There is now a month left before the arrival of Shadowbringers, the third expansion of Final Fantasy XIV, the MMORPG of the famous Square Enix saga which recently reached 16 million subscribers. After a tour of three Fan Festivals in America, Europe and Japan, where FF XIV: Shadowbringers was revealed step by step, finally in London we had the opportunity to try first hand the news of this expansion, or version 5.0.
Before starting, a premise that we ask you to keep in mind: the build we tested is still subject to development and could still undergo some changes.
Our test was anticipated by a meeting with Naoki Yoshida, producer and director of Final Fantasy XIV: Shadowbringers, who presented us with a whole series of featuers and features that we will find in the expansion which had not yet been revealed during these months.
Let's start with FATE, public events that historically have had the sole function of helping players gain experience points to grow secondary jobs. Recently the FATEs are losing depth and value, which is why it was decided to give them new life introducing special tokens whenever they are completed. These tokens will be needed to be exchanged in special shops to obtain various equipment and items. There was, unfortunately, no way of knowing the quality and specifics of these rewards.
Speaking of leveling the secondary jobs, all the accessory missions not related to the main plot can finally be undertaken by lower level classes, synchronizing as happens with the FATEs, in order to optimize the distribution of experience points and not be forced to close the side quests with maximum level jobs (which we remember in FF XIV: Shadowbringers will go from 70 to 80).
There will be one new type of quest, called Role Quest, that is a set of missions based each on the roles already known: Dps Melee, Magic Dps, Tank and Healer. These quests have the sole purpose of expanding the lore of the world of The First (the new setting that will be the background to Final Fantasy XIV: Shadowbringers), specifically they will be based on the stories of the heroes who fell in The First in the fight against the light. Each player must complete at least one Role Quest to continue in the main adventure.
There will obviously be job quests for learning new skills, but this time there will be only one per job to start once level 80 is reached. The two new classes, Gunbreaker and Dancer, on the other hand, will have the classic job quests from level 60, which is their starting level.
As for the Crafting and Gathering classes, new types of quests have also been provided for them: Forging, Crafting and Nourishment for the Disciples of Hand, and Gathering and Fishing for the Disciples of Land. These too, like the Role Quests, will delve into some aspects of the FFXIV: Shadowbringers plot, in particular the past of Crystarium (one of the main cities of the game) and its legendary craftsmen.
Among the most interesting innovations, we find the Trust System, already presented during the previous Fan Festivals, one of the new contents that we have had the opportunity to test in person. It is a system that allows the single player to face the main story dungeons (and only those) with a party made up of NPCs, whose actions are dictated by an AI. These NPCs are the main members of the Scions of the Seventh Dawn, in their "The First" version. We refer to Y'shtola (Black Mage), Thancred (Gunbreaker), Alisaie (Red Mage), Alphinaud (Scholar), Urianger (Astrologian) and the mysterious young Minfilia. If you've seen the presentation trailer, you know what we're talking about.
The Trust System will activate after a particular plot moment and the interesting thing is that the order of the NPCs that we can unlock for the Trust Mission will vary depending on certain choices in the plot and our main job. All NPCs are also equipped with unique actions and dialogues, so it will be interesting to try to redo the dungeons with other NPCs once they are all unlocked to see how they will react.
In Final Fantasy XIV: Shadowbringers completing a dungeon with NPCs will take approximately 30 minutes (tested on our skin), this is because while the AI is incredibly efficient in executing actions based on their role, they have an objective limit that it doesn't allow him to rushare or deal with big pulls. It is therefore recommended to approach the dungeon by pulling one group of monsters at a time. An acceptable sacrifice for those who play alone and do not want to keep up with the long waits of duty finders (especially if you are DPS). Pay particular attention, however, not to die during the dungeon, otherwise you will fail and be thrown out of the instance. This is because the NPCs if defeated can come back to life after some time, which is not true for your alter ego as you already know.
At the graphical interface level, some small changes have been implemented such as a new “Light” themed skin for those who couldn't take it anymore of all those gray and dark menus. Boss HP percentages have been updated to below 1%, a goliardic update for all those players who died in a raid within a spit of victory. Now we will see if anyone will be able to wipe at 0.1%.
The party list information will find new details, such as the durability of the barriers for each individual member. Ditto the bonuses derived from the formation of a party of 4 or 8 will be changed, especially with a view to removing some skills such as the Protect. In view of future updates and the enhancement of monsters and characters, the damage limit will go from 999.999 to 9.999.999. All the calculations behind the damages suffered and received have been redone and revised from scratch, with a view to a general rebalancing.
In the dungeons, the chains have been removed, in order to standardize the experience acquired during these instances. Housing objects will finally have their own preview and cross world linkshells will be extended up to 8 channels.
The battle system of FFXIV: Shadowbringers has been revised in an important way, even if not significantly, by adjusting some aspects, inserting new ones and removing others. Let's start withintroduction of the concept of "charge", that is the possibility for some abilities (a couple for each class) to accumulate power when they are not used, and then be activated with greater power or with the possibility of multiple use. Currently the maximum stock of a charge varies from 2 to 3 depending on the skill. This is an interesting mechanic that allows you to vary some rotations in order to wait for the right moment to use certain skills by exploiting their maximum potential.
As for some mechanics on the interruption of the cast, however, it was decided to give the "silence", or the debuff that allows you to interrupt the magical attacks of the enemies, only to tanks and ranged DPS, exempting the other dps from this responsibility and allowing them to focus on doing other things.
The Role Actions have also been revised and now each role will have specific actions designed for their skills: Tanks will have 7, Healers 6, DPS 6 and Magic DPS 4. TPs have been completely removed and will no longer be a factor to worry about during battle, while MPs have been capped at 10.000 for all Jobs , resulting in a review of their consumption for the skills that involve their use.
