Final Fantasy XIV (Guide in first post)

Pre-7.2 Famitsu Interview with YoshiP

This was a pretty substantive interview ahead of LL86 tomorrow. Here is a breakdown of the important bits

• The 6.x series focused on "being able to play alone" and set the goal of "widening the scope". From here on, we will focus on the original MMORPG of "it's more fun if you play with multiple people!"
• The FRU framer kit is coming and "it's quite full of chuunibyou feeling"
• As usual, expect the 2nd tier of savage to be a bit more challenging than the 1st
• Picto, as well as other jobs will see adjustments
• As expected, there will be a grace week for players to craft new gear and do the MSQ before savage releases. They will continue this policy. (I believe he means for 2nd and 3rd tiers and not the 1st)
• A new Deep Dungeon is planned for 7.3
• The previously teased in-game whiteboard/raidplan function is planned for 7.3
• Sprinting in "safe areas" (cities probably?) will give a buff called "Jog" once the sprint effect expires. Jog is a speed buff that is little slower than sprinting but does not expire in safe areas. You can still sprint again under the effect of Jog.
• You can now mount while moving
• It sounds like the schedule will look like 7.2 normal patch content, then 4 weeks after we'll get Cosmic Exploration, then 4 weeks or so after that we'll get Occult Crescent. (This will be ironed out tomorrow in the LL)
• Frontline: Secure will return with the addition of FL/RW specific role actions

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Occult Crescent (OC aka new Field Operation aka new relic zone)

• The size of the zone will be about the same as Bozja
• 7.2x will come with 12 support jobs, (some will be unlocked as you progress) a 48 man raid called Fork Tower (lol google translate?) and numerous battle contents
• Further updates are planned for 7.4x with more support jobs, and in 7.5x a second zone will be added
• You will need to level up your Knowledge Level, support jobs individually, and weapons/armor
• Support jobs aka Phantom Jobs in english can be freely swapped without restrictions. There are not class restrictions. Initially you only have access to three, but more can be unlocked as you progress.
• The map is less restricted by story progress. You can sneak around to the other aetherytes from the get go.
• Some support jobs are quirky with interesting actions. He gives an example of one job that can buy a potion that costs 300k from a vendor in the zone that "saves the party" and another that has the ability to remove enemy buffs.
• To clear Fork Tower you will need to figure out the right mix of support jobs to bring
• OC was created with the intent of bringing the best parts of Eureka and Bozja together
• They tried to incorporate some "gentleness" into the relic acquisition process.

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Cosmic Exploration (aka Cosmo)

• Cosmo is intended to take to the best parts of Ishgard Restoration and Island Sanctuary and put them into a new gathering/crafting content
• There will be a new planet to develop/explore for each major patch
• The first planet is the moon. We begin by developing the moon as a base to launch further operations on other planets. Expect assistance from your loporrit buddies
• The UI is condensed similar to Island Sanctuary
• There will be unexpected events and some of them are large scale events using the "Power Loader" with a similar lottery system to Bozja Duels where you exhange tickets in advance for a chance to be a pilot. If you don't get picked there is some sort of pity system
• There is also an element similar to Kupo of Fortune from Ishgard

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The Sphene we find in Living Memory at the end of the most recent MSQ seems to be shocked to learn she died - I suspect this is the real Sphene, or at least her memories. That means it is very likely she knows nothing beyond her death hundreds of years ago

Digital Sphene is probably the AI, or a different AI. Not sure who that odd looking kid was in those digital screens. It seems to want Azem’s key back, which suggests it still wants to accomplish the original AI’s goals

Possible ideas: Sphene (real Sphene) never died. They talked about that organization behind using electrope. What if the real Sphene was put in stasis by that org and as a failsafe, she was released from the stasis when the system failed. As to why she was in stasis, could have been a coup or maybe they used her as an organic base for the AI system that required she be a part of it?

The “evil” Sphene is probably a backup from the regulator. They confirmed her crown was a special regulator. If the backup happened from a version of Sphene still set on preserving the Endless and during her memory purge cycle, then it may be a corrupted AI or one with less limitations. For example, the AI’s directive was to preserve the people of Alexandria. If the AI considers endless to be just as valid as living people, then converting them ALL to Endless doesn’t violate its directive even though it’s killing living people. Basically AI scenario where the directive is world peace and the AI thinks that wiping out humans achieves that goal efficiently

It's Solution 9's Research and Development(which means the people who run the Arcadion are also behind the Fake AI'd Sphene) , and now the whole thing with Wicked Thunder wanting our "souls'" makes fucking sense, they want control over the Key so they can live forever(In theory, but even with that they will run the whole galaxys aether dry trying to keep everyone "alive".)