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Deus XIV: the Illuminati arrive to populate hard mode dungeons in A Realm Reborn patch 2.2

A Realm Reborn has been a success across PC and PlayStation 3 - and this patch has been released simultaneously for both.

After thousands of years pulling the strings from the shadows, the Illuminati have finally emerged in the guise of goblin scholars to overrun the swamp dungeon of Brayflox’s Longstop. The dungeon is situated somewhere in Eorzea, Final Fantasy XIV’s reborn realm. 

If this was their long game, I didn’t read anything about it in any of those private emails dotted about Deus Ex.

Patch 2.2, or ‘Through the Maelstrom’, is all about A Realm Reborn’s new hard mode dungeons – designed to test the stronger-than-average mettle of the game’s high-level players, of which there are now many.

The two hard mode dungeons are the Halatali training grounds – the “lurid” palette of which you can enjoy in the trailer above – and Brayflox’s Longstop. The learned goblins (who just so happen to be called the Illuminati) are after an ancient, secret recipe players must do their utmost to defend.

“Having been pressed into service as Brayflox’s boon companion, you have no choice but to disregard the facts of her thievery and defend the Longstop from all those who would seize it from its rightful holder,“ write Squeenix.

Beyond the dungeons, high-level players can also tackle a familiar raid spot from a new, second entrance. The Second Binding Coil of Bahamut is a raid at the game’s highest difficulty level.

Elsewhere, there’s an “exciting” new storyline, and a new lower-level dungeon in the Lost City of Amdapor. Is that enough to tempt you (back) into what one young man called “the most polished MMO I have ever played”in our Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn review?