A recent Final Fantasy XIV Shadowbringers trailer spotlit an unlikely candidate for the Warrior of Darkness in Spider-Man: Far From Home star Tom Holland and his coach, Hannibal Buress (who played Coach Wilson in Spider-Man: Homecoming). The trailer is the latest indication that developer Square Enix feels Final Fantasy XIV has serious cross-over potential with Western markets, as evidenced by the fact that the game recently hit 16 million subscribers before the launch of its latest expansion, an incredible feat for MMORPGs.
The Final Fantasy XIV Shadowbringers launch will be one for the ages as Square Enix gears up for the third expansion in its long-running MMO franchise. In it, players are told to forget everything they know about their avatar’s current status as a Warrior of Light and hero; it turns out they’ve been lied to all along, and there has to be balance between Light and Dark. Shadowbringers sees players travel to a new realm in order to bring that balance as a Warrior of Darkness, potentially even confronting the God they’ve been serving for the narrative leading up to the newest expansion. It’s bound to shake things up, on top of the fact that two new jobs in the Gunbreaker and Dancer will be added to the game.
Still, even with the buzz surrounding the Final Fantasy XIV Shadowbringers launch, it’s surprising to see Square Enix enlist such huge talents in both Tom Holland and Hannibal Buress for what amounts to a brief trailer for the new expansion. It’s a great comedic trailer that should help bring eyeballs onto the game that wouldn’t normally be interested, but it also begs the question of just how much money Square Enix is actually making off of Final Fantasy XIV if this is the kind of thing that’s within budget. Check the trailer in full here:
It’s an encouraging sign for fans of the MMO that Square Enix is comfortable advertising it with such a major commitment to talent. Final Fantasy XIV is historic already for the way it righted the ship after an abysmal launch that saw players utterly dismayed at the state of what was supposed to be the next great Final Fantasy project. Final Fantasy XIV A Realm Reborn completely turned things around and has even become the blueprint for other reconstruction efforts, most recently being used by some critics who have suggested that Anthem should follow Final Fantasy XIV’s lead and rebuild from the ground up.
Final Fantasy XIV Shadowbringers arrives in just a few short weeks and will bring with it not only new jobs, but two new races in the Viera and Hrothgar. Despite some controversy over the inability to have male and female versions of those races respectively, Shadowbringers has deftly navigated most of the initial concerns around its announcement and caused excitement in fans thanks to some later reveals. The fact that Shadowbringers will likely mean growth for Final Fantasy XIV is frankly astonishing in 2019, a year where other famous MMOs are revisiting their glory days with classic versions of their older content in order to appease jaded fans.
Next: Final Fantasy XIV: Shadowbringers Post-Launch Plans Detailed
Source: FINAL FANTASY XIV/YouTube
