to include the appropriate link to allow players to claim the expansion. Don’t worry, though; the offer will remain open until June 27th, so there’s no rush.
Meanwhile, elsewhere in FFXIV, the release of The Orbonne Monastery in patch 4.5 brought with it the exciting conclusion to the game’s Return to Ivalice raid series, which came to be thanks to a collaboration between Square Enix, Yasumi Matsuno (creator of the Ivalice series), and Keita Amemiya (Executive Director of Japanese tokusatsu series GARO). While Matsuno worked on the scenarios themselves, Amemiya employed his design skills to create the concept art The Orbonne Monastery’s bosses, which Square Enix is now putting on display for the world to admire. Amemiya’s trademark style blends beautiful, vivid colors with truly bizarre grotesquerie, resulting in some truly gorgeous art. If you’d like to check out the eye candy for yourself, you can do so over on the game’s official site.
