Letter from the Producer LIVE Part LXXXVIII (08/04/2025)

We are pleased to present the full digest of the Letter from the Producer LIVE Part LXXXVIII! If you missed the live stream, or if you just want to watch it again (and again), check it out below!

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* Don't forget to select the 1080p option to watch the video in HD!

Patch 7.3 Preview Part 2

"The Promise of Tomorrow" Patch Trailer
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(00:32:27)

At the beginning of the livestream, we unveiled the trailer for Patch 7.3 - The Promise of Tomorrow. The patch will be released on Tuesday, August 5.

To our chagrin, many of the upcoming scenes and dialogue couldn't be included in the trailer due to massive spoilers. The trailer may seem somewhat tame without those highlights, but rest assured: there will be plenty of shock and awe when playing through the story!

Yoshida intriguingly noted that he also made an unusual request this time around—to not use a particular song for the trailer's background music.

As a fun fact, the trailer had a scene where the screen is gradually shrouded in darkness, which is actually part of the game and not a video editing effect. It's one of the new visual storytelling techniques that we're trying out in this patch!

Patch 7.3 is the finale of the story arc that began with Dawntrail. In theme with our Warriors of Light taking center stage again, we've added a scene that will vary depending on your job category.

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What's to Come in Patch 7.3

We gave a rundown of the content that has been announced for Patch 7.3 so far.

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(00:41:39)

• New Main Scenario Quests
  As mentioned above, Patch 7.3 will be wrapping up the Dawntrail storyline. Given the substantial volume of content, we recommend setting aside ample time to fully enjoy the experience.
  
  We'll be getting a glimpse of the journey ahead; but as the plot builds up to new adventures, the burden of circumstances will also be piling upon our shoulders. Our adversary for the upcoming trial will remain a secret until release, so be sure to see them for yourself!
  
  
• New Dungeon
  Our Warriors of Light will be delving into the Meso Terminal, which has been designed with elaborate visuals. If you're looking to enjoy the scenery at your own pace, you can always go in with NPC allies using the Duty Support feature; or if you're itching to proceed with the story, you can group with other players in Duty Finder!
  
  
• New Trial
  As usual, there will be Normal and Extreme versions of the upcoming trial. The Extreme version is roughly 30 seconds longer than average and will yield two tokens.
  
  On a separate note, we're aware that whether a trial awards one or two tokens makes a big difference. Sometime in the future, we may consider making adjustments, such as fine-tuning the number of tokens awarded and the token cost of rewards on a per-trial basis. Outside of trials too, we believe it may be time to revisit long-standing conventions like these throughout the overall game.

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(00:48:34)

• Occult Crescent: South Horn Updates
  We shared additional details about the upcoming changes announced on the Lodestone and during the previous Letter LIVE.
  
  When an alliance of 24 or more players queues for South Horn, they'll have a new instance to themselves until the first auroral mirage ends. This means entire premade groups can consistently take on Forked Tower together, and won't have to constantly re-enter to get their members into the same instance.
  
  In order to clarify that Forked Tower is designed for 24 players or more, entering will now require at least 24 players to use a sanguine cipher, and everyone who wants to enter must use at least one cipher.
  
  We originally only required 16 players with ciphers, so others could join in as a sort of bonus. But this led to cases where players were chosen without intending to participate and were unprepared for the challenge, which was an oversight in our design.
  
  After you've used a sanguine cipher, you'll be given an overview of how many ciphers have been used overall. It'll also let you know if you've used enough ciphers to secure your entry, if you're tied with others and will be part of the lottery, or if you haven't used enough to be included in the lottery.
  
  We considered showing specifically "who" submitted "how many" ciphers, but since that could cause disputes, we chose to take this approach instead.
  
  Auroral mirages will be changed so if they are triggered while a critical encounter is going on, the actual change in weather will take place after the critical encounter ends. We originally left this uncontrolled for randomness, but decided to make server-side adjustments after receiving numerous requests.
  
