In addition to adding new areas, the expansion pack increased the level cap, debuted two character classes and two playable races, and introduced the ability to explore dungeons with non-playable "Trust" companions.

Renovations to the crafting and gathering jobs were applied across the patch cycle to improve accessibility to newcomers,[10] removing redundant abilities and providing more information to players.

[16] Blue Mages uniquely learn actions from observing monsters, but because this allows unbalanced combinations, the job is Limited and cannot use normal player matchmaking.

Players engage in skirmishes and battles with Garlean forces in Bozja, culminating in a raid on an Imperial fortress or airship to capture it for the Resistance, respectively.

[24] The Rak'tika Greatwood houses, the Ronkan Empire's ruins, and the Night's Blessed, a religious community hiding from Light beneath the jungle canopy.

Emperor Varis zos Galvus begins mass-producing Black Rose, a chemical weapon lethal even in tiny doses, to retaliate against Ala Mhigo's successful revolution.

With the twins, plus the Exarch and his adopted daughter Lyna, the Warrior saves the villagers of Holminster Switch, defeating a powerful sin eater, a "Lightwarden".

The newly-minted Warrior of Darkness gathers the regalia to enter and slays Titania; Feo Ul becomes King, leading Il Mheg's defense as night returns.

The Echo reveals Emet-Selch offered Vauthry's father a deal: bind a Lightwarden to his unborn son, and thus control sin eaters.

The Scions pursue Emet-Selch to the seafloor, where he has overlaid ancient ruins of Amaurot, his people's capital, with an illusion of the original city, complete with citizen simulacra.

The Warrior weaponizes the Light, forming it into an axe which they use to mortally wound Hades, while also purging it from their body and restoring Norvrandt's night sky.

Meanwhile, Eulmore's citizens elect Chai-Nuzz, a neurotic yet brilliant engineer who reluctantly led the operation to climb Mount Gulg, as their next mayor.

The Telophoroi assault Paglth'an, the Amalj'aa homeland, led by Lunar Bahamut; the Alliance comes to their aid, and the Warrior defeats the primal, with Tiamat leaving to protect her remaining children.

As the Scions learn the Towers drain the land of aether, the Warrior sees a strange female apparition, who warns them of the coming apocalypse.

Planning for Shadowbringers began in May 2017, about one month prior to the release of the preceding expansion, Stormblood, with a "scriptwriting retreat" involving producer and director Naoki Yoshida and the main scenario writers, Natsuko Ishikawa and Banri Oda.

[15][38] Another challenge in designing the First was setting it apart from the Source world; the different teams needed to consider how 10,000 years of diverging history would impact its culture despite featuring the same races of people.

The Trust system was designed to help people who are primarily familiar with offline RPGs and other Final Fantasy games to practice multiplayer content without the pressure of other players.

Yoshida explained that resource constraints prevented the team from adding all genders to the two races, chiefly the need to redesign and adjust the enormous library of existing equipment to fit with the new character models.

[48] In choosing these two races, the development team wanted to address the audience's "overwhelming desire" for Viera as well as increase the variety of body types available with the "beastly" Hrothgar.

[4][6] As this was likely the last opportunity to add a new race to the game owing to the cumulative costs of implementation, the team decided to only introduce one gender of each to satisfy both of these goals.

[2] In "YoRHa: Dark Apocalypse", the adventurer joins the Dwarven twins Anogg and Konogg to investigate an archaeological dig site swarming with machine lifeforms.

[53][54] Another guest collaborator is Tetsuya Nomura, who was invited to contribute character designs for the "Eden" raids, inspired by the creature from Final Fantasy VIII.

[59] To facilitate graphical enhancements, active support for 32-bit Windows operating systems and DirectX 9 rendering libraries ended with the launch of early access.

The album was released by Square Enix on September 11, 2019 on Blu-ray Disc and includes a code for an exclusive "Wind-up Suzaku" in-game pet.

[83] A fan favorite track was "Civilizations", the daytime theme for Rak'tika Greatwood; its main lyric "la hee" became an infamous earworm in the community.

[86][87] Square Enix disclosed in an investor report that the expansion contributed to the company's increased net sales, operating income, and paying subscribers.

Chris Carter of Destructoid and Steven Messner of PC Gamer called Shadowbringers the "Avengers: Endgame of Final Fantasy XIV" for the way it pays off storylines from previous expansions.

[93] Julia Lee of Polygon compared Eulmore to the class divides physically represented by the plates in Midgar from Final Fantasy VII.

[103][82] Natalie Flores from Vice called Elidibus a "chilling adversary" and "populism incarnate",[104] while Chingy Nea from Kotaku lauded him as one of the most brilliant and memorable villains in the entire Final Fantasy series, "a fascinating character with a compelling and metatextual emotional arc".

[106] Multiple commentators looked to the Trust system as valuable, both for aiding new and experienced players in learning mechanics and for improving wait times for dungeons.