'Final Fantasy 14' DLC release date news: Stormblood expansion arriving on June 20, 2017

Square Enix recently announced that the newest expansion for "Final Fantasy XIV" titled Stormblood will arrive on June 20, 2017. As part of the announcement, the game developer also previewed the downloadable content (DLC) that will be coming to the massively multiplayer online role-playing video game (MMORPG) next year.

During Fan Fest 2016 in Tokyo over the weekend, game director and producer Naoki Yoshida gave the keynote address where he revealed some of the features that players can look forward to including a new job class, Red Mage, and a new raid, Return to Ivalice.

According to Siliconera's recap of the event, Red Mage will be a mix of melee and ranged magic DPS. Its weapons are a rapier and a magic crystal medium and playstyle is achieved through "high-speed positioning." The job class can inflict massive damage by dishing out a chain of magic spells followed by melee attacks. Meanwhile, details for Return to Ivalice were scarce. However, it was revealed to be the expansion's 24-person alliance raid.

The Stormblood DLC will also allow players to swim and dive in designated areas. Characters will automatically change into swimwear upon entering a body of water. In this mode, walking will turn into breaststrokes while sprinting will transform into crawling. Swimming is said to be slower than walking so thankfully, no combat will be taking place in swim mode.

Through Stormblood, players will be introduced to a new beast tribe called The Antata. The race, made up of mostly females, has a human form for its upper body but its lower half is serpent-like. They inhabit the mountains near Ala Mhigo and are known for their skill in spell and gemcraft. Square Enix also announced a new primal named Lakshmi, the Lady of Bliss as well as a new raid called The Bend of Time — Omega.

To see some of the promotional images for Stormblood, the official PlayStation blog has uploaded them here.

The upcoming DLC will be available to pre-order starting Jan. 24, 2017.

"Final Fantasy XIV' is playable on the PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4 and the Microsoft Windows PC.