Final Fantasy XIV Stormblood’s Patch 4.5 “A Requiem For Heroes” trailer and details
In today’s Letter from the Producer Live broadcast, the Final Fantasy XIV team debuted the trailer for the Stormblood expansion’s fifth major post-release update.
Titled “A Requiem For Heroes”, Patch 4.5 will be divided into two parts with Part 1 arriving on January 8, 2019 and Part 2 arriving in late March 2019. Part 1 will include the continuation of the main scenario, a new story dungeon, the Blue Mage limited job, the final ‘Return to Ivalice’ raid, a trial against Seiryu of the Four Lords, and more.
In our summary below, the team reveals more details about Patch 4.5 and the contents therein.
A Requiem for Heroes
Patch 4.5:
— Patch 4.5 Part 1 will arrive on January 8, 2019.
— Patch 4.5 Part 2 will arrive in Late March 2019.
— The trailer contains main scenario cutscenes from both Part 1 and Part 2.
— New main scenario quests will continue the story towards the Shadowbringers expansion.
— The Four Lords side story will conclude.
— New limited job Blue Mage will be added one week following Patch 4.5’s release, along with its Job quests and the Masked Carnivale.
— A new instanced dungeon called The Ghimlyt Dark will take place during the main scenario quest.
— A new trial in The Wreath of Snakes will pit us against Seiryu, one of the Four Lords. (More below.)
— The final leg of the Return to Ivalice alliance raid series will have us travel to The Orbonne Monastery.
— Doman Mahjong will be added to the Gold Saucer. (More below.)
— A new GATE called Air Force One will be added. It’ll be like a roller-coaster where you shoot targets. (More below.)
— Data centers for North America and Europe will expand, including world reorganization. It will take place after Patch 4.5 Part 2 (so late March or later). An exact date will be shared later.
— Machinist, Monk, and White Mage will see adjustments, but the big changes will come with the expansion.
Patch 4.55:
— The Forbidden Land Eureka will continue with the Hydatos Expedition.
— The Rival Wings PvP mode will get a new map called The Hidden Gorge.
Patch 4.56:
— Even Further Hildibrand Adventures will arrive in Patch 4.56.
— New Stormblood Beast Tribe Quests (likely the finale) will arrive in Patch 4.56.
Patch 4.57:
— World Visit system will be added, where you’ll be able to freely move between worlds on your Data Center by using an aetheryte in the three starting city-states.
Seiryu — The Wreath of Snakes
The team previewed The Wreath of Snakes arena where we will do battle with Seiryu of the Four Lords. It looks like you can fall off the side…
Gold Saucer — Doman Mahjong
In Doman Mahjong, 4 players race to complete a winning hand of 14 tiles, with points awarded for speed and difficulty of the hand. The rules are based on those used in Japanese mahjong, and players may compete against other players as well as NPCs.
Players may compete against NPCs at mahjong tables within the Gold Saucer. Players can choose from either novice, intermediate, or advanced tables. Wins are tracked separately for each table.
Players can register for games solo via the Duty Finder. Players will then be matched with three other players. Rating and rank may rise or fall depending on final placement. Players can register for games with a preformed party of four via the Duty Finder. No matching is required’ players will play against their chosen opponents. Rating and rank are not affected by final placement.
Your rating starts at 1500 and will increase or decrease according to your finishing position in each match. To obtain certain achievements, you need only attain the required rating once. Players are assigned the novice rank and may rise to higher ranks upon attaining a higher rating. Although you cannot be demoted while in the lower ranks, progressing to the higher ranks puts you at risk of demotion should you perform poorly. Moreover, only players ranked 1st and or higher can register for Advanced Mahjong (Ranked).
Yoshida says he played a lot of poker in Red Dead Redemption II, and they wanted to add it to Final Fantasy XIV, but there are legal issues in certain territories with adding that game.
Gold Saucer — Air Force One
A new Gold Saucer Active Time Event or “GATE” has been added where you will ride a roller-coaster and shoot moving targets to increase your score. Shoot any bomb-shaped targets and they will subtract from your total score. At the end you will be presented with your score and MGP based on your performance.
Blue Mage — Job Actions
Blue Mage is Final Fantasy XIV’s first ‘limited job’ where they will learn their abilities from observing monsters. Releasing with Patch 4.5, Blue Mage will have 49 actions available to learn in their spellbook and up to 24 actions can be used at a time. You’ll be able to save five presets of 24 Blue Mage actions.
In the demonstration below, Yoshida shows a few actions off — including Water Cannon, Bad Breath, Flying Sardine, and Mighty Guard, Magic Hammer, and 1000 Needles. Mighty Guard acts like a tank stance where you’ll take less damage but also deal less damage — it’ll be useful for learning actions in duties.
Blue Mage’s primary stat is Intelligence (INT) and its weapon is not figured into the damage calculation — armor and accessories will factor more. The Job will start at Level 1, and every five levels you will have a new quest to learn a certain ability. When the level cap (currently 50) increases, the abilities might become harder and harder to learn.
Blue Mage — The Masked Carnivale
The Masked Carnivale is a Blue Mage-exclusive duty that can be entered near the Miner’s Guild in Ul’dah. Herein you’ll be able to take on many challenges that will test the abilities you learn and when to use them. Each challenge has three rounds with different configurations of enemies. The menu will show you the various weaknesses of each enemy so you’ll need to prepare your actions accordingly — or collect any you need.
You’ll gain better rewards for faster clear times. There will be a first-time clear bonus for each stage, as well as weekly challenge log entries that bestow rewards. Your record time for completion will also be displayed.
Miscellaneous
— New mounts include a giant Gold Saucer sabotender and a mount for collecting all of the kamuy fifes from each of the Stormblood primals.
— The /gpose feature has also added the ability to manual focus the camera and you will be able to open the emote list inside rather than having to exit /gpose and re-enter. Wet clothing has been added to the list of effects you can add to the shot. It will now also prompt you if you are sure you want to quit.
— The precision of which you can place your housing furniture has been increased so when you re-log it should save appropriately. Furnishings you can interact with have also been adjusted so that they don’t disappear at long distances.
This article was originally posted on Nova Crystallis.