SPEAKER_03 0:11

Hello and welcome to the Aorsian update. My name is Violet Katrik, and I will be one of your lovely hosts. The other is Hoka!

SPEAKER_00 0:22

A definitely not voice that creature that's in reality a 7-2 Allison glamour with a taste of hot pink and ruby red. I've been switching back and forth between the two.

SPEAKER_03 0:40

And we're here to present you a behind-the-scenes podcast about Final Fantasy XIV online. And we've just had the most recent live letter, live letter 92, which is part two leading up to Wawa North American Fan Fest.

SPEAKER_00 1:02

Yes. Soon.

SPEAKER_03 1:06

Yes, uh, we've got less than a week as of recording from uh when you are going to be flying into the great city of Anaheim, California. However, you're gonna get there. Um I'm sure your wings will be very tired. Uh yes. But that's another story. Getting to have some fabulous time with uh other HJP members. Uh what are what are the highlights that you're really kind of looking forward to?

SPEAKER_00 1:39

Um many things, really. Uh but the main main one is meeting up with uh some of the HGP members, especially Heather, Tom, uh Cyrillo, and a bunch of other people that's going as well. Uh possibly running into some of the streamers that I've been watching. Um, that'd be so cool. I know, right? And um I I have not been in California in a hot minute, so I I guess you know, just being out there uh in the sun or under under the sun and all that stuff, I you know, it's gonna be good. I know, I know LA traffic, blah blah blah blah blah. But I I lived out there for a little while and I don't mind it. I take the bus, I just put my earbuds in and uh uh leave people alone.

SPEAKER_03 2:26

That's essentially what do you do? So just totally prepared to go out and vibe.

SPEAKER_00 2:31

Yeah, that's that's pretty much it, really. Uh, you know, I I needed a mental break from extra real life stuff. So this is gonna be a good time for me to do this.

SPEAKER_03 2:40

So I know you're you're part of the void. You hang out near uh near where it gets all dark and there's no light. Where I'm at, it's just uh it's a little it's a little hot. It's a little hot. So uh I'm not enjoying the it's a little hot. Uh I and so quite frankly, I find myself I'm this may be 100% me trying to this is copium. This is this is me huffing copium hard. I'm so glad I will not be going to California for it is hot there.

SPEAKER_00 3:14

Just a little bit. I don't I don't even know what the weather's gonna be like for the n for when we're gonna be there. So I'm gonna have to check that up, check that up later.

SPEAKER_03 3:21

So go check that out, make sure you plan right. Don't forget sunscreen. I hear that uh void creatures burn real fast in the sun.

SPEAKER_00 3:31

Uh I'm Asian, I can I can handle it.

SPEAKER_03 3:34

Okay, well, good for you. All right. So uh we saw the trailer uh for what is going to be the last patch cycle of 7.0 of Dawn Trail. So we've got and it's called Trail to the Heavens. I think that might be a clue. What you think?

SPEAKER_00 3:55

Um I mean Yosha P did say in uh one of the more recent interviews uh before the live letter that that that is a major clue. I'm like, would you quit teasing us like that?

SPEAKER_03 4:06

Uh I okay. All right. So um we could go into a lot of story stuff and a lot of fan theories, but that's not where we're here. We're behind-the-scenes mechanics people. So we're gonna start talking about the scheduling of things, and we're gonna start talking about the things that I want to get into, which is the quality of life update. I'm calling it now 8.0 is gonna be the quality of life expansion. We are going to see Final Fantasy XIV finally bring its quality of life standards up to modern MMO levels. What you think?

SPEAKER_00 4:43

I I 100% agree with you on that. Just some of the quality of life stuff.

SPEAKER_03 4:47

It's like, thank you. Right? Thank you. Like, you know, the the heavens opened, and now we have no more dies taking up space in our bags.

SPEAKER_00 5:00

Yeah. Um rip my guild making method, but all right.

SPEAKER_03 5:06

Well, I guess you're just gonna have to work for a living. Um, so let's go ahead and just break down the the scheduling really fast. You can uh we of course have North American Fan Fest, is going to be going on next weekend, which is um the 24th to the 25th. Uh right afterwards, four day or three days after Fan Fest closes, we have patch 7.5 drops.

SPEAKER_01 5:42

Yes.

SPEAKER_03 5:42

Now, everything that we talk about today will not be showing up all at once in patch 7.5.

SPEAKER_00 5:50

No.

SPEAKER_03 5:50

Um, it will be spread out over the patch cycle, which is going to be going from uh April 28th to the next where we're gonna get 7.51 in early June. We're gonna hit 7.55 in late July. So that'll be a pretty quick turnover between those two patches, which I am assuming means that we are going to get okay, so 7.5 is gonna be last trial, um, start of the MSQ, and we're gonna get the quality of life dump.

SPEAKER_01 6:25

Yes.

SPEAKER_03 6:26

Six is or the the sorry for for June, um we're gonna start seeing a lot of the crafting, gathering, uh, custom deliveries, that sort of thing. And then 7.55, that's probably around the time when you should start expecting things like a cult crescent, beastmaster, etc.

SPEAKER_00 6:52

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 6:54

7.56 is gonna be the last MSQ drop. So that is the coastline, that is where we are gonna be coasting directly into the next expansion. Okay, so and and I'm excited for this because they did say that unlike Dawn Trail, which by the way, we'll will kind of remind people came out at the end of June, beginning of July and 2024. We're headed into 2026. We are probably going to be seeing it a few months early in 2027 than we did um on the last expansion cycle because they said that it was coming out very quickly after Japan Fan Fest.

SPEAKER_00 7:41

Yes. Which uh, which which is I know this a little bit outside of their norm, but at the same time, it's like I think people are ready to move on from Dawn Trail and experience something something new. So this quick turnaround may be a good thing, uhster.

SPEAKER_03 8:01

I think what it means is that they've got a lot of things that they've already kind of got in the pocket, essentially. Like there's more than likely what they uh, especially when we look at with 7.0, there was the let's remind everyone, a massive, massive graphical change. And for people who are not aware of the coding side of things, that is a massive engine upgrade.

SPEAKER_00 8:24

A massive undertaking to the game.

SPEAKER_03 8:26

And it is a massive undertaking. Um, they are still looking for people uh to join their team. So if you happen to live in Japan and you happen to speak Japanese, also they just put out a request for people who are German native speakers, preferably, or at least have translation skills into German, they need localizers for German language. So it looks like the team is expanding. They've also discussed later in the live letter that um they will be moving into Spanish language translations and localization.

SPEAKER_00 9:03

Ooh.

SPEAKER_03 9:04

Which is huge.

SPEAKER_00 9:06

Yes. Very, very huge, especially with the uh the fan base around the world. Need a little bit of a lot of people.

SPEAKER_03 9:16

I know so many people who are, or I've come across so many people who are native Spanish speakers who I mean, the game is actually quite big in like South America, Central America, um, and those Spanish-speaking regions, and the fact that there's no Spanish localization, especially after Dawn Trail had so many like influences from the culture of those regions, feels a little, I mean, it kind of feels bad, man. You know what I mean? A little bit. So I'm glad that they're finally moving into that because I would like to feel like those people get to finally get brought in. I personally have a friend who lives in Chile who we've been trying to convince uh with my and my little group to to join in on the fun with the Final Fantasy XIV and having a local regionalized group and actually being able to maybe like bring them into the HJP fold would be super cool. But as of right now, they can't really play a lot of games because games still have to be at least somewhat regionalized or localized for them to be comfortable for people to spend the what is to be honest, an enormous amount of time in Best Garden in the game.

SPEAKER_00 10:37

Most definitely.

SPEAKER_03 10:39

So I understand that. Uh okay, so let's start going over the things that they talked about, like starting off. One, if you have not gotten your PvP done, you've got a week.

SPEAKER_01 10:52

Uh I got my mind.

SPEAKER_03 10:55

I got my mount. I'm still behind. I'm still behind. I'm not I've just the PvP bug did not bite me as hard this series. So I'm still fighting it out.

