the next Final Fantasy 14 update dubbed “Buried Memory” now has a release date with the patch scheduled to be released on August 23rd. This update – Patch 6.2 for those keeping track – comes with a range of new features like more main quest content, additional dungeons and variants, and an “Island Sanctuary” feature which will give players the chance to manage and build up their own private island like a mini farming or settlement management game.
For those who might’ve missed the latest on this update from Square Enix, the trailer below shared this week should bring you back up to speed. It shows off some of the different dungeons and enemies players will tackle when the update releases as well as a look at the island players will inhabit as they take care of crops, animals, and more.
The site set up for the next Final Fantasy 14 update shared more info about this Island Sanctuary and other key features planned for the next patch. You can find all of that below:
“Find sanctuary in an island paradise abundant with wildlife, where crops may be sown and minions let to roam,” a preview of the next update’s Island Sanctuary feature said. “What will you learn in nature’s embrace─and what will you create from this newfound inspiration? Make ready to set sail, for your hideaway awaits!”
New Final Fantasy 14 Features in Patch 6.2
New Main Scenario Quests
New High-end Raid – Pandæmonium: Abyssos
Island Sanctuary
New Dungeon – The Fell Court of Troia
NewTrial
The First Variant Dungeon – The Sil’dihn Subterrane (Patch 6.25)
The First Criterion Dungeons – Another Sil’dihn Subterrane and Another Sil’dihn Subterrane (Savage) (Patch 6.25)
New Unreal Trial – Containment Bay S1T7
Main Scenario Revisions
Tataru’s Grand Endeavor
Somehow Further Hildibrand Adventures (Patch 6.25)
New Weapon Enhancement Quests – Manderville Weapons (Patch 6.25)
New Tribe Quests – The Omicrons (Patch 6.25)
Adventurer Plates (Official Release)
Allagan Tomastones of Causality
New Crafting Recipes
New Mounts, Minions, and Emotes
New Fashion Accessories
Final Fantasy 14’s Patch 6.2 will be out on August 23rd.
Yesterday, on a Square Enix earnings call, the company explained its recent sale of Crystal Dynamics and Eidos to Embracer Group, which was at the fire sale price of $300 million for the pair of them.
Their explanation is…bizarre to say the least, and according to Square Enix, the sale was “driven by concerns that the titles cannibalized sales of the rest of the group and so it could improve capital efficiency”
Asanalyst David Gibson explained in a thread about the call, this makes little sense, especially when by the time the sale is over, Square Enix has tons of cash on hand, more than enough to fund games and studios, and the real reason appears to be making itself a more attractive target for acquisition, but they refuse to say that.
At baseline, the notion that Crystal Dynamics or Eidos games are cannibalizing other Square Enix games makes little sense to anyone. First of all, Square Enix is constantly complaining that games from those studios are underperforming and not selling. enoughso how could they be significantly cannibalizing Square Enix’s other games?
Then of course, the scheduling of releases and the genres of the games have literally nothing to do with each other. There’s no coherent argument about what Tomb Raider, Avengers, Deus Ex or Guardians of the Galaxy games are “cannibalizing.” The only thing I can even remotely think of here is the release of Avengers and Outriders in the same window, two live service looters, albeit if anything Avengers got the worse end of that stick, and Outriders has been extolled by Square Enix as a success and important IP for their future. But what do any CD/Eidos games have to do with “cannibalizing” other big Square Enix series like Final Fantasy or Dragon Quest?
Again, the overwhelmingly common theory here is that Square Enix and Crystal Dynamics/Eidos have not been a good fit for years, and they wanted to offload them in order to become a slimmed down, more desirable target for acquisition by someone like Sony. While nothing official has been announced, an eventual Sony acquisition, given the history between the two companies and the current state of the market where all independent publishers are getting snapped up by megacorps, would be less than a surprising development. But the fact that Square Enix is being this disingenuous about what’s really happening here is somewhat tiresome and corporate speak at its worst.
Meanwhile, Crystal Dynamics is still making Avengers content, helping Microsoft with Perfect Dark and starting a new Unreal Engine 5 Tomb Raider game for Embracer. Eidos is working on a number of secretive UE5 projects, and we could see the return of IPs like Thief or Legacy of Kain from them. Square Enix, meanwhile, is set to release its highest profile game in a long while, Final Fantasy XVI, next year.
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Square Enix has been a mainstay in the industry for years, but it looks like the Japanese publisher and developer is struggling, having reported declining financial results for Q1 2023 (besides the huge success of its MMORPG, Final Fantasy XIV). And, following the publication of those results, Eurogamer reports that the company is looking to “improve capital efficiency” by selling stakes in its studies.
This comes from an internal conference call held after the results were shared, with MST Financial analyst David Gibson breaking down the discussion on Twitter.
Square Enix recently sold a number of its Western studios to Embracer Group, but that was only phase one of the company’s plans. The next stage is for Square Enix to diversify the studio’s capital structure, and be more selective with resources due to rising costs.
Resources will be focused on Japanese-developed games, with European and American studies impacting the most.
