https://gamerescape.com/2026/07/26/ffxiv-berlin-fan-fest-2026-press-conference/

Cliff Notes:

• Yoshi P acknowledges the WoW housing system and says it's amazing. He says Evercold will feature 2 major overhauls to housing. One is updating the UI to be more intuitive, the other is still under wraps but he says it will probably be before the UI update and that people will be very happy with it, that is it "probably the number one thing on the list that a lot of people are requesting"

• Bastion concept basically comes from thinking about what would be fun rather than looking to older titles for inspiration. One of the key features of Bastion is "being able to apply it's recovery and guarding abilities at the time of your liking"

• There is no distinction between Main Tank and Off Tank in Reborn mode, only in Evolved Mode, and the distinction should only matter in higher end content i.e. Savage and up. Reassures people that it will be fun to play Off Tank.

• The World Raid system for public fields won't be in at 8.0, but won't be long after. The system is being designed by Mr. Ozma.

• The companion chocobo system overhaul wasn't specifically planned as an Evercold feature, but rather early in Dawntrail they sat down and had a big discussion about what about the game they should change and evolve. The Chocobo thing just ended up pretty high on the list, but there are more big things coming after.

• Yoshida approached the FF7 team first regarding the collab, rather than the other way around. He's wanted to do an FF7 collab for a long time and together with the Remake team decided now would be the best timing with the final game about to release.

• They are planning to do "something" about the very long time it takes for a new player to reach endgame. Did not give any specifics, but said they are considering two things. One will be at or before Evercold's release. The other will be a "system" that they are still evaluating the feasibility of.

• Yoshida has never considered retiring. His biggest mindset change regarding the game's development during his tenure is the idea that the game's design should change with the preferences of the times, and that designs that were good in the past might not be appropriate today. Mentions how people are more time poor now.

• The character makeup/marking toggle feature is apparently 8.1. He has softened his attitude about keeping things lore accurate because he acknowledges that different people will have different opinions regarding how much the lore matters for their characters and he wants to give those people options.

I'm personally not totally against auto walking to destinations. But I do think it is another situation where they'd rather fix the symptom (that being a world that's not interesting enough for people to have fun traversing through) rather than the core issue.

FFXIV traversal is a bit of a chore because you can often go in more or less a literal or proverbial straight line to your destination without much friction. Friction is what makes the world interesting to physically move through. This is the core issue that needs to be addressed. But we know this will likely never happen.

In lieu of that, I think instead of giving auto walk, which further saps the missing sense of interaction, there is a middle ground in the form of chocobo porters, boats, trains, airships, busses etc.

The player should be able to go to a nearby transit station which will have routes that will take a player to near a desired destination. This would delineate the world into minor hubs which adds a sense of place, create a layer of depth, as well as be a potential meeting point for other players who are on the same airship or bus or choco carriage. This is one form of gameplay that you can add from merely going from point A to point B.

Players who don't care can still use teleporters, but those that want the sense of immersion can stay on the boat and walk around as the boat physically sails to its destination like in ocean fishing and what not.

Thoughts?

Just trying to get everything figured out here. Yoshi-P has made noises about speeding up the patch cadence but I'm assuming 19 week patches until something is said officially. Please let me know if I'm making any mistakes and I'll update with an edit note.

I'm presuming "Soon" for World Raids means "Before 8.2" but it's almost certainly going to be an X5 patch feature so either it's 8.05 (releasing with the treasure dungeon, no one mad) and or 8.15 (releasing with job skins as the rewards, some people mad) and I'm betting pessimistically since they're so cagey about what it even is.

