Final Fantasy XIV: Shadowbringers already has post-launch plans, detailed for the first time recently in the latest Square Enix producer live letter hosted on Twitch. The upcoming expansion marks the third major content release since Final Fantasy XIV first debuted as an MMO, and the game has since accumulated a massive playerbase that rivals World of Warcraft.
Final Fantasy XIV: Shadowbringers will also mark the first time that the game shifts from focusing on the Hero of Light and into the darkness, with a storyline revelation that makes the sides of good and evil significantly less cut and dry than they were in previous expansions. Shadowbringers will add two new classes in the Dancer and Gunbreakers, the latter of which wield the gunblades from Final Fantasy 8, and two new races: the Hrothgar, lionlike humanoid behemoths, and the Viera, rabbit-inspired humanoids made famous by Fran from Final Fantasy 12. The expansion looks to be the biggest yet, and fans are buzzing from the additions of such popular icons from the series’ other famous titles.
Now, Final Fantasy XIV: Shadowbringers post-launch plans have been made available to the general public for the first time ever thanks to the last producer live letter from Square Enix. The most challenging end-game content will begin availability on July 16, when patch 5.01 hits and introduces the first new raid, Eden. On July 30, Patch 5.05, the savage raid will drop and the race for world first will begin in earnest. July 30 will also see the addition of a new treasure hunt dungeon in Lyhe Giahl and a better tomestone currency, on top of the many quality of life changes being made to the game in it’s 5.0 patch that will debut alongside Shadowbringers.
While the Final Fantasy XIV: Shadowbringers post-launch won’t be completely characterized by new and challenging dungeons, they’re a major part of any MMORPG’s life cycle, and Eden will represent the first in what are sure to be many Shadowbringers-era raids to come. We know there will also be a NieR: Automata-themed alliance raid coming, New Game Plus, and other additions on top of Eden, so Final Fantasy XIV: Shadowbringers post-launch is setting up to bring a dramatic amount of new content to the game in July.
With Final Fantasy 8 finally getting a remaster, Final Fantasy 7 Remake on the horizon, and now Final Fantasy XIV: Shadowbringers under a month away, it’s never been a better time to be a fan of Square Enix’s long-running fantasy RPG series. Square Enix agrees, too, with Shadowbringers featuring so many quality of life updates that it’s sure to appeal to those driven away by the complexity of early MMOs. Will Final Fantasy XIV continue to keep growing in spite of the fact that many believe its genre to be dying? So far, it’s defied expectation, so we don’t see any reason Shadowbringers, the best-looking expansion yet, will do anything different.
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Source: Final Fantasy XIV/Twitch
