The upcoming expansion Final Fantasy XIV: Endwalker will have more story & cutscenes than Shadowbringers, according to the game’s producer. Final Fantasy XIV has released three expansions so far since it was relaunched in 2013, with each expansion proving to be much bigger than the last. The third and currently ongoing expansion, Shadowbringers, has added a large sum of new content into the game thus far, including new storylines, character classes, raids, and a lot more. It also introduced the Crystarium, the expansion’s hub city, which Square Enix had made into a massive LEGO build that was initially meant for a now-postponed Final Fantasy XIV art exhibit in Tokyo.
Square Enix recently held its Final Fantasy XIV Fan Fest a few weeks ago. There, the developer revealed new information on the game’s next expansion, Endwalker, including the new Reaper melee class, which joins the Sage as one of the expansion’s two new character classes. The game’s new city, Old Sharlayan, was also shown off during the event along with the new male version of the Viera race. More importantly though, Square Enix finally announced Final Fantasy: Endwalker's release date along with a new cinematic trailer.
In an interview with PCGamer, Final Fantasy XIV producer Naoki Yoshida said that Endwalker has “1.3 times” or 30% more story and cutscenes than Shadowbringers. Yoshida went on to say that there was a point in time during Endwalker’s development where he questioned if the expansion would be too big and end up becoming a problem for the development team in terms of size. But Yoshida realized that shaving off some of the game’s plot would only mean even more work for the studio, as it would require adjusting the remaining portions of the story, so his team decided to continue working with what it already had.
Between the game’s ongoing trend of each new expansion being larger than the one that came before it, and Endwalker acting as the conclusion of the game’s current story arc, which has been ongoing for over a decade now, it isn’t surprising that Yoshida and his team have worked to make it much bigger than any of its predecessors. And even though the amount of new features that Endwalker is set to add is still pretty similar to previous expansions like Shadowbringers, including the same amount of character classes, the significant difference in the amount of story content should easily makes up for any disappointment fans might experience on that score.
Final Fantasy XIV has always been known for its epic storytelling, so for Endwalker to offer even more than any of its predecessors will be something fans and players can look forward to, especially considering that long-time fans will finally get to witness the conclusion of its current story arc while at the same time look forward to where the game’s plot might develop from here.
Final Fantasy XIV: Endwalker is scheduled for release on the PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, and PC on November 23, 2021.
Source: PCGamer