  As for rewards, Magic Pots and Happy Bunny treasure coffers will now always contain Enlightenment gold or silver pieces to increase their baseline value in gil.
  
  Since the emergency maintenance on Thursday, July 3, we've noticed a growing number of players challenging Forked Tower. We hope these updates will aid our challengers in their endeavors!

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• Echoes of Vana'diel Part 2 - San d'Oria: The Second Walk
• New Crystalline Conflict Arena - The Bayside Battleground
• New Treasure Hunt Dungeon
• Chat Bubble Feature
  
  We covered the above topics in more detail later in the livestream; read on if you're interested!

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(00:56:46)

• Duty Support - Cutter's Cry
  Cutter's Cry was released in the early days of A Realm Reborn, back when our design standards were completely different. Those aspects will be revised, so we hope you'll give the new version a visit when you have a moment.
  
  
• Expanded Headgear Support for Hrothgar and Viera
• Option to Hide Viera Ears
  A significant number of headgear will now be displayed when worn by Hrothgar and Viera—too many to list here!
  
  Additionally, a new feature will allow Viera to hide their ears inside their headgear. When Viera were first implemented, we did so knowing that their long ears would inevitably stick out of headgear; but in response to numerous requests, we've added this feature so they can "tuck away" their ears.
  
  With certain headgear, the Development team may determine that having the ears stick out looks too awkward and disable the option to show the ears; but aside from those cases, players will have the freedom to show or hide their Viera's ears.
  
  
• Bangs will now display while wearing hood-type headgear
  Until now, hood-type headgear hid your character's bangs entirely, leading many players to turn off their headgear when wearing them. We've finally managed to make the bangs visible, so we hope you'll give hoods another go!

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(01:00:07)

• New Cosmic Exploration Star – Phaenna
  Phaenna is referred to as the "Glass Star" in reference to the glass that rains from its skies.
  
  Cosmic Exploration activities will be upgraded with Phaenna's addition. That being said, our existing systems still have some rough spots in terms of gameplay feel, so we'll be smoothing those out right up until the deadline.
  
  
• Weapon Enhancement Quests - Phantom Weapons
  This upcoming step will be completely different from the last, but based on the feedback we received, we've tried to adjust the overall quests to feel a bit easier than what we originally envisioned based on past weapon enhancement quests.
  
  If you take your time, you can comfortably make progress each day; whereas those who want to rush the process may find it a bit challenging. Like the previous step, the enhancement process will be tough for the first weapon only.

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(01:02:07)

• New Deep Dungeon - Pilgrim's Traverse
  We covered the new deep dungeon in more detail during the latter half of the livestream. The story revolves around Il Mheg, where you'll be seeing some familiar faces.
  
  
• New Allied Society Quests - Yok Huy
  During the main scenario, we learned of the Yok Huy's beliefs and philosophy, which were relatively straightforward for us to understand. In contrast, these quests will explore their connection with spirits, touching on concepts such as how spirits perceive life and death.
  
  Our team worked diligently to create this beautiful narrative, which we hope you'll enjoy during your daily quests!
  
  
• Inconceivably Further Hildibrand Adventures
  The midpoint of Hildibrand's adventures in Dawntrail is coming to a head. There will be absurdities abound, so be prepared for the wild and unexpected! (Or don't!)

Echoes of Vana'diel Part 2 - San d'Oria: The Second Walk

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(01:05:29)

We took an early peek at the intro cutscene and the mechanics of the first boss encounter. Those who've adventured in FFXI will surely recognize the nostalgic melodies from their time in Vana'diel!

Like the previous alliance raid, we created San d'Oria: The Second Walk with developers who worked on the original game, and supervision from FFXI Producer & Director Yoji Fujito! You can also find notes throughout the alliance raid with references to FFXI!

