It's hard to believe that it's nearly been five months since Final Fantasy 14: Endwalker was released. The latest expansion wrapped up the game's decade-long story, bringing a close to the Hydaelyn/Zodiark arc. I've been itching to know where director Naoki Yoshida and the team will take my character next, with this month's Patch 6.1 beginning to lay the groundwork for what's to come.
Even though we're not even a quarter through Endwalker's life cycle, Yoshida has confirmed that the expansion's entire story has been finished, with the director and producer knuckling down on what he wants the game's next expansion to look like narratively. Speaking to NME, Yoshida said, "The plot for the main scenario in the Patch 6.X series has already been completed and we've decided on its conclusion. Currently, script-related work for several patches and work on the detailed plot are underway. In fact, on my end, I'm already deciding on what I envision for 7.0."
It makes sense that the bulk of the narrative would already be prepared for the next two years, but Endwalker's story structure is a lot different from what we've seen previously. Post-expansion patches usually provide a continuation of the story, eventually building to the story of the following expansion. Endwalker had no story to continue, with 6.1 starting as a blank slate. It's been interesting seeing how the team plans to serve a fresh story with a decade of world-building behind it, and where it'll go over the course of the expansion.
Along with touching upon the narrative, Yoshida briefly mentioned Island Sanctuary. The Harvest Moon-like feature was set to release back with Endwalker, but was pushed back to 6.2 to allow for more development. That's all going smoothly apparently, with Yoshida saying, "Everything is progressing well but since this is content that plays very differently from things we've implemented previously, now that Patch 6.1 has been released, I'd like to spend taking a closer look by showcasing it in the Letter from the Producer Live for Patch 6.2"
