After a few delays and some coronavirus-related troubles along the way, the Final Fantasy XIV team is officially ready to ship the game's next major content patch. Patch 5.3 is coming on the 11th of August, containing new content for those keeping up with the latest expansion, as well as a completely re-worked ‘New Player Experience'. 

Patch 5.3, otherwise known as the ‘Reflections in Crystal' update, is described as an “ideal opportunity for new players to dive into Final Fantasy XIV Online”. The original game has been reworked, so the ‘A Realm Reborn' scenario content is streamlined, as is the Heavensward expansion. With all of that work in place, new players will be able to freely play hundreds of hours of content while levelling up to 60. At that point, you'll be in a good position to get cracking on new content, including the Stormblood and Shadowbringers expansions.

You can watch a trailer for Patch 5.3 above. While all of the new player experience updates are great, this patch is also big for current players that have already caught up. With this patch, we will see the finale for the Shadowbringers story, in addition to new trials and challenges for veteran players.

Finally, this patch also brings another chapter to Final Fantasy XIV's cross-promotion with NieR, with another YoRHa: Dark Apocalypse alliance raid.

KitGuru Says: At this point, Final Fantasy XIV has 20 million registered players, so it will be interesting to see how much of a boost the game gets now that the base game and first expansion are re-worked and free to play. Are any of you planning on jumping into Final Fantasy XIV when the new patch drops in August? 

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