The alliance raid starts in San d'Oria, and from there we enter the forests of Ronfaure. During development, the QA team and FFXI veterans in the FFXIV commented that the first draft of Ronfaure didn't feel like FFXI's Ronfaure, so we went through a significant revision to create the current version.

The encounters in San d'Oria: The Second Walk will involve randomness in some of the battle mechanics. Even if you defeat a boss and think you've figured them out, they may have a different attack pattern when you face them again!

(01:15:59)

As a change to the overall battle system (and not just Echoes of Vana'diel duties), we're adding a new setting to show cast bars on nameplates for boss enemies. This will be an optional feature that can be turned off if you prefer the current interface.

For example, when a two-headed boss is readying different attacks from each head, you had to enable focus target or look at the enmity list to see the cast bars for both attacks. But with this new option, you'd be able to see both cast bars while still looking at the boss in the middle of your screen.

Furthermore, while this option is primarily meant for boss enemies, we're looking to also add them to minor enemies that appear during boss encounters, as necessary.

On a separate note, San d'Oria: The Second Walk features a new attack indicator that we haven't implemented before. This attack indicator could be interpreted differently from person to person, which makes it a tough one to design, but we're working on making it intuitive for as many people as possible.

Additionally, each boss will be a different type of encounter, and we hope you'll enjoy learning and overcoming each one!

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(01:22:07)

Here we explained the drop rate of orchestrion rolls in San d'Oria: The Second Walk.

The orchestrion rolls from Echoes of Vana'diel have been extremely popular, which is understandable, given that many of our players have fond memories of the music from FFXI.

We made similar adjustments to orchestrion rolls back in Patch 7.2 based on feedback from players who were struggling to obtain them. But since San d'Oria: The Second Walk will have a weekly loot restriction when it releases in Patch 7.3, we're making additional adjustments with that in mind.

From the second boss onward, each alliance will get their own treasure coffer containing a set number of orchestrion rolls. These treasure coffers will not be affected by the weekly loot restriction.

(01:25:58)

We showcased the gear that will drop from San d'Oria: The Second Walk, which you can check out in the video.

PvP Updates

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(01:29:26)

We went over the PvP-related updates that will be implemented in Patch 7.3.

With the addition of new ranks, promotions and demotions will now be determined by Rising Stars until you reach the Crystal tier, after which they will be based on Crystal Credits.

On the Japanese data centers, we adjust the matchmaking thresholds towards the end of PvP seasons so that higher-ranked players were more likely to face each other; the new Omega and Ultima tiers will make the effects of these threshold adjustments more visible.

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(01:31:36)

In hopes of promoting PvP's growing popularity, casual matches will now allow up to two players to queue together. Our idea is that hesitant players will feel more comfortable trying PvP if they can join with someone they know.

Since casual matches are often played for practice and don't affect rankings, we considered allowing up to four players to queue together. But for now, we've decided to start with two players and carefully monitor the situation moving forward.

We know there are dedicated players out there who've been helping newcomers get started in PvP. We appreciate your efforts and hope you'll find these duo queues helpful for fostering the community!

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(01:34:25)

For a while now, the established strategy has been to burst down enemies who've used Purify, due to its long recast time; we aim to change this up by turning Purify into an MP-based action. This will also affect HP recovery options now that both Recuperate and Purify require MP.

This change is expected to alter gameplay drastically, so we'd appreciate your feedback after trying it out.

Persistent visual effects will be added to certain statuses. It was often difficult to tell when someone was under the effect of a special status, especially for newer players, so we hope this will make them more noticeable.

Check out the video for an in-game preview of the new Bayside Battleground arena, Purify's updated functionality, and the new persistent visual effects. We also showed some of the new PvP-related gear!

New Treasure Dungeon - Vault Oneiron

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(01:46:45)

For this segment, Yoshida went in-game to test his luck in the new treasure dungeon!

In Vault Oneiron, various events will occur depending on the results of a "slot machine." Three "misses" mean you get kicked out, non-matching symbols are a "small win", and three matching symbols are a "big win."