Speaking of characteristics, however, some values of the main parameters have been changed: Strenght and Vitality for tanks, for example, will have a different value in the calculation of damage caused and received, as well as Piety, which will become an exclusive parameter of the Healers. The subjects related to the main parameters will be completely eliminated. So be careful because from 5.0 onwards all the equipment sold with those materials will lose any value. In addition, all equipment that can be obtained with tokens or raids of the contents of Final Fantasy XIV: Shadowbringers, will have two material slots by default.
Now let's move on to the highlight of the expansion, namely the news and changes made to the game's classes. We can't go into any of them, with the exception of Dancer and Gunbreaker who are the two big stars of Shadowbringers, but we can give you a general smattering of what we've been told and shown.
First of all, the synergies between some jobs have been significantly reduced, mainly due to the removal of debufs from slash, bunt and piercing attacks.
All the tanks in the game now they will be equivalent in terms of performance both in the role of Main Tank and in that of Off-Tank, this thanks to a complete review of some skills for each of them and through the addition and removal of certain stances. In Final Fantasy XIV: Shadowbringers the offensive stance no longer exists, but only a defensive one designed for those who will fulfill the role of Main Tank. In the role of Off-Tank, instead, skills have been introduced to support and buff the MT. All tanks will also have skills to increase the defenses of the entire party to help them resist certain types of attacks, giving an even more active role to these defensive classes.
The management of the enmity has been changed, no longer relegated to certain rotations of the tank, but through a distinctive feature of that role, capable of attracting the attention of the enemy by default. In this way, the switch and transition from MT to OT has also been made easier and streamlined. Tanks will now have a new traits called Tank Mastery which will allow you to reduce all damage by 20%, while some bonuses will be added depending on the level of strength and vitality reached.
Healers, on the other hand, will see their role more focused solely on care. To compensate for the elimination of a skill like protect, new actions have been introduced to reduce the gap of all the skills they have in their repertoire. For example, the White Mage will have instant heals to mitigate the cast time of other skills and types of heals. The Scholar will have the ability to heal regardless of the pet and the Astrologian will see some adjustments to the stance and effect of some cards.
As for the DPS, there is a distinction to be made because some have been retouched in a superficial way, while others have been completely rethought enough to change the style of play. Monk, Dragoon, Ninja, Samurai, Black Mage and Red Mage are the ones that will keep a style almost unchanged. Bard and Summoner will have partial changes, such as the ability to summon uncast pets or the introduction of Phoenix in the case of the summoner. While the Machinist will be a practically new class, even capable of calling upon combat androids. All classes that use a pet will see some changed characteristics. For example, monsters can no longer damage them and their actions have been reduced to a single command present in the hotbar.
We come now to the Gunbreaker and Dancer. The first, as already mentioned on several occasions, is a tanker characterized by the use of the Gunblade, the iconic weapon of Final Fantasy VIII. The Gunbreaker has two basic combos, one for damage aoe and one for damage on the single, excellent especially for independently recovering some HP. Each combo ends with a reload of a bullet, which allows you to unleash the power of the gunblade. You can stack up to a maximum of two bullets, and for each of them you can decide what kind of actions to perform between aoe damage, single target damage or very long combos with various effects. Obviously there are skills that allow you to reload bullets at once, defenses upgrades for yourself or for the party, and many other skills necessary for your role.
Finally, remember that the Dancer will be a Ranged DPS and brings a virtually unique fighting style into play. In addition to its combos designed to damage area or to the single enemy, what characterizes the Dancer are its dances. These allow you to buff or debuff enemies depending on how many steps ("steps") are accumulated in its various stances. Each number of steps can then release its power against the enemies. Another peculiarity of the Dancer is the possibility to choose one of his partners among all the party members to apply all the buffs derived from his dances to him too. The synergy of the Dancer with all party members will be almost unique within the game.
We tried the new classes in two new areas outside Crystarium, namely Lakeland and Il Megh, doing some FATEs and eliminating some minor monsters. Subsequently, we put them to work in the Dohn Mheg, one of the first dungeons that we will face in the game, at level 73. This dungeon did not give us particular headaches, it turned out quite in line with all the others already faced in the past during the ' main adventure. Even the clashes with mid bosses and Bosses did not present any particular mechanics, except one in particular that included a sort of "platforming" element in which to pass on a very narrow path to cross a chasm where it was very easy to fall.
The aesthetics of the new settings are very enjoyable and rely heavily on natural landscapes full of color. Crystarium instead recalls a lot Project Rapture, the 2005 tech demo of the first FF XIV prototype. Unfortunately, our freedom of movement was limited and we did not have the opportunity to explore the city further.
Final Fantasy XIV: Shadowbringers on paper is therefore confirmed as an exceptional expansion. If it is true that in terms of content it remains in line with what was offered by the previous ones, it is also true that the new features significantly improve the quality of life at stake, as well as bringing about a rebalancing and rethinking of some classes for which it felt actually the need for novelty. As we know, the arrival of version 5.0 represents only the beginning of this new cycle that will accompany us for the next two years, especially considering that we have to find out what Eden, the new end game raid developed in collaboration with Tetsuya Nomura, will offer us, and YoRHa Dark Apocalypse, the raid alliance developed in collaboration with Yoko Taro. And if, as Yoshida told us, we have to expect an evolution of the plot with unprecedented twists, then the wait really begins to be felt.
Final Fantasy XIV: Shadowbringers will be released on July 2 (June 28 for those who pre-ordered) on PC and Playstation 4 and will mark the end of 32-bit support, while it will also support 64-bit versions on Mac.
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