SPEAKER_00 11:07

For some odd reason, it bit me until I got the mount. And I'm like, all right, I'm waiting for the next one. Uh got my mount.

SPEAKER_03 11:13

That's usually how it works for me, but I I'll be honest with you, I guess I just wasn't that thrilled with the mount. The mount's okay, but it's not, it's not something that I was super thrilled with. Um, I liked the emote, and um, I liked the uh the other mid-rewards were kind of cool, but PvP, I like the new PvP map. It's weird. I really do like it.

SPEAKER_00 11:38

Oh, I do too.

SPEAKER_03 11:39

Um, but there's just been so many other things that I've wanted to do more recently that it's been hard to kind of like find the mental energy to like go do PvP. Also, it's one of those things where it feels like I wind up doing alone, and whenever an activity becomes a solo activity in Final Fantasy XIV, I drop off of it real quick.

SPEAKER_00 12:06

Oh, I gotcha.

SPEAKER_03 12:08

I like group activities, that's why I play an MMO. Alright, so PvP series 11 is going to be getting um in uh what is now essentially uh two weeks, week and a half, uh something like that. I don't know, 10 days, 10 days from recording. Um so April 28th, you better be ready for that series 11 to start because here we go. Um, we will be getting a new crystalline conflict arena, and it looks awesome. Okay, I'm gonna go directly into that one. The new crystalline conflict area is called the Archaea Harmonious, and it has heavy Google library vibes.

SPEAKER_00 12:55

It does.

SPEAKER_03 12:55

Um if you don't know what that means, uh get high thyself through uh Heavensword so you can explore one of the coolest dungeons in the entire game, and you can get through some of the coolest setup. Like the the two the two Google libraries and its entire location within the game is some of the best g pose areas ever, especially if you love that librarian aesthetic.

SPEAKER_00 13:26

Oh, yeah, a great place to G Pose. I think the lighting works really well in there too.

SPEAKER_03 13:32

Um it is, it's gorgeous. But um, it's also gonna introduce some new mechanics, which is fun. Um, currently the way that checkpoints work within most of the maps is that when you push the crystal to the next checkpoint, um you essentially have a timer that you have to fight down until the uh checkpoint releases, at which point you can continue pushing the crystal. Uh, and that checkpoint is every single time that you get to the checkpoint the first time, essentially, it hits a checkpoint timer. And that gives you a chance to kind of like reflect and and move. And if you are behind, you can um take out everybody who's on the crystal at the checkpoint, and then you can kind of you know wait for the timer to release and start pushing back the other way. The thing is, there's no requirement to stay on the point. So a lot of what happens is that people will get it to the checkpoint, checkpoint were lock, and then everybody sort of scatters for the checkpoint timer, uh trying to kill each other as hard as possible so that hopefully there are at least a couple of players left over who can grab the crystal and start pushing it where it needs to go for your team. The new mechanic is that there are both going to be standard checkpoints and timer checkpoints that have a requirement for you to um keep the the opposite team out of the checkpoint to be able to move on.

SPEAKER_00 15:17

Oh, okay.

SPEAKER_03 15:20

So you wind up with um uh you will get to the halfway point in between checkpoints, you will have a very quick countdown. It's not like the um 30-second countdown or or 15-second countdown, whatever it is that we get now for checkpoints. It's only a five-second countdown. However, at any point, if the person on the point moving the crystal leaves the point, then the timer resets. If anyone from the opposite team steps in, the timer resets. So that means that your job is to not only stay on the point, but also keep the other team off the point so that you can move the crystal forward.

SPEAKER_00 16:10

I gotcha. I gotcha.

SPEAKER_03 16:12

Yeah, if you cannot tell, I have not done crystal conflict. I love crystal and conflict, it's very quick, it's not a big a time in j uh investment. The maps are pretty fun and they have a lot of really fun gimmicks sometimes. This one is very cool because once you get through that halfway point, it uh creates the bridge to the the true checkpoint, and then it also creates a jump bridge that will allow you to fast jump to the next checkpoint.

SPEAKER_00 16:46

Oh, wow.

SPEAKER_03 16:47

So you can move around the map a lot faster. It also gives you a healing pad that allows you to come off of your your um gate if you die, hit the healing pad, which you can then use as a way to protect your open your gate to um keep out uh spawn campers.

SPEAKER_00 17:09

Oh, nice.

SPEAKER_03 17:11

So that's awesome.

SPEAKER_00 17:13

And that's why we all hate our spawn campers.

SPEAKER_03 17:15

I know, right? Like, why? Why so cheap? You can't win if you don't move the crystal. That's the whole point, anyway. Um, so that's PvP. Kristen Conflict sounds like it's gonna be a lot of fun. I can't wait to try that map.

SPEAKER_00 17:34

Oh, I see. I can't either. Uh I I know because just seeing the pictures, I'm like, that's really pretty. I've never done done that. I might have to jump into it just so I can uh go in there and see how pretty it is.

SPEAKER_03 17:50

I mean, if nothing else, it will be a beautiful zone. The the the one that the the improvement, I'll be honest with you, that I have the most excitement for the pad thing is great, but here's the best part. I don't know if you uh you've done crystalline conflict before, right? Like you have an idea of how they work. Sure. Cool, cool, cool. So you know that on most of those maps, yeah, sure. Why not? Yeah, okay. So on most of the maps, the problem I have with them is the barriers that you should have that break line of sight do not break line of sight. Nothing breaks, you're just going behind buildings to, I don't know, be behind a building. It makes no sense. I hate it so much. Whereas in this one, they finally fixed their line of sight code problem, and now all of the bookshelves will break line of sight.

SPEAKER_00 18:45

That's awesome.

SPEAKER_03 18:46

Finally, actually do ninja tactics. I am excited. I want to do it. Um I'm I one of the things I like about uh doing frontlines is that they have included so many things that will break those line of sight mechanics, and so it means that you actually get the chance to kind of dive behind barriers and you know actually sneak up on people and you know create tactics around that, and not having that in crystalline conflict really felt like a missed opportunity. So I'm excited to see that in action.

SPEAKER_00 19:23

And like that's also a part of the quality of life that that they've been working on and whatnot, too.

SPEAKER_03 19:29

So it's like if they could apply that line of sight breaking to the other maps, crystalline conflict would be pretty much the only PvP I'd do. It would be the best. Um okay, so we are gonna get the MSQ drop, we are gonna get a dungeon, and we are gonna get the last uh trial that is going to have an extreme version in this next patch. And um the the problem I see personally with trying with the next dungeon is I know it's gonna be in Garlamold, but I'm pretty sure at least a good portion of the fan base gonna have a hard time finding it.

SPEAKER_01 20:09

Hmm.

SPEAKER_03 20:10

Do you do you think that um you might have problems, hookah, finding the the the Clideum? The the Clidium? I mean you're gonna find gonna have gonna have a few problems finding that dungeon, or are you gonna be okay?

SPEAKER_00 20:28

I think I'm gonna be fine.

SPEAKER_03 20:30

I mean I haven't made it. I'm sure they'll provide a map.

SPEAKER_00 20:34

I haven't had any complaints, but I I don't think I'm gonna have any problems with it.

SPEAKER_03 20:40

So I'm sure they'll provide maps. It'll be okay.

SPEAKER_00 20:44

I'm sure someone will have a website to point directions where it is and how to get there and everything.

SPEAKER_03 20:52

This new fighting, like there's a website out there that somebody put together literally for mechanics, called Where the F Do I Stand?

SPEAKER_00 21:03

Oh my goodness. I have to look at it up.

SPEAKER_03 21:06

We're gonna have to have that for this dungeon. It's gonna be great. So, anyway, so we've got that, and then we have the extreme. Uh, the extreme is gonna be the last one that has wings, which means that after you get all your wings, guess what happens?

SPEAKER_00 21:23

Really? You get an ultimate wing?

SPEAKER_03 21:26

You get ultimate wings. Uh normally the the the ultimate mount actually changes over to something else. They decided to go with biblically accurate angel wings this time.

