If you've been taking a break to play something other than Final Fantasy 14 (first of all: why?) Square Enix has a little treat in store for you - a free login campaign. Yes, you can now enjoy up to a grand total of 96 hours of free game time until November 23.
That's 96 hours to spend attempting to slay that dreaded red chocobo, Red Comet, or just getting back into the swing of this MMORPG behemoth. There are, however, some limitations on who exactly can participate.
For starters, you need to own and have registered the game. Second, your account needs to be inactive throughout the campaign. Third, you can't have played FF14 for at least the past thirty days. That last part isn't overly surprising given that the campaign is really about luring back those who've dropped out for whatever reason. If you're eligible to take part, all you need to do is launch the game, log in, and start playing. But be warned! Your free play period begins immediately after you've logged in.
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Final Fantasy 14 players do not have pleasant memories of red chocobos. They first popped up two years ago in the MMORPG as part of a series of Final Fantasy 12-themed raids called Return to Ivalice. As part of one quest, you had to deal with a flock of them and, eh, it didn't go well. Final Fantasy 14's crimson birds have returned, and they're as dangerous as they ever were.
Final Fantasy XIV's Patch 5.35 introduces a new area called the Bozjan Southern Front, which is an extension of the previous Return to Ivalice raid series. As part of your adventures there, you can fight on behalf of the Bozjan Resistance in a new mode called 'critical engagements'. That's all well and good, but one of the foes you can run into is a certain crimson chococbo called Red Comet. It did not take long for word of this bird's destructive capabilities to reach Reddit and Twitter. The evidence is in the hallowed remains of various players that you see there.
Red Comet proves to be a handful as they lock your group into a small circle that they frequently fill up with various AoE abilities. Most of this fight is running from point to point and whittling down the chocobo's health when you can.
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Final Fantasy XIV's 2020 updates suffered some delays as a result of the global pandemic, but the patch 5.4 release date is set for December, and with the updates back to their regular cadence, it's still likely that the 6.0 expansion will launch in 2021. It looks like we're just a few months away from getting details on that new expansion, too.
New FF14 expansions have historically been revealed over the course of the annual Fan Festivals around the world. The North American event in November and Japanese event in December had already been cancelled, and during today's Letter from the Producer stream, the devs confirmed that that European Fan Fest in February is cancelled, as well.
Instead, Square Enix says "we'll be hosting an event in February 2021 to announce new information". That quote is from an official, English translated slide, and according to the unofficial translation on the FF14 Discord, director Naoki Yoshida teased that he doesn't know what new info it will be, but the announcement will cover new things from FF14. On the same day, the devs will also hold the latest iteration of their annual 14-hour livestream.
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