‘Final Fantasy XIV: Heavensward’ To Be Released June 23

At the latest day at PAX East, Square Enix announced that Final Fantasy XIV’s upcoming expansion Heavensward will be released on June 23. According to several reports, Square Enix also announced that there will be a collector’s edition of the game, including the original Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn as well as a standard edition.

Pre-orders for the expansion will open on March 16 and grant buyers five days early access to the new content. Square Enix is offering three different editions of Heavensward. Players can buy a standard edition with only the expansion or a collector’s edition featuring a handful of goodies: a mini dragon figurine, an art book, a DVD showcasing trailers, and a handful of in-game goodies including the exclusive griffin mount, a dragoon minion, and a helmet designed to look like Cecil’s from Final Fantasy IV.

In addition to raising the level cap from 50 to 60 and adding new high-level gear for all jobs, Heavensward will introduce flying mounts, including black Chocobos, dragons, griffins, and single-rider airships. The expansion will also introduce a new race, the Au Ra, a tall, stern people with tan or blue skin, horns growing from the side of their heads, and patches of scales dotting their skin.

A trailer — which you can see below — has been released that coincides with the release date announcement. It shows off the new areas of the expansion, which are set in the region where Ishgard resides. Compared to areas in the vanilla release, the new zones are more complex in geometry, larger in scope, and have a greater sense of verticality, a perfect combination for the introduction of flying mounts.

In addition to what has been mentioned above, Final Fantasy XIV: Heavensward will also introduce three new job classes to the table: the tank class dark knight, healing class astrologian, and gun-wielding ranged attacker the machinist. Longtime franchise players will recognize the dark knight class, a heavily armored class that gives players access to giant swords and dark magic. The astrologian uses the power of the stars to heal and shield their party. According to the development team, players have been asking for a job with guns for a long time. In response, they’re getting in the machinist, which requires big guns to take down enemies from the back of party lines. The machinist can also drop mechanical turrets to support party members and debuff enemies.

[Image via Square Enix]