Everything we know about FFXIV Mobile

• Set in A Realm Reborn
• A fully functional Gold Saucer
• Missing a few combat classes

Having this - writing about games - be a paying job is a dream come true. I feel lucky to be able to do it, but if I had one wish beyond this, it would be to get paid for playing Final Fantasy XIV. I play it every day, I adore it, and now thanks to the officially announced development of FFXIV Mobile, I can tick something else off the bucket list. So; here’s everything we know so far about Final Fantasy 14 mobile.

There were rumblings that this was in the works way back in August, we even covered this at the time. Having it be officially announced, however, and from the mouth of Naoki Yoshida himself, is something else. But let’s not get ahead of ourselves, what do we actually know at this point?

First off, it is being developed by Lightspeed Studios, a subsidiary of Tencent Games. That parent company is a big name, and to be fair to them Lightspeed has its own claim to fame with co-developing PUBG Mobile. The project is, of course, being overseen by Square Enix along the way, so all in all, a pretty solid backing.

Stand-alone or straight port?

Now onto the important bit. From everything I have read, I feel confident this won’t be a port of the current game state. I believe it will instead function as Black Desert Mobile does, a stand-alone. This is due to FFXIV Mobile for all intents and purposes resetting back to A Realm Reborn, the first expansion back when Yoshi-P rescued the MMORPG from the burning embers it was in.

All of the official artwork and the trailer have only shown places and people from A Realm Reborn. We see Ul’dah, Limsa Lominsa, and Gridania in all their glory, along with the original cast of the Scions of the Seventh Dawn. Minphilias cameo at the end beckoning us to “Pray return to the Waking Sands” might as well have been the tagline for ARR. 

A slightly limited range of battle classes

Further to this point, there will only be nine battle classes released at launch. Watching the trailer this will most likely be Maurauder, Thaumaturge, Conjurer, Archer, Gladiator, Arcanist, Pugilist, and Lancer. These all evolve into a second class later, and you may notice I only listed eight. I did not see a hint of a Rogue, but Summoner is on the official artwork.

If you don’t know, Arcanist evolves into both Summoner and Arcanist, bringing our eight classes up to nine jobs. It would be probably incredibly difficult to sync this reset mobile world up with the now eleven-year-old original, so I am nearly certain there will be no cross-play between the two. 

On the plus side, however, we will have access to all of the jobs for crafting and gathering. This is a very important pastime in MMORPGs, providing equipment, money, and some nice mindless fun. I do see the market boards being dominated by experienced players, however, which would be unfair for proper newbies, but there is no way to combat that.

Take part in FFXIV-vaunted mini-games

Another thing we can enjoy is the delights of the Gold Saucer on the go. Fun fact, I nearly wept the first time I arrived here in FFXIV. The nostalgia from FF7 was too much. Anyway, here you can enjoy fun mini-games known as GATEs, consisting of parkour challenges, and dodging falling bamboo cut by an ancient samurai summon.

You can also take part in some good old-fashioned chocobo racing, and Triple Triad, the greatest card game in Final Fantasy history. I would even say the greatest mini-game, sit down Blitzball fans, Final Fantasy 8 is my beloved. What wasn’t mentioned but I did briefly see was a snip of a scene from the Fashion Report, where you dress up in specific outfits for currency to spend on more glamours. Easy MGP farm then.

When is that elusive release date?

Finally, two further pieces of content that aren’t officially included as of yet. There was a scene of characters on flying mounts. This was a mechanic introduced after AAR but was retroactively added to the expansion, so it looks like we will have that right off the bat in FFXIV Mobile. Secondly, PvP hasn’t been mentioned but I definitely saw The Wolves Den, the PvP hub, so prepare to beat your friends.

As far as release dates go, we are some way from that. You can sign up on the official website for any future news, but right now there isn’t even a demo. China will get the first whack at this gem thanks to a series of play tests releasing “soon”, followed by a global release. It can’t come soon enough.