In an amazing coincidence, Yoshida landed a big win (without debug commands!) and accidentally spawned the golden boss in the screenshot. Watch the video to see what happened next! There are other enemies that didn't appear during the live stream, including those that randomly invade, so we hope you'll enjoy Vault Oneiron with a group of fellow treasure seekers!

We've adjusted various elements based on various playtesters to avoid triggering motion sickness. But if you experience any discomfort, we'd appreciate if you could relay the specific issues to us, like "the background is moving too fast."

We also took a sneak peek at some of the new gear that will be added.

New Deep Dungeon – Pilgrim's Traverse

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(02:16:15)

The fourth and latest deep dungeon, Pilgrim's Traverse, will be set in Il Mheg on the world of the First.

Our design concept for Pilgrim's Traverse is "a deep dungeon for everyone!" This concept was chosen because we wanted to move away from our design approach of pigeonholing content into a single classification, such as "casual-friendly" or "hardcore-oriented."

As a drawback of that approach, even if we introduced 10 different types of content in a single patch, certain players might feel that only 3 are meant for them; in other words, the number of activities you can enjoy will be very different depending on your preferred playstyle. We realized that our large-scale content needed to place a greater emphasis on catering to a range of playstyles.

While this concept can't be applied to everything, we've updated our design philosophy for deep dungeons and similar content to accommodate more playstyles to a certain degree. That said, there's still a need for niche content, like Ultimate raids, which we'll continue to release.


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(02:27:12)

• Unlock and Entry Requirements
  The story of Pilgrim's Traverse is tied to the history of Il Mheg and the First as a whole, so you'll want to pay close attention to what new lore details may be revealed.

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• Boss Encounters
  Players will start from floor 1 and make their way towards floor 100. There will be a boss encounter every 10 floors; some of these powerful foes are featured in the screenshots above.
  
  In Pilgrim's Traverse, there will be frequent changes in scenery as you tread the paths taken by devout trainees long ago.

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• Weapons
  As usual, aetherpool arms can be upgraded and used as weapons outside the dungeon. The aetherpool arms in Pilgrim's Traverse have a stained glass theme, as you can see in the screenshot.

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(02:34:10)

• Beyond Floor 30
  Like other deep dungeons, the initial quest will be completed when you defeat the boss of the floor 30, which significantly advances the story.
  
  In previous deep dungeons, progressing beyond floor 30 required a fixed party. But since one of FFXIV's strengths is the ability to easily find parties through matchmaking, Pilgrim's Traverse will allow for matched parties to take on floor 30 and later. We plan on implementing the same framework for previous deep dungeons at some point in the future.
  
  From floor 30 onward, there will continue to be boss encounters every 10 floors, with a gradually increasing difficulty. However, since we want Pilgrim's Traverse to be accessible for everyone, we've adjusted the overall difficulty to be similar to the second deep dungeon, Heaven-on-High. Instant-death mechanics will gradually appear as you approach the furthermost areas.

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• Retries
  Until now, if your whole party was KO'd, it meant starting over from either floor 1 or floor 21; whereas in Pilgrim's Traverse, you'll also be able to restart from floors 31, 51, and 71.
  
  The further you progress, the more options you'll have to restart from. That said, the tension of making your way through a large number of floors is part of the deep dungeon experience, so we decided against having a checkpoint every 10 floors.

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(02:41:31)

• Floor 99 Boss Encounter
  If you manage to defeat the boss of floor 99, you can proceed to the final floor; whereas if you lose to the boss, you'll have to restart from floor 71.
  
  But for this deep dungeon, we've added a new duty, the Final Verse, where you can go straight to battling the floor 99 boss as many times as you like. In this duty, defeating the boss won't count as completing the whole deep dungeon—it's meant to be a sort of practice fight where you can prepare yourself to conquer all 100 floors. With that said, the Final Verse will still have a low chance of dropping valuable rewards.
  