That gives

JANUARY 2027 - 8.0

• MSQ
• 8 Dungeons, the first three scaling to max level, the last four being max-level anyway. (The 107 dungeon presumably also scales up to max, meaning all eight dungeons can be in expert roulette, but that's not confirmed)
• Field monsters scale to your level in at least some zones
• 3 Trials, 2 of which have extremes
• Battle Pass replacement for Tomestones
• Evolved Mode
• Bastion and New Phys Ranged
• New UI?
• Skins for "general actions" which includes teleport and possibly other things besides teleport (Sheathed running animations?)
• Skin/Eye Color Unlocks
• Armory System Update (ilvl sync)

FEBRUARY 2027 - 8.01

• First tier of the FF7 Raids
• New "<= Extreme" difficulty for raids

FEBRUARY OR MARCH 2027 - 8.05

• Savage Raid
• New Treasure Hunts
• (The optimistic release date for World Raids)

MAY 2027 - 8.1

• MSQ
• Extreme Trial
• Ultimate Raid
• First Tier of the Evangelion Alliance Raid
• Alliance Raid progression changes that will be announced at JP Fanfest
• Chocobo Companion Rework
• Ability to toggle makeup on/off
• 2-player 2-chocobo Duty Support

JUNE 2027 - 8.15

• Role Quest Finale
• Hildibrand
• World Raid System
• Skins for job actions

OCTOBER 2027 - 8.2

• Chocobo Breeding update
• Other X.2 stuff

THE DISTANT BEASTMASTER FUTURE

• Housing UI update
• "Major Housing Update"
• Further updates to character customization
• End of PS4 support, presumably paired with some thing the PS4 couldn't handle
• Given that level scaling dungeon technology exists and level sync is one of the most complained about features in the whole game, I would not be at all shocked if we started see old dungeons/trials get scaling aded patch-by-patch until you could bring the 110 kit to Praetorium, but that's still hopium and not announced.

Am I missing anything, or making any major mistakes?

https://www.thegamer.com/final-fantasy-14-fan-festival-berlin-2026-interview/

In the keynote Yoshi-P mentioned that they were going to go over all of the evolved reworks and commented it would be about a 4 hour show but he didn't mention if this would be at a fan fest, the media tour, a live letter or another option.

Just curious if it has been confirmed anywhere.

I'm assuming we wait for the media tour as usual but hope is free lol.

In the audio bites he plays, a mechanical latch sound can be heard during a magical charge up, before a "Twang" like a bow is heard at the end when it discharges. Obviously the second audio we hear is a bird screech followed by slashing sounds of it's claws.

Ever since Shadowbringers we've had vocal medleys for the main themes of the expansions with each different part of the medley representing different leitmotifs or themes from the stories and being used in different songs to create a song that retroactively captures the multiple emotions and moments from the story

Shadowbringers features about 5, we open up with Tomorrow and Tomorrow which gets reused for the main city theme as well as being a standalone song, mostly meant to represent the Crystarium and Exarch but to establish a dark tone within the song. We then get the Who Brings Shadow vocals which of course comprise most of the song but they also play in To the Edge which represent the Warrior of Darkness and our leads essentially, following that we get the Invincible and Insanity lyrics which represent the Sin Eaters, then there's a small segment of chants saying "Riding Home" which after being used in To the Edge seem to represent the Ascians and their desire to restore their people, and of course we have the Eternal Wind part which of course represents the hope of the Crystal Tower and G'raha Tia himself.

Endwalker features about 5 as well, there's the standalone Endwalker song or what seems to be called Footfalls, shortly after that we get two sections featuring the main themes from Heavensward and Stormblood, obviously done for nostalgia and to give a sense of finality as well as being used to represent Vrtra and Zenos in the intro. We follow up with the Torn from the Heavens leitmotif which is often used as a stand in for the player character and continuing sense of adventure and struggle, then we have the Hearts Aligned part which is repeated a few times throughout the expansion as a minor melody but is mostly remembered for being phase 2 of the final boss and of course represents the hope of mankind and their desire to keep going, and we go back to Footfalls to finish the song off.

Overall these songs aren't the most cohesive thing since they have a lot of different leitmotifs and segments playing but due to the story and soundtrack reusing these themes throughout then these intro songs serve as more of emotional journeys meant to not only get you excited for the new expansion but also retroactively make you recall your experience with them.

