This summer promises the first teases for the next expansion of Final Fantasy 14 at the Las Vegas FanFest. Running at the end of July, the FanFest will give players some critical information about what will be next for the successful MMO. Players are so excited to get a glimpse of the 7.0 expansion that tickets to Final Fantasy 14's upcoming FanFest sold out in just minutes, so it's clear speculation and hopes for the future are running high in the community.
There are a lot of hot topics fans are interested in, from the expansion’s title and locations players will visit to what new jobs will be added. Some wonder about the implementation of Hrothgar women in Final Fantasy 14 or the continuation of some of the game’s long-running side stories. But one group with particular hopes is the performing arts community within the game. Recently, Game ZXC talked with the team behind the theatrical company Curtain Call about what performers hope to hear at FanFest.
What concerned ChiliFarmer, Tromad, and Ahro’zi (Chili, Tro, and Ahro colloquially) of Curtain Call was improvements that could be made to housing. This comes as little surprise; Final Fantasy 14's housing system allows for some elaborate creations which the troupe has made use of on the Maduin server where their performing arts venues have been able to cluster. While the housing system is impressive, it does still have some serious limitations. As Tro explained,
“I would like to see the ability to change up interior layouts. You have your stairs going up and down, and there's a giant opening where they meet up with the balcony that wraps around the inside. I hope that at some point, there's some way they allow us to sort through a variety of different internal designs for that, so we're not all relying on the same staircase being in the same place right in the middle where I want to put my stage!”
Though Curtain Call, and its sister project—Final Fantasy 14's music venue Esprit—have been designing around those limitations, doing so requires a large number of items that count against the housing system’s restrictive cap on furnishing slots. That cap, too, is rumored to be raised in the upcoming expansion. But it isn’t the only restrictive cap on a housing feature: the ability to preview furniture before purchase is limited to just one item at a time. Chili added,
“I would love a full preview system, but I just really want to see how a few items work together before buying. So maybe, you know, you can put five items together, especially if you want to create something that isn't in the game; like you want to clip several items together and see how they look together. I like that for my scenic designs. I like to work with creating some artistic-looking elements, so being able to preview more than one item at once so that I can see how that looks together [and] so I can see different colors together.”
The team also wished for indoor striking dummies to allow the use of various combat actions inside, to be used as special effects for productions. They also hoped that Island Sanctuary would continue its development toward adding instanced housing to Final Fantasy 14, which would help alleviate the game’s long-standing housing crisis. Of course, not all their hopes for Final Fantasy 14’s next expansion are related to the housing system or performing arts. Ahro added, “What I really, really want to see is more development for Blue Mage and for other limited jobs. I remember when Endwalker was being teased, and we all expected a Beastmaster job. ‘Oh, yeah, we're definitely getting that.’ We didn't, but that'd be really cool."
In addition to limited jobs in Final Fantasy 14, Curtain Call’s leaders are interested in seeing a whip-using class, as well as in where the expansion would take place. Ahro is interested in more lore on the region of Bozja, while Tro is hoping for more look at the technology in Final Fantasy 14, found in places like Garlemald and Sharlayan. Chili is looking to the planet’s south.
“I'm hoping for Meracydia, as it was a location mentioned a lot lately. It'd be really interesting, especially with everything that's happened in the story so far, and the holes that were left from different storylines that I want to see tied together. That's definitely one place I would love to go, and of course, I eventually want to go to other worlds. I love that: visiting other places and seeing how their worlds work on a systematic level and how people interact and how everything is different, or maybe how it's connected to real life. Final Fantasy 14 does that a lot, it connects things to real places.”
And of course, players want Final Fantasy 10’s aquatic rugby sport Blitzball to make an appearance.
“Another thing, completely silly, however, let's get some Blitzball at the Gold Saucer already?” Ahro said. “You know, how cool would it be if we get Blitzball prizes at Gold Saucer? You could buy a uniform, with different uniforms of Blitzball teams? That'd be so cool.”
Final Fantasy 14 players will find out how much on Curtain Call’s wishlist may be coming across three FanFests, the first of which will be held in Las Vegas on July 28th and 29th.
Final Fantasy 14 is available for PC, PS4, and PS5.