The Tokyo leg of Square Enix's Final Fantasy XIV Fan Fest event series has just kicked off, and with it came a new reveal for Final Fantasy XIV: Dawntrail, the game's next expansion. Producer Naoki Yoshida went onstage at the Tokyo Fan Fest to introduce fans to the game's next playable Job class: The Pictomancer. The other upcoming Dawntrail Job class, the Viper, was revealed at the London Fan Fest event in October 2023.
Check out a brief teaser trailer of some of the Pictomancer's abilities below:
The Pictomancer is a ranged magical DPS Job that uses a palette and brush wand as their main hand weapon. As detailed in their teaser trailer, they use the brush and palette to effectively paint magical effects into existence, using flourishes of paint to bring pictures to life and even summon creatures like Moogles as part of their repertoire. The Pictomancer is inspired by Relm from Final Fantasy VI, who could call on similar abilities in combat. Though Relm's abilities were based on drawing monsters and using their abilities (a bit like Strago, a Blue Mage), the FFXIV interpretation of the class also includes the ability to draw things like landscapes to expand their magical powers.
As for their combat role, Pictomancers aren't quite a fully offensive-focused caster DPS class the way a Black Mage might be. Pictomancers have some party support options to call on, though they aren't a full support class, either. Players will be able to unlock the Pictomancer Job at level 80, with their quest chain starting in the starter city of Gridania.
Square Enix also debuted a further-extended version of Final Fantasy XIV: Dawntrail opening movie. The new cut of the opening included a look at Scion member Krile Baldesion, who will show up in Dawntrail's story wielding Pictomancer powers (much in the way that other Scions adopted Jobs of their own). Characters like Erenville and a new female Hrothgar were also shown. Yoshida said that players will meet the female Hrothgar in a Main Scenario update that will launch with Patch 6.55 (also known as Patch 6.5 Part 2), dated for January 16, 2024.
Dawntrail will also debut a female gender option for the Hrothgar race. Hrothgar were one of the races, alongside Viera, that debuted in Final Fantasy XIV: Shadowbringers. However, at the time, playable Hrothgar were exclusively male, while playable Viera were exclusively female. Over time, the development team added playable male Viera during Endwalker, while playable female Hrothgar will be available with Dawntrail.
Yoshida characterized Dawntrail's story as the "greatest summer vacation" imaginable for the Warrior of Light and the Scions. There they'll travel to Tural, a far western continent known to Eorzeans as "The New World", where a rite of succession is taking place. The female Hrothgar is the daughter of the current ruler, and the Warrior of Light and their friends will be involved in the succession dispute.
Tural itself is inspired by the Americas, and is divided into northern and southern sections, with a great bridge in the area of Tuliyollal connecting the two. Players will visit areas in both north and south Tural. These areas were teased in another preview video:
One area stands out: Solution 9, a futuristic-looking city that will serve as a player hub:
Previews of some of Dawntrail's new dungeons were also shown off, including one that takes place on a large raft floating down a Turali river.
Final Fantasy XIV: Dawntrail will launch in summer 2024. Square Enix has not yet specified a launch date. The latest expansion, Endwalker is available on PC, PS4, and PS5. An Xbox Series X|S version is in development.