SPEAKER_00 21:38

No, see, no eyeballs. The way I looked at it is like those are the same wings that uh Anjoman has in Digimon. That's what it looked like to me.

SPEAKER_03 21:50

So uh that's totally a reference I get.

SPEAKER_00 21:55

Sure.

SPEAKER_03 21:55

Uh give me give me just one second. I'm totally not googling this.

SPEAKER_00 22:02

So if you're a Digimon fan and of the original Digimon series, there is a Digimon uh called Anjamon. Uh A-N-G-E-M-O-N. And so his wings remind me of the wings that they showed on this live letter.

SPEAKER_03 22:19

Thank you very much for my not uh for for that that uh that total information that I didn't need because I wasn't Googling it at all.

SPEAKER_00 22:27

Not at all.

SPEAKER_03 22:28

Um but yeah, no, I totally understand what you're talking about. Uh-huh.

SPEAKER_00 22:32

Yep. Exactly, right? That's what it looks like to me.

SPEAKER_03 22:35

Exactly. It is, it is, actually. I'll give you that. I will I will totally hand that one over to you. That was the correct yep.

SPEAKER_00 22:44

But what I wanted to say is what I wanted to say is that I don't want to give uh Screen Enix any more ideas, but I think for the biggest prank in the world is after you collect all your wings, is that the ultimate uh wings that you get is a can of Red Bull. Oh God. That is your mount, and your mount is the can of Red Bull.

SPEAKER_03 23:09

We're already getting the Omega Fist, which let me tell you, when I saw the rewards that we're getting for some of these things uh and the name of the dungeon, I'm like, you know, suddenly the fact that Final Fantasy XIV's age rating went up in Japan makes perfect sense. Like I get it now. Yeah. Um we're we're moving ever closer to this being an adult game. It's not really, but anyway, uh some of us just have truly dirty minds.

SPEAKER_00 23:44

This is not a dating sim game? I I thought this was a dating sim game.

SPEAKER_03 23:48

Oh, they've talked about turning it into have you heard that? Okay, so this was right before 8.0. They started the they they had the thing where the content creators were coming in and asking questions.

SPEAKER_01 23:58

Uh-huh.

SPEAKER_03 23:58

Uh, this was also about the time that we had the uh the Dragon Age um Veil Guard uh controversy that happened. And of course, as we all know, Bioware exists to make action games so that guys can have a dating sim and not feel embarrassed. That's what it is.

SPEAKER_00 24:19

Well, I mean I mean I mean, if you can rent a girlfriend, I'm pretty sure, you know, stuff like that.

SPEAKER_03 24:28

Okay, look, look. We all know, we all look, we all know that's why bioware existed. And so now that Bioware has unfortunately passed away, thanks uh gaming industry and its terrible decisions. Um we now have this like terrible gap here. And so someone actually asked, like, would you consider, as you know, like two-thirds of the fan base already considers Grahatia their boyfriend, um, can we actually date him in game? Like we Imeric already tried, he already shot his, he he he was uh shooting his shot in heaven's word, like you know, oops, sorry, spoiler. I have to cut that one. Um, but no, like there've been moments, and he in uh Yosh P's response was uh we've thought about it. We might consider it further. It depends on how many people really, really want it. And I'm just sitting here like, start it now. Fan petitions, people need to be walking around with clipboards at fan fest, make graha tia, my boyfriend.

SPEAKER_00 25:42

You do realize there is a content uh Final Fantasy 14 content creator uh has two not one two videos about a dating uh Final Fantasy XIV dating sim. Oh my god, she she made it she made it as uh made it for herself, uh, a dating sim on the mobile phone. That was her first video, right? Second video was her VR version of it. And so she's got not one, but two videos of this out there. So, yes, people are interested on a dating sim. Okay, let me so full disclosure by the way. Let me date Hilda.

SPEAKER_03 26:27

Let me seriously, full disclosure. I do not want Graha Tia as my boyfriend. I want to take date Merle Vib. I'm sorry, but the admiral is my admiral forever and for always. Anyway, um, let's move on from this.

SPEAKER_00 26:44

I think we're too far deep in so we both like our women with guns. Gotcha.

SPEAKER_03 26:50

Well, hey, I mean, you've met my wife. Anyway, uh so apparently the description getting back to the point of the new stuff. I will warn people who maybe perhaps have uh had the complaint that Dawn Trail fights are a little hard. Uh it is going to be a challenge, apparently, to get through these last couple of fights. Um, so just take a deep breath. Realize that there's no real punishment for trying it as many times as you need to. Um, you will get it, just don't get frustrated. It's just a game. We're here to learn to be I. And uh we'll get through these things together.

SPEAKER_00 27:42

Wait, wait, hold on. People still think it's hard. I mean, I mean I mean I mean, I okay, were they were some of the dungeons and whatnot challenging? Yes. Uh there were I noticed at a certain point when uh a few of the HJP members were going through it and getting caught up with MSQ, which congratulations, Heather, Tom, and Cyrilla finally getting caught up with MSQ before Fan Fest. But uh yeah, some of the dungeons mechanics were difficult at first, and then once you understand it, then yeah, it it got a little easier, but it's like at the same time, though, it it makes those mechanics not like you can run through it and whatnot and you know forget about it and stuff like that. You still had to think about what was going to happen and stuff.

SPEAKER_03 28:35

Okay, but let's also think about the way that USP is talking, is he's talking about people who are going to be doing this, like um what is essentially minimum eye level because this is true first day, no great uh like gear upgrades for it. It's it's maybe not minimum eye level, but it's pretty close to. Um, by the time a lot of people in our group wind up getting to a lot of these fights, they are they have the opportunity, or a lot of other people in the community get to these fights, they will have had the opportunity to upgrade their gear, have better raid food, have other, you know, potions or whatever that they can use. There are tools that you can use to mitigate a lot of the punishment that you will have. But yes, apparently, because this is going to be a less gimmicky fight for for both the dungeon and the the trial, it means that it's going to be a much more straightforward, you're gonna learn the mechanic, and then you're gonna anticipate the mechanic. So if you like a gimmick list fight, this one may be more fun for you. Um, but know that it will also go a little faster, which means that I'm going to be on my frustration game, but that's okay. We work through it.

SPEAKER_00 30:01

Yes.

SPEAKER_03 30:03

I I can't.

SPEAKER_00 30:05

I don't go fast. I don't go fast. I know you don't. I know you don't. Uh, but for me, though, it's like I I love a good challenge. What do you think I keep on playing this game for?

SPEAKER_03 30:15

Oh, I understand. No, no, no, no. I get it, and it's not as though I won't enjoy myself, you know, flat on my face for half the fight. It's fine. I will enjoy my time in these fights, uh, just as I'm sure everybody else will. It's just one of those things where whenever I see this is going to be very fast-paced, but there's no gimmick to figure out. Personally, I like the gimmicks because the gimmicks force the developers to actually slow the fight down a little bit. So it means that that people have time to figure out the gimmick. I need the gimmick as kind of a crutch. Whereas um those people uh like you know, our raid teams, and you are, of course, on one of the raid teams, so this makes perfect sense. You for you to be able to be like, no, it'll be a challenge because it's just a little bit faster. It's fine. Snap sap, let's go. Whereas, like, you know, me and my arthritic hands are just like, give me a minute. Uh a little time. Tapping out, coach. Uh put someone else in. Right? It's like, no, honey, you gotta play your own character. Oh no. My one, my one weakness. Uh, so anyway, so that's just to be aware of for that. This one's an interesting one. I don't know how many people are even going to do this unreal because trying to get people to do this fight synced is like a near impossibility. Shinryu's domain is the next Unreal. If you know, you know.

SPEAKER_00 31:58

Yes.

SPEAKER_03 31:59

If you know, if you know, you know.

SPEAKER_00 32:02

You know.

SPEAKER_03 32:04

Of course, all of the Raiders in our group who uh went through this intensive training program. Apparently, they started with Shinryu's domain. It is a very difficult fight on Extreme, and it's now been tuned to level 100 and uh is being put out as an unreal. So uh this fight that's been around since uh Stormblood. I wish much luck and love to all of those who who attempt it. I don't know if one of those people will be me. We'll see.