  The encounter is roughly the same difficulty as the final boss of a normal dungeon, and will feature some brand new mechanics. Since the whole deep dungeon is designed to allow for solo clears, this encounter can also be completed solo, if you so choose.
  
  Pilgrim's Traverse-related objectives will be added to the Challenge Log to promote matchmaking. You can complete specific floors each week to earn the exchange items required for certain rewards, so be sure to check the Challenge Log!
  
  We showcased a number of mounts that can be obtained from deep dungeon rewards and other content. Mounts can also be obtained from the accursed hoard.

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(03:00:19)

• Challenges Beyond Floor 100
  Once you've cleared floor 100, the Final Verse (Quantum) will appear in the NPC menu.
  
  A certain quest will become available after clearing floor 100 for the first time. Completing this quest will award "offerings" that will be necessary for entering the Final Verse (Quantum). The offerings will be consumed upon completing the battle and opening the treasure coffer.
  
  The Final Verse (Quantum) is designed for 4 players and will have Party Finder support for recruiting parties.
  
  To enter the duty, you must offer at least 15 items as offerings. Upon completing the quest, you will receive 40 offering items (5 types, 8 each). If you need more offerings, they can be obtained from the accursed hoard scattered throughout Pilgrim's Traverse or purchased from the market board.
  
  Up to 40 offerings can be used at a time. The boss's HP, elemental damage, and mechanics will change according to the type and number of offerings used, so you'll want to choose the number of offerings based on your party composition.
  
  The number of offerings will also affect how many rewards you'll earn upon defeating the boss. If you offer the maximum number of offerings, you'll also receive a title when you defeat the boss. But using 40 offerings is about as difficult as the 4th fight of a Savage raid tier, and some of the mechanics are extremely difficult.
  We hope our raiders are up to the challenge!
  
  The idea of "content designed for everyone" also applies to the variant dungeons coming in Patch 7.4. We aim to reach as many players as possible with this concept, so we hope to hear your feedback after you've tried the new deep dungeon!

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(03:17:09)

• The Blessed Hoard
  The Blessed Hoard is the highest tier level of all hoard rewards.
  
  They will occasionally drop from the normal version of the Final Verse; whereas they are a guaranteed drop in the Final Verse (Quantum), with the number increasing according to the number of offerings made. They can also be obtained by completing weekly Challenge Log objectives.

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(03:20:06)

• Solo Clear
  The ultimate goal of clearing solo remains unchanged from previous deep dungeons; there will be achievements, titles, and rankings available, so those who've completed the rest of Pilgrim's Traverse are encouraged to give it a try!
  
  You can watch the video for a quick rundown of deep dungeons in general, as well as an in-game look at Pilgrim's Traverse!

＜Votives Slide＞

(03:35:47)

• Votives
  Votives are a new deep dungeon element that will be introduced in Pilgrim's Traverse. These elaborate candelabras can produce positive and negative effects on the following floor.
  
  On floors 1 through 30, which are required to complete the initial quest, votives will only produce positive effects, so we encourage you to use them whenever you can.
  
  After floor 30, votives have a chance of producing negative effects as well, so you might choose to avoid them depending on your situation.

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(03:44:29)

• Items Obtained in Pilgrim's Traverse
  We introduced items that can be obtained from the new deep dungeon, which you can see above. Keep an eye out for the pieces of the accursed hoard, which may contain mounts, minions, and orchestrion rolls!

System Updates

(03:59:40)

• Housing Updates
  We're currently in the final phase of adjustments for housing-related updates, such as increasing the maximum number of furnishings that can be placed, and allowing housing to have interiors which are larger than their exterior appearance.
  
  We still need to perform major optimizations for handling immense amounts of data, so we'd appreciate if you could bear with us a while longer. We will follow up with additional details when we have updates to share.

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• Blacklist Improvements
  Read our Lodestone announcement for more details regarding our upcoming measures and their impact on current features.

