Shadowbringers confirmed!

The opening keynote opens up with a trailer for Final Fantasy XIV’s newest expansion. 5.0 is officially called: Shadowbringers! Release date: Early Summer 2019.



Here are some trailer stills if you’re unable to view the trailer above. This particular trailer feels very different from previous ones…



No Fan Festival would be complete without Naoki Yoshida wearing a t-shirt that may or may not be teasing to something… (more focus on the shirt later on in the keynote.)



They start off by showing the NA/EU region box art.



What awaits the liberator…?

Tension grips the land as six nations now stand allied against the imperial armies of Garlemald. With the threat of war on the horizon, the Warrior of Light comes face-to-face with an old enemy seemingly risen from the ashes—Zenos. Could this impending conflict serve as a catalyst for an eighth and final Umbral era?!

Players will finally be taking down the Garlean Empire!

The three key plot points for the expansion.

With the fall of the Scions, what will become of the Warrior of Light and the allied armies? (What happens to them is “up to you.”) The First Emperor: Solus Zos Galvus, and Elidibus: An Ascian with the face of Zenos. The struggle against the Ascians will come to a head in 5.0, along with finding out what Hydaelyn and Zodiark are. The Warrior of Light MUST become the Warrior of Darkness! Patch 4.5 will start to explain why he must become the Warrior of Darkness, with some more details possibly coming during tomorrow’s Letter from the Producer Live.

Version 5.0 Features

Multiple new jobs. The jobs cannot be revealed tonight (and will assuredly be revealed at the future Fan Festivals), but Yoshi-P hinted that the trailer showed a glimpse of one of the jobs.

New level cap: 80!

Battle System Maintenance. Job actions and Role actions will be re-assessed and changed. The TP gauge is going away while the MP gauge will remain and be used by all jobs. They’ll also add a visual representation of how much damage prevention a healing barrier has left.

They introduced a few pieces of concept art for two of the areas: The Rak’tika Greatwood, and Amh Araeng

New beast tribe announced! The “Nu Mou” from the Ivalice-based Final Fantasy games.



9 new dungeons for 5.0’s launch. Leveling dungeons and max level dungeons.

New high-end raids. “A very Final Fantasy feel” to them, but no specific information.

New 24-man raids.

End-game content for Disciples of the Hand and Land. The Restoration of the Holy See of Ishgard! Possibly Ishgardian Housing coming as well, as it was strongly hinted based off of players constantly wishing to be able to live there… Fishers will be included in this end-game content, and there will be something like user-controlled farms. (Farmer is NOT one of the new jobs).

The Trust system, similar to the one from Final Fantasy XI (but not exactly like it). No specific NPCs announced, but the slide showed Alphinaud, Alisaie, Thancred, Y’shtola, and Urianger. The NPCs will help players through 5.0 dungeons who choose to do them solo (similar to Squadrons for previous content), and are not meant to replace the existing party matching system… meant just for solo players. More NPCs will be added over time.

New Game+ mode! Will allow players to replay through the Main Scenario Quests at the current strength of your character. You cannot select a specific point to start from, you’re forced to start from the beginning of 2.0. You can also re-do the Job/Class quests if you wish as well.

World Visiting! Similar to cross-world Linkshells, players will be able to physically travel to other worlds in-game! Teleport to one from the main Aetherytes in the three city-states (Limsa Lominsa, Gridania, Ul’dah.) You can also do Main Scenario Quests while questing, and players are strongly urged to teleport to other worlds if they’re having issues completing quests on their home world. (Balmung was teased about having issues in the past.) They plan to release it before 5.0 to test out any issues.

Official end of support for 32-bit versions of Windows. The game will not stop working for 32-bit systems if you play in 5.0, but you may start experiencing memory crashes or other oddities. Upgrade your systems, people!

World regrouping! Two new data centers being added, one for North America and one for Europe. Many new players have joined since the game’s release, and they specifically ask viewers “Remember the release of Stormblood?” After which, Yoshida kneels down performing a “Dogeza” and apologized once again to players who had to go through “Raubahn’s Wall.” Free transfers will be available with a world regroup, more details to be announced in tomorrow’s Live Letter.

New race! Yoshi-P and Koji specifically focused on his t-shirt for a few minutes after they announced that there would be a NEW RACE (which is possibly the final new race they’ll be adding to the game…)



(Bugs Bunny! Viera confirmed? We’ll find out at Paris probably…) Patch 4.5 will hint towards the race, probably similar to how Au Ra was hinted towards during the ending of A Realm Reborn. “Return to Ivalice” and “Peter Rabbit” mentioned as well.

Collector’s Edition art.



They start saying goodbye for a moment, when Koji asks if Yoshi-P has anything else to reveal. “Do you have ONE more thing?” Suddenly, a familiar voice starts to speak! Square Enix President & CEO Yosuke Matsuda walks out, dressed as a certain job that favors blue… He overrides Yoshi-P and releases video showing a preview of the Blue Mage!

Blue Mage confirmed



Afterwards, Yoshi-P reluctantly starts talking about the Blue Mage.

Available with Patch 4.5!

It will be a “limited job” (not expanded upon. Also referred to as “the first” limited job. Maybe some more limited jobs in the future?)

Not connected with any class. (Similar to Samurai, Machinist, etc.)

Monster actions are “learned”. References to FF5 are made for possible actions. Video showed the Blue Mage being hit by the enemy’s attack, and then learning the ability they were hit with after the enemy is defeated. Morbol, Cactuar, and Shiva confirmed so far (Bad Breath, 1000 needles, and Shiva’s ice bow attack). No specifics on how many actions, but will likely be “a lot.”

There will be a Blue Mage specific duty released, called “The Masked Carnival.”

Level cap will be 50, for Patch 4.5, and it will increase with each patch during 5.x.

More information will be coming with the Letter from the Producer Live during tomorrow’s stream.

And that’s the end of the keynote for the 2018 Las Vegas Fan Festival!



There were a few in-game renders released from the Square Enix press site. One shows what appears to be the next Artifact Gear (AF) for Dark Knight, and a picture of a white goblin, which was featured in the expansion teaser trailer at the top.

