FINAL FANTASY XIV Online News

FFXIV players gather to show solidarity with Ukraine

Over the past week, news of Russia's ongoing invasion of Ukraine has dominated the global headlines. The situation is rapidly changing and details continue to be shaky, though plenty of people are fearful of the ramifications of the conflict. The war has also touched our industry, with various Ukrainian game developers taking to various social media platforms to ask fans for help. Now, though, players are taking to their favourite games to show solidarity with Ukraine, and Final Fantasy XIV is no exception.

Over the past couple of days, we've seen demonstrations on Lich, Shiva, Aether, and other servers. The gatherings all follow a similar theme, with people flocking to one of FFXIV's social hubs while wearing clothing that's dyed blue and yellow to match the Ukrainian flag.

The gatherings follow an online show of support for an FFXIV streamer called Jessica 'Zepla' St. John. The content creator caught the media's attention in January when she uploaded a video updating her audience about the situation in Ukraine and how she might have to move. Following the video, she initially moved to the west of Ukraine from Kyiv before updating everyone on Twitter that she managed to make it to Poland.

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GabeN burned out on WoW, so he's playing FFXIV on Steam Deck

The Steam Deck is finally here, and we all want to know one thing: What's Gabe Newell playing on it? Valve's big boss has been giving out plenty of interviews ahead of the Deck's launch, and GabeN says he's been pouring the hours in on the critically-acclaimed MMORPG Final Fantasy XIV.

"One of my sons got into Final Fantasy," Newell tells IGN. "I sorta got burned out on World of Warcraft. It got to the point where they'd introduce a new level cap, and I'd be like 'ah!' and I'd start playing for about ten minutes and my brain would melt down. So I haven't played an MMO for a while, but one of my sons was into Final Fantasy. And he was mad at the people he'd go raiding with, so he was like 'Okay, I need a minion. Dad, come be my minion. Be my healer who doesn't let me die when I'm tanking.' So I started playing with him, and then I've been playing a ton of it on the Deck."

FFXIV might just be the best choice for MMO gaming on the Steam Deck, given the game's robust controller support, and long history of playability on console platforms. Excellent choice, Gabe. (And Gabe's son.)

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FFXIV modder plays Archer with a Nerf bow controller

A controller modder has found a way to play Final Fantasy XIV's Archer class with a toy bow and arrow, which is pretty cool to imagine until you realise that most of your time would be spent picking up bits of foam off the floor.

Louis 'Super Louis 64' Hamilton explains on Twitter that taking the arrow off the quiver tells a board what ability he will use. The board then uses maths to determine if an arrow has been shot before relaying that information to the game. "The build itself uses a handy-dandy Arduino along with touch sensors and gyroscopes," Hamilton explains. "My hardware game is slowly levelling up so I was able to set up my own code and algorithm to detect the force of the arrow being shot."

Hamilton also explains that, yes, he did not realise how much time he would have to spend picking bits of foam off his floor. "It wasn't until testing [that] I realised that I accidentally made a too-realistic controller. There was an unhealthy amount of time spent searching the floor for used arrows."

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Final Fantasy 14 will make life easier for solo players

Final Fantasy XIV: Endwalker brought a close to some of the long-running MMO's story arcs, but it's far from the end for a game that proved so popular Square Enix briefly removed it from sale. In a live broadcast earlier this week, producer and director Naoki Yoshida outlined future ambitions, including making it possible to play all "main scenario dungeons of A Realm Reborn" with NPC pals instead of other players.

Yoshida also mentioned the game's first planned graphical update, and a partial roadmap of new content to come in future patches.

One of Final Fantasy XIV's most-loved community memes has returned. You can now, once again, play through the entirety of the A Realm Reborn and Heavensward expansions up to level 60 for free with no restrictions on playtime, as the free trial is back.

Director Naoki Yoshida revealed the news during a recent Live Letter from the Producer steam. Alongside assuring fans that FFXIV NFTs won't be a thing you'll have to worry about, the director also shared that the free trial would return on February 22, which is today.

Square Enix temporarily suspended FFXIV's free trial back in December following the release of the Endwalker expansion. Servers became so congested with new and returning players that the developer paused the free trial and sales to bring server queues under control. Two months later, though, things have happily subsided. The passing of time has eased server load as players have caught up with the expansion, but we've also got a new data centre for Australia and New Zealand, which has helped a bit. FFXIV is also getting more NA and EU servers this year, so things should only improve.

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FINAL FANTASY XIV Online News

FFXIV players gather to show solidarity with Ukraine

GabeN burned out on WoW, so he's playing FFXIV on Steam Deck

FFXIV modder plays Archer with a Nerf bow controller

Final Fantasy 14 will make life easier for solo players

One of FFXIV's most-beloved memes has returned