The winds of change are blowing strongly in Final Fantasy XIV, as Square Enix is gearing up to launch the 1.19 patch on October the 4th.

Today they released the patch notes (still subject to possible changes due to testing) and holy hell! I don't think I've seen such a big wall of text and goodness in a while.

There's something for everyone: sweeping crafting changes, epic boss fights against Ifrit, beastman strongholds, chocobos and airships, a lot of UI improvements, new sidequests and company quests, new Notorious Monsters, company leves, caravan security missions, a new low-level dungeon, more inventory slots, the Materia system, a complete overhaul of combat and leveling and a whole lot more.

Yoichi Wada may think that Final Fantasy XIV may have "damaged" the Final Fantasy brand, but personally I can't help but feeling that the game is the most visible example of the fact that Square Enix is really pushing hard towards improvement, as progress is speeding up exponentially as the results for all the hard work done in the past year come to light.

You can read the full monstrous patch notes on the official forums, if you dare.