Pre-orders for Final Fantasy XIV: Heavensward have opened on March 16, 2015. Now it’s possible to pick up the expansion and receive a few in-game items and an early access that stars a few days before the official launch! More details about the expansion can be found below. In this post, you also find the Japanese box art of the game (above) that features more traditional where as both European and North American covers are beautified with CGI artwork showing a battle against gigantic dragon.

Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn’s upcoming expansion pack – Heavensward – will debut on June 23rd, 2015 – with early access starting four days earlier on June 19th. At the same time, Square Enix will be launching the long-awaited Mac version of the game. Heavensward is described as a standalone RPG experience and it will introduce new zones that are approx. 1.5 times bigger than the current Eorzea, flying mounts such as chocobos, single-rider airships and dragons, three new jobs, hardcore raids and more.

Heavensward’s story takes place in a new region known as Ishgard. It revolves around The Dragonsong War which is a thousand-year conflict between two nations: Ishgard and Dravania. New areas the players will be able to explore include Dravanian Hinterlands, The Churning Mists, The Sea of Clouds, Coerthas Western Highlands, Dravanian Forelands, Floating Continent and Chocobo Forest.

When exploring a new continent, the player will be introduced with new beast tribes, The Vanu Vanu and The Gnath, that are worshipping their own Primals, Bismarck and Ravana. New secrets are awaiting the adventurers, but solving them won’t be an easy job. For hardcore players, the development team has created new end-game content such as Alexander raid, which comes in two modes: normal and hard. There will be a new loot system based on tokens. How it works is still a bit unclear but the idea may be that instead of dropping random gear, the loot will contain a token that can be used to redeem your gear of choice. This could made duplicated gear loots less of a problem because currently some players never get the loot they desire. During the presentation, Square Enix also gave us a sneak peek of upcoming garbs.

As revealed earlier, there will be a new playable race – Au Ra. Level cap is increased from 50 to 60 including all classes. Crafting and Gathering jobs are also getting specialist tiers and special areas that let them discover new items and materials. The expansion also introduces the players with new jobs: Dark Knight (tank) that utilizes magic points and the power of darkness, Astrologian (healer) who switches between stances (TBA) and wields a starglobe weapon and divine cards, and Machinist (DPS) that uses guns with attachments and turrets, which are able to give buffs for others players, thus, making this a support job as well.

Final Fantasy XIV: Heavenward releases on 23rd June, 2015.