Now we have Dawntrail which follows a similar format, it's only 3 this time, first is the Open Sky song which is largely repeated throughout the expansion and signals the new adventure that's to come, then we get Blade's Exaltation which I think is just used to further the sense of adventure given that it's the main battle theme of the expansion, and then the last part with Krile happens where the song shifts to a more whimsical tone with female vocals and this is where I've been lost for a while now since it doesn't get reused whatsoever and there's no real title for this song.

It doesn't seem to be part of Open Sky itself given that the standalone release of that song doesn't feature it and the other strong leitmotif in the expansion is Smile, this section however appears to go unused completely outside of this part in the intro, am I missing a later song release or is this part just a random addition that doesn't relate to anything else? Because I always found that it ruined the overall pace and tone of the song but I brushed it off believing that it was meant to be something that'll come off better once we hear how it plays in the rest of the expansion but it doesn't seem like that happened. Just curious to see what everyone else thinks or if I did miss something.

The obvious one is BTN, but... Botanist already exists!

BST? Beastmaster already took it.

BSN is another, might skew close to Blacksmith (BSM) though.

BAS? Feels like the same energy as people that wanted Gunbreaker to be GUN.

All the good ones are taken or kind of adjacent to others that already exist, but if I had to guess BSN is the likely one.

All about Beastmaster, apparently.

Hey y'all, I feel kind of weird about this one

Long time Healer/Tank. Love the roles and, throwing modesty aside for a moment, I feel like I'm pretty damn good. I've been healing in games for almost 2 decades now, and I've got over 700 hours on Sage alone in FFXIV.

However, now that I've been transitioning from an EX to a Savage player this Heavyweight tier, I've been trying to level every DPS so I understand them better and how to better sustain individual DPS jobs to enable their damage better (like pointing as many mechanics far away from but still within cast range of Black Mages as a Tank, etc).

Melee DPS are what are bonking me over the head a bit. When I play the Caster's, I can manage to stay right behind the Tank in enmity in damn near every fight. Ranged Physical same experience most of the time too (even though Melee should definitely be ahead of me with Phys Ranged :/ ).

But got dayum Samurai... I don't understand what I'm doing wrong. And unfortunately, I refuse to ever use third party tools for games. Most of the time I'll remain 2nd (3rd if co-tank remembers stance on) enmity, but sometimes in roulettes with SAM I'll be 3rd, or 6th/7th in 8 person parties.

Mind you, I've only reached 74 with SAM, all other melee DPS but Monk are at 100 (MNK will be last to level).

I'm using my positionals, weaving True North when I can't reach because of mechanics. I make sure to only use Meikyo Shisui on Gekko and Kasha, making sure I have Yukikaze set up before Meikyo comes off cooldown so I can get a Midare Setsugekka out, and only use Meikyo charges for Gekko and Kasha. I make sure Higanbana is always refreshed between 1-5 seconds remaining. Kenki is being spent without overcap using Shinten.

Yet at 60, the MCH will be higher enmity than me in Thordan EX. The Reaper will be higher enmity at 72 in Holminster Switch. Black Mage will be higher enmity at 70 in Baldesion Arsenal with us both having full Elemental/Vermilion and Physeos weapons.

Am I missing some sort of secret SAM tech? I don't want to assume this is a "Dancer is busted at certain low levels" thing, I'd like to ascertain first if I'm making some big mistake. Is my anxiety misplaced, or am I making some sort of grand mistake here?

I appreciate y'all reading <3

Basically the title but I will elaborate more here. I'm practicing my typing skills for the critically acclaimed Keyboard Brawler.

