Final Fantasy 14 patch 2.4, Rise of a New Sun, is now live after a 24-hour maintenance. (And yes, there might be a one-day extension of game time as a result.)
The next part of the post-Stormblood main scenario quest brings us back to Othard, where we meet Asahi sas Brutus of the Garlean Imperial Army. Brutus’ introduction coincides with the arrival of the Four Lords, beings whose existence allegedly threatens the world itself. The first players will encounter is Byakko at the Jade Stoa. Other new quests include dungeons, side stories, and raids, as well as the Fashion Report at the Golden Saucer and new Ananta beast tribe quests.
There are a number of quality of life improvements. For example, the Duty Recorder is a new gameplay feature that lets you document your duties in order to view them at a later date. You can adjust viewing speed and chapter selection as well as switch between character point-of-views in order to enhance your battle strategies or grab the perfect screenshot.
Most controversially, however, you will no longer be able to skip cutscenes in Main Scenario Roulette, (Castrum Meridianum and The Praetorium). The amount of Allagan Tomestones of Poetics is now greater, but if you’ve already seen these cutscenes a million times, good luck. This change was ostensibly implemented so that new players aren’t punished for viewing cutscenes by being left behind by their party.
Auto-demolition of estates has now resumed. Wards 13 to 18 have been added to all residential districts, each of which includes a subdivision. An apartment building has also been added to each ward and a second apartment building is available in each subdivision. A new housing guide explains some of the changes and additions to the housing market: for example, housing purchases for individuals is suspended, and players may only own one private and one Free Company estate per World, per service account.
PvP has also received a lot of attention, including a team PvP feature, special visual effects for certain enfeebling effects in PvP, new PvP actions and adjustments to existing ones and the addition of the new Crystal Tower Training Grounds map.
You can now stack up to 999 items per slot, a boon for crafters and gatherers, as well as store up to 70 items in your Chocobo’s saddlebags. A new glamour prism item will be used to cast glamours of all types instead of class-specific catalysts, which can be exchanged for glamour prisms by visiting Calamity salvagers, Tataroga in Mor Dhona or Goberin in western Thanalan. Elemental resistance properties have been removed from equipment and resistances have been removed from characters as well.
Finally, glamour dresses and glamour plates have been added. Subaquatic voyages have also been added to the company workshop. There’s lots of new gear–both Allagan Tomestones of Mendacity gear as well as crafted gear–and new emotes, minions and hairstyles.
You can check out the complete patch notes here for all the finicky details on specific items, actions and attributes. What are your thoughts? What’s your favorite and least favorite parts of this massive update? Feel free to let us know in the comments section below.