SPEAKER_00 32:38

Uh I don't know if that's gonna be me either, but we'll definitely see.

SPEAKER_02 32:44

Not one of your favorites.

SPEAKER_00 32:45

Um I see. I I've done the extreme unsynced. No, wait. Did I do it sync or unc I don't remember? I think I did it, uh I did I think I did it synced and did clear it. Um but it was it but it you know it was still a learning process to learn into whatnot, even though I was being I was essentially being carried through that time, but uh eventually I I did learn to fight and everything, but not with HJP, it was uh with my uh old FC um whatnot.

SPEAKER_03 33:24

So okay. One of the very first fights that I came in and I subbed on when I joined HJP was Shinryu's domain.

SPEAKER_00 33:32

Oh, nice.

SPEAKER_03 33:33

Um, so I I subbed as a healer. At the time, I had not had as much experience as a healer, like I had done mostly dungeons and the occasional trial, um, and maybe like a few 24-man raids, but I was not as familiar with, I was certainly not a healer main. At this point, I have basically been put through the trenches of of the the healing main territory that I have been at least told by my wife that I'm at least as good a healer as she is, which is the ultimate praise. That's awesome. So yeah, uh I I would say that I'm much better now than I was at that point. Um but yeah, so that that was that was a very memorable fight. Um the of course we're then going to be getting an ultimate. We are getting an ultimate. We are getting an ultimate. We are.

SPEAKER_01 34:27

Yes.

SPEAKER_03 34:28

We don't know anything about it because it's secret. It's totally secret. I mean, there's no hints or anything at the end of the trailer about the ultimate that people might care about. Don't go look, I'm sure you won't find anything, but it's totally secret. There's no information anywhere ever. The internet's been scrubbed.

SPEAKER_00 34:47

I mean, literally all they showed was just a black screen that said secret and white letters.

SPEAKER_03 34:52

So I know it's just big question marks. Like, no. I wonder where the question marks are from. Hmm.

SPEAKER_00 35:00

Hmm. Because they put, let's see, one, two, three, four, five, six, they put uh seven, eight question marks on there.

SPEAKER_03 35:09

Something like that. I love how the Japanese version has more question marks than the English. I know, of course.

SPEAKER_01 35:17

It's like question mark.

SPEAKER_03 35:19

Question mark, mark, mark, mark, mark, mark, mark, mark, mark. Uh the thing I love though about it is that when Yoshi P was asked, like, so I've been told by the development team that the thing that I should explain to people is that uh if the I could describe the fight in one word, it would be pain. So those among us who enjoy pain, guess what's gonna happen? You got your most fervent wish.

SPEAKER_00 35:51

You know, just uh just definitely step on me at this point.

SPEAKER_03 35:54

So just just step on me, it's fine. Yeah, I am not an ultimate raider, just pointing that out for no reason whatsoever. Um okay. So uh now that we've gotten like that, and we knew that that was coming. That's they've held back a lot of like detailed information for fanfest, and I kind of get why. I'm starting to kind of get the vibes of they don't want to talk too much or even hint too much about what's coming for the next expansion because I'm pr I'm I'm starting to get this feeling. Maybe it's just my my void bunny feral feelings just getting all in my head. But I'm thinking that they've been holding back one particular because we all know that Final Fantasy XIV is essentially the crossover town of all of the Final Fantasies. It's where all of it's like the it's it's where all of the crossroads are, all of the hubs, all the all the everything just sort of eventually flows into Final Fantasy XIV. Not a lot escapes containment, but every now and then we get a little bit. Uh so I'm thinking they're gonna drop what is first, okay. Before I before I say anything else, I'm gonna ask you a question. What is the most famous Final Fantasy game?

SPEAKER_00 37:25

Okay, um one. Well, let me let me answer this in two parts. One, my answer would be Final Fantasy VI. Now, if you're talking about uh what is the most known Final Fantasy, that would be Final Fantasy.

SPEAKER_03 37:44

So, how about this? Where would which Final Fantasy is the Final Fantasy that every dude that we went to high school with had a crush on the main character?

SPEAKER_00 37:57

Oh, that'd be wait, every dude?

SPEAKER_03 38:00

Oh yeah, oh yeah. Every dude wanted to be this guy.

SPEAKER_00 38:03

Oh, so that'd be Final Fantasy VII, hands down.

SPEAKER_03 38:06

That would be cloud. That would be cloud for Final Fantasy VII. I literally have never played this game, but I know who the main character is. Like, that's how famous that game is. Like, I've literally never really touched it, never really even watched people play anything prior to like Final Fantasy XIV at all. And I know who that guy is.

SPEAKER_00 38:35

Uh yes, Cloud. Cloud, Tifa, Ith, Barrett, Sid, and a bunch of uh Yuffy, Vincent.

SPEAKER_03 38:44

And and in fact, I didn't even know there was any other girl in that game other than Tifa. That's it. Like it was Cloud and Tifa. And uh all I know about Cloud and Tifa is that it was every single dude I knew at least was like, there is no one else in this game but Cloud and Tifa. I don't know what you're talking about. Don't present me with lies. Uh well, how dare you claim that there is anyone in this game other than Cloud and Tifa?

SPEAKER_00 39:23

There was well, besides the characters that you could you could play, there was also uh Elena and Jesse. I think. Well, I mean, of course, Aries mom. But there were other females in there.

SPEAKER_03 39:41

There's it's a full rich RPG. I am aware that there are many, many, many, many characters. I'm just saying that from my perspective as a person who did not play this game, there were two characters in it, and it was Cloud Tiva.

SPEAKER_00 39:58

So essentially, I the direction where we think that Square Enus is gonna go is yes, I think we are going to see the uh the seventh uh reflection.

SPEAKER_03 40:15

I think so too. I think so too.

SPEAKER_00 40:18

I think it's coming. And I'm hoping I'm hoping, just like in Kingdom Heart, that we'll be facing a particular bad guy with a very long sword.

SPEAKER_03 40:28

So we'll see. Well, uh uh if you ascribe to the the fan fest um uh event items that you can buy on the the online store are hints, there's some pretty big ones out there.

SPEAKER_00 40:43

Pretty big ones.

SPEAKER_03 40:44

Pretty big ones. So, all right, so let's go over some of the other like quality life minor upgrade stuff. We are getting some time in the 7.5 uh patch cycle. I they didn't specify when. Um there are some there's some ideas on when it will be. I don't know. Uh, but Occult Crescent North Horn is coming out. Apparently, it's a whole new, completely new area, lots of updates to it. Um they've they they're trying to promise us essentially that they have course corrected entirely with the exploratory zone, hopefully fixed a lot of the problems that a lot of people had with Southern Horn Increased the jum drop rate. I you know what, at any point that you ask this particular dev team to to to give you more rewards, you do know that that is just going to end in disappointment.

SPEAKER_00 41:52

Oh, I know, I know, I know.

SPEAKER_03 41:57

Don't even like kid yourself. You know that.

SPEAKER_00 42:00

And I'm just gonna live through, you know, gonna live uh, you know, um fear of finding out uh I don't know, FOMO, uh with uh just seeing you guys with the weapons, and I'm just saying going, I'm still picking up candy right now. I'm trying to find candy.

SPEAKER_03 42:16

Yeah, I feel I still feel so bad. I I try to help people out when I have a chance to do so in between all the other content because just that one step has stymied so many people. And when I think back on exactly how obsessive I had to become to unlock just that one step, it is crazy talk. Yeah, that one thing, I I'll be honest with you, I'm still so frustrated that that even exists, even though I am personally, and yes, I'm bragging a little bit. Uh I'm I'm fully up to the third step with all of my care uh all of my my jobs.

SPEAKER_00 42:57

So that's awesome.

SPEAKER_03 42:58

Yeah. Um, but honestly, if it weren't for the the help and support of HJP, I would still be in the exact same space, like hunting for candy pieces.