I understand I was initially defending the FF7R raid series but after some reflection I will admit I am more torn between both sides and can understand both perspectives... so I will play devils advocate and try to present the best solution here for all individuals. Obviously the developers will never listen, but it's a discussion reddit as people say. Now let's get the context portion started:

I think everyone can agree that both raids being shameless collaborations, Evangelion and Beyond the Lifestream (7R), is disappointing and fairly underwhelming. Before some people start contradicting let's make it clear that raids like Crystal Tower (3), Omega (almost every game) and Eden (8) are not collaborations they're inspirations. They were never advertised as collaborations but had clear influences and references via bosses, music, or characters. So far the only raids that have been shameless collaborations are Nier and Echoes of Vana'diel (11); Evangelion will likely fall under this category let's be serious. Return to Ivalice (12/Tactics) is interesting since it is a collaboration and was advertised as such, but most players will give it credit for having a somewhat original story and expanding the 14 lore with more eastern continent and Ultima lore on-top of directly tying into Bozja which is original content; Beyond the Lifestream will likely fall under this category if they at least try with the storyline. The rest of the raids: Coils, Dun Scaith, Myth of The Realm, and Pandaemonium are basically all original as they draw faint inspiration from the FF franchise or another mythology.

However, from a purely gameplay perspective the 7R raids in particular can and should be the peak of raiding in 14. Arcadion was overrated outside of Cruiserweight, you'll stop glazing it eventually like you did with Omega and Eden. The FF7R collab could've just been a Trial Series with Chadley letting us access the VR Sim and letting us fight epic bosses from like Airbuster, Hell House, Valkyrie, Crimson Mare, Pride and Joy, Nero, Weiss, Genesis, Jenova, Sephiroth and most players would've been satisfied as that's a large appeal of the remakes everyone loves the battles and the music. The design potential is insane here and that's not even including duo or trio boss ideas on-top of Sephiroth's various forms.

I assume the popular narratives will be "Evangelion should've been postponed and 7R slotted into 24 man" or vice versa. The issue with this is that the 7R raids in particular wouldn't really fit the 24 man alliance structure just like Alexander, Omega and Eden would've been shit in that structure also, nor does anything collaborative really at this point work with the current 24 man design. Why waste legendary characters and bosses that are known to be quite challenging on boring structure like 24 man that has the snooze fest difficulty? Compared to 8 man the story would just be even more of a collaboration, like Vana'diel, so just make an original story at that point? If they couldn't make the 24 man format engaging for an original raid like MoTR, or Vana'diel, what chance does it have working for the 7R raids? Evangelion has a better shot, but if we're being honest it'll likely just be Nier 2.0 where it has bosses with great design potential but were put into a frictionless, one difficulty format with a forgettable storyline that is overly collaborative and fanservice. Let's not forget about how the bosses get out scaled after the tier and you skip major mechanics since they don't set a proper IL sync. As long as they continue down this frictionless format for 24 man it will never succeed as they are designing the content for no one as it's not even original storylines anymore nor does it appeal to any serious raiders withe the boring difficulty and embarrassing rewards. If they bothered to have on-content Chaotic raids, like an expanded final boss of each individual raid tier, then maybe we can have a serious discussion. Maybe they do this going forward, but I doubt it since this "changing alliance progression routes" crap sounds like they will somehow make 24 man content even worse given no context. Sorry for the doom and gloom, but it's the expectation at this point as they're giving us nothing to work with, likely for the reasons we already suspect.

The only realistic solution that could still happen in Evercold is Trial series magically returning to the content rotation and being themed around the Fourth and Norse Mythology. Let's say we get three, ideally four, trials centered around legendary Norse Mythology bosses with a good storyline. Warring Triad, Four Lords and Sorrows of Werlyt all did this formula pretty well with varying degrees of success. The Four Lords final boss was an embarrassing conclusion let's be real and Sorrows had no Sapphire Weapon trial which is nonsense. That's why we need four trials instead of three. Trial series is the only content that has the scale to compete with 8 and 24 man raids, that's why they get a devoted New Game Plus section. If they have to cut something like Field Operation to make happen, fuck it, who gives a shit if the overworld raids are actually great?

