The fantasy MMORPG Final Fantasy XIV will receive a massive expansion titled “Heavensward” next week on PC, Playstation 3, and 4. What does Patch 3.0 bring? How did the early access go? How is the expansion being advertised in Japan?
Early access of Heavensward puts servers under strain
On Friday morning, early access began for pre-order customers. Since then, Eorzea has been in chaos: long queues, overcrowded areas, and the login server only accessible sporadically. These are the issues many players have been complaining about since Friday.
Over the weekend, efforts were made to resolve the problems, and several nasty server errors have been addressed. It was said on Saturday evening that the number of possible connections to the data centers is being constantly increased. Nevertheless, problems may still occur: the demand is simply too high.
The server errors that have now been resolved occurred on the servers Balmung, Phoenix, Cerberus, Gilgamesh, and Ragnarok.
Expansion Heavensward is “story-locked”
Similar problems as at the launch of the last WoW expansion “Warlords of Draenor.”
Those who manage to get onto the servers and are not “hardcore players” will notice: Oh dear! I still have a lot to do before I can access anything new. The patches in recent months added more gameplay content to the main story. And the story must be completed before the actual expansion begins. Those logging in now thinking: It starts with the new content, will first have to fight through the old “new” content.
How can I become a Dark Knight?
While most MMORPG expansions are “level-locked”, Heavensward is story-locked. Before the Dark Knight, which everyone asks about in chat, the powers that be (in this case Square Enix under Final Fantasy mastermind Naoki Yoshida) have provided a lot of content.
Square Enix has now released the details for Patch 3.0. Officially, it starts on Tuesday, June 23rd. Even though we introduced the individual steps of Heavensward over several months: Everything that Heavensward brings, packed into one article – that is already an incredible amount of details, screenshots, and features. Just like you would imagine a “real” MMORPG expansion. Check out the details for Patch 3.0 on the homepage yourself.
Japanese trailers for Heavensward radiate Final Fantasy charm
We found these two trailers: One shows the TV commercial for Heavensward in Japan and the second … no idea what that represents: Kind of a fashion show or something. But it is definitely Final Fantasy, and that is evident at first glance. At least the expansion does not change that.
