Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn is building up to its next expansion, Shadowbringers, but there’s still a few updates and a couple surprises due before its July 2nd launch. Among the goodies is a fun-looking crossover event with Final Fantasy XV. Players will get to hang out with Prince Noctis, battle magitek robots from his world, and even borrow his transforming, flying car – the expansive MMORPG’s first four-player mount. The crossover is due out in mid-April. Take a gander at the event trailer below, and a peek at some of the other bits on the way.

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Final Fantasy XIV s Shadowbringers expansion will launch on July 2nd, Square Enix have announced in a keynote at the Paris fan-festival.

Game director and producer Naoki Yoshida also spoke about many new details, including announcing a crossover raid that will draw on the world of Nier: Automata, called YoRHa: Dark Apocalypse.

A new trailer, helpfully grabbed by YouTuber Giuseppe’s Gaming, teases many of the expansion’s additions, including story beats and the new job class, known as gunbreaker:

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New quests, a new dungeon, a new raid, an oddball new job and mahjong> of all things – today’s Final Fantasy XIV update does not mess around. Patch 4.5 – A Requiem For Heroes – caps off the MMORPG’s current run of content bridging from the end of the Stormblood expansion into the upcoming Shadowbringers. This update includes one final return to the world of Final Fantasy Tactics, plus the curious blue mage class, who copy skills from slain monsters. Check out the patch notes here, and a dramatic update trailer below.

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If you notice, says the catfish, everyone is smiling around me.

It s true. This huge fish person has been waddling through crowds of people who grin even as they duck under the beast s massive barbels. Several people are taking photographs. I peer into the gaping mouth of the fish. Two human hands suddenly lurch out, gripping onto the creature s lips from the inside.

I m a namazu, says Missy Allan, the 32-year-old woman in the costume. It s a giant catfish and they re generally really dumb-looking, and I love them… I thought it would bring a lot of happiness.

When I suggest that it is also slightly terrifying, Missy is unfazed.

That s a part of their joy.

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At Final Fantasy 14‘s fan-festival today, Square Enix announced the third expansion for their increasingly popular MMORPG. Shadowbringers ups the ante, story-wise, promising players the chance to finally take on the technologically advanced Garlean empire directly. Of course, there’s yet another world-ending threat to contend with too. On top of the usual new classes and a raised level cap, Shadowbringers is also introducing the “Trust” system, bringing NPC party members outside of dungeons. Check the cinematic trailer and a peek at the Blue Mage side-class below.

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The PC launch of Monster Hunter: World is still a few days away but one of the game’s hunted monsters has escaped Capcom’s cage and sought sanctuary inside Square Enix’s MMORPG Final Fantasy XIV. The dinodragon mascot Rathalos hits FFXIV in an update today, letting Fantasists fight the “King of the Skies” to score loot including armour made from his guts, a diddy Rathalos flying mount, and a wee Palico cat friend. The crossover goes both ways, with bits of Final Fantasy already popping up in Monster Hunter: World on consoles, though with our delayed launch it’s not exactly clear what will happen with that on PC.

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Final Fantasy XIV and Monster Hunter: World are both games near and dear to my heart, and colliding in a major crossover event next month, at least in the case of Final Fantasy XIV. While I’m hopeful that this crossover will accompany the PC release of Monster Hunter: World on August 9th, we’re poking Capcom for confirmation either way.

Headed to Final Fantasy XIV: Stormblood is the ever-cranky wyvern Rathalos, while Monster Hunter: World is to be visited by Moogles and Cactuars and stomped all over by a Behemoth, one of the Final Fantasy series’s recurring boss beasties. Below, a pair of trailers that charmingly ape each other’s styles.

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Few games make patch day feel even half as momentous as Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn. In-between each major expansion, the MMORPG receives five massive episodic updates bridging between story arcs, adding new features, dungeons and more, each accompanied by a dramatic trailer and a novella’s worth of patch notes.

The third episode of this season was officially unveiled today. Due for launch on May 22nd, Under The Moonlight (aka Patch 4.3) is going heavy on the politics, as Doma negotiates to free its people from the Garlean empire through a prisoner exchange. There’s still time for side-stories, as the Ivalice arc (guest-directed by Yasumi Matsuno) continues to explore the world shared by FF Tactics and FFXII.

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We might be devoting a lot of column inches to the good, good boys of Final Fantasy XV as of late, but let’s not forget that its immediate predecessor is still one of the most successful MMORPGs on the block.

In-between expansions, Final Fantasy XIV is supported by massive episodic updates, each one effectively a small expansion. The second episode of the current season was so big, they had to split it in two. The first half brought cackling clown-god Kefka back for an encore performance, and the latter half (due to hit servers on March 13th) promises a new, larger kind of endgame experience.

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Final Fantasy XIV‘s update trailers continue to surprise and impress me. To call these ‘patches’ sells them short. Every few months in-between major expansions, the revived and highly successful story-driven MMO receives a good slab of episodic content continuing both the main plot arc, as well as expanding outwards into various side-stories and crossover events.

The next such episodic adventure, entitled Rise Of a New Sun (officially ‘patch 4.2’) is due at the end of the month, and looks set to be a nostalgic trip for Final Fantasy 6’s fans, as you can see in the video after the jump.

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