by theygamesWe now have a FFXIV 6.5 release date and a look at everything we can expect from the Growing Light update, courtesy of the latest letter from the producer. FFXIV Live Letter 79 just took place at the Tokyo Game Show, and as always game director Naoki Yoshida and community producer Toshio Murouchi held their light-hearted, laid-back look at everything coming in the next big Final Fantasy 14 patch. We’ve got all the details below, including a promise of math with Thaliak, a glimpse at the Zeromus fight, Stormblood joining the free trial, and the much-touted FFXIV KFC collab.
We’ll start with the big one up top. The FFXIV 6.5 release date is Tuesday October 3, 2023. We get a good look at the next FFXIV patch, the final big update before the FFXIV Dawntrail release date sails into view in 2024, courtesy of a flashy three and a half minute trailer for the MMORPG featuring the likes of Zero, Ryne, Lyna, and Krile, who are accompanied by most of The Twelve, a handful of Loporrits, and of course gentleman inspector Hildibrand Manderville.
“Some people seemed to have been expecting the release on the 10th,” Yoshida comments, “we know it’s a little off compared to usual.” 6.51 will launch in late October, but he remarks that, while the ‘x.x5’ patches typically land a little faster, 6.55 will be a bit later “because of the story being divided” and will arrive in January 2024. This will feature several notable quest chains including those for Tataru, Hildibrand, and the Tribal Alliance, so you’ll have plenty to do next year.
Yoshida says that the extra Tribal Alliance quest wasn’t viable in Shadowbringers to to cost and timing constraints, but that so many players requested it for Endwalker that they’ve made a special effort to bring it back. “This will come in 6.55, so even if you haven’t finished all the Endwalker Tribes yet, you still have a lot of time.”
“We don’t need to hide the next Trial, so here it is,” Yoshida says, giving us an in-game look at The Abyssal Fracture, where we’ll be going up against the final boss of Final Fantasy 4, Zeromus. It looks like we’ll be on a square platform (with no protective fence, so watch your footing), with Zeromus standing along the outside of the arena.
“There might be a debuff you haven’t seen in a while,” Yoshida teases, “don’t be nervous and move too quickly – there might be something trying to knock you back.” He suggests that this isn’t a fight that will feel too much like a puzzle, rather being a test of your reflexes and execution.
We also get a look at the new 24-player Alliance Raid, Thaleia. “Anyone that has followed the story closely might be wondering how we’re going to fill one last 24-player series,” Yoshida remarks, “usually we have four bosses…” He walks through a gorgeous cityscape and comes up against Thaliak, where we get a rather interesting tease that is certain to send cold shivers down the spines of some players.
“Since Thaliak is a Scholar, you might have to use your brain a lot in this fight,” Yoshida says. “We’re not going as far as sine, cosine, or tangent, but some triangles might be falling. Once you’re out of high school, you never deal with prime numbers again – but I am sure every Warrior of Light is familiar with them,” he jokes. As a former math major, I can’t deny that the notorious Construct 7 fight and its calculation challenges is one of my favorites, but I’m sure many will be less excited by this news!
The next Unreal Trial is The Singularity Reactor, where we’ll be facing off once more against the final boss of the main Heavensward story, Thordan. Yoshida asks the audience, “How many of you have done it back then?” While we’ve since seen the arrival of an even harder Thordan fight with the Dragonsong’s Reprise Ultimate, this version should replicate the difficulty of the original encounter as it was when Heavensward was first launched.
As we take a look at the new Variant and Criterion Dungeon, Aloalo Island, Yoshida promises, “We heard your feedback on wanting better rewards for the savage version, so we’re trying a bit more this time. Please give us feedback here so we can improve and change it for the Variant Dungeons in 7.0 – yes, they will be in 7.0 as well!”
FFXIV free trial players have perhaps the most to look forward to with this patch, as it marks the addition of the entire Stormblood expansion to the free trial version of the game. While the (award-winning) Heavensward was always going to be a tough act to follow narratively, Stormblood absolutely delivers some spectacular moments, with its Dungeons, Trials, and Raids all well worth taking the time to experience.
The final round of Duty Support for the post-launch Stormblood Dungeons is also set to roll out in 6.5, marking a rather special moment. You’ll now be able to play through every single dungeon in the complete main questline up to and including patch 6.5 using the NPC Duty Support options, giving you a way to play by yourself without queues and bringing along key companions to enhance the narrative even further.
We take a brief sojourn into the Island Sanctuary, with Muroichi making special reference to the Morbols – the toothy, plant-like creatures whose name he has adopted as his own – that will appear in patch 6.5. There are also indoor flowers, stairs for your garden, and some rather imposing Garlemald-themed structures. Yoshida also references the upcoming FFXIV Fall Guys collaboration coming to the Gold Saucer: “It will be packed with FFXIV-like gimmicks!”
Turning to further updates, Yoshida smiles. “I have realized over the years that MMO updates that deal with item storage in any way are usually very welcomed,” he says, referring to the addition of ‘optional items’ (those bought for real money from the FFXIV online store, the Mogstation) to the Armoire. This will likely be a very welcome change for many, as it will free up space in your otherwise rather limited Glamour Dresser.
