FFXIV 6.25 release date and all details from Live Letter 73

Let's put the most important news ahead: FFXIV 6.25 release date - October 18. As usual, Game Director Naoki Yoshida and Community Producer Toshio Murouchi (the latter in a frankly terrifying Loporrit cosplay) take the lead to talk about their takeaways from the release of Patch 6.2 and the team's plans for the next few updates. Yoshida jokes that the outfit is very distracting, saying that he tries to seriously answer the questions asked by Murouchi, but "just can't when I see you sitting like this".

Yoshida says that he thinks patch 6.2 "went pretty smoothly", only increasing the need to tweak the health values ​​for the Wild Raid final boss as a prominent speed bump. He adds that he was pleased with how the Storm's Crown challenge was received, saying that it was very difficult to design, but that the team wanted "faster, performance-based" combat after recent previous ones were more focused on puzzle-solving . fights.

Yoshida says that the team was excited to see the character return in Pandemonium, explaining that he was excited to delve deeper into the character that the team felt had "gone early". He notes that the recent success Final Fantasy XIV allowed the team to increase the budget slightly, allowing them to include fully voiced lines for the returning character. He also notes that feedback on the delayed release of the wild level was "very positive" and that the team is "inclined to delay the release of the wild level" in the future with minor changes.

Regarding quest adjustments, Yoshida explains that 6.25 will only have numeric adjustments, while 6.28 will have additional numeric adjustments, including PvP job adjustments, and action adjustments will be delayed until patch 6.3. However, he notes that Paladin's PvP hideout will be changed in 6.25. He explains that one of the main goals in the 6.25 adjustments is to address the gap in the balance between melee and ranged missions after increasing the size of hitboxes, intended to make life easier for melee players.

Referring to the new FFXIV Island Sanctuary mode, Yoshida laughs that "overseas players usually enjoy content at their own pace, but Japanese players tend to complete any task if they see it and try to optimize their methods for completing it" . He notes player feedback asking for more freeform island customization, saying, "We knew it was coming, but it's very hard to implement." He adds that the team hopes to allow players to place garden housing items on their islands, but there is currently no release schedule for when the feature might arrive.

Yoshida also addresses the cosmetic design, saying that Titania's new weapons follow the trend of the ultimate weapon with flashy effects. He notes that player feedback has begun to include requests to turn off visual effects on weapons and equipment, although he says that "it's not that easy" to implement. Similarly, he explains that emotes still can't be used while holding fashion accessories because they use the same system memory - he says the team is "trying to improve this, but it will take time."

He also jokes, “I remember when players were happy that they could dye gear… Now everyone wants us to only let them dye certain pieces of gear.” Yoshida promises that the new graphics update in patch 7.0 for FFXIV will allow the team to keep improving their design work, with Murouchi telling fans, "Please keep giving feedback, just be kind."

As for patch 6.25 itself, Yoshida notes that there isn't much to add other than an October 18 release date. As a teaser, the team is showing two new screenshots - one of them shows a giant structure in a field with rainbow circles in the field. the grass underneath and the other shows two characters in full black suits and coats with fedoras that give a very spy theme. Yoshida jokes about "one spy family that's been very popular lately", referring to the recent hit manga and anime "The X Spy Family".

They also add that The new data center in North America is scheduled to arrive on November 1st., with four new worlds to start with, but chances are more worlds will be added in 7.0. The housing lottery for these new worlds is due to begin on November 5th. Yoshida says there is a possibility that the maintenance of the new data center will last 24 hours.

This is followed by a lengthy chat with the game's three lead writers, which dives deep into their history with FFXIV and the process of creating the story. Square Enix CEO Yosuke Matsuda also briefly joined the broadcast to announce that Final Fantasy XIV now boasts a total of 27 million registered users, with the team expecting to reach 28 million soon. Matsuda laughs with Yoshi-P, saying that in the past he has jokingly pressured Yoshida to hit the 30 million user mark, but now that seems like a reasonable goal. They also note that the team is currently hiring more people to work on future content.

For more details on Update 6.25, you can check out the feature overview in FFXIV Live Letter 71, as well as a detailed look at Variant and Criterion Dungeons, Omicron Tribal Quests, and new Hildibrand adventures during FFXIV Live Letter 72.

Yoshida also recently announced that the FFXIV 7.0 story planning team event has ended. Elsewhere in an MMO, the player soloed through one of FFXIV's toughest challenges for the game's base classes. Be sure to check out our FFXIV Island Sanctuary guide if you're looking into trying Final Fantasy join the ranks of the best farming games on PC. If you like story-driven adventures in an online world, we've also selected the best single-player MMOs for you.

Thanks to Miuna and Iluna Minori for Discord FFXIV for a livestream (the link opens a Discord invite).