Final Fantasy XIV: Stormblood Gets Tons of New Info; PC Requirements and Key Characters Revealed

Today Final Fantasy XIV Director and Producer Naoki Yoshida and Community Manager Toshio Murouchi revealed a lot of new information on the upcoming expansion Stormblood during the latest episode of the Letter from the Producer Live broadcast.

First of all, we get to see a new piece of lovely artwork showcasing a scene from the new city of Kugane.

Secondly, the key characters in the story of the expansion have been introduced. There's certainly plenty of waifu material here. Especially Gentiana... ahem, Yotsuyu looks charming. In the gallery below you can see a description of each, and I added the original direct feed artwork for your perusal. Incidentally, Raubhan and Pipin will also play a role.

Interestingly, it was also specified that Gosetsu is a roegadyn, since some had doubts about that. He's more similar to the hellsguard tribe, even if roegadyn from the far east are different.

The new housing area of Shirogane will be available for visiting since the launch of Stormblood, even if lots won't be purchasable immediately. The option to move from your current house will appear as soon as you initiate the purchase of the new land. Moving will let you transfer personal rooms, company chest, company workshop, and the status of the airship voyage.

When plots in the Shirogane area will be made available, new Asian-style furnishing and houses will also be implemented. Below you can see a few examples.

Many adjustments have been made to the lighting for Stormblood, and there will be new weather conditions. New areas are pretty much the same size of those in Heavensward, and in a similar number. While it won't be accessible in 4.0, an area that conveys the feeling of Thavnair will be made available in 4.05.

The new areas will include 45 new vistas for the Sightseeing Log, included some set in Kugane.

Two new hairstyles will be implemented with the expansion, and developers might consider a top knot for the future if players want it.

The new raid won't be ready for 4.0's release, The normal version will be launched two weeks later, and the savage version two weeks after that. It'll follow the usual tiered system. Below you can see some of the new equipment, which looks really spiffy.

The expansion will introduce new tomestones (the name is still a secret), with pretty much the same weekly restriction as older ones. All limitations will be removed from level 60 raids.

Talking about gatherers and crafters, no new major systems will be added, but there will be adjustments based on feedbck. Blue scrips will be discontinued and red scripts won't have a weekly restriction anymore. New yellow scripts will be added, also without a weekly restriction.

A new trait that increases GP recovery will be added through a class quest. Underwater gathering will be implemented, including spearfishing for fishers.

Yoshida-san then showcased two new mounts, the Falcon airship and the tiger. All current flying mounts will be able to swim underwater, while ground mounts will be gradually implemented at a later time.

Ground mounts will get three levels of speed. The lowest is the one we already have. The second will be activated by clearing each area's main story quest, and the third will have an additional requirement. Speaking of speed, sprinting won't consume TP anymore.

New emotes will be added, inspired by the Asian style of Doma. The first to be added are related to expressing respect.

Stormblood will include the first inventory expansion. The team will then gauge the load on the server and add more if possible. Armory chest will get ten more slots per tab, while the bag will be increased by 40 slots. The team is also exploring different methods for further increases. Below you can see the expanded inventories.

Available macro slots will increase by 100, shared by all characters on the same account.

Retainers will get a level cap increase to level 70 as well, and they'll also be able to become red mage and samurai. Companions will of course get a level cap increase as well, since their level is tied to the player's.

High Materia V (working name) will be introduced with 4.0. All materia (including the new tier) will be more easy to obtain.

The new companion app will allow players to access their retainers, the market board and more. It should be released by the end of the year or the beginning of 2018.

Below you can see the new group pose feature that allows the use combat animations.

PS4 pre-orders will include dynamic themes made in 3D. You can see them below.

FATEs in Stormblood areas will offer experience bonuses to make leveling up easier. Over 20 new minions will be added.

Both Rowena and Gerolt will appear in the new expansion.

Final dungeon bosses in Stormblood will grant gear for the role you're actually playing, instead of being random like in Heavensward. This is to make gearing up while leveling smoother.

On top of this, we got the minimum and recommended PC specs for Stormblood, which you can see below. You can also test your PC with the newly released benchmark.

Last, but not least, since the PS3 version will be discontinued, PS3 players will be able to play for free (if they purchased the game of course) from May 1st. They can still get the free upgrade to the PS4 version as well.