SPEAKER_00 43:11

Yeah, um I'm still there hunting, trying to find it.

SPEAKER_03 43:17

We did get in this I I know it's it's a long, ridiculous process. I'm so sorry.

SPEAKER_00 43:24

I mean, I'm I'm still semi-trying, semi secure because it's like uh I could spend my time you know actually, you know, collecting materials for the new HTT house that we want to build and stuff like that. But is that it's like it's like I rather rather do that than trying to find a piece of candy with a very extremely low drop rate. It's like yeah, I gotta spend my time rising somewhere.

SPEAKER_03 43:51

So that's fair. But for those people who have caught up, the last step does look amazing, and there Is a lot of encouragement. In fact, I think what we might want to do as this patch cycle starts waning and people start wanting to pick up and and catch up on a lot of the stuff that's going on before. Because there's going to be downtime. There's actually going to be quite a bit more downtime, even with all the new content that's coming out, because some people maybe not be even interested in some of the content that's coming out. Slowly raises hand. I don't know. People have different things. But uh one of the our most popular events that we've had is um our fate train events. And the fate train events are very helpful in being able to cycle through and pick up pieces for that first step of the um once you break through that, though I will promise you that while it is expensive, and at this point it's less expensive, to get through the next steps and the next tiers that you have to get through of dealing with the uh um uh getting the tr the the relics, they are far less of a pain in the butt than the ARR relics or than the Heavens Word relics. So once you break through that one part, it's it is it there's less overall that you have to do.

SPEAKER_00 45:24

So I mean I I'll probably get it done in in like five years or whatnot. So it's fine. I'll get there eventually.

SPEAKER_03 45:30

It's one of those things where the content's gonna always be there. So it's something that you can take up whenever you have time.

SPEAKER_00 45:38

Yeah. I mean, you know, like I like I said, in five years I'll I'll be done.

SPEAKER_03 45:42

Right. Uh I'm just gonna hit upon some of the other things before we get to the the big one. What we are gonna get a new route for ocean fishing, which is gonna be Thavnair. Yes. Um, I'm excited for that. I actually really enjoy ocean fishing, and I I have actually enjoyed a lot of the the route expansion of um the uh ocean fishing. We'll see how it will actually come out. I I don't know if it's actually gonna be on the initial patch exp uh release. It may be on 5-1, because if I remember correctly, that's about when we'll we'll see Crafting and Gathering released. So uh we will also get the last cosmic exploration zone is in this patch cycle is gonna be coming out, and that's uh uh oxesia, I think that's how it's pronounced.

SPEAKER_01 46:39

Something like that.

SPEAKER_03 46:40

Um but it's it's a whole new area, and it's gonna be it looks beautiful, honestly. It looks gorgeous for people who've been enjoying cosmic exploration. It's a you know, you finally got your your last zone to explore. There are gonna be some updates there. They don't have a lot of details for that one, so I again am fairly sure certain that that one's going to come on a 5. or 7.5x expansion uh or patch uh period. Um, we've also got a ton of quality of life stuff. There is apparently going to be an entire overhaul of the gold saucer.

SPEAKER_01 47:22

Whoa.

SPEAKER_03 47:24

Well, we don't have any details on it, but I would like to refer people back to what I was saying previously about Final Fantasy VII.

SPEAKER_00 47:34

Yes.

SPEAKER_03 47:35

And there being a location in Final Fantasy VII, not to spoil it for anyone, that happens to bear a very similar name to a location, the Gold Saucer, in Final Fantasy XIV, and how perhaps those two things might have relationship or correlation to one another. But we won't know until Fan Fest. So we will find out more details in 10 days from recording. All right, so we've got also a housing update. Yay, for all of those people who have houses and enjoy housing. You will get to put more stuff in your house. Um, come to find out my wife, without telling me completely underneath my nose, bought a house right next to the Kraken's call of FC.

SPEAKER_00 48:28

Nice.

SPEAKER_03 48:29

Um, so so I know how fast travel to y'all's ward. Yay! Yay. Um there's also going to be a new setting under the system configuration menu for housing that's going to adjust the number of characters that are displayed within the housing. So they're kind of working towards a new thing. There is like a corollary, there's no fixture designs, there's increased placement limits, there's they're slowly making the adjustments, and the reason why they're having to do them slowly is because while on the back end, I get the impression they've figured it out. On the front end, the problem with housing is always going to be if you have a really powerful system, like either a PS5 or a very nice computer, then or even like some of the more powerful Xboxes, you're going to be able to go into a house and you don't see a whole lot of lag and you don't see a whole lot of like overwhelm of your graphics system. However, if you're still on PlayStation 4 or you're running a system that is maybe using a graphics card that is a few years old, you go into a housing ward and everything slows down to a crawl.

SPEAKER_00 49:51

That is true.

SPEAKER_03 49:53

Because it is a huge amount of graphics rendering that is happening in there. And then you go into a house and that graphics rendering just becomes like tenfold. So um we're gonna see huge advances in housing, but a lot of things are gonna kind of be trickling out about it to make sure that they're not overwhelming people's systems.

SPEAKER_00 50:19

Especially especially with housing people that uh that hold weekly parties at oh yeah, um the venues, things like that, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 50:31

So are gonna start to see the biggest changes because a lot of venues will want to have the new spaces to be able to put more items and be able to increase their design aesthetic or whatever, but um keep in mind it may also impact the number of people that people can see in your venue. So if you care more about the aesthetics of the place, you may be cutting back on the number of people who can be seen. So if you do frequent events and venues, you may start to see character limits being imposed.

SPEAKER_00 51:08

Ah, okay.

SPEAKER_03 51:10

Yeah. Um, so just something to keep in mind. Uh the the other thing they're they're kind of contemplating adding in is being able to limit design to one floor or two floors, or being able to basically customize how many items you can see at a time.

SPEAKER_00 51:36

So I mean that's huge. I mean, that's especially for like an old system.

SPEAKER_03 51:41

Yeah, it's huge. Um, so I we'll see how housing evolves. I think that the uh halo that's that's an aspect of the Halo effect of the fact that World of Warcraft the first time in 20 years now has actual game house in-game housing. Guild Wars 2 expanded its in-game housing. Um, in-game housing and MMOs, and actually having MMOs as a almost like uh digital or virtual life extension is becoming a big deal recently, especially since MMOs are not a genre of video game that we're seeing a lot of new games in. So the innovation is happening in older games, and they're just becoming more and more updated with more features.

SPEAKER_01 52:30

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 52:31

Um, so I think we're gonna start seeing a lot of changes to Final Fantasy XIV. And again, I'm I'm calling it now 8.0 quality of life. It's we're gonna see so many big things. Um, so one of the big ones that's for me, and for well, at the very least, for people who are glam hounds, but maybe aren't crazy like me, and spend all of their money on extra retainers, um dyes take up a lot of space, and having to have enough of them so that you can color all of your clothing the way that you want can be a real pain in the inventory space.

SPEAKER_00 53:14

Yes.

SPEAKER_03 53:15

So the dye um upgrade quality of life is that after the patch goes live, you can now take all of the dyes that you've been holding on hand and you can take them to the Calamity Salvager in the main city of your choice, at which point you can press button and they will convert all of the dyes in your inventory into um one of I think four different types of dye that will then have multiple colors attached to them. Hopefully making it so that it takes up far, far, far less space in your inventory.

SPEAKER_00 53:58

Yeah, yeah. Oh sorry, sorry. Um it's it's not like I'm excited about this. I think it's a great idea. I I I think it's a wonderful idea, uh, especially with um a lot of dyes I do use that's not Ruby Red or Hot Pink at the current time, but like there are some other dice that I use out there that I just want to just use and apply and whatnot. But there goes my kill me again.

SPEAKER_03 54:23

Well, not entirely, because keep in mind, if I remember correctly, Ruby Red is still an Ishgardian restoration um uh die, correct?

SPEAKER_00 54:33

Yes.

