Final Fantasy XIV: Endwalker - Trailer

Channel:

Gamer ZoneXF

Subscribers:

47

Published on January 9, 2023 4:00:08 PM ● Video Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ASTMK3R31rA

Game:

Final Fantasy XIV (2010)

Category:

Preview

Duration: 20:24

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0

Trailer Index
00:00 - Channel Intro
00:08 - Teaser Trailer
03:08 - Full Cinematic Reveal Trailer
09:04 - Launch Trailer
13:42 - Patch 6.1 Trailer
17:10 - Patch 6.3 Trailer

Final Fantasy XIV: Endwalker is the fourth expansion pack to Final Fantasy XIV, a massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG) developed and published by Square Enix for Microsoft Windows, macOS, PlayStation 4, and PlayStation 5. It was released on December 7, 2021, over two years after Shadowbringers, the previous expansion, with its production delayed by the COVID-19 pandemic.
Like its predecessors, Naoki Yoshida served as director and producer and Masayoshi Soken composed the soundtrack. The expansion pack was released as a standalone product for current players; for new players, the "Complete Edition" that originally launched with Heavensward was updated to include all expansions including Endwalker.

In Endwalker, players as the Warrior of Light travel to the secluded nation of Sharlayan to seek help in handling the approaching Final Days, an apocalyptic event that threatens to destroy the entire world. Meanwhile, Zenos, the mad son of the former emperor of Garlemald, has murdered his father and now seeks a final confrontation with the Warrior of Light. Zenos is assisted by the nihilistic Ascian Fandaniel, who wants the Final Days to occur so everyone, himself included, is wiped out.
The story has been marketed as the "finale" of the Hydaelyn–Zodiark arc, drawing the current ongoing story since A Realm Reborn to a close, with an entirely new story beginning in the major patches following release, in contrast to past expansion's stories continuing into midway thru the post-release patches. In addition to adding new areas, the expansion pack increases the level cap to 90 and debuts two new Final Fantasy "jobs", Sage and Reaper among other changes.

Gameplay
The gameplay and quest structure of Endwalker largely matches that of the base game. As with many MMORPGs, players interact with each other in a persistent world that responds to their actions. Due to ongoing issues with numerical values, such as enemy health pools, growing large enough to threaten overflow errors, Endwalker includes a numeric down-scaling, sometimes colloquially referred to by MMO players as a "stat squish." Two new jobs were introduced as well.
The first is Sage, a healer that uses magical objects inspired by Funnels from the Gundam franchise called Nouliths to direct aetheric energy to create barriers and amplify the character's own offense abilities. The second new job, Reaper, is a scythe-wielding armored melee fighter that calls on the aid of an avatar from the void for greater power. Many other jobs have been given changes as well, including a complete rework of the Summoner job, a major update to the Monk job, and various new abilities for other jobs.

Development
Planning for expansions like Endwalker begins shortly prior to the release of the preceding expansion with a "scriptwriting retreat" involving producer and director Naoki Yoshida and the main scenario writers, Natsuko Ishikawa and Banri Oda. The story was largely finalized by October 2019. The process for developing an expansion involves laying out the progression from main game to expansion in detail and categorizing these elements so that developers would not get confused between patch content and expansion content which were being created simultaneously. Expansions for Final Fantasy XIV are designed to compete with offline RPGs in length and content. In terms of content, roughly 70% of development time is devoted to standard features common to every expansion, such as new dungeons and classes, and 30% is devoted to creating unique features and modes of gameplay. Development for the PlayStation 5 version of the game was part of the latter 30%. This version takes advantage of the console's larger internal memory to improve load times and includes higher quality graphics, DualSense controller rumble support, and improved audio. With the completion of the PlayStation 5 version, an Xbox version is now in active development.

Reception
Endwalker received "universal acclaim" for the PC and PlayStation 5 version according to review aggregator Metacritic.

Chris Carter of Destructoid praised the title for being a "joy to progress through from start to finish", lauding the lack of boring fetch quests and the quality of life improvements. GameSpot noted the game's excellent dungeon and trial designs and its earnest storytelling while criticizing the plot's pacing issues for feeling too rushed and bloated at the same time. GamesRadar+ called the expansion a "landmark achievement in narrative development" and cited it as cementing Final Fantasy XIV as "one of the best Final Fantasy games ever made."

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