Note: The content drop has been shifted from what was reported here, to October 29th.
Square Enix continues to crush critics with each content update they put out, from free content to ground-breaking expansions like their ShadowBringers expansion pack, and they’re slated to drop the newest patch today, titled ‘Vows of Virtue, Deeds of Cruelty’. Players can expect more content than they can shake a Chocobo at, from dungeons to crafting, and everything in between. Of note is that this patch includes a 24 player raid dungeon, developed with legendary NeiR: Automata director and producers Yosuke Saito, and Yoko Taro. As Square Enix is ought to do, these developers are considered guests to help temporarily merge the worlds of Final Fantasy XIV NieR: Automata.
The new 24 player raid, called ‘The Copied Factory’, boasts ‘an experience like no other’ to current subscribers, replete with monstrous machinery hellbent on ending the raiding party in a rather foreboding factory, reminiscent of the first boss battle found in NieR: Automata‘s ending of the tutorial. It also has been teased that 2B herself may join the raiding party at times as they progress through astonishingly massive battles within the hellacious rusting oblique.
Along with the raid dungeon is a new standard dungeon of elegant and gilded design, called ‘The Grand Cosmos’. This beautiful elven inspired mansion, complete with marble flooring, spacious interiors, and ghostly figures having a grandiose party, is the newest challenge for adventurers to fight through with either other players, or an AI party that will join the adventurer with the new Trust system that was added in Shadowbringers. The Trust system was an admirable addition to Final Fantasty XIV that allowed subscribers that would rather not operate with other players in high-pressure situations still enjoy the dungeons while leveling the AI party throughout their journey.
It seems strange, admittedly, that there are subscribers within an MMO system that would prefer to avoid those situations; veteran dungeon delvers, however, from World of Warcraft and Ultima Online can well understand that the worst of humanity can come full force in the high-pressure, high-loot situations found in challenging instanced dungeons.
The update doesn’t end with dungeons, however; crafting and gathering will receive an overhaul that has yet to be leaked. Square Enix promises that the update will make crafting and gathering more streamlined, with fewer individual actions necessary, culminating in a better overall experience for players.
Blue Mages have a reason to rejoice in the upcoming patch as well; Final Fantasy XIV is going to be stuffed full of more Blue Mage content, including a high-level cap, new class-specific quests, and special battle challenges.
New Game + (colloquially NG+) will also drop, allowing players to return to story beats and relive them, even making different choices in some of them to see how things play out. All content from the base game, Heavensword, Stormblood, and Shadowbringers will be available to play through.
Final Fantasy XIV‘s newest gameplay patch 5.1, ‘Vows of Virtue, Deeds of Cruelty’ will be available to play later today.
