Here is a summary of the recently concluded Live Letter 79, which includes more information about the upcoming Patch 6.5 in Final Fantasy 14 (FFXIV). This live letter aired on the Square Enix YouTube Channel during the fourth day of the Tokyo Game Show 2023.

This is a summary of the FFXIV Live Letter which happened on September 23, 2023. It covered the rest of the information for Patch 6.5, which is coming in October. While the presentation itself has both Japanese and English text, the live letter itself is in Japanese. Translations for the Live Letter will come from the official FFXIV Discord Server. Now, without further ado, let's jump straight into the summary.

FFXIV Live Letter 79 Patch 6.5 Summary

The FFXIV Live Letter 79 began with a trailer for the upcoming patch, which featured Zero, a Voidsent players have become familiar with. It then switches over to the First, where Ryne makes an appearance. Various previews followed, showing dungeons, trials, the new Alliance Raid, and more. It also showed snippets from the patch's Main Scenario Quest, which showed Zero working with Ryne, Zero facing off against Golbez, and more. The trailer finished with the splash art for the expansion, as well as its title: Growing Light.

After the trailer finished, FFXIV Producer Naoki Yoshida (Yoshi-P), as well as Global Community Producer Toshio Murouchi (Morbol) appeared and welcomed everyone in TGS to the Live Letter. They started by revealing the dates for the upcoming patch. Part one of the patch, or 6.5, arrives on October 3, 2023. Part 2, on the other hand, or 6.55, will arrive in mid-January, 2024.

They then provided a summary of things that they talked about in the previous Live Letter 78. This includes the new quests, adjustments, various updates, an update to the Duty Support (leading up to the Expanded Free Trial), as well as the Fall Guys x FFXIV Collaboration.

They then revealed their roadmap for the coming months. First is Patch 6.5 which, as mentioned above, will arrive in FFXIV on October 3, 2023. This brings with it Main Scenario Part 1, as well as the new Alliance Raid: Thaleia. Then. the Londo Fan Fest will happen on October 21-22, 2023. Afterward, in Late October 2023, Patch 6.51 will launch, bringing with it Aloalo Island (Variant and Criterion Dungeon) and The Red Sands (Crystalline Conflict Map). Then the Japan Fan Fest will happen on January 7-8, 2024. After the Fan Fest, in mid-January 2024,  Main Scenario Part 2 will come out, along with all of the new Sidequests.

They then moved on to the specifics that are coming to Patch 6.5 First up are the Job Adjustments. They mentioned that adjustments would be happening to the jobs. Their aim is to “balance damage output between jobs within each role”. They aim to do this by increasing the potency of certain job actions. They explained that since there will be a new level cap coming to 7.0 alongside new Job Actions, they weren't making any changes to the Job Rotations, focusing instead on damage balance.

Moving forward, they showed the stage for The Abyssal Fracture, which features Zeromus, as well as the stage itself. The stage itself does not have any walls, so players can easily fall off. Not only that but there are multiple lines and shapes on the floor, which are hints of the Trial's mechanics. Yoshi-P then proceeds to give players a sample of the fight, which includes various AOE mechanics, a multi-hit Stack marker, and a Tank Buster, which killed Yoshi-P's Black Mage, bringing an end to the preview.

Next up is the Crystalline Conflict Update. There will be some Minimap and UI adjustments to the game mode, as well as a new Arena: The Red Sands. This will arrive in Patch 6.51 Here are the UI Adjustments:

  • New settings to permanently display the affiliated team to the left of the minimap and/or HUD.
  • New lines to indicate the Comeback Point, or where the losing team must progress to to turn the tide.
  • New setting to display a 10-second countdown timer prior to overtime
  • Enhanced Progress Gauge
    • Flashing background to highlight the winning team
    • Comeback Point indicator
    • Clear checkpoint clear progress
    • Overtime timer
      • The gauge displayed how long the losing team can spend away from the crystal before losing the match
  • Effects for certain actions, pets, etc. adjusted to properly show ally vs. enemy attacks.

Yoshi-P and Morbol then show off The Red Sands. One of the map's key features is a one-way sand path, which leads to an Oasis. Stepping into the Oasis gives the player an HP Regen. The regen lasts for 30 seconds after leaving the Oasis. As with most maps, there are map-specific gimmicks. For The Red Sands, it comes in the form of a heat wave, which constantly damages players. Players can heal the damage by catching falling things. There is also a sinkhole that can pull players to its center, instantly killing them. A pathway is also present on both sides of the map that speeds the character up.

After showing the map off, they then showed a preview of the upcoming PvP rewards. This includes some fancy armor, as well as some futuristic streetwear. The Armor is a reward for progressing through PVP, while the streetwear is tradable with Trophy Crystals.

They then started their preview of the new Alliance Raid: Thaleia. They started with the opening cutscene for the new map, which features a waterway, which the players will have to follow during the first part of the raid. Yoshi-P showed off until the Alliance Raid's first boss showed off its arena. As usual, the Arena has various indicators on the floor that players can use to predict and dodge mechanics. The arena also does not have a wall, so players can fall off.

Afterward, they moved on to the new gear that players can get from the Thaleia raid. Much like the previous two Alliance Raids, the theme seems to be fantasy armor and robes. They then, for some reason, moved on to some housing items, including an indoor flower patch, outdoor stairs, and a mech repair station. They then went back to glamour pieces, showing off some simple black streetwear, as well as a cat-eared jacket and cat paws.

After showing off the glamour and housing pieces, Yoshi-P demonstrated a new mount, which has a fairy carrying the player. This will be available in FFXIV Patch 6.5x, with no relation to previous fairies. There is also a thin, blue Sabotender mount that players can ride from behind, another motorcycle mount, and a UFO mount that abducts the player. They also demonstrated a new minion, which involves a floating stone head, as well as a summer-clothes-clad Island Sanctuary Assistant.

Following the demonstration of the mounts and minions, they talked about their planned improvements to server infrastructure. They are currently considering cloud data centers to help with the load. They are trying to avoid incidents like the ones during the Endwalker launch from happening again. At the moment, they are testing this out using a North American cloud data center. This data center will be temporarily available for the purpose of a public stress test. This will happen during the 6.5x patch series. Further details will be available at a later time.

What follows is a collaboration that was recently announced, with KFC. Beginning October 4, 2023, players can buy a combo meal in participating retailers throughout Japan to receive stickers, as well as the Eat Chicken in-game emote. It is sadly only available in Japan.

The Final Fantasy XIV TTRPG also received a release date, with the starter set becoming available in May 2024. Pre-orders for the FFXIV TTRPG are now ongoing. They also announced the start of the pre-orders for the Kanto leg of the FFXIV 10th Anniversary Fireworks and Music. The show is on November 3, 2023. Players who order early will receive a discount.

Afterward, they announced that on October 2, 2023, Yoshi-P will be holding an FFXIV Patch 6.5 Patch Note reading. This was followed by the announcement about the upcoming Expanded Free Trial, which will now include the entirety of Stormblood on top of the Heavensward and A Realm Reborn. Current Free Trial players will receive an increase in their level cap (from 60 to 70), as well as access to two new jobs: Samurai and Red Mage. They also reiterated the dates for the upcoming Fan Festivals, before ending the Live Letter.

That's all for our summary of the FFXIV Live Letter 79, which contains news for Patch 6.5 and more. Again, FFXIV Patch 6.5 arrives on October 3, 2023. Check out our gaming news articles for the latest in gaming news.