The middle is the hardest place to be for a Final Fantasy XIV fan festival. After all, director and producer Naoki Yoshida has to reveal a whole bunch of elements of the expansion, but we also need further reveals to be teased until the final fan festival occurs. Sometimes that means there isn’t a whole lot to say, but this particular fan festival was certainly not lacking for reveals, and they started right from the moment Yoshida walked on-stage in his full new job costume, as he always does.

While he was stacked in armor with a pair of shields strapped to his arms, of course he didn’t start off immediately by announcing the name of the job; instead, it started off with our new extended teaser. And like all extended teasers, we got our glimpse of one new job therein as well as a better picture of what will be happening in the expansion before more reveals started to fly fast and furious. Like the setting for most of the expansion, in fact.

Yoshida immediately explained that the airships we see are known as “Realmships” and will, in fact, be the setting for much of the expansion; there are five of them, known as the Five Firmaments, including the two we saw in the extended teaser as Naglfar (the Realmship of Water) and Hringhorni (the Realmship of Fire). But that was just a small tease before later previews, since Yoshida knew (correctly) that everyone was focused on the new job.

The new tank is Bastion, a main tank only available in Evolved mode, which starts at level 90 and is unlocked in Limsa Lominsa. While players have referred to the weapons as “gunshields” for years, they’re referred to as “skyltborgs,” paired shields that appear to flip between the punchy part and the gun part.

Originally, the job hails from Aerslant, the archipelago in the far north where Roegadyn originate from. The ancient martial techniques come from the archipelago’s rulers, offering both protection for allies and offensive options using aetherial artillery to stop raiders in their tracks. And true to form, there is video of the new job in action.

Our next job reveal, naturally, will be from the final festival in October. More about the story will also be revealed when the second part of the MSQ hits with patch 7.56, landing on September 8th. But there was still plenty to preview in terms of zones, and we got a look at three of them, both the overfield zones of Naglfar and Hringhorni as well as the first of the player towns located on the Naglfar, Fargarth.

While all three have new music, Yoshida was quick to point out that the new music may not be the music for the zones in the final version; Fargarth in particular was a temp track assembled by Soken in a single night. We also know that the big crystals are referred to as the Ark Crystals, although how they work will have to remain a mystery until we see the actual story.

Other zones were also shown off themed according to the remaining elements, but they weren’t yet named; however, it’s a clear theme. We also got a look at a variety of dungeons that are still in development but have not been given names just yet. And seeing the zones actually provides a fine segue into talking about main scenario changes, which are meant to offer players a wider variety of branching narratives.

For more or less all of FFXIV’s main scenario, you have a point or two of branching choice, but more often than not it’s between two zones that you can take on in either order very early in the MSQ. Evercold aims to have a wider branching field, with players able to pick between a larger number of different field areas and even dungeons to take on during their initial run of the quest.

In order to handle levels appropriately, the development team is introducing an auto content balancing system for a handful of dungeons and field areas, which is being added in a few places now but gives options for further content in the future. It’s not a full level scaling system for the open world, from the sound of it (it’s restricted to the MSQ specifically, for one thing) but it should provide more branching options on a whole.

From here, we moved on to talking more about the character animation overrides. As Yoshida explained, emotes and general actions are also character actions that can be overridden as well, with the idea being that you can customize multiple areas of character creation. He showed off three different potential teleport animations, and explained that the system will start with general action skins in 8.0, followed by the first round of job actions in 8.1. He also cautions that players will need to be patient, as these options take time to produce.

Similarly, 8.1 will feature more improved character creation options, including a toggle option for the darkening of Viera and Lalafell noses as well as Miqo’te face paint. And perhaps more significantly, Au Ra horns will be separated from face style. More is still coming, although Yoshida declined to explain more at this time. (Butt slider? Be patient!)

Moving forward, Yoshida also revealed the plan to bring what’s being called “world raids” to the field areas; it’s a working title, but the idea is to bring more field operation-style content to the open world. There’s also a system of automatic movement being planned for auto-moving to quest objectives.

Also, as mentioned in the first fan festival, a third difficulty is being added for normal raids between Normal and Savage. The targeted difficulty is somewhere around the Extreme raids, and the new raids will offer “season” gear as a mid-step between the difficulties. It’s meant to be a new option for players who want more practice with a mid-tier option. (Whether or not it will be available for queues was not discussed.)

Same-region matching for party finder and queues was also discussed at the first fan festival, and it’s now got a date: the deployment will start in Japan on October 12th to test and make sure that the system is working properly. From there, it will expand to the other regions of the game.

As a surprise, however, we’re also getting another unexpected overhaul for our chocobo companions starting in 8.1, with the option to duo a dungeon with two players and two chocobos. This will include changes in abilities, changes in summoning, and a rework of chocobo breeding in general. And speaking of things coming in 8.1, the Evangelion collaboration will have Mahiro Maeda (known for his contributions to the latter half of the Rebuild of Evangelion films as well as Mad Max: Fury Road) working as a guest designer on the alliance raid.

But what about the normal raid? It turns out that’s a crossover as well; Beyond the Lifestream is a Final Fantasy VII-inspired raid series across three tiers, coinciding with the release of the third FFVII remake title. Not many details were revealed yet, but the remake series director Naoki Hamaguchi came out to discuss the collaborations of the team as well as the new Gold Saucer attraction coming on October 28th.

Wait, the new Gold Saucer attraction? Yes, that has been teased and is now revealed as Keybound Brawler, a typing game that will first be introduced as another FFVII collaboration rewarding Barrett and Tifa outfits. It’s the FFVII Gold Saucer inside of our Gold Saucer. Make your own Xzibit joke here.

The Nintendo Switch 2 launch is happening on August 4th, with the first month free for testing and making sure that everything is working; afterwards, normal subscription fees will apply. Last but not least, we got a preview of the collector’s edition. The physical box contains a Reaper sculpture, an Ethos-inspired keychain, a mini-tapestry based on the embroidery from the teaser trailer, and a little charm doll designed after the bearded cats which we now know are called the Köttr. In-game, players will get a pair of crystal-themed skyltborg, the Entreat (Crystal) emote, and a transforming mount based on Final Fantasy XIII‘s Odin dubbed Valhallar Odin.

It’s a lot to speculate about, and there will be more after the last fan festival and in the weeks and months leading up. We’ll also have another summary up after the live letter happening later today, and stay tuned on Monday for reactions to this presentation specifically. (And special thanks to Chris for snapping shots during the keynote!)

The Nymian civilization hosted an immense amount of knowledge and learning, but so much of it has been lost to the people of Eorzea. That doesn’t stop Eliot Lefebvre from scrutinizing Final Fantasy XIV each week in Wisdom of Nym, hosting guides, discussion, and opinions without so much as a trace of rancor.