
So our next live letter for Final Fantasy XIV is coming on Friday, and I think it’s honestly coming at a remarkably necessary time. Not because of any problems with patch 7.1 itself, but sometimes vibes just start going south and people need something new to look forward to. Everyone wants a new thing to look forward to, and now we’re going to hear more about the next set of things to look forward to in the next live letter.
But… what’s going to be in there? Obviously we’ll be getting more MSQ, a new dungeon, and the next part of the Arcadion. But what else will we be hearing about, at least in brief? I want to kind of break that down because there’s a fair amount of content that either hasn’t been announced, doesn’t have a date yet, or is just free to speculate about. So let’s do exactly that, running down some things that either are pretty much a lock or seem likely.
The start of the trial series
This one would probably be completely a given if not for the fact that Endwalker didn’t actually have a separate trial series; Endwalker incorporated it into the MSQ, so every single installment past the first had a new trial and a new dungeon. I’ve said before that it remains an open question whether the story for Dawntrail is going to follow prior installments and have a normal cadence where the first three patches are epilogue while the last two are a prelude for the next expansion. If we don’t get a trial series, it’s probably going to be more like Endwalker.
Having said that, I fully expect to get a trial series just because the expansion patches already feel more like the prior expansions did. Our first patch didn’t start a new arc (or even a new mini-arc) but continued on the story from where it left off. I don’t know if we’re going to have a clear picture of what the new trial series is going to be like beyond the fact that it will exist, but I would not be at all surprised to have it previewed.
As for what it might be? I have no idea; we’ve actually cleared most of the obvious candidates by now. Could be a callback to classic Final Fantasy series stuff like many of them have been, but it could also be completely novel. I have given this no deep consideration beyond its existence. (There is probably something that could work to extend the Final Fantasy IX references, or maybe it’ll be a Final Fantasy VIII reference or something else completely. Life is funny.)
Cosmic Exploration
This, on the other hand, I fully expect to be announced and shown off in at least a quick form. It would actually be oddly delayed if we didn’t get this now, and people are eager to hear more, especially since thus far it’s been given basically no detail whatsoever. About all we know is that it’ll be more group-focused than our islands have been, which doesn’t say a whole lot. Will it be competitive to a degree, like Ishgard Restoration? Will it be more team-based? More of the crafting-style dynamic events? We just don’t know at this point.
One thing that seems reasonably likely, at least to me, is that this content will use a similar style to the Diadem in Ishgardian Restoration; it’s the easiest way to actually have us explore other stars without having to make entirely new worlds for us to dance around on, and it gives a chance to reuse mechanics that have otherwise been absent for an entire expansion. I don’t want to speculate beyond that, though; in this case we’ve been given little enough detail that any speculation is pretty groundless.
And no, I’m not terribly chuffed about more loporrit content, but let’s see how this actually goes before making presumptive judgments.
Gathering Society quests
A lot of people – including me – speculated pretty early on that we were going to see the Moblins serve as our gathering allied society. Then again, I also kind of thought that they would tie into the Final Fantasy XI alliance raid just because, y’know, that’s the main reason to have Moblins. That did not happen, but I also wonder if they’re going to be our gathering society just because they live in Kozama’uka, which is also where the Pelupelu have a society hub. Nothing technically prevents having two societies in the same zone, but given that the Moblins play a role in the Pelupelu line as well, I think it seems less likely.
Of course, that raises the question of what the society will actually be, and I’ll be honest when I say that based on the endpoint of sidequests and the main story, the Mamool Ja seem most likely to me. After all, the story is quite clear that they’ve got a lot of ground to cover when it comes to adapting to their environment, so gathering samples makes perfect sense. And I also find it hard to believe that we wouldn’t get a Mamool Ja line in this expansion. It’s possible, but it seems unlikely.
Shades’ Triangle
The funny thing is that even the name of this content would seem like a rumor if it didn’t come from an official source sharing a preview with Chinese fans, so we know it’s accurate. Whether or not this was always planned or was a late-hour addition to the game is beyond the scope of anyone outside of the development team to even speculate upon; it sure seems like it was a late addition, but that’s raw speculation and doesn’t contribute to anything. And if the developers were ready to preview the name and some screenshots, it’s probably coming in 7.2, since that would put it on-schedule.
Of course, this one has a lot of speculation around it, but I don’t think we’re going to get a detailed rundown of mechanics or zones yet. It’s going to hit in 7.25, after all. That’s a while away, and so probably the second letter will have a more substantial preview. Expect a name, a screenshot or two, and a broad explanation of the mechanics.
Variant dungeon
So my theory at this point is that we’re going to learn about our first variant dungeon in the live letter, and it’s going to be tied to Shades’ Triangle in some way. My basis for the former is just that it would make sense, and my basis for the latter is… well, considering both field operations and variant dungeons tend to involve actions to make up for a lack of roles, I think it could make sense to combine them. But this is, again, wholly baseless speculation.
I do think a big issue here is going to be making the rewards for this particular swath of content make sense and be useful, but I’ve already written plenty on that and there’s not much more to say.
Feedback, as always, is welcome in the comments down below or via mail to eliot@massivelyop.com. Next week, we are (obviously) going to be discussing what we actually learned instead of speculating. Simple as.