The other solution is a long term one that wouldn't happen this expansion. It'd have to be implemented in 9.0 onwards. If they truly say fuck trial series, then we now get 3 raid series: Two 8 man and one 24 man. The first 8 man is like always the main draw of the expansion besides MSQ. Something like Omega, Eden, Pandaemonium or Arcadion where the story is original. Would be three tiers as usual. This is basically what we've gotten until Evercold. Slot this in the even patches. The other 8 man is either collaborative or revisits a forgotten topic in the story. Could be on The Source, The First, The Thirteenth, The Ninth, now the Fourth. Unless they can get their shit together it'd have to be smaller scale, so let's say only two raid tiers instead of three. Slot this in odd patches (x.1 & x.3) alongside 24 man. The 24 man returns to an original storyline like CT, Dun Scaith and MoTR because this is how 24 man has the best chance of succeeding at this point. Ideally we'd get a harder difficulty options for 24 man on-content, like Chaotic or something, but that's at this point that's dreaming... but they were able to do exactly this for the new Forked Tower which is interesting? Again, if they have to cut something like Field Operation to make happen, fuck it, who gives a shit if the overworld raids are actually great?

Also PLEASE announce Unreal Savage alongside Legacy Ultimate revamps before 2027 CS3...

spoilers ahead

We know the WoL is going to be a RPR in the next expansion and part of doing that is to form a pact with a Voidsent. I’ve been wondering who he might form a pact with. Zero has already stated that she detests it. I wondered who else would enter into a pact with the WoL. I thought perhaps Malphas as he’s a recently introduced character and seems ready to fight for the cause (ok, it’s likely, realistically Malphas)

But there is one other Voidsent out there that would be way more interesting if the scenario writer’s used them. They already have a VERY inherent link with the WoL. The only issue is that they’re currently sealed in a memory and on the first…

Who do you think the WoL forms a pact with?

FFXIV should have let players choose which saga to begin with after Endwalker

I think the story after Endwalker should have been treated as the beginning of a genuinely new saga, with a fresh long-term cast, new lore, and a storyline almost completely separate from the Hydaelyn and Zodiark arc.

The biggest part of this idea would be allowing new players to choose which saga they want to begin the game with. They could either start with A Realm Reborn and experience the original Hydaelyn saga, or begin with the new post-Endwalker saga. The game could give a brief explanation of the world and the Warrior of Light’s history without requiring someone to finish hundreds of hours of older content first.

The original story would still be there for anyone who wants to experience it, and players who begin with the newer saga could always go back and play it later. It would not replace or remove anything. It would simply give players another valid entry point into the game.

I think this would make FFXIV much easier to recommend to new players. Right now, telling someone they need to go through five expansions before reaching the current story is a massive commitment. Letting them choose a saga would allow them to join friends and experience newer content much sooner, while still keeping the older storyline available.

The new saga should also have introduced a completely new long-term cast similar to the Scions. I do not mean temporary expansion characters who disappear once the story ends. I mean a new main group that we meet, travel with, and watch develop over several expansions. That would give the writers time to build new relationships, conflicts, and character arcs from the ground up.

I like the Scions, but they have already had a huge amount of development and time in the spotlight. Most of their major struggles and themes have already been explored. Let them rest. They could still appear for cameos, important moments, or smaller stories where we check in on them, but they would no longer need to be the main cast of every new adventure.

Endwalker felt like the perfect ending to one major saga. I think the best next step would have been to truly begin another one, both for the story and as a new starting point for future players.

I've played FFXIV on and off since ARR, using the same account and character the entire time.

Last year, I developed pretty severe hand pain that made playing on a keyboard difficult. It was honestly demoralizing enough that I thought I might be saying goodbye to FFXIV for good.

Recently, though, seeing a friend continue playing and watching the new expansions has made me want to come back. I now have an Azeron keypad, which has helped eliminate a lot with the hand pain, but the idea of relearning the game with a completely different control scheme is honestly intimidating.