One way Square Enix thinks it will improve its capital efficiency and offset rising costs is by selling stakes in some of its studies. Gibson suspects that the likes of Sony, Tencent, and Nexon would be among the interested parties. What this means is that Square Enix won’t entirely sell studios, but rather a percentage of them,
Interestingly, once the sale with Embracer Group goes through, Square Enix will gain $1.4 billion and potentially remove any debt they have, Gibson states.
Following the call, Square Enix’s shares have risen. At the time of writing this, Square Enix Holdings Co Ltd has seen an 11% increase today.
The company has a huge slate of releases coming out at the end of this year, including on the Switch. The DioField Chronicle launches on the 22nd September, followed by the Switch port of NieR: Automata in October, farming sim Harvestella and Tactics Ogre: Reborn in November, and Dragon Quest Treasures in December. Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII Reunion is also due out in the winter.
It’s also already released two fantastic games earlier in the year, and a long-awaited port — Triangle Strategy, Live A Live, and Chrono Cross. So it’s been a busy year for Square Enix. We’ll have to wait and see what happens with the company for the rest of the year.
What do you think of this announcement? Do you think Square Enix will sell stakes in any of its studios? Let us know.
Square Enix is keeping its end-of-year release calendar extremely busy. Even if you discount titles like Star Ocean: The Divine Force and Valkyrie Elysium, its Switch line-up — which includes The DioField Chronicle, NieR: Automata, and Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII Reunion — is a force to be reckoned with.
But those are all multiplatform releases or ports — and we know we haven’t covered everything there — but there’s one game Square Enix is releasing that is a Switch console exclusive. Harvestella was revealed during Nintendo’s most recent Partner Direct, and it looks like something a bit different for the RPG developer.
Combining life simulation, farming, and RPG elements, this looks like the company’s answer to RuneFactory. With its lovely pastel environments and lush character designs, we’re extremely interested. Today, Square Enix showed off some new details for the game on its blog, focusing on the main town, the game’s job system, character stories, and the different crops you can harvest.
Let’s start off with a summary straight from the blog post then, shall we?
In daily life, you can spend a relaxing day farming, fishing, or raising livestock, before heading to town to socialize and build your relationships with residents. If you want to test your combat skills, you can step into a dungeon to take on hordes of monsters with a variety of weapons and jobs.
Whatever you do, time passes through the seasons, Spring, Summer, Autumn, and Winter. But between each one is a fifth season: Quietus! During this time, crops wither and die, and a deadly dust keeps people trapped indoors.
You’ll need to plan around the changing seasons and the grim inevitability of Quietus, as you attempt to solve the mysteries behind this season of death.
You’ll start your adventure in the town of spring, Nemea. This beautiful lilac-coloured town is full of blossoming flowers all year round, and at night, the cherry blossoms dance in the moonlight. But the appearance of a giant egg on the Spring Seaslight has caused monsters to appear and attack the town’s residents.
Joining forces with a member of the Argus brigade, Asyl, you’ll need to travel to the Seaslight to find out why the egg is causing this discord.
Alongside Asyl, you’ll also meet Istina, a teacher who looks after the children at the town’s orphanage. She has a bit of a hidden past, however, hiding it from the townsfolk and the children, and largely keeping to herself otherwise. But your appearance of her in the town will change all of that for her.
We like Istina. She likes reading and she’s very intelligent, and she enjoys reading aloud to children — especially about all of the world’s different locations. And we also appreciate her trepidation and her quiet nature of her.
We’re also getting a look at a brand new job coming to the game. Joining Fighter, Mage, and Shadow Walker (which is the coolest sounding job ever, if you ask us), there’s the Sky Lancer.
okay maybe Este is as cool sounding as Shadow Walker. It’s essentially a Dragoon class that uses a lance and focuses on wind element attacks. It’s also pretty good at crowd control apparently!
To learn new jobs, you need to work together with another character who has that job. Good thing Asyl is a Sky Lancer, then! We’ll be taking that as soon as we can in our playthrough.
Characters are also pretty important throughout the game, not just in battle. It’s an RPG, remember! And a life sim. Talking to the residents is key. These ‘Character Stories’ will focus on the character’s problems, and completing them will increase your closeness, while also granting rewards and combat boosts!
But you’ll also need to harvest, fish, and ship items out too! And you can whip up some delicious-looking dishes with the ingredients you grow, like strawberry shortcake and Nemea bolognese. And this is just a sampling of what you can make with spring season ingredients! The strawberries are called ‘strawbuddies’, though, and that’s totally worth noting
To make this more like Stardew Valley or Harvest Moon, you can harvest your crops and fish for…fish, and then ship the goods out to make money. You don’t have to cook with them, and sometimes, you’ll want to save up the pennies to buy more goods. And you’ll need to craft some stuff to actually make some other things like wheat.
We’re excited to see what the other seasons bring to the game, and what other jobs we’ll be able to play as in Harvestella. The game launches on 4th November, which means we don’t have very long to wait for this one to sprout!
You can read more about the game over on Square Enix’s blog post below. And make sure youet us know what you think of these new details on Harvestella in the comments!
