Final Fantasy 14 recently held a Live Letter from the Producer on the subject of Patch 6.2, Buried Memory, its next major content patch. In addition to the new content coming in the patch, Final Fantasy 14 is continuing to expand the solo-friendly Duty Support System through all of its story content.
The Duty Support System is an evolution of the Trust system introduced in Shadowbringers. This system allowed players to bring NPC allies into dungeons instead of players. These NPCs often have unique dialogue, interactions, behaviors, and actions in the Duty Support System.
More recently, Final Fantasy 14 has gone back and added the Duty Support System to all story-required dungeons through all of A Realm Reborn, with a promise to add this system to every story dungeon up until Shadowbringers, where it was already implemented. This will eventually allow players to complete the entire Main Scenario as a nearly-solo experience.
In the A Realm Reborn dungeons, players bring nameless adventurers with them into dungeons. While charming in their own rights, these characters are less important than the major NPCs players can team up with in Shadowbringers and Endwalker. However, the new screenshots shared by Final Fantasy 14 showed that Estinein, Ysayle, and Alphinaud will be able to fight alongside the player character in some Heavensward dungeons.
This means the Duty Support dungeons in Heavensward and Stormblood will break that mold and allow players to bring beloved Final Fantasy 14 NPCs with them in certain dungeons. In the future, it may be possible for players to party with popular characters like Haurchefant, Aymeric, and Hilda in some Heavensward dungeons, and Hien, Yugiri, Lyse, and Gosetsu in Stormblood. Patch 6.2 will add Duty Support to all story dungeons through The Vault–the Great Gubal Library, Aetherochemical Research Facility, and future dungeons will likely come in 6.25, with Stormblood following some time after.
Players are elated to see these characters being added to the Duty Support System. When Final Fantasy 14 first announced the system, many hoped players might team up with Scions and other major NPCs in old dungeons, but were dismayed when the A Realm Reborn allies were generic adventurers. However, Heavensward is the first place in the story where the player character regularly travels with NPC allies in the Main Scenario, so it was the perfect place to allow players implement these characters. Once the Duty Support System is fully integrated, new Final Fantasy 14 players will be able to experience more characterization alongside these NPCs, while veteran players can experience new moments with them via New Game+.
Final Fantasy 14 is available now for PC, PS4, and PS5. Buried Memory launches in late August.
