Famitsu has published a new interview with Final Fantasy XIV's legendary producer, Naoki Yoshida or "Yoshi-P" where he mentions future content as well as some of what's coming this month, and an apology for the balance in difficulty of the Abyssos series of the Pandemonium raids.
Much thanks to Famitsu!
The next patch is Patch 6.4, the fourth of five patches that FFXIV famously releases in between two year expansion periods that brings a new chapter to the game's story and a wealth of content every 4-5 months.
The new patch's title releasing this month is "The Dark Throne" in English. Yoshi-P mentioned the Japanese title is closer to "The Throne of the Offender" or "Throne of the Criminal", and wants fans to think on this and what this could mean. Yoshida said the throne's meaning is significant. Yoshi-P also wants players to think about who the "offender" may be.
It may not be who you think!
Not only does the new patch bring a new main story chapter, the climax of the Pandemonium raids comes with it as well, bringing a finale to an epic side story that began in December of 2021. The producer continued on to explain that as item levels have increased since Patch 6.3's release of the last Pandemonium raid tier, clears have increased and apologized for mistakes made with the raids' difficulty balance, citing the last Abyssos raid's Savage difficulty.
Another addition to the new patch is Mount Rokkon, a Far Eastern themed variant and criterion dungeon teeming with lore and Japanese theme. Yoshi-P explained that there were several ideas for what theme to go with for a new variant and criterion dungeon, but because there hasn't been Japanese themed content made in a while, they went with Mount Rokkon. Curiously, Yoshida said something to the effect of "we considered future content and the lack of present Japanese content and chose Mount Rokkon" which has us wondering if this is a hint or not. Is the inclusion of a Japanese (Or Hingan/Domain in the FFXIV world) theme to fill a hole, or to set something else up later? It's obvious in Final Fantasy XIV that the Far East continent of Othard, and the Hingashi territory are both still not completely explored. Large cities such as Valnain in Othard, seen adjacent to Yanxia and Ruby Sea, and Bukyo in Hingashi, sharing the isle Kugane exists on as Hingashi's main city, are still out there and barely mentioned in game despite having a clear depiction on the world map.
That's not to mention a ton of unexplored names and regions written in Eorzean visible on the world map- and don't forget there are Reflection worlds as well that could have developed their own Far East as well. Anything is possible in Naoki Yoshida's new ten-year vision for the next decade of the new story arc following Endwalker.
What we know for now is that NPC's will be accompanying us to Mount Rokkon, and that one will be a significant Far Eastern presence.
Patch 6.4 releases later this month with no exact date given yet, though based on all previous release patterns it should be a Tuesday, our guess is the 23rd. There's also a new Producer stream coming out on May 12th.
