Well come and well met, my brave Warriors of Light. The FFXIV North American Fan Festival 2026 in Anaheim, California is well underway, and just wrapped up the long-awaited keynote. We got so many juicy reveals today and we’re happy to recap them for you!
If you’d like to rewatch the streams, check the official YouTube or Twitch channels for the broadcasts. Witness the beautiful cosplays attendees worked hard to showcase at Fan Fest! Thank you dearly to Koji for the live English translations!
Next Expansion Title Drop: Evercold
The next FFXIV expansion has been revealed to be Evercold! Warriors of Light will be traveling to Hydaelyn’s Fourth reflection where the lands have been consumed by ever-spreading frost.
Normally we don’t get a definitive date for an expansion release until a later fan festival but this time, the release month has been revealed: January 2027! In a short nine months, we’ll be setting off into the next arc for the story: The Godless Realms Saga.
Take a look at some development screenshots of in-game locales, along with concept art of different areas below.
Without much context on who or what we could be facing, we saw this gigantic creature. Whether it be a fiend, a god, or perhaps even a friend, we’ll need to wait to find out.
Various beautiful concept art of town areas was showcased. They used them to lean into the fantastical elements that drove the direction for the expansion.
We also got a first look at one of possibly several new races we’ll encounter in the Fourth. Could these fluffy little residents be our greatest ally? They’re certainly one of the cutest.
More could be shown but to avoid spoilers of Patch 7.5 MSQ, they will hold off until the European Fan Fest 2026 in Berlin. Feel free to enjoy the content at your own pace with the Evercold teaser website, out now!
New Jobs with Evercold
We’re looking at two new jobs in 8.0! We can expect a new tank and a new physical ranged DPS. These will be FFXIV originals, and the first job will be announced at the Berlin Fan Fest. They’re still early in development so no previews just yet, but I wonder if Yoshi-P’s shirt is a hint? 👀
Game Design Updates
Ever since 2010 with Patch 1.0, 2013 with A Realm Reborn, and allllll the way until 2024 with Dawntrail, we’ve had 6 distinct expansions and are approaching 35 million registered accounts. ✨
As such, a big focus in 8.0 is to find ways to innovate on the game’s design to change the comfortable, but monotonous, experience. Since this is a massive endeavour, they will need all three 2026 Fan Fests to go over everything, and today will cover the foundation.
Introducing the all new Adventurer Activity UI. They plan to switch from a daily-based system to a weekly-based one instead, and the Adventurer Activity is meant to be a hub of your weekly progress. The goal is to be more respectful to players’ different lifestyle needs. It is still in the development phase, so expect many changes to the interface over the next few months. More details to come in the Tokyo Fan Fest this October!
Introducing Seasons
Don’t get spooked by the wording, there will be NO EXTRA FEES for things like a season pass. None of that “pay-to-win” nonsense. Currently, we are in a two-patch development cycle and they want to group the even and odd patches into a season. See the image above for examples.
They’ve also acknowledged that the patch duration has increased and they have expressed that they wish to squish it with 8.0 development moving forward.
Character Design and Character Creation Updates
With so many changes coming to character customizations in Evercold, we felt the details deserved its own deep dive on Icy Veins. Make sure to check it out to learn all about the armoury system update, character action skins, expanded character creation options, and the ability to toggle certain pieces on gear!
Content Updates
They want to improve Public Fields by adding dynamic events and content in each area to allow deeper exploration. They will focus on stability to avoid things like debuffs causing server crashes. Hopefully this works out, but we’ll see. 😂
Next, Quests will also be getting changes. They’ll introduce quality of life changes for quest systems at the Berlin Fan Fest, so stay tuned!
Battle content will be getting some interesting changes as well. First, they wish to introduce a third difficulty to 8-person raids in-between the Normal and Savage difficulties. With this, they hope to bridge the gap between more casual players and savage raiders. We’ll get more details at the Berlin Fan Fest! Of course, Ultimates will still get love, so no worries hardcore gamers!
Second, they want to adjust the progression routes for 24-person raids. The idea is to alleviate the time burden placed on players for progression without skimping on length of the raids themselves. We’ll get more details at the Tokyo Fan Fest!
Third, and last but not least, they want to add all-new types of battle content, with more details soon. Please look forward to it!
Same-Region Player Matching
At long last, they’re introducing same-region player matching! Along with the removal of barriers between a region’s datacenter, the party finder is also included. You won’t have to wait until Evercold — this feature is coming in Patch 7.5x!
New Job Action System: Reborn Mode and Evolved Mode
They introduced a new Job Action System that will only available for the first 21 jobs (not limited jobs, so not Blue Mage nor Beastmaster).
The Reborn mode is basically what we’ve been playing with since A Realm Reborn. It’ll still receive the normal updates to it, like evolved actions in a combo string.
The Evolved mode is meant to emphasize individuality, allowing different rotations and fewer inputs. Not to be confused with an ‘easy mode’, it isn’t a simplified version of Reborn mode. It will feature unique actions and unique rotations. Think of it like having two versions of one job that share some similarities.
You may toggle between modes at any time outside of battle and the job level shared between modes. The gear is shared, and Evolved mode is available when the job is unlocked.
All content is designed to be clearable with either of the modes. While Evolved mode is going to be just slightly stronger, the performance difference between modes will remain negligible.
For more information, check out the Dev Panel on Fan Fest Day 1! For this new job action system, they’ll be showcasing the different modes for Paladin, Dragoon, Bard, and White Mage.
Additional Updates
Rapid-fire changes coming with Patch 8.0, go!
- As per usual, the Level Cap is increased from 100 to 110
- Treasure Hunts, FATEs, and The Hunt will all get updates
- New Dungeons, keeping with the usual amount of 6
- More Gear and Crafting Recipes
- All new Threats and Enemies
- Upcoming 8-Player Normal Raid Series will be revealed at Berlin Fan Fest!
- More Ultimate Raids are planned!
- PvP updates
- More Duty Support updates, with possible hints at being able to enter dungeons as a pair! Stay tuned for details during the Berlin Fan Fest!
New Collab Alliance Raid Series for Evercold
What will the new Alliance Raid be? The theme has been revealed to be an Evangelion raid series, tentatively titled Ghosts of Desire! With Yoshi-P being a huge Evangelion fan himself, we’ve been assured that it’ll both surprise and satisfy fans.
System Requirement Updates
They have no changes planned for the system requirements, but they have one request. While the PlayStation 4 will still run smoothly in Patch 8.0 and possibly up until Patch 8.3, FFXIV is outgrowing the older console’s limits. So, they’re giving PS4 players a heads up of approximately 2 years to upgrade to a PS5.
Patch 7.5 Releases
Of course, we still have the changes coming to Patch 7.5 releasing on Tuesday, April 28th and whatever else is beyond! The following are the biggest changes we’ll be getting soon:
- New Limited Job: Beastmaster will release in Patch 7.56
- The new Ultimate Raid, Dancing Mad (Ultimate) will release in Patch 7.51
- Synchronized with Korean Version for Patch Releases
- Expanded Free Trial to include Shadowbringers
We’ve tried to keep this digest as short as possible! If you’re curious about a particular topic, make sure to check Icy Veins for other NA Fan Fest deep dives! Also, we hope everyone at the convention is staying safe and hydrated!
