Final Fantasy XIV: Endwalker

Final Fantasy XIV: Endwalker is the fourth expansion pack for Final Fantasy XIV, the massively multiplayer online role-playing game from Square Enix, which both developed and published it. It launched on December 7, 2021 for Windows, macOS, PlayStation 4, and PlayStation 5, with Xbox Series X/S and Nintendo Switch 2 versions arriving later. Naoki Yoshida returned as director and producer, and Masayoshi Soken composed the score. Endwalker was sold as a standalone purchase for existing players, while new players could get it through the Complete Edition, which bundles every expansion.

The expansion closes the Hydaelyn and Zodiark story arc that started with A Realm Reborn. The Warrior of Light and the Scions of the Seventh Dawn set out to stop Zenos and Fandaniel from bringing back the Final Days, an apocalypse that threatens all of existence. The journey covers Old Sharlayan, Radz-at-Han, Labyrinthos, Thavnair, and the ruins of Garlemald, then reaches the moon and even the distant past.

Gameplay and quest structure follow the base game, with players sharing a persistent online world. Endwalker raises the level cap to 90 and adds two jobs: Sage, a healer that directs aetheric energy through magical objects called nouliths, and Reaper, a melee fighter with a scythe that draws on an avatar from the void. Many existing jobs were reworked, including a full overhaul of Summoner, and launch also brought a reduction of the game’s numerical values to avoid overflow problems. Estinien joined the Trust system, which lets players run dungeons with computer-controlled allies.

Later patches added further content. These include the Pandæmonium and Myths of the Realm raid series, the Crystalline Conflict player versus player mode alongside a reworked PvP system, and Island Sanctuary, a farming mode on a deserted island. Patch 6.1 added the Empyreum housing district in Ishgard with a lottery system for houses, and later updates let players visit other data centers in their region. A follow-up story about the Void and the archfiends ran through the patches and led into Dawntrail.

Development started with a scriptwriting retreat between Yoshida and writers Natsuko Ishikawa and Banri Oda, and the COVID-19 pandemic pushed the release from the third to the fourth quarter of 2021. Square Enix revealed the expansion at an online showcase in February 2021 in place of the usual Fan Festival. Endwalker received universal acclaim according to Metacritic, with particular praise for how it concluded the long-running story. It won Role-Playing Game of the Year at the 25th D.I.C.E. Awards, Online Game of the Year at the following ceremony, and an Award for Excellence at the 2022 Japan Game Awards.