Speaking of cosmetics, Yoshida doesn’t miss the chance to hold out some printed-out A4 pages to show off some of the Alliance Raid and PvP rewards. It wouldn’t feel like a proper live letter without them, yet even he laughs, “Why are we even printing these out at TGS?”
He shows off the long-awaited Kappa outfit themed after Final Fantasy 6 and specially requested by Final Fantasy creator Hironobu Sakaguchi. There’s also a fairy that perches on your back, a UFO mount that holds you in its tractor beam, and a big motorbike, which Yoshida’s Lalafell character has to stand on the seat of. “The feet just couldn’t reach,” he explains, “every other race is sitting on it normally.”
To close out, we learn a little about the FFXIV KFC collab, which is sadly limited to Japan only. Starting the day after patch 6.5 launches, it’ll earn you an in-game Eat Chicken emote that I’m very hopeful we’ll be able to get over here eventually. The pair also comment on the announcement of the FFXIV tabletop RPG. London Fanfest is set for the weekend of October 21-22, where we can expect some new details on the upcoming Dawntrail expansion.
FFXIV patch 6.5 ‘Growing Light’ – October 3, 2023
Here is everything coming in FFXIV patch 6.5, titled Growing Light – all content listed releases with the launch of the patch unless otherwise specified:
Quests
- New Main Scenario Quests
- Growing Light part one [6.5]
- Growing Light part two [6.55]
- Tataru’s Grand Endeavor continues [6.55]
- Endwalker Tribal Alliance Quests [6.55]
- Requires completion of the Arkasodara, Omicron, and Loporrit tribal quests.
- Somehow Further Hildibrand Adventures [6.55]
- Further Manderville Weapons [6.55]
- Splendorous Tools [6.51]
Battles
- New Dungeon – The Lunar Subterrane
- New Trial – The Abyssal Fracture (and its Extreme)
- New Alliance Raid – Myths of the Realm part three: Thaleia
- New Unreal Trial – The Singularity Reactor (Unreal)
- New Variant and Criterion Dungeon – Aloalo Island [6.51]
- Duty Support for Stormblood dungeons
- The Drowned City of Skalla
- The Burn
- The Ghimlyt Dark
Job Adjustments
- Adjustments made in 6.5 to balance damage output between jobs within each role
- Increases to the potency of certain job actions
Island Sanctuary Updates
- New Sanctuary ranks and visions
- New gathering area in the wilds
- New crops, isleworks handicrafts, animals, structures, and more
- Felicitous Favors
Special Events
- Fall Guys Collaboration [6.5x]
- Coming soon to the Manderville Gold Saucer
- KFC Collaboration [Japan only]
- Begins Wednesday October 4, 2023
- Purchase combo meals at participating retailers throughout Japan to receive KFC x FFXIV stickers and the in-game Eat Chicken emote
PvP Updates
- Effects for certain actions, pets, etc. adjusted to indicate whether they are being used by an ally or an enemy [6.51]
Crystalline Conflict update
- Minimap and UI adjustments
- New settings to permanently display affiliated team to the left of the minimap and/or HUD
- New line on the field indicates the ‘comeback point’ – how far the losing team must progress to turn the tide
- New setting to display a countdown timer ten seconds prior to the commencement of overtime
- Enhanced Progress Gauge, including winning team indicator, comeback point, more visible checkpoint clear progress, and an overtime gauge to indicate how long the losing team can remain away from the tactical crystal before the match ends
- New arena – The Red Sands [6.51]
Miscellaneous Updates
- New Custom Deliveries: Margrat
- New consecutive aetherial reduction function for collectibles
- Green dot indicators on newly logged fish in the Fish Guide
- Ability to store optional items in the Armoire (PCGN note: ‘Optional items’ refers to items purchased from the online Mogstation)
- Option to sort teleport destinations by expansion (Can be enabled from the teleport settings menu)
- New reward for obtaining all trial mounts in the 6.x patch series
- Item level restrictions for Duty Roulette: Alliance Raid based on level
- EXP and Allagan tomestone rewards for each Alliance Raid adjusted according to difficulty and time required for completion
- Free Trial expanded to include the Stormblood expansion
FFXIV Tabletop Role-Playing Game
- Take up the adventuring life through dice and dialog in this all-new Final Fantasy 14 tabletop RPG
- Starter set release date: Saturday May 25, 2024
Server Infrastructure Updates
- In the interest of expanding server infrastructure options int he future, the use of cloud data centers is under consideration
- A North American cloud data center will be temporarily implemented for the purposes of a public stress test, which will be held during the 6.5x patch series
- The Data Center selection screen will display the cloud DC as an option upon 6.5’s release, and it will become accessible once the test commences
- Further details regarding the cloud data stress test will be revealed at a later date via the FFXIV Lodestone
If you want to watch the full archive for Live Letter 79, you can do so below – note that it takes place in Japanese, although the slides do include English translations. You can also visit the FFXIV 6.5 special site for further updates and screenshots. Thanks as always to the wonderful ‘Miuna’ and ‘iluna minori’ from the official FFXIV Discord (invite link opens in a new window) for their tireless live translations of the event.
While we await the next update’s arrival, you can read our interview with FFXIV battle systems designer Hikaru Tamaki on Crystalline Conflict, where we talk about why the mode is so popular and what its future looks like. We’ve also got everything you need to get your FFXIV Island Sanctuary in tip-top shape ahead of the Growing Light launch.