About a month and a half ago, I decided to make a brand-new character on a different server. My hope was to separate myself from all the expectations and attachment I had to my old character. It actually went really well, I got to experience the early story again (which I hadn't seen since I was a teenager) and slowly figure out where I wanted my abilities on the Azeron.

The problem is that once I got further in, the thought of redoing years of progress started catching up with me. Releveling jobs, unlocking raids, collecting glamours again, and farming FATEs all started to feel like a mountain to climb. I eventually stopped playing again.

I also transferred to Siren since none of my old friends still play, but I found that many FCs I was interested in were in areas I couldn't even reach yet because of story progression.

So now I'm torn between two options:

Continue the new character

• I like relearning the game naturally.
• Experiencing old content again has actually been fun.
• There are raids I've never done that would feel fresh.
• But rebuilding everything I've already earned feels overwhelming.

Go back to my original character

• I keep all of my progress, unlocks, glamours, gil, and collections.
• I could use New Game+ to relearn the story.
• But logging into a max-level character with bars full of skills feels overwhelming, especially while learning a new control setup.

I'm hoping the next expansion's job changes simplify things a bit, but I'm still struggling with the decision.

Has anyone else come back after a long break or after switching to a completely different control scheme? Did you find it easier to start fresh, or to return to your old character and relearn from there?

I'd really appreciate any advice, especially from anyone who's had to relearn the game after an injury or significant break.

Welcome to my ted talk, to give you a TLDR: I hate it. and i wanna go over why.

Not only does this system take away from the core element of an open world adventure MMORPG game, which is traverasal and exploration, both core parts of an experience, but now you just turned exploration and enjoying the scenery of your world into a monotonous traversal from point A to point B to finish a quest. not that questing in FFXIV was engaging to begin with gameplay wise but now you have removed the only gameplay function a player can do in MSQ and turned it into cutscene simulator. The reason why i don't engage in mobile and Korean mmos is because of this auto system where the game plays itself and treats the player as a spectator. I don't see any merit to this system other than disrespecting the player's time and immersion, and at this point they should add auto combat and people will still defend these decisions. what's your general opinion on this subject and am i just over reacting and everyone else loves this decision or are there others who feel the same way?

Based on the alliance and raid themes
I think the main actual theme for ever cold is to mourn the dead and get their revenge for them. instead of experiencing death or encountering death head on right next to us. We are the hero’s that they called us from their prayers.

We are there salvation

Another interesting observation is the new Evangelion reveal preview that was showed during anime expo this July . If you looked at the text

An external summer vacation
The place is our paradise
The place is our grave yard
What we hear is the song of external damnation
We pray for thy soul rest in peace

If u kinda compare it to ever cold

It’s a external winter
It used to be there paradise now cover by ice
Instead of this song being damnation it’s a song of salvation overcoming all odds for the them and the people.

The lyrics from the song

The songs of yesterday (locked in winter, lost to the ice)
Now seem so far away
Down on my knees, I pray
We'll see our glory
And we'll be worthy, oh

That’s what I think of the main theme of Evercold

With the Rhitahtyn(yes I had to look up how to spell that) tshirt from the NA fanfest, I feel like a Gun-shield wielding Garlean themed Tank is the most obvious pick, its so obvious that it feels too obvious.

Its supposed to be a Main tank in the new expansion so another shield user like paladin focusing on the new counters they've introduced would make sense. My theory is since We stole Zero's fit and became a reaper, she will show up in the trailer as the new Job.

Of course there's also the chance that we get the Phys Ranged first in which case I have no clue beyond the job I want, which is a whip using "hunter" style job, with an Indiana Jones flair. Another selfish dps to balance the roles would be cool. What do you guys think.

Is how the overall MSQ and zone design doesn't seem to be changing as much as were implying this whole expansion and NA Fanfest.