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(04:03:06)

• Phoenix Down Changes
  From Patch 7.3, phoenix down will be usable during combat in certain content, improving the odds of strategic recoveries. They will be available to purchase from vendors, and you'll be able to hold up to 999 tufts of phoenix down per stack. Having said that, a recast time has been added, to avoid "zombie strategies" using phoenix down.

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(04:05:47)

• Cast bar added to nameplates of boss-rank enemies
  This option will be enabled by default, as we believe having it will be more intuitive moving forward. You can still hide them if you feel that the previous display was sufficient.

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(04:06:35)

• Group Pose Update – Portrait Mode Added
  We're adding Portrait Mode to Group Pose. This new feature will make it easier to take photos in portrait orientation, which can be nice for taking close-ups of your character!

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Select the "Portrait Preview" button to switch your camera to portrait orientation. Now you can design your vertical screenshot without tilting your head the entire time!

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You can apply stickers and frames in Portrait Preview. We've also made it possible to adjust the angle of text stickers!

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When you're ready to take your screenshot, it's time to enable Portrait Mode! This will rotate the camera angle so you can take your vertical screenshot at full size!

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(04:09:33)

• Group Pose Update – Chromatic Aberration & Color Filter Intensity
  Next, we showcased the new options for chromatic aberration and color filter intensity.

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The chromatic aberration option distorts your image with colored outlines. It can drastically alter the overall impression of a screenshot, so be sure to give it a try!

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You'll also be able to adjust the intensity of color filters, as shown in the screenshots above.

Adjusting the intensity of the monochrome filter, for example, changes how much the colors are toned down. The intensity can be modified with a slider, so you can play around it to see how it affects your image!

With these new features and plenty of other options, we understand that Group Pose may seem daunting for some. At some point in the future, we'd like to add something like presets so that everyone can have fun taking screenshots without getting overwhelmed.

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(04:17:08)

• Doman Mahjong Voices Added
  Voices for Wuk Lamat, Koana, and Bakool Ja Ja have been added to Doman Mahjong. These are brand-new voice lines, so we hope you'll try them out and see how each character cheers you on!

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(04:17:42)

• Character Display Range Increased
  Adding this new option took a lot of careful calibration and performance tests!
  
  The current display range will be the default setting, with two additional ranges if you want to see characters that are further away.
  
  Note that the maximum number of characters you can see on your screen will remain the same as before.
  Additionally, wider display ranges will demand more rendering power, so we recommend trying out each range to see which one best suits your situation.

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(04:21:31)

• Chat Bubble Feature
  As we announced in the previous Letter LIVE, the chat bubble feature will be added in Patch 7.3.
  
  Enabling chat bubbles only changes how messages are shown on your screen; they won't affect who can see the messages. For example, even if your screen shows your Tells as chat bubbles coming from your character, everyone around you won't be able to see those Tells. But if you still feel like others can see your private messages, you can turn them on or off for specific chat modes.
  
  As of Patch 7.3, chat bubbles won't be displayed during battle or PvP. After our teams debated this topic at length, we've decided to hide them for the time being.
  
  Chat bubbles are meant to be an optional feature for those who want more immersion in their social interactions. While they could have their uses in battle, should they become the norm in raid strategies, everyone would be expected to have them enabled, which may introduce new hurdles to undertaking battle content.
  
  With that said, there are mixed opinions even within the Development team regarding this topic. We will be continuing internal discussions regarding whether chat bubbles should stay turned off, or if allowing them could lead to more enjoyability.
  
  On a related note, we're also debating the possibility of enabling chat bubbles in field operations (like Occult Crescent) and other public overworld areas, as it could enhance their social elements. For those cases, there's still a number of undecided factors, such as where we'd draw the line for "being in combat," so we'll be playtesting some more on our end before deciding whether to make exceptions for specific content.

(04:28:23)

Check out the video for an in-game preview of the chat bubble feature!