Slowly, we draw ever nearer the drop of Final Fantasy XIV’s 6.3 update, Gods Revel, Lands Tremble. No. We still don’t have a solid date. Although, we will tomorrow, but, in the meantime, interviews with Yoshi-P have been dropping on various Japanese sites. These sites include Famitsu, GAME Watch, Blitz Online, and 4gamer – among others.
There’s a roundup of all of them on Livedoor. As we don’t speak Japanese, we’ll be using a combination of Google translate (terrible) and the Final Fantasy XIV Discord channel that handles PLL translations (amazing) to figure out what’s going on. Mostly we’ll be using the Discord channel, but if you need a laugh, definitely check out some of Google’s translation attempts.
The interviews covered a lot of the same content. That’s to be expected, there’s only so much that can be discussed without spoiling everything they intend to drop tomorrow. One of the popular topics is the continuation of the Myths of the Realm alliance raid series. The next alliance raid will be called The God Realm of Happiness Euphrosyne. According to Yoshi-P, the first of these raids, Aglaia, was well received, even more than he expected.
This new raid will continue to offer insight into Eorzea’s primary non-tribal-focused deities while retaining the “festival” feel set forth by the first one. Yoshi-P also notes that there will be deities that are “beautiful and cute” while others are “cool but relentless in their attacks”. This means there will continue to be a variance in combat. Yoshi-P also warns that Nophica may be charming, but players should still be wary of her.
The next topic is the upcoming Ultimate. We know. This one came fast. In fact, based on Yoshi-P’s comments about the weapon design, they were hard at work on this during the development of DSR. At that time he told the developers to consider the “visual effects, design, and glow” that would demonstrate the difference between the two Ultimates. He also noted he’s pretty fond of the design and thinks it might make players who see Ultimate raiders with it jealous. (Kinda thought that was the point.)
Interestingly, it doesn’t look like this Ultimate will be the new “hardest.” According to Yoshi-P’s statements, they consider DSR to be the most difficult in the game and aren’t trying to outdo that. He’s not saying how long this one will be, only that it won’t be too short. (It seems like they’re going to take it easier on the story delivery for this one.) It’s also worth noting that the individual handling development of this Ultimate is the same designer to develop the bosses for the Criterion Dungeon Savage. They will be working on the final boss while the designers for the past Savage 4th floor boss (who also have Ultimate experience) will be working on the first two.
On to… The Deep Dungeon: Eureka Orthos. It seems this one will have right around the same difficulty level as Heaven on High. Player comments indicated that this was just right for soloing, so they want to make sure they can maintain that for this as well. Yoshi-P’s pretty happy with the story in this content, as well as the new mechanics for players to try out. The story content will end around floor 30, so players who aren’t going for the achievements and just want the narrative content can stop there. Rewards will remain the same as well so if you do complete the whole thing, enjoy your new title.
For those wondering about the trial. He didn’t share a lot. What we do know is that it takes place as part of the MSQ. We also know that the EX version has “brain training elements” that differ from Barbariccia, as well as personal and other mechanics mixed in.
For those wanting the next stage of the Manderville weapons – well, we already knew we were waiting until 6.35 for that. Part of that is because players who wish to continue the weapon grind will need to complete the 6.35 Manderville story quest. The good(?) news here is that players will be improving their weapons by saving up rewards from different kinds of content and trading them in. The devs are also working on balancing things so players can complete multiple Manderville Weapons instead of one. Yoshi-P did not go into how this will work. What we do know is that the improved weapons will have visual effects tied to them.
PVP! The new Crystal Conflict Stage, “House Full of Tricks” will be filled with gimmicks. That said, they won’t trigger as often as they do in other stages.
Speaking of combat, Yoshi-P answered some questions about the upcoming Paladin adjustments. It seems the whole job is being overhauled. Buffs that are too difficult to use are being adjusted, and the whole job should be easier to use.
The interviews also covered things like spearfishing and water diving. It seems the devs took it upon themselves to go back and add them into earlier areas. Players will finally be able to dive into the seas in Upper La Noscea and take screenshots until their hearts’ content.
Other interviews with 4Gamer and Dengeki Online asked about side activities like snowboarding and Blitzball. On the snowboarding topic, it’s one of those things Yoshi-P wants to add, but also doesn’t want it to be something that players do a few times and then abandon. He did note that the existence of crafters and gatherers means that he’d like them to collect high-quality materials and create their own boards – even allowing the snowboard graphics to be customizable. That obviously means that this is something not coming in 6.3, but it’s a nice thought.
On the Blitzball front, it seems he’s struggling with the same issue – creating content players will end up playing one or two times before dropping. Other concerns involve things like making it something that’s not too stressful and dealing with matchmaking. One idea considered was a team-simulator system that will allow players to scout for team members around the world, train them, and have them play in matches. The biggest problem is that players have a definite idea about what Blitzball should be like, and meeting those expectations is going to be difficult.
