On April 2, the Final Fantasy XIV team held the 63rd Letter from the Producer Live broadcast, which was dedicated to properly teasing the game’s next patch. As previously announced, Patch 5.5 — named Death Unto Dawn — will be released on April 13. It will be the first of a two-part patch that will finish the Final Fantasy XIV: Shadowbringers story and make way for the Final Fantasy XIV: Endwalker expansion. Now, fans have a trailer for the upcoming story patch.
Yes, that is all surely important — but do you know what’s even more important? That’s right. Fordola rem Lupis, one of the best antagonists in the whole game, is back, baby.
Fordola was a secondary antagonist in Final Fantasy XIV: Stormblood — which, in my opinion, saw most of its best moments in the stories of its female secondary antagonists, Yotsuyu and Fordola. While Yotsuyu dies by the start of Shadowbringers, Fordola was given an ongoing redemption arc. Since the end of the Stormblood patches, Fordola has been on the front lines of an elite anti-primal task force. You can read a short story about that here. As someone who really appreciated her character in Stormblood, especially due to how her writing explored internalized racism, I’m so excited to see her again. I am also begging them to not kill her off. (Final Fantasy XIV doesn’t need a shortage of women in its narrative, anyway.)
You can watch the trailer for Patch 5.5 below!
Aside from seeing the welcome return of past characters like Fordola and Tiamat from Final Fantasy XIV: Heavensward, we’ll be progressing into the third and final part of the YoRHa: Dark Apocalypse alliance raid duty. We’re going to The Tower from NieR: Automata, and it looks absolutely incredible. So much so that I have to force myself to move on with writing the rest of this news post because, if not, I will scream. You can see some of it at the 1:58:48 mark in the stream.
The second part of Death Unto Dawn has been confirmed to be released at the end of May, so the community will have to wait for a little over a month to see the true end of the pre-Endwalker story. This first part will contain a new instanced dungeon called Paglth’an, as well as new Chronicles of a New Era quests. In them will be the final chapter of the Sorrow of Werlyt, with a new trial against The Diamond Weapon called The Cloud Deck. You can see a sneak peek of the battle in the trailer, as well as in the live letter itself around the 59:20 mark. I expect to fall off the arena approximately 500 times.
While not as major, other nonetheless exciting things to come in Patch 5.5 can be seen listed in our previous Death Unto Dawn news article. While a few small details were included in this Live Letter, it’s mostly stuff we already knew.
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Additionally, the team made sure to show the PlayStation 5 version of Final Fantasy XIV in action, reiterating that its improvements will include: faster loading times, 4K display compatibility, high-resolution UI assets, DualSense haptic feedback, additional trophies, 3D audio support, and more. You can see just how fast the loading times will be at approximately 1:25:50.
The open beta for the PlayStation 5 version will begin on Tuesday, April 13, once the weekly maintenance is wrapped up. Current PlayStation 4 players can join the beta by downloading the PlayStation 5 upgrade, while new players can just download the PlayStation 5 version of the free trial. Further details will be posted on the Lodestone.
For that matter, loading times will be sped up on all platforms, period. There will also be the option to use the high-resolution UI in the Windows version of the game. A neat UI update will be that there will now be arrows showing which direction the target is facing. There will be new mounts, NieR raid gear, housing items — all that good stuff. The team also provided extra details on the upcoming Digital Fan Festival taking place in May, which you can learn more about here. Be sure to watch the whole broadcast for more details, especially since all the important information is translated into English.
You can watch the live letter, hosted by director and producer Naoki Yoshida and global community manager Toshio Murouchi, in its entirety below.
