Final Fantasy 14 Shadowbringers News: 2019 Release Date, Blue Mage, Viera playable race? (Pic: SQUARE-ENIX)

Final Fantasy XIV fans headed on a pilgrimage to Las Vegas or huddled around twitch streams to watch the opening keynote of the Las Vegas Fan Fest.

All awaiting the likely news that SquareEnix would announce the latest expansion to the hit MMORPG.

Those fans were not disappointed. Director and Producer of FFXIV Naoki Yoshida announced Shadowbringers, releasing early Summer 2019.

The keynote opened with a teaser trailer that went into a little detail about what was coming next and even hid a couple of secrets that have got players talking.

Shadowbringers and patch 5.0 will bring with it lots of exciting new content and weve got the information right here.

But first, let's have a look at the new trailer first:

Continuation of the main story

Since the beginning of the game, players have been holding back the empire of Garlemald and in the last expansion Stormblood, even began pushing them back and liberating oppressed lands.

Now its time to take the fight to them as players band together to take the Garlean empire down once and for all.

While little is known about what direction the story is taking.

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Multiple new jobs – including Blue Mage

Like other Final Fantasy games, FFXIV has a job system where you pick what kind of role you want to adventure as.

Shadowbringers will bring with it multiple new jobs.

In the trailer one character was using a Gunblade; a weapon that currently isnt usable by players and likely suggests that it will be usable be a new job.

While Naoki Yoshida suggested that they would leave out the details until the next Fan Fest events in France and Japan next year, someone went over his head.

Not one to not join in the fun, President and CEO of Square Enix Yosuke Matsuda joined the stage dressed in a Blue cape and mask sending fans into a frenzy as he announced the new Job of Blue Mage.

This will be a new “Limited Job” which will be explained in more detail in the coming days.

The biggest curveball was that the job would release prior to the expansion in patch 4.5

(Pic: Square-Enix)

New playable race

The official announcement only expressed that there would be a new playable race within the game.

But Eagle-eyed fans noticed that Yoshida was wearing a T-shirt with Bugs Bunny on it; a likely hint that the new race will be the Viera.

This race is known from the Final Fantasy games based in Ivalice (a place weve crossed-over to in FFXIV already) and the most recognisable character would be Fran from Final Fantasy FFXII

Lots of new content

New locations will be discoverable as players explore vast new lands on the way to overthrow the Garlean Empire.

Two locations were announced with; The Raktika Greatwood and Amh Araeng.

The first a swampy wooded area and the second seems to be more of a desert with an abandoned settlement.

Other additions include…

Battle System Maintenance

This will change up some of the Job and role actions, making room for some sweet new moves! They are also looking to change resource management in the game and having magic and physical moves all pull from the same resource pool.

New 8-man and 24-man raids

A major part of the expansion but what players will be doing has yet to be announced.

New game + mode

Players will be able to go back and experience the whole story all over again with their current character and with all the actions and gear they have already acquired.

A new “Trust” system

This will allow players to complete quests with NPC characters that they have met along their adventure.

There will be more details released as we get closer to the reveal date and the majority of that will come out with the Fan Fests in Paris (2nd-3rd February 2019) and Japan (23rd-24th March 2019) but for now theres plenty to speculate and digest.

Stay tuned for more…

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