FF XIV Heavensward Expansion Launches on June 23, Coming to Mac

Heavensward, the first major expansion for MMORPG Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn, will launch on June 23, director and producer Naoki Yoshida announced today during a panel at PAX East.

Additionally, Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn and Heavensward will be released for Mac the same day it launches on PC, PlayStation 3, and PlayStation 4.

Benchmark software for the expansion will be available next month.

Pre-orders for the expansion will open on March 16 and grant buyers five days early access to the new content. Square Enix is offering three different editions of Heavensward. Players can buy a standard edition with only the expansion, or a collector’s edition featuring a handful of goodies: a mini dragon figurine, an artbook, a DVD showcasing trailers, and a handful of in-game goodies including the exclusive griffin mount, a dragoon minion and a helmet designed to look like Cecil’s from Final Fantasy IV.

Heavensward will take players to Ishgard, an area in the world of Eorzea that has been much discussed but never before visited. The Dragonsong War has been brewing for a thousand years between the dragons of neighboring Trevania and Ishgard’s own Dragoon--a spear-wielding class of high-jumping warriors familiar to Final Fantasy fans. Players will be thrust into the middle of this conflict and will spend more of the time exploring these new massive areas.

And these areas are massive, much larger than previously introduced areas in A Realm Reborn. Everything has been scaled up, giving players more room to explore. Fans may also recognize the addition a location similar to the Floating Continent from Final Fantasy VI, set among a new area of airborne floating islands.

In addition to raising the level cap from 50 to 60 and adding new high-level gear for all jobs, Heavensward will introfduce flying mounts, including black Chocobos, dragons, griffins, and single-rider airships. The expansion will also introduce a new race, the Au Ra, a tall, stern people with tan or blue skin, horns growing from the side of their heads and patches of scales dotting their skin.

Heavensward will also bring three new job classes to the table: the tank class dark knight, healing class astrologian, and gun-wielding ranged attacker the machinist. Longtime franchise players will recognize the dark knight class, a heavily armored class that gives players access to giant swords and dark magic. The astrologian uses the power of the stars to heal and shield their party. According to the team, players have been asking for a job with guns for a long time; they ‘re getting in the machinist, which requires big guns to take down enemies from the back of party lines. The machinist can also drop mechanical turrets to support party members and debuff enemies.

Final Fantasy XIV’s creators have worked hard to make sure new players feel welcomed and not overwhelmed by more difficult content. In response to lower-level players who are more interested in completing story-focused missions than they are gleaning bragging rights and new gear, a new high-level raid dungeon has been added with two modes: story mode and hard mode. The colossal mechanical summon Alexander--half-fortress, half-robotic beast--will be added with Heavensward. Players will enter the colossus and fight the primal Alexander in this new multilevel raid. Along with the raid, Final Fantasy XIV will also be refreshing its loot system. More details on how will come soon.

Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn launched in August 2013.