I realize at this point my general dislike of heading up to Boston for the annual haunted plague box that is PAX East is reaching “old man yells at cloud” levels of curmudgeonly relation, but I’ve also outlined why I’m not fond of the convention, and that was before it was a haunted plague box. But Final Fantasy XIV is still holding a panel there with producer and director Naoki Yoshida, and he’s teasing that he might reveal something new while he’s there! In Yoshida-speak, this means he will absolutely reveal things there, but he doesn’t have to say what or what the magnitude of it will be.
Naturally, fans have been speculating on what we will have revealed. Will we finally see Thancred and Urianger kiss? Will we find out that we’re getting a new Ala Mhigo map we can enter? Will Yoshida tell us that he was just kidding and Blue Mage gets to be a non-limited job now? No. No to all of that. But there are also some serious speculations to address, and ahead of the panel, let’s talk about those.
The release date for Dawntrail
There is no single thing fans of the game are waiting for with greater intensity than this. Normally we would already know this date by now, which means that basically any time Yoshida appears on camera between now and the announcement, people are going to speculate that this is when he’ll announce the expansion release date. And to be fair, this is not an unlikely time to do it: He’ll have a big audience, it’ll be widely broadcast, and it is the biggest obvious reveal.
It’s also kind of telling in and of itself if we learn about it here. As I mentioned, normally we have heard about the expansion release date by now. I’m not going to say that it’s impossible to hear about it later and have June be a realistic release month, but usually we get more lead time.
Now, the biggest counterpoint to this is that the panel is… well, at a weird time for the Japanese audience, which is true. However, it’s hard to schedule any event to be at a good time for everyone in the world, and it’s not hard to set a specific date and time when pre-orders will be available regionally. Heck, the pre-orders matter chiefly for physical collector’s editions, which sort of have to be regional.
How likely is this? Give it 50-50 odds, like guessing if the next attack will be starboard or larboard.
Beastmaster visuals
In one sense, we can already make some guesses about Beastmaster because it’s in the game already in the form of the Garlean beastmasters throughout Bozja and Zadnor. We know what weapons they wield, after all. But there’s also no reason to assume they have to use the same weaponry as NPCs; remember that Garlean gunblades have been in the game since launch and are not wielded like player gunblades in stance or abilities.
Now, this one does have one big problem insofar as Beastmaster is way further out than Viper, Pictomancer, or the main expansion launch. It’d be kind of weird to have a whole panel where the big reveal is “look at this class you won’t be able to play until next year.” On the other hand, that also doesn’t require a full video; still renders and artwork would be fine. On the other other hand, that is normally not the order of operations for FFXIV jobs.
The excitement for the job does make sense, as we do really lack any sort of pet option in the game right now. (Summoner feels more like a Summoner than ever, but that also means it’s much less pet-focused in a weird way.) But it seems as if we’re going to be waiting longer for more about this job just because it’s a ways off. We know it’s coming, but I would be stunned if it’s before 7.3, and that’s just too far away for anything substantial.
How likely is this? A non-tank surviving a tankbuster in level synced content, I’d say.
The Final Fantasy XVI crossover event date
We know that a 14-hour broadcast for the game is coming in mid-April, and a lot of people speculate that we’ll learn the release date then because it’s more accessible to the Japanese playerbase and a more dedicated event for just this title. But not only is Yoshida hosting a panel about FFXIV, he’s also hosting an FFXVI panel, and is that just a coincidence?!
No. We know there’s more DLC coming for the new game along with a PC release schedule. He has plenty to share there. But seeing as how we know this crossover event will be happening during April, it would make perfect sense to reveal the date for this while he’s at the convention.
This one feels like a pretty easy layup. Unlike any kind of release date information, this drop wouldn’t need synchronization. A Japanese player who doesn’t learn this information until the next day doesn’t have to worry about pre-orders; she just knows when she can get her doggo mount. We already know the bulk of the rewards, but we can see more details like how they’ll take dyes or the like. And it’ll be sure to get a pop when considered with other news about FFXVI that will definitely come out of the event.
How likely is this? Getting at least one substantially disappointing card for the mini cactpot.
More details about already-announced Dawntrail content
A lot of Dawntrail’s content will remain opaque until the expansion launch. You know it, I know it, let’s move on. But there is space to show off more about what the alliance raid or even the regular raid will look like. We can see more zones in video format. We could see some of the new monsters we’ll be facing. Heck, we could even have another fashion video!
Remember when they did those on a semi-regular basis? I miss those. They were fun. Sure, they were kind of information-light and I’m not exactly shocked they dropped them but I still did enjoy them. Why not bring it back with two dye channels and all of that?
Heck, it wouldn’t even be hard to show off more about the graphical updates coming in 7.0. That addition continues to get attention, even if I think it’s being given outsized importance. The improvements look nice, but it’s become endless one-to-one comparison shots. Maybe that’s just me. But it still wouldn’t stun me if we see more comparison shots or technical details or even just a clearer picture of what will be upgraded at launch.
How likely is this? A story beat involving an Au Ra that players don’t just mine for lizard jokes.
Feedback, as always, is welcome down below or via mail to eliot@massivelyop.com. Next week, obviously, I will be talking about what we actually learned at the panel… or potentially talking about the lack of things we learned at the panel. That’s the trouble with planning these things in advance, sometimes all we learn is that Yoshida had a hot dog for lunch.
The Nymian civilization hosted an immense amount of knowledge and learning, but so much of it has been lost to the people of Eorzea. That doesn’t stop Eliot Lefebvre from scrutinizing Final Fantasy XIV each week in Wisdom of Nym, hosting guides, discussion, and opinions without so much as a trace of rancor.