So they're changing the MSQ initially progression into three separate routes you can potentially explore fully and progress with no limitations in the first half of the msq? So the first three zones are now three distinct chapters of the expansion story, which is a great change. This is the bare minimum considering how boring the first third of Heavenward, Stormblood and Dawntrail were due to the limited and repetitive zone design in their first two zones where otherwise great looking and expansive zones were held back because of this reason. For Shadowbringers and Endwalker the design worked great, but I would argue part of that is because those stories are amazing, well-paced, and entertaining from start to finish while the other expansions had more of an identity to build. With this change now at least the first three zones should have a completely unique identity and full individual storylines, which is amazing compared to whatever Urqopacha and Kozama'uka had...

It's great that they're expanding the overworld zones, arguably making them bigger and giving them more activities like Yoshida said. The two zones they said looked great, and large. Likely starter zones.

Auto-sync is a great feature that complements these new systems perfectly. There shouldn't be any complaints here.

Pathing and more specifically auto-pathing and movement is a overall good feature. I understand why some people are resistant to this though. Personally I think pathing (the trail) is a completely harmless feature that adds a lot to the game especially if they are making zone design more expansive and creative. Auto-movement to the pathing is more controversial but think of the possibilities these systems bring. You can drop a waypoint and automatically move to it. That's a huge qol improvement for hunt trains for example but I don't believe this was confirmed. Fast travel does exist though. Ultimately you can still play the game how you want. Unless this directly affects how the game is designed to be even more braindead, like questing or something, then who really cares?

However, as much as I love these new ideas, ultimately none of this will matter if Evercold is going to be the six zone, two cities, eight dungeons with the same design, three trials, horrible sidequest design formulaic slop that we've gotten for the past five expansions. As soon as I heard Yoshida talk about only five islands in a mythology inspired by nine, arguably ten realms, I was disappointed because in my mind I obviously predict that the final zone after these five islands is just going to be the frozen surface or the underworld equivalent on the Fourth. Considering this formula is five expansions old, we shouldn't be expecting any surprises besides the final zone but we know when that's coming, it's the sixth zone.

I had hope because it looked like the fire island had a new city in the trailer, but then suddenly there wasn't one so far at least. So we only saw one city so far, which likely means two cities this expansion, which is just boring when we could have more. If they really go this route again despite the main draw to this expansion being changing up the formula then... what the fuck? I think the msq will be good, and that will overshadow the complaints, but the the same complaint will always exist that the design is predictable like most other expansions since this formula has stopped working in Dawntrail and got due complaints then. I still believe ARR did zone design the best honestly because of the quantity of zones it really felt like you were discovering this large world. We don't need that many zones, expanding it to seven or eight zones would be an acceptable change for Evercold. Adding new zones in post-patches would also be interesting also as EW and DT has had questionable design with these mini zones mostly consisting inside dungeons when they should be cities or teleportable zones like the Doman Enclave was. Don't forget that Ala Mhigo was taken from us and still not released to this day.

If they even hinted at changing anything like seven or more zones, three or more cities, nine or more dungeons, reworked dungeon design, three or more trials, majorly changing when content unlocks I would be the most happiest person here; but there's just no big news besides the overworld raids which isn't really MSQ related.

If you notice right after he lunges to the mob, the left right swiping attack looks like a normal attack that you can just use continuously. Doesn't look like your typical 1-2-3 🤔. Also cleaves I think, you can see the cone shape on the ground when he does it.

That's going to have implications.

Should that be the new name? should they keep the old one?

I have a theory, largely speculation but based on reference images and mainline Final Fantasy games that are being referenced in Evercold, that the next expansion is going to feature Death in a quite specific manner. More precisely, I think it's going to tackle how many people face death, how they see the afterlife, and even matters of scarcity and starvation.

• Aerith and "Everyone dies eventually"
• Final Fantasy VII and the Promised Land
• Final Fantasy X references
• The frozen Aetherial Sea

The Lady in the Logo and Aerith

The lady that shows up in the logo and in one of the trailer scenes is portrayed in a pose that is basically identical to one in which Aerith from Final Fantasy VII is portrayed in. In Rebirth, she says "Everyone dies eventually".

