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Final Fantasy XIV 5.4: Release, Trailer, Story, Raid Content, And Changes Revealed

FFXIV 5.4 Futures Rewritten has a slew of new content for the MMORPG and pushes several stories forward, and it launches in a few weeks.

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Final Fantasy XIV keeps on rolling with patch 5.4 launching on December 8 this year. The update for Square Enix's MMORPG comes with a ton of new content and gameplay changes, and a heavy-hitting trailer teases where its several story branches are going (you can watch below). The new content reveal came via the normally scheduled Live Letter From The Producer stream, which was presented in Japanese by director/producer Naoki Yoshida and community manager Toshio Murouchi.

Keep in mind that spoilers for FFXIV: Shadowbringers and the recent 5.3 storyline are part of the reveal trailer and new main story details.

The trailer opens with voice lines from the new main villain Fandaniel and a shot of what looks like an upcoming boss-type Primal. It's followed by a shot of all the members of the main cast--the Scions of the Seventh Dawn--brought together with Lyse back in the mix, stating that most of the Garlean Empire's capital has been destroyed. Shots from new cutscenes in the Sorrow of Werlyt sidequest are shown alongside Emerald Weapon--the new Trial boss fight within the questline--and lines from Nero talking to Cid about his expertise with technology exceeding that of the ancient Allagans.

There is also a tease of the latest instanced dungeon that comes with the main story quest, as you can see members of the Scions such as G'raha Tia, Alisaie, and Y'shtola fighting alongside each other against a boss. The older Master Matoya makes another appearance, too, which will play into that new dungeon called Matoya's Relict. More content for the Bozjan Southern Front was shown in the trailer as well.

What's more is that the main story seems to have mysterious towers, with beaming red energy, propped up across Eorzea--these appear in La Noscea and Gyr Abania, two separate regions of the map. Merlwyb seems to get directly involved and even fights alongside you at some point, and there's an appearance from yet another villainous Ascian though for reasons yet to be revealed. G'raha Tia looks to be a centerpiece given his involvement in the new dungeon and main quest cutscenes. Lastly, we also catch glimpses of new raid bosses in the Eden series, which will conclude the raid's storyline between Ryne and Gaia.

Emerald Weapon boss fight preview, screenshot via the r/FFXIV Discord server.
Emerald Weapon boss fight preview, screenshot via the r/FFXIV Discord server.

In the FFXIV 5.4 update stream, Yoshida-san played a bit of one fight in the new four-part Eden's Promise raid chapter. This fight takes you back to the Cloud of Darkness from A Realm Reborn's alliance raid and plays the battle theme from Final Fantasy VIII. The fourth boss in this raid is designed by Tetsuya Nomura (Kingdom Hearts and several Final Fantasies), and is a completely original creation. Players will need to have completed the previous Eden raids and the 5.3 main story in order access these new raids.

A new Unreal Trial was shown on stream as well--this time it's against Titan from The Navel instance. And we got a preview of the actual Emerald Weapon fight and saw some of its attacks--it's said to be a two phase fight, both of which will be vastly different from each other (similar to the Ruby Weapon fight).

Many changes were revealed for the Monk job, which seems to be a significant overhaul that tweaks its core mechanics (see screenshot below). Several other updates come with patch 5.4--Triple Triad gets refined with some rule changes and improved card management, completed dungeons will now have an Explorer mode free of enemies, and treasure hunting updates are in The Shifting Oubilette of Lyhe Ghiah.

Preview of changes coming to the Monk job.
Preview of changes coming to the Monk job.

While 5.4 brings a plethora of changes and pushes multiple storylines forward, subsequent updates were also detailed. Ishgard Restoration changes and its final chapter are coming in patch 5.41, and another set of updates, including a large-scale dungeon called Delubrum Reginae, are set for the Bozjan Southern Front in the subsequent 5.45 update.

FFXIV patch 5.4 is set to launch on December 8--you can get all the details of the update on the official Square Enix page or through the Live Letter stream. This will also mark the end of the Yo-kai Watch event, so you can still collect themed gear until then. The FFXIV Announcement Showcase was revealed and will take place on February 5, 2021 at 5:30 PM PT / 8:30 PM ET.

If you need to catch up on the game, be sure to read my breakdown of FFXIV 5.3 and why it was an emotionally satisfying conclusion to the Shadowbringers expansion. If you're thinking about getting into the game, you can use my FFXIV beginner's guide to get started on the right foot, which should come in handy, since the entirety of FFXIV: A Realm Reborn and the Heavensward expansion are playable for free.

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