Final Fantasy XIV has been in content drought territory lately, with players taking the opportunity to level alt jobs and painstakingly create elaborate portraits for each one — but all of that is about to change with patch 7.2. After a 24-hour maintenance period on the 24th, the patch will launch on March 25.
For hard content players, the Savage version of the new Arcadion: Cruiserweight Division tier will release seven days after the initial patch, giving you one week to prep your gear. Naoki Yoshida and Toshi Murouchi showed off the first fight of the new tier in a Live Letter stream today, revealing a disco-dancing male Viera named “Dancing Green” as the boss.
He looks so comical that as the footage showed a Warrior of Light getting ready to take him on, Murouchi lamented how embarrassing it is for us to fight such a ridiculous boss with such a serious face. We’re all quite used to facing ridiculous bosses in FFXIV, though, of course. Interestingly, it looks like the fight will have some kind of rhythm game aspect to it, with Yoshida alluding to a perfection bonus and likening the music to a DDR (Dance Dance Revolution) track.
Alongside the usual story and raid content, we’re also getting updates to PvP, the new Cosmic Exploration content, and the next Field Exploration series (i.e. the new Bozja).
Cosmic Exploration is a new type of side content for leveling crafters and gatherers at level 10 and above, coming in patch 7.21 on April 22. The theme of the content appears to be building bases on distant planets, with the content beginning on the moon in this patch and moving on to new places in future updates. The main gameplay loop revolves around completing missions, earning credits, and getting rewards to expand the base. Nice QoL features include a separate inventory and a permanent sprint button.
It also looks like you can fly around in a giant mech suit, smashing crystals to collect resources. There are definitely a fair few similarities between this content and the Firmament — it even has a new version of Kupo Fortune called Cosmic Fortune where you can trade “Lunar Credits” for prizes (including a new dye color).
The new Field Exploration series is coming in patch 7.25 (coming May 27) and it’s called Occult Crescent. You need to have completed Dawntrail and have a Disciple of War or Magic at level 100 to enter and it will be split into different instances, each with up to 72 players. Much like the Bozja content from Shadowbringers, Occult Crescent has its own leveling system where you’ll lose experience points each time you’re incapacitated (unless you’re revived by another player). There will also be a separate support job system called “Phantom Jobs,” which you can unlock and level up as you progress.
Critical Encounters are making a comeback too, hopefully with as many hardcore mechanics as the encounters in Bozja. When enough players gather at a Critical Encounter, you can form parties and take on the boss in a time-limited battle. There’s also a weapon enhancement story tied to this content called “The Phantom Weapon.”
Two QoL upgrades that are also coming are the ability to summon your mount while moving and a new “jogging” state that keeps your movement speed up for longer after a sprint ends. They might sound small, but don’t be fooled — this is a big deal.
To recap, here’s a list of the main content coming in the 7.2 patches:
Acer’s Predator Atlas 8 finally has a US release date and price, several months after the company first showed off the handheld in May. The highlight is the Intel Arc G3 Extreme chip inside, which has been adopted by only a couple of other consoles besides the Atlas 8. This version will go on sale exclusively at Best Buy on November 1 for $1,299.99.
Acer originally said the Atlas 8 would arrive in North America in October, but left pricing open at the time. The launch came amid the ongoing DRAM crunch, which has made memory more expensive across the PC industry and complicated pricing for hardware makers.
Gaming laptops and I have a complicated relationship. One of my first gaming rigs was an Acer Predator that was already outdated when I bought it. I was a broke college kid, and that was the best I could afford. So trying out high-end gaming laptops is always fun. But ASUS' ROG Zephyrus G14 is a lot more than a laptop that can run AAA games. It is portable, so you're not lugging around a 2.5kg machine everywhere you go. It is built well, none of that plastic chassis, and can even function as a normal laptop outside of just gaming.
Google Play is borrowing one of the Nintendo Switch’s most useful little tricks. A new Sidekick tool called Playbacks captures a short clip after something interesting has already happened, sparing players from running a screen recorder throughout an entire game.
Playbacks is part of Google Play Store v53.8 and keeps saved clips on the phone. Google first announced it earlier this month, but the new Play Store update marks its arrival for players. Anyone who has watched a perfect win vanish because the record button came too late already understands the appeal.