Well met, Warriors of Light! Final Fantasy XIV’s Fan Festival in Tokyo has concluded which means Evercold is creeping ever closer. We have been promised many Live Letters before then and I’m sure players are itching to learn more about the upcoming expansion. Lucky for us, there was a Live Q&A held during Day 2 conducted in a similar format to Anaheim’s Q&A session.
Rather than a comically large dice, this time Yoshi-P drew coloured balls that dictated the difficulty of the questions (Normal, Extreme, Ultimate). These questions were collected after the keynote from Day 1 and so Yoshi-P has provided some clarity on certain topics briefly touched upon during that presentation. Read on to learn about the upcoming system changes, removal of Black Mage’s Triple Cast, and what else they’re considering for the future!
The event was held only in Japanese and so a big thank you goes out to Miuna from the r/FFXIV Discord for the English translations. Feel free to check out the following timestamped video if you’d like to scrub through the responses on your own!
Please be aware that questions (sub-headers) have been re-ordered and responses (in italics) slightly re-worded for clarity. I apologize for anything lost in translation!
Confirmed Upcoming Changes & New Systems
Can we change the Zephyr’s Nephele’s colours?
The Nepheles will use dual dye channels. When you give dyes to a certain NPC, you can dye your Nephele.
From the Zephyr trailer video, the Nephele’s colours are shown to be blue and white. Meanwhile, Visna’s Nephele is pink and white. It’s unclear whether the dual channels will only be for the wing plumage or also the bird’s body as well.
I am curious about the skill Zephyr uses to fly around while attacking. Can it evade AoEs?
While flying will not allow you to evade AoEs, it does make the Zephyr move faster.
Sorry to the players still grinding the World of Darkness Chaotic raid. You’ll have to continue shimmying on the PvP tiles.
Can you tell us a little bit about Black Mage Evolved Mode?
I am about to say something shocking.. Triple Cast is going to be removed. It will be replaced with something else, not an ability that allows for three instant casts. Also, Ley Lines won’t last for 30 seconds anymore. Instead, it will provide a number of stacks that are expended by casting spells. Players can leave the ability’s range for mechanics and then return to continue spending the stacks.
While Yoshi-P was unable to provide more details without drawing Mr. Prime’s ire, we can definitely expect to learn more whenever the Live Letter for all job’s Evolved Mode is held. Assuming Reborn Mode keeps Triple Cast, Black Mages shouldn’t have to fear losing one of their biggest mobility tools, right? It is interesting, however, to think about how other jobs might have their abilities changed in Evolved Mode. What if they brought back Nocturnal Sect or Time Dilation for Astrologian? 👀
If Savage loot is becoming individual, what happens if someone in your party has already cleared for the week? Will it affect the loot of others?
There will be a Producer’s Live Letter before Evercold’s release where we will talk more about this. The loot for players who haven’t cleared will not be affected by party members who have cleared for that week. This way, more people can help others.
A lot of the upcoming changes really promote helping other players and playing with friends. The Gauntlet of Power, a boss rush instance coming in Evercold where players of vastly different levels can still play together, is a prime example of that. I’m always glad for more opportunities to help out a friend!
You mentioned being able to float housing items soon? Can we float everything?
If we’re doing this, we’re doing everything with a few exceptions like certain lighting furnishings. Almost everything will be float-able.
As mentioned during the keynote, they want to overhaul the in-game housing menus to allow more players to easily float furniture. Along with being able to change the interior size of a house, I’m looking forward to seeing all of the fancy (and probably cursed) house designs in Evercold.
Will there be a way to carry over Activity points to the following week if I’ve already capped out for this week? It would be handy if I could stockpile them in case I’m busy the following week.
While players can catch up on the past week, we’re NOT allowing players to gather points for the following week. It’s a human psychology thing. If we allowed that, it would become a forced thing again and people would feel like they have to prepare for the uncertain.
I am playing the FFVII Remake right now. If I want to enjoy the collab raid in FFXIV, how far should I play in the FFVII Remake?
While I want you to play all of them, the first one would be enough. However, we’re making the raids so that everyone can enjoy them.
Can we obtain rewards from past seasons? Does every boss have a different theme in Gauntlet of Power? What about rewards after the Alliance Raid split?
There will be a way to obtain past Adventurer Activity rewards even after the season ends. Old items from two or three seasons ago will be periodically available again in a revival-like format. The music in Gauntlet of Power changes to match the original expansion’s boss fight theme. Alliance Raid rewards differ between the first and second halves. As such, rewards from the second half can only be obtained from the second half.
By revival-like format, my guess is that it’d be something similar to the Moogle Tome events. Spend some sort of currency to buy older items and collectibles.
What happens to Allagan Tomestones?
