Final Fantasy XIV’s A Realm Reborn storyline now playable in single-player

The latest update to Final Fantasy XIV, titled Newborn Adventure (or patch 6.1) has provided the usual gamut of new content, including everything from story quests to tweaks and fixes across the board. The full rundown of everything the patch includes can be found on the official website, but one of the more interesting additions is something called Duty Support.

As an MMORPG, Final Fantasy XIV is meant to be experienced as a group, with friends and strangers teaming up to conquer challenges and explore the world together. But what if you simply want to play through the game by yourself? Patch 6.1 makes that an option, allowing you to journey through the original A Realm Reborn storyline in single-player, with NPCs assisting you in lieu of other players.

Duty Support also applies to Shadowbringers and Endwalker, but these are the third and fourth expansions respectively. There’s currently no option to play the Heavensward and Stormblood expansions solo. The patch notes do say that there are plans to bring Duty Support for “2.x to Heavensward and beyond” in future patches, but there’s no indication of when that will happen.

Aside from this update being a good excuse to introduce even more players to Final Fantasy XIV, long-time fans can enjoy the first major bit of story content since Endwalker. That expansion wrapped up the entire storyline that began with A Realm Reborn, although Square Enix clearly intends to keep supporting the game with a new storyline.