SPEAKER_03 54:34

Okay, well, it's just being collapsed into one die that has multiple colors. So you can still acquire the die and sell it on the marketboard. Okay, it's just that now that it being a single color, it will be five colors. So it's not as though you're losing an item that you can make money off of on the market board, it's just that now that one item will not only work as a ruby red, it will also work as a um gun metal.

SPEAKER_00 55:04

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 55:05

So, yay, actually. Yeah, um, that's that's that's not bad. That's actually a good thing. Because it means that we'll actually probably see more dyes move because rather than having to buy it in a single color, you can actually buy one and it now be anything that the person needs from that particular genre of colors. So uh you still have your money making, you just the format has changed a little bit.

SPEAKER_00 55:32

Yeah, I just gotta figure it out.

SPEAKER_03 55:35

You'll find out, no big deal. All right, so the the one that is I'm like just like banging my hands on the fists on the table. Yes! Oh my god, I'm so happy. Okay, so here we go. And that this is a big change from what they were talking about a few weeks ago. I am losing my mind over this. They said it was going to be everything from 7.0 that was going to be turned in. No, no, no, no, no, they went back and they're giving us even more. It's now from 3.0, which by the way is heaven's word. Heaven's word on. If it is a gear set from a dungeon, you can now put it in your arm war.

SPEAKER_00 56:21

Oh, that was huge when when they announced that when they said 3.0. I was like, excuse me. I thought it was just I thought it was just 7.0, and they said 3.0. And it's like, wow.

SPEAKER_03 56:36

I know the fact that they actually with like that's one of the things I love about this development team. It's like they knew we were gonna want stuff from before that because she swayed the violet tides. Um, because all of these other dungeons that that have such incredible glam sets, um, I have specifically helped people go do optional dungeons just to get the gear sets.

SPEAKER_01 57:08

Yes, right.

SPEAKER_03 57:10

And the amount of space that that takes up in your glam chest. So now glam chests are going to be more like that space where you just sort of create your glam um plates. And yes, yes, they have heard your wants and wishes for more glam plates, but that's that is apparently a much more memory-heavy activity. So they're they're like trying to process that, but you know what, honestly, giving me more space in my glam chest, please, please, queer inyx, enable me more, enable my glam hunting so much more, please.

SPEAKER_00 57:50

I mean, it's not like I'm so excited. It's not like they have they've done that already, but give me more.

SPEAKER_03 57:58

Give me more. Anyway, all right, so once we've got that, uh those are those are at least a few of the quality of life things that they were talking about. I the the the other things that are I'm gonna try and roll through these fairly quick. Okay, so we've got improvement sightseeing log. We're now actually going to know what emotes we're supposed to do at each location that we get to. We're gonna have a little symbol for it. Um, if it has a specific time or weather condition, we will actually get a log message now that will tell us, hey, you haven't met the conditions for this. So we can at least either go look it up or know that this is something that requires a specific time or whatever, which is huge to me because I've tried doing my my sightseeing log, and it is a pain in the butt to have to sit there and go through and do all these different locations and then find out however long afterwards that um you weren't there at the right time under the right weather conditions.

SPEAKER_00 59:03

Well, didn't we go didn't we didn't we uh finally discover one where we couldn't just do a lookout and we were like, what what's the what's the emote that we needed to do?

SPEAKER_03 59:13

Right, and it wasn't even it wasn't prey, it was like we went through the list of all the normal ones and it was one completely out of left field that we had to do. Yeah, so we're finally gonna get that. We're gonna get outfit glamours are now like like I said, from 3.0 onwards, they're gonna be eligible to store as an outfit glamour specifically. So all of those sets from all of those great dungeons with all those great like outfits, you get to store them all together. And by the way, all together includes the jewelry.

SPEAKER_00 59:49

Oh, really?

SPEAKER_03 59:51

So that is a total of 10 pieces of gear that will count as one space in your glam chest, or it can all be saved in your arm wire.

SPEAKER_00 1:00:06

Nice. Nice.

SPEAKER_03 1:00:09

Um, so and also now one of the limitations of the outfit was that you had to either remove all of the outfit pieces, or uh, and they just gave us the ability to put one piece in at a time. Um, now you'll be able to actually have a checklist of all of the pieces in your outfit get uh set and be able to pull them out individually piece at a time.

SPEAKER_00 1:00:35

That's awesome.

SPEAKER_03 1:00:36

Yeah. The other thing is they're finally updating the crafting system so that it doesn't essentially cut you off from the rest of the game while you're doing it. So one of the things I hate about being in crafting and gathering mode is that if somebody wants to join this party, you have to stop everything you're doing, get out of the crafting menu, join the party, and then go right back into it. Yeah, we're now going to be able to uh get into a party. You can move items in your inventory, which I don't even know why that wasn't a thing you can do. That drove me nuts. Um, you can also operate link shells, you can uh consume food or potions. Do you know how many times I have been in the middle of crafting something and my food ran out, and I had to literally either fight through the synthesis with no food just so that I could close out of everything to be able to take my stupid potion and eat my food and then have to open it all right back up and go right back into it. Well, now you're not gonna have to do that anymore. They fixed it. Yeah, I um you can also change your class andor job while you're in the crafting movement menu.

SPEAKER_00 1:02:00

So I can switch from one crafting job to another because without having to close your crafting menu.

SPEAKER_03 1:02:07

Yes!

SPEAKER_00 1:02:08

Oh my that's my crafting I love you, and I love I have I think two of your jobs at a hundred right now.

SPEAKER_03 1:02:19

I have all of them at a hundred, thank you very much.

SPEAKER_00 1:02:23

Well, my frustration was that if I'm working on trying to craft one item, but I have to go switch a job just to craft a prerequisite. Another item, yeah. It's like to close everything out, switch jobs, open up the window, go find the item that I was working on, and then work on it again. It's like, yeah, this is taking way too much time.

SPEAKER_03 1:02:45

They've it sounds like they finally are fixing a lot of that, which is huge. Um I know, right? Finally. Uh and now we have uh let's see, then we've got um we're getting a few more color schemes for for our uh our UI. Um I've actually been very skeptical of do you really need to worry about this or anything? But looking at the two that that came out, okay, pink is not for me. I cannot I cannot handle that much pink all in one place.

SPEAKER_00 1:03:22

Yeah, that's too much pink for me.

SPEAKER_03 1:03:24

Yeah, the clear gray actually looks nice. And and I had been starting to get a little tired of dealing with the I use the the night mode because I have weak eyesight. Um, I need to have everything dark. It's the goth in me. So uh having the clear gray though is a nice uh compromise because you can actually see the contrast a little bit better. So I am actually excited to see that. But now we have the update that makes this the perfect game, and you will never convince me otherwise. So excited about this. Okay, so here we go. The Chocobo companion will now respond to emotes. Specifically, we're starting off with pet and poke. So now we have our chocobo companion who we can huggles and snuggles.

SPEAKER_00 1:04:23

About time.

SPEAKER_03 1:04:25

I know, right? I'm so excited about it.

SPEAKER_00 1:04:27

Our companion's been with me for since level what 20 or something like that, and and we could not hug it or anything. The the closest thing we've gotten to it is when you actually train it and then you get to see it in the animation, but we could not do it in-game, out in the open, or anything of that nature.

SPEAKER_03 1:04:48

But so now you get to pet your chicken. Again, I totally understand why the age rating had to come up a little bit, but anyway. Um apparently also the the animations that you do for the different emotes will be dependent upon your chocobo's rank. So now you'll be able to see a difference as your chocobo grows stronger and its companionship with you. I love RP stuff like this. I'm so excited.

SPEAKER_00 1:05:25

Oh, it's gonna I can't wait. I think probably the first thing I'm gonna do is when when that ability comes out, it's like, all right, here go here we go, chocobo. Let me finally pet you out in the open.

SPEAKER_03 1:05:38

So so you've now fully decided that you're gonna you're gonna start petting your chocobo in public? I mean, I I mean We talked about this.

SPEAKER_00 1:05:49

Look, I already have two big fat chocobos in as a mount anyway, you know. One's yellow, one's black.

