Fantasy RPGs have become too comfortable with delivering the expected gaggle of familiar character concepts. Archers, monks, paladins, you know the drill. I’ve seen it all before! Give me, I don’t know, a viking that shoots triple-barreled laser guns out of its dual shields, which also have metal claws, you know? Final Fantasy 14 knows what I’m talking about—down to the last detail, in fact.
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Indeed, the first new job to be introduced as part of the Evercold is just that: the bastion, a main tank that blocks, shoots, and stabs all with the same instrument. Those dual weapons, “known as skyltborg,” seem to be entirely new to the Final Fantasy setting, though they are reminiscent of Rhitahtyn Arvina’s supersized gunshields. Granted, most of my experience with that setting is through Kingdom Hearts, but I know I would have remembered if Mickey Mouse picked a pair of these up at any point.
The teaser trailer shows off some of its combat animations, and as is FF14 tradition, they’re extravagant and accompanied by some badass electronic rock. The roegadyn in the trailer lifts himself into the air to fire laser blasts and uppercut his foe—it looks cool when he does it, but I’m reserving judgment until I’ve seen how ridiculous a lalafell looks doing all these same animations. Game director Yoshi-P certainly pulled the look off, showing up to the Berlin Fan Festival in full bastion cosplay, as players shared on X.
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Notably, the bastion will only be playable in evolved mode, the pruned battle system coming as part of Evercold. More expansion details will come later this year during the Tokyo Fan Festival, and the full thing is set to launch January 2027.
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