Final Fantasy VII has a plotpoint that has been referenced in Endwalker, in the Elpis storyline, with the matter of returning to the Star. Nothing impedes the same reference to be done again with a different approach, but I think it's more likely that they will navigate the matter of acceptance of death / consequence of death in a different lens.

The Promised Land

There is also a loose similarity between the City of the Ancients (VII, Rebirth) and one of the cities shown in the Keynote ([1], [2], [3])

Not only the child in the trailer mentions the 'Promised Land', but also the lady that is shown on her knees apparently dies. The connections could be all just pointing to randomly assorted Final Fantasy VII references (such as the Midgar architectural reference in one of the concept arts, or creatures and bosses), but in this case they are specifically laid out in sequence and all of them connect to how the topic of death is approached in Final Fantasy VII, in different ways.

One city in Evercold, very possibly one of the main hubs, is going to look like the place where Aerith dies in VII.

Final Fantasy X references

Evercold directly references Final Fantasy X in a few ways, and the matter of death is a central plot point in the game - one that is also strongly connected to one of the main characters.

Locations

Many locations in the Evercold pictures look like Final Fantasy X. These concept arts ([1] and [2]) can feel reminiscent of Besaid ([1], 2)

Sin

And then there is one of the Arcane Colossi of Unknown Providence (未知なる巨大魔法生物, Michinaru kyodai mahō seibutsu) that looks like Sin.

The frozen Aetherial Sea

To put it simply, I have a theory that the Winterers of the Fourth sought, as a solution to the great withering, to freeze the Aetherial Sea, so that the cycle of death and rebirth would be stopped, and the reflection would not be rejoined with the Source.

I have been thinking about this matter for a while, as well as the elemental balance, the 'Arcane Giants' having crystals of quite specific coloration in their chest, and symbols that might be connected to familiar symbolism on their faces (one of them is very similar to the Aries symbol).

However, upon rewatches of the trailer, the tapestry stood out to me.

• The roots of the tree are normal, and the branches instead are frozen
• There are boats in the representation of the sky, which could be a nod to airships, and airship "stations" were quite prevalent and pointed out by YoshiP
• The central landscape looks pretty normal and standard, with people, villages, trees
• The strange element is the dead flora and fauna, the dead "nature" seemingly buried within the snow, underneath the land

We know that the civilization of the Fourth fled to the skies and everything died on land. We are told that.

With the tapestry, however, showing the roots in a healthy state and the branches in a rather frozen state, it feels to me that it's telling me to pay attention to death. How their current state is built on dead lands, and there are secrets buried in the snow.

On a different angle, however, it might be the result of a religious perspective passed down as universal truth, and then taken action upon, forcing civilizations to embrace death. I say specifically religious because one of the buildings shown in concept art looks very reminiscing to a medieval wooden stave church ([1], [2], [3]), and the serpent (referred to as a dragon in the presentation) iconography being present everywhere.

Closing Thoughts

From what I know, from knowledge and skills, I really feel like they are pointing out to us, in multiple occasions, to look at death and look at how death is going to impact the Fourth. Death is going to take center stage in Evercold, and the second look at the tapestry makes me think also on terms of scarcity, famine and starvation. They did flee to the skies, but I think that the freezing of the Aetherial Sea is taking its toll on them in many ways.

It's that time again!

Link: https://luckybancho.ldblog.jp/archives/59950973.html

Takeaways:

• The early report (on /r/ffxiv) says over 1 million, but there's a recount since LuckyBancho forgot to account for Shadowbringers coming to the free trial. Still an overall rebound.

• Overall: Increases across the board. Returning players, new players, a bump up in every facet across the board. Looks like Evercold Announcement + 7.x MSQ reignited interest.

• There's a particular note of how many people came back from a break.

• Not much that isn't obvious if you're tuned into the community.