SPEAKER_02 1:05:59

What can you say? So now you have your choice. Yes.

SPEAKER_00 1:06:15

Anyways.

SPEAKER_03 1:06:17

Okay. All right. Enough of that. Let's get into the big meat of the matter. Let's talk about Beastmaster.

SPEAKER_00 1:06:25

Because Beastmaster is the That's a segue.

SPEAKER_02 1:06:31

To Beastmaster. Thank you. I was very proud of that.

SPEAKER_03 1:06:41

Okay, so I I will I will fully admit that when they started getting into a lot of the mechanical stuff, my eyes glazed over, my brain started going smooth. A lot of it rolled off the back of whatever brainstem I might have left. And so, as far as I know about Beastmaster at this point, is that whoever designed the the job symbol for it, it's terrible. I hate you. Um I don't hate you, but I don't like it. I don't. I'm I'm so mad about it, actually. I'm pretty salty. It's it took me an unreasonable amount of time to realize it was supposed to be a shield and an axe. Like, why would you make the shield like that, buddy? Why would you make the axe like that, my guy? Like, why would you do that to me? I'm very salty about this.

SPEAKER_00 1:07:41

Oh, and the the funny thing is though, like, I know people were talking about it, and but I'm like, where's the symbol? Like, did I glaze over this somewhere? Because I've been looking for it ever since, and I'm like, I have not been able to find it whatsoever.

SPEAKER_02 1:07:59

Are you so serious right now?

SPEAKER_00 1:08:04

Uh no. No, that's true, though.

SPEAKER_02 1:08:08

Just joking. No, of course I saw it.

SPEAKER_00 1:08:11

I did see it. I did see it.

SPEAKER_02 1:08:13

Oh my god.

SPEAKER_00 1:08:14

I I I can see your complaint about it, but at the same time, I'm I'm looking at it, I'm like, okay, that's cool.

SPEAKER_03 1:08:21

I know it's one of those things where if you're not an artist or a graphic designer or somebody, you're just like, whatever, squiggles on a red background. I don't care. Um, as long as it's distinct from the other squiggles on the back the background, I don't I don't really give it, I don't understand what the problem is. I get it. I do. However, I don't live in that world. I live in mine where I can see how bad it is. It's very frustrating to me, and I do not like it. But I will live with it, it's fine, whatever. I don't make those decisions.

SPEAKER_00 1:09:00

No, it it um that top top icon is um when I first saw it, I was like, okay. Um, sure, you know what? You know, we'll go with that.

SPEAKER_03 1:09:14

Sure, fine, whatever. Let's go. It's fine, it's all fine here. Now, anyway, um, okay, so uh the quick summary of Beastmaster, if you're not aware, uh, is that it is a new limited job, sort of like Blue Mage. Um, it is a uh unlike Blue Mage, which is ranged, it is going to be a melee limited job. Um currently it is sitting in the melee DPS spot. We don't know where exactly in that melee DPS it's going to be. It may either share gear sets with maiming or with striking. So we'll find out which one of those it's gonna be. Um, it is an axe and shield wielder, which is of course why this symbol looks like that, because it's supposed to be an axe and a shield. Anyway. Um starting level, of course, is going to be level one. And much like Blue Mage, upon its release, its level cap is 50. Um, for its level cap uh of 50, that is how many beasts you get to f to to go into the wild and find. So basically, if you really like going having friends, you now have a job where you get to go out into the wild and find new friends. Yay friends!

SPEAKER_00 1:10:44

Yay, furry friends.

SPEAKER_03 1:10:48

Um, probably I'll be perfectly honest with you. Here are the things that I heard about Beastmaster that actually stuck in my smooth brain. One, I get 50 pets. Yay. I get pets that follow me around in major cities, and I can choose what size my pets are. Holy crap, that sounds awesome. Um, you can either be in a party to get new pets, or you can be an individual. They are uh supposedly all designed that so long as you are going after an animal that you are on level with, that you can solo gather or or collect every single animal. You do not have to be in a party, but parties are fine, you can do it in a party too.

SPEAKER_00 1:11:37

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 1:11:39

Um, other things that kind of clicked into my my very smooth brain is that it is somehow elemental-based. Um there are abilities that the animal can do, and then there are abilities that the beastmaster can do, and they will all come together, and I'm sure a very clever and complicated way. Um you find the animal in the wild, you weaken the animal, you collect your usual collection ability on the animal if it's collectible, and then you have to get it to zero hit points, at which point it gets shuffled off from its mortal coil, and instead goes into your little magic box where you can now keep them alive forever. Um, at least that's the story I'm gonna tell myself.

SPEAKER_00 1:12:38

And hopefully, and hopefully not get uh sued by a certain other game company uh 12 because of mechanics and stuffs, even though they rhyme with why Tendo. Why even though Beastmaster is older than what you said Pokemon, Tendo, if I'm really thinking about it anyway.

SPEAKER_03 1:13:03

So, yeah, that's that's what I heard about that. We also have 24 man that's gonna be coming out. That is uh our our end cap. Um, if you want to go into more details about Beastmaster, and if you want to autistically download or you want to just like give us all the deets however you want to about that, you go right ahead. I have nothing more to add about Beastmaster.

SPEAKER_00 1:13:28

Um, I'll probably have more in our next podcast after Fan Fest because I I am really excited for this. Um this is so this is what I wanted uh my World of Warcraft Hunter to be able to do was as a beastmaster to be able to uh have a full party of my beast to go to roam around the world.

SPEAKER_03 1:13:56

That's kind of cool.

SPEAKER_00 1:13:57

I right uh I think this is something I really wanted in my World of Warcraft Hunter. Uh, but now I get it in get it in Final Fantasy XIV. Yes. Thank you for fulfilling my dream uh 15 years in a make.

SPEAKER_03 1:14:16

Right, right. I'm so glad all of your hopes and dreams for for being able to have like uh a catalog of pets that you can carry with you everywhere. I'm so proud. I'm I'm so happy for you. Um personally and don't worry.

SPEAKER_00 1:14:33

Sorry, but don't worry. I'm gonna I'm gonna make all my pet size small anyways because I un you know, unlike most people, I do not want to restrict vision from anyone else. So not me.

SPEAKER_03 1:14:47

All my pet sizes are gonna be huge. You will see nothing but behemoth butt for the rest of your lives you come near me. Just be understood, just understand. That's how it's gonna work. Me and my giant behemoth saying no looking at things for you forever. Forever. No, actually, um I probably won't do that, but uh, because it'll annoy me. But um, no, I to be fair, there's a lot of innovation going on with what they're doing with Beastmaster. I will I'll also admit that I didn't really understand a whole lot of it because I'm more of a hands-on person. Yeah, I'm gonna want to need to like get into it and kind of like dig around in the guts and see how it works when we get it. Um, but it is not going to be 7.5 when it drops. It will be 7.5x. They have not announced when we're going to get it, but I am fairly certain that there will probably be at least 50% of an entire panel talking about how they design this job because it looks like they have put huge amounts of work into it.

SPEAKER_00 1:16:02

Oh, yeah. I I think that's probably gonna be the one panel that I'm gonna probably pay attention to and and whatnot. So we'll see. Uh we'll we'll we'll definitely see.

SPEAKER_03 1:16:13

Uh, a few other things of note before we we sign off. Uh, there is going to be an Allied Society capstone quest. Uh, again, I'm not entirely certain when it's going to come out, but it's gonna be some point in the pack cycle. I would expect it some somewhere around 7.51 on to 7.56. It won't be in 7.5, most likely. Uh, we are going to get inconceivably further. Hildebrand Adventures, we will finally get the end cap to this hilariousness. And according to Yoshi P, he has one thing to say about it. It's going to be stupid, as always.

SPEAKER_00 1:16:56

So look forward to that. Which I am so happy that we're getting a certain amount out of it or be able to get.

