Aside from minor things like the trailer, the release date, the Reaper job, the second hub city, male Viera, and the Collector’s Editions, the Final Fantasy XIV Digital Fan Festival 2021 keynote also detailed enemies, areas, dungeons, and a beast tribe for Endwalker. So really, it was quite a quiet night. Not much in the way of announcements. Don’t really know why I bothered staying up, honestly.
I’m not going to go into too much detail here, but I figured I should post up the videos and the little bits I managed to glean from the keynote for the various bits and pieces. I’m expecting a little more on this stuff during tomorrow’s Live Letter from the Producer, but I’ll worry about that when it happens.
Endwalker – New areas
There were four areas given some detail in the keynote. The first, Labyrinthos, shared some thematic similarities with Old Sharlayan — grand old buildings, and the like. However, from what Naoki Yoshida said during the keynote, it’s a rather unique location.
As the name kind of implies, Labyrinthos is actually underground. And despite the old buildings, that means that there’s some seriously strange tech there. There’s a dome acting as an artificial sky, lit by a weird device that functions as an artificial sun. You can see this in the video below.
The second new area given a video walkthrough is… well, only sort of a new area. It’s really a more in-depth look at Thavnair and Radz-at-Han areas, which we saw a good amount of when Endwalker was first announced. Nonetheless, the Indian and Moroccan vibes are still strong here, and I rather love the striking color scheme in the region.
The third of the new areas for Endwalker looks a bit like what would happen if the Sea of Clouds had a baby with Il Mheg. No video for this — just a piece of concept art. Yoshida-san was tight-lipped about this, alas, so not much to go on here. I’ve got some theories, but I’ll keep quiet for now.
Next up is Garlemald itself, which we saw a bit of last time. Once again, only screenshots for this. The place has seen better days, and I’m more than a little concerned about the giant glowing palace… thing.
Finally, we have the moon. Yes, the moon.
The specific area is actually called Mare Lamentorum, which I believe roughly translates to “Sea of Lamentation”. This is just one region on the moon, and it’s got some old buildings of its own. The trailer also has the Amaurot music playing, which would imply that the Ascians — especially the unsundered Ascians — have a stake in this place. Probably not a surprise considering how often we saw them on the moon in cutscenes, though.
It’s also “holy shit” levels of pretty, which is why I’ve also included a bit of concept art below the video. And yes, the moon has gravity and air, and there is indeed a lore reason for this. I blame the Ascians. That’s not how moons work.
Endwalker – New dungeons
The new dungeons for Final Fantasy XIV: Endwalker were mostly shown off via video, without much in the way of commentary. That video has Golbez’ theme from Final Fantasy IV playing throughout, though, which is yet another sharp nudge that this is basically the Final Fantasy IV expansion.
It looks like there are three Endwalker dungeons on display here. The first is an Exdeath-style meat castle, which looks suspiciously like where we saw Fandaniel in the trailer. Plenty of possibilities here: it could be related to the towers (possibly even a “main” one in Garlemald), or an underground horror, or even something related to the moon.
The second looks like an abandoned Imperial facility, complete with train station and then some weird biotech. This, I’d say, is very likely to be in Garlemald. Perhaps our way into the region?
The third, though? I don’t have much of an idea about that. Multiple terrain types, with forests, deserts, snow, and volcanic regions seemingly separated by forcefields mean that this is probably an ancient technological dungeon of some sort. But it could also be Sharlayan in nature, or illusory, or all sorts of things. I look forward to finding out, honestly. Yoshida-san was a bit ambiguous about these: he said that every dungeon here was part of the main story “apart from the Expert dungeons”. Whether that means one of these is indeed a post-game Expert dungeon, I don’t know.
No new details on the Pandaemonium raid series, but we did get a tiny glimpse at Myths of the Realm, the new Alliance Raid series that’ll be occupying us in Final Fantasy XIV: Endwalker‘s patches. As previously stated, this won’t be a crossover raid, and will instead be exploring the Twelve — Eorzea’s own pantheon of gods.
Endwalker – New enemies and new tribes
And then we come to the stuff we’ll be facing. There were two things brought up here. As a Final Fantasy IV fan, one of these made me squeal with delight, and the other one filled me with a mix of rage and terror.
First up are the Loporrits, a new Beast Tribe which I believe live on the moon, as per some old myths and legends tying rabbits to the moon. If you’ve played Final Fantasy IV, you’ll probably recognise these as Hummingways. They are adorable rabbit things. I approve greatly.
On the flipside we have the bloody Magus Sisters.
Considering their attire, I wouldn’t be surprised if the Magus Sisters are tied to Thavnair. However, I am interested in discovering exactly what role they have to play. It’s possible they’re a new Primal (the Magus Sisters popped up as Aeons in Final Fantasy X), but it’s equally possible they’re going to be an antagonistic force in the plotline. Maybe they’re attacking or ruling parts of Thavnair? We’ll have to wait and see, but I’m dreading it either way. The Magus Sisters are never fun to fight.
And I think that’s about it for the little reveals. The Final Fantasy XIV Digital Fan Festival 2021 continues tomorrow, and I’ll at least be watching the Live Letter to see what new info comes out of that.
