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| Mike Salbato |
The horde (not the Horde) is looking to have its revenge, and we have the images to prove it.
05.19.16 - 9:20 PM
Thanks to some recent Lodestone posts, we now know that Final Fantasy XIV: Heavensward will be getting its latest content patch in early June. While we know most of what Patch 3.3: Revenge of the Horde will consist of, we haven't seen nice hi-res screens of this stuff yet, so sit back, relax, and let's see what we've got...
The end of Patch 3.2's main scenario quest was meant to be a joyous occasion, and one of relief after the long struggles and failed attempts to bring man and dragon together to discuss peace. So, of course, Nidhogg had to come and ruin it all, still inhabiting the body of Estinien. It sounds like Patch 3.3 will bring the Dragonsong War to a conclusion, so we're close to seeing how this saga ends, one way or another.
The battles against The Warring Triad will continue, though we don't yet know which of the remaining two primal forces will be next to challenge players. What we can see in today's images is that the Garlean Empire's Regula van Hydrus continues to harass our adventuring team, in the Empire's continuing mission to harness primal power for themselves.
One of Patch 3.3's new dungeons is the Hard mode of the tropical "paradise" of Hullbreaker Isle. Since the last time our adventuring pals visited, the island has been repurposed to train Maelstrom recruits, but of course, someone has to test it, and who better than the Warrior of Light? More importantly, there's a fun little surprise here in the form of a boss that will tickle your Final Fantasy VI nostalgia...
Not a hard mode, Sohr Khai is all-new. Set in the sky-based area of The Churning Mists, this outdoor palace was once the home of Ratatoskr, Hraesvelgr and Nidhogg's brood-sister.
Also important to note is that Sohr Khai is GORGEOUS and I need to visit it now now now. Ahem. Look at some screen shots:
There's plenty of new content and dungeons in Revenge of the Horde, but Yoshi-P's team has still made room for new features as well. Following up on Patch 3.2's several features to make the ever-more-complex game more palatable for newcomers (a fact I adored when I reviewed the patch) is the Recommended Gear feature.
This feature adds a button to the Character window that will automatically outfit your character with the best gear for your class. The images below illustrate a White Mage who really loves her Thavnairian gear set (and who doesn't?), but is not exactly in a good place to enter combat as such. You can preview the full set of recommended gear with a click, and update everything at once. While aimed at newer players, I can see this being useful for a lot of people to quickly update a class you might not play often, or to make playing on multiple platforms less of a headache (gear sets aren't saved server-side, so if you alternate between, say, PC and Mac clients, you can spend a lot of time keeping things updated...).
That's everything new today! With the next Live Letter happening this weekend, there's bound to be even more info coming for Patch 3.3, hopefully including even more images and a release date.
In the meantime, be sure to check out our updated Heavensward gallery for even more screen shots, and our extensive wrap-up of the previous Live Letter that covers some of Revenge of the Horde and beyond in detail.