I don’t want to talk about this. Poetic tomestones will disappear. Thank you, poetics. There will be something that allows for you to trade for alt job gear or past rewards. It just won’t be poetics that are used.
Any plans for a special inventory for fishing bait?
No, no plans and there never will be. That’s because, in Evercold, you won’t need to carry anything anymore. It will be like a list that you can select the bait from. The list is populated as you level, from quest rewards, or bought from an NPC once. The bait added to your list can be used as many times as you want. Also, there will be a setting to limit the list to bait usable at a particular fishing hole.
The inventory space of millions of fishers everywhere just breathed a sigh of relief. 🐟
Feature & Content Requests
Can you add previews to hair catalogues? I don’t know what I am getting just looking at the name.
A hair catalogue would need to be a new system created from the ground up. Maybe we can add a way for players to preview hairstyles they have not yet obtained.
I fell in love with Alisaie. Can we have date events?
I understand, but what if the scenarios we come up with don’t fit your imagination of what a date would look like? And what if, hypothetically, a character leaves us? It would limit our options.
I want to practice PvP. Can I freely explore the Crystalline Conflict or Frontline maps?
It would be possible, technically. Whenever you go into an instance, you’re taking up server space. It isn’t too much strain for four person instances, but PvP maps are designed for a lot more players. I’ll speak with the server team.
When we equip weapons with special effects like ultimate weapons, can actions also have special effects?
The effects on animations on a weapon and those on a character are separate. Adding different action effects would be an insane endeavor, basically impossible.
Any new AFK poses when you have your weapon unsheathed? Same poses no matter the gender? I’ll do anything.
It is being worked on.
I can’t forget the Shadowbringers trailer where the Warrior of Light rapidly changed jobs mid-combat. Even if it were just a solo instance, could we somehow relive that experience?
It did look cool, right? The Warrior of Light cycled through all of the jobs he knew from his past experiences and it still wasn’t enough to defeat the Sin Eater. If this were possible in-game, players would try to optimize what the best swaps were and so the experience’s impact would be different.
Will there be any updates for Island Sanctuary?
We’ve gotten requests globally for updates. We do want to have some updates in the future after work on Patch 8.0 has calmed down.
About Yoshi-P, Side Stories, and Jokes
What would be your job or profession if you were isekai’d to Eorzea?
I’d die, I’d be on the floor.. Maybe I wouldn’t be a Warrior of Light, but I’d take over a state and then unite everyone to fight Garlemald together.
Any behind the scenes stories on the development of Dancing Mad Ultimate? Ideas that you dropped?
Kefka was aware that he was created by Omega. His final phase’s form was meant to embody ‘the most powerful wizard’. Instead, we got a wizard with a magical stick and was somewhat clownish. Additionally, there was supposed to be another phase to the fight, but it would have made the encounter too difficult and too long.
The Dancing Mad Ultimate encounter lasts around 18 and a half minutes, as do Futures Rewritten and The Omega Protocol. These three fights are, on average, the longest ultimate raids we have available. Another phase on top of the five in DMU would likely make it too burdensome and too long, unless they decided to cut certain phases significantly shorter.
(Untranslated joke about the naming system for materia in Japanese)
We have too much materia. We have decided that in Japanese, we’ll use naming system where after the two names, that being those of the higher and lower materia, the expansion titles will be added to the end.
Who is your favourite character introduced in Evercold? Please show us by gesturing so that I can try to find them during the story.
I am not at the stage yet where I could do the gestures.. I’ve seen all the cutscenes but not the details yet.
He does, however, pose for the audience.
Have you decided on expansion titles in advance already or do you decide as the expansion comes up?
A Realm Reborn (reborn) was fitting for the theme. I wanted to have an expansion that has us flying, so Heavensward made sense. In Stormblood, the Warrior of Light became a Liberator (the title in Japanese). ‘Warrior of Light’ became too predictable too, so we had to make him the Warrior of Darkness, hence Shadowbringers. Dawntrail and Evercold are gold and silver in Japanese.
What is your bedtime routine?
I watch a lot of videos that talk about space, new theories, scientific papers, and astronomy. All of these give me inspiration. I also play ranked Crystalline Conflict. I’ll win a lot and then go into a lose streak, causing me to get angry and lose sleep. I will finally give up at 4 a.m.
Why is the Warrior of Light a Reaper in Evercold? As a Reaper main, I am happy.
There are two reasons. There simply aren’t many options left for jobs that will fit the Warrior of Light. It’s nice when new jobs fit him, but Pictomancer doesn’t really fit him, right? Also, he got teased a bit by Halmarut, but I can’t say more.
Despite making it a game to draw questions to answer for the Q&A, Yoshi-P ended up answering all of the questions anyway. Our hardworking director and producer can’t catch a break. Let’s look forward to all of the Live Letters we’ve been promised! Keep an eye out on Icy Veins for all your FFXIV news!