SPEAKER_03 1:17:06

We'll find out. We'll find out what exact rewards we're going to be getting out of it. I will say that if we get the the motorcycle I think we're going to get, if I don't have the emote I want with it, you will find me in a corner crying. I will pout so heavily there will be a rain of fall of my salty tears that I don't get to do the cool thing with the cool thing. Do you understand me?

SPEAKER_00 1:17:35

I do understand you.

SPEAKER_03 1:17:38

You're right there with me, are you? We're also going to get at least one more custom delivery. So if for some reason you're like, hey, you know what I really am missing in life? More custom deliveries. Well, your answers, your prayers will be answered in the next uh patch cycle. So I think that pretty much covers everything that they talked about in this live letter. I didn't really go into the 24 man because as excited and interested as I am for it, I also didn't want to terrify or spook any of the black mages in our audience because um a certain Lalafell shows up.

SPEAKER_00 1:18:23

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 1:18:24

And she's apparently telef terrifying from get. So she is. Yeah. Um, she even does the little terrifying laugh.

SPEAKER_00 1:18:37

I can hear her. Yeah, I I can hear it and see it at the same time. And so she's also a main staple in the Final Fantasy Dissidia games, and so she's always there, and like she always does that the little laugh and everything. It's like, oh, and now we get to play uh a fight against her in 14. It's like, oh boy, here we go.

SPEAKER_03 1:19:01

All of her mechanics look really cool. Um, a lot of the mechanics that were shown off with the new raids and and everything uh look amazing.

SPEAKER_00 1:19:11

Yes.

SPEAKER_03 1:19:12

Uh if you are a lore hound, I'm not going into details, obviously, but I would suggest pay very close attention to this last um 24 man uh and uh checking all the little lore items around because apparently there's some big stuff there. There's also in the last dungeon, um if you can find it, there will be so much lore. So I suggest you get your your Clitium finding skills together.

SPEAKER_00 1:19:44

All right.

SPEAKER_03 1:19:44

We're gonna get so much use out of that, I swear. Um I I'm just giving my personal opinion. There was a lot of gear that was shown off. If you are an 11 fan, the gear that is coming out out of this uh next patch is going to thrill and excite you. If you are not an 11 fan, such as myself, um, it's okay.

SPEAKER_00 1:20:12

I think it's fine. I never I wanted to play 11, never had the opportunity to play 11. So I'm taking you know, I'm I'm soaking all this experience in that they um release and whatnot. And really enjoy I I've enjoyed it. It's I still I I still enjoyed the Shadowbringer um raid series and walker raid series. If I can remember over the top of my head which one that is at the point. But I'm enjoying it. I'm in enjoying it. I'm I'm just hoping in the the next expansion that we find some some uh what's the word I'm looking for? Um reg originality uh with it and not something that's focused on a previous Final Fantasy or whatnot.

SPEAKER_03 1:21:07

But um, you're playing the wrong game, bud. We need to shut down the podcast, turn off lights, because that's your attitude. Why are you here? I know, I know, but this is the walk-on and cameo game. You know that that's what it is, right? I mean, speaking of cameo, I mean, we have the jelly bee uh collaboration too, so fried chicken, not only not just fried chicken, but apparently Filipino fried chicken. Yes. I am so jealous of all of you out there that has one nearby because I I I come from the land of the fried chicken. I have no less than 10 different fried chicken places within a stone's throw for the front of my door in here in the void, but I cannot I apparently get to enjoy the the the jollibe because uh it ain't coming here. Apparently we have too much fried chicken. They're like new no new no new. We're going to go to the kitchen like that. We can't handle that much competition. Um all right, so so uh I will be uh I will just be sitting over here seeing all the pictures of people going and getting their fried chicken. Well, the other option is that you can go to there's a custom or the there's a site, I think it's called Custom X or something like that, that where they're selling merchandise, which is uh the collaboration t-shirts and things like that. I they haven't released them yet because they're not gonna be showing up on the site until after, I think what the 21st?

SPEAKER_00 1:22:58

The 21st, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 1:23:00

Yeah, so it's gonna be Tuesday that we'll finally get to go and check it, uh, which is a little bit late for the recording of this podcast, but I'm going to throw a number out. It may not be absolutely correct, but I'm assuming based on other collaborations they have on the site, it's gonna be somewhere around $55 for a t-shirt. And I don't know about the rest of y'all, but that is a lot of dosh to throw upon the internet for a t-shirt.

SPEAKER_00 1:23:29

Yeah. Just a little bit.

SPEAKER_03 1:23:31

Uh tiny bit. I like I want the emote, but I don't know how bad I want the emote. To be fair, there are some people who live in that that tax bracket where they can buy one of the Matt Meister statues, you know, the $350 to $400 statues to get the emote.

SPEAKER_00 1:23:52

Right.

SPEAKER_03 1:23:53

I'm like, that I like I have almost all of the emotes in the game. I am obsessive about collecting those things, and that is too much for me. I would be lying if I didn't say I had considered it.

SPEAKER_00 1:24:11

That's true. I mean, yeah. I mean, I mean I mean, I I I thought the same thing. Like, I want to collect everything so I can collect everything.

SPEAKER_03 1:24:25

Give it to me. All right.

SPEAKER_00 1:24:27

Um, one last thing. One last thing. Yeah, go ahead. Speaking of collecting things, if you are a Twitch user uh and whatnot, they are releasing three sets uh yeah, three sets of uh icons that you can earn while watching the official Final Fantasy Twitch account. Uh so they be uh splitting uh in twos. So you get one set for NA, one set for EU, and then one set for Japan.

SPEAKER_03 1:25:01

Ooh, nice. So yeah, I I occasionally use the Twitch, so I I will be going and finding and hunting up my uh my Twitch uh streamers and seeing if I can get some drops for that. So that sounds good.

SPEAKER_00 1:25:16

Yep. So just letting you know.

SPEAKER_03 1:25:18

Um Yep, I'm I'm very excited. I hope that everybody who gets to go to to fan fest has an uh absolutely fabulous time uh in the HJP community. We will be enjoying, I'm sure, lots and lots of uh pictures and videos and possibly even some streams and stuff of people who are enjoying their time hanging out with cool people at the fan fest. I will be watching from my the the comfort of my home with my air conditioning system right next to my ear.

SPEAKER_00 1:25:57

I I planning on being on Discord and try to stream as much as I can in one of the channels, so stay tuned for that. Or if you want to see my uh face for radio um and whatnot, then you can you know make sure you check out heatherjustplay.org to find the Discord link and all that good stuff that we are going oh that's going on with HJP. So okay.

SPEAKER_03 1:26:24

Well, I think that's pretty much everything for this live letter. It was a little bit, it was more gameplay opera, uh, you know, showing off stuff there. There was a lot of heavy Beastmaster explanation. I would suggest going to we're gonna go ahead and and add uh the translator uh that we used, which was Iluna Minori. Um they are uh an illustrator from Japan who uh actually provides through the uh Final Fantasy uh 14 Discord channel. The uh translations, they are not paid, they are not affiliated with Square Enix. The translations that they provide are purely out of the the goodness and their uh of their heart and the love that they have for the community. We will make sure that they are credited entirely, them and uh Miyuna in our uh description box as well. Um I suggest if you want to get in on the fun of seeing all the things teased and and and and uh known about the next patches as they come up, you can subscribe to uh their translations feed on Final Fantasy uh Discord. I've we'll have uh links to that in the description as well. Um if you are not a person who enjoys like live letter breakdowns and things like that, why are you here? Um glad you're here, but why are you here? Like just uh go home.

SPEAKER_00 1:28:04

Uh just come back after the 28th, you know, and you'll be fine. Right.

SPEAKER_03 1:28:10

We'll be discussing something else, I'm pretty sure, by then. But anyway, uh I really enjoyed it. I'm looking forward to a lot of the changes. I think it's gonna be great. Uh, thanks everyone for joining us, and I hope that those who are going to FanFest have an amazing, wonderful time at FanFest, and those of us who aren't get to be comfortable in our homes waving through the internet at all those people who are there.

SPEAKER_00 1:28:35

All right, thank you for listening, and may all your etherite travel be free.