GamerEscape

The Final Fantasy XIV Fan Festival Tokyo has finally arrived! The keynote presentation has just wrapped up, revealing the Heavensward Collectors Edition details, a new main theme, details on the new race, the new high-end raid focus, and, not one, but two new jobs! Read on for all the specifics!

NOTE: Images are being thrown in sporadically to get this information out to you as quickly as possible, but expect more to be added and the formatting polished as we go.

New Race: The Au Ra
It has now been officially confirmed that Yugiri (who will be removing her mask in Patch 2.5) is in fact a member of the 6th playable race—the Au Ra from the continent of Othard. This race has some reptilian qualities, but are still quite similar to the Hyur and Elezen. A pair of large, curved horns grow from the sides of their heads, and visible patches of scaled skin can be seen on certain parts of their bodies, including their long tails.

Yoshida stated that each race has its own dominion of style; Lalafell are cute, Roegadyn are burly, Miqo’te are sexy, Elezen are cool and dignified, and the Hyur are generic. The Au Ra will have a wide range of style from “cool” to “tough,” but overall the males sport muscular builds while the females are elegant and mysterious. There will be a variety of different horn styles to choose from, but specific details on clan differences and style options will be revealed in time. To show the new race in action, the job previews all sported Au Ra representatives.

New High-End Raid: Alexander
Alexander is an enormous, long-abandoned mechanical fortress into which the Goblins have summoned a primal essence. Instead of fighting him directly, Alexander must be defeated from within. Similar to the Coils of Bahamut, Alexander will be a challenging, high-end raid at the endgame level. Unlike the Coil, however, it will come in two modes—”Normal,” which is rather like the echo-buffed Coils, and “Hard,” which is much more challenging. The development team hopes that this will make the content accessible to a wide variety of play-styles, and wants to assure players that completion of the Final Coil is not required to begin this new content. Specifics on loot distribution, lockouts, and differences between the modes have yet to be revealed.

New Job: Astrologian
Though the team has talked about the need for a new healer for some time, the announcement of Astrologian was completely unexpected. This new job harnesses the power of the stars to cast potent healing magicks while drawing energies for supporting magicks from constellation-based divining cards. These cards swirl around the star globe, the Astrologian’s main arm, and can be used in different combinations for different effects. Like the other jobs in Heavensward, no base class will be involved.

New Job: Machinist
The gunner has been revealed, and you’ll quickly realize that this is no Musketeer. The Machinist is a physical, ranged DPS (the second in the game after Bard) that deals damage with a large firearm that is slung across the back when in a passive stance. But playing machinist will not be like playing any job before it, as the job’s efficiency will be partly determined by the successful deployment of mechanical turrets onto the battlefield to take down your enemies from multiple angles. This is a whole new dimension for this type of role, and the team hopes you find it refreshing.

A New Main Theme
With a new era comes the need for a new musical centerpiece. Answers will be retired as the overall theme of XIV (though it still represents 1.0 and A Realm Reborn), and, for this new saga, there will be a brand new composition by the father of Final Fantasy music: Nobuo Uematsu. Immediately after the announcement, current sound director Masayoshi Soken expressed his excitement over Twitter.

Heavensward and the Collector’s Edition
Final Fantasy XIV’s first expansion will have quite an extravagant Collector’s Edition, coming in a large box (featuring art by Yoshitaka Amano) that doubles as a display for one of the contents within, a figurine of a mount that is very important to the game’s storyline—a flying dragon. The name of this dragon cannot yet be revealed, but you may be introduced to it soon. Also included in the box will be an art book, as well as a video disc, though the contents have not been revealed. In addition to these physical items, owners of the Collectors Edition will receive in-game items, as well. These include a flying griffin mount and two items inspired by Final Fantasy IV—a Dark Knight headpiece inspired by Cecil’s baron helm, as well as a Wind-up Kain minion. Yoshida warned that the price of the new Collector’s Edition will be a bit high, but that a digital-only version will of course be available.