Whether in the game or within the community, online or in “Real Life,” there is a lot happening in Final Fantasy XIV. Here are 15 curious facts about the MMORPG from “Square Enix”:
1. Foxclon’s Stinky Nickname
In the Japanese community, Toshio “Foxclon” Murouchi, the right hand of the producer, has the nickname “Morbol”.
In FF games, a Morbol is a plant monster that smells terrible. This not-so-flattering title was earned by the Head Game Master for the avatar he uses in the official forums.
However, it doesn’t seem to bother him, as he wore a Morbol hat at an FFXIV event in Kobe that could even make Morbol noises.
2. The Generous Community
The FFXIV player and YouTuber Denmo McStronghuge, along with community figures like Mr. Happy, Larryzaur, and Very Merri, raised around $21,500 in a charity stream for the victims of Hurricanes Harvey and Irma in America.
Players from the community were invited to participate in the Lalafell parade with their freshly created Lalafell characters or to attend the event as spectators. There were also trivia quizzes and raffles with FFXIV merchandise as prizes.
3. Food for Fans: Eorzea Café
In Japan, for the first time in 2014, a restaurant styled after FFXIV was opened in Tokyo Akihabara . The popularity of the small shop has grown over the years, and another café opened its doors to visitors from around the world in Osaka in early 2017.
The food and drinks served there are based on their names and appearance from monsters and items in the MMORPG. The Moogle ice cream is shaped like a Moogle, and the White Mage Cure cocktail is accordingly milky-white. The prices on the menu are listed in Gil, the traditional FF currency, which correspond to a 1:1 conversion in Yen.
4. The FFXIV Rock Band “Primals”
The sound designer and composer of FFXIV, Masayoshi Soken, along with the Japanese Localization Lead, Michael-Christopher Koji Fox, founded the band “Primals.” The name is a reference to the summons in FFXIV.
With the founding of the band, Soken followed in the footsteps of his mentor, the most popular composer in the FF series, Nobuo Uematsu, and his band “Black Mages”. The band plays rock arrangements of the FFXIV music featured on the official soundtrack CDs “Duality” and “Astral to Umbral.”
5. “A Stage Reborn” – A Theater on the Diabolos Server
A group of players from the Diabolos server decided to express their passion for theater and acting in FFXIV. The guys and gals from the team built a stage in their guild house and regularly practice their plays there. They use all sorts of tricks that the game offers them.
Their first project was the play “I Want to Be Your Dove” from Final Fantasy IX. It received enthusiastic responses from the community. Initially, only one performance was planned, but the demand for audience was so great that it turned into four. The fans of the theater troupe even created new characters on Diabolos for this, and the performances were even attended by SE employees.
6. Yoshida’s “Fortune Teller” T-Shirts
It is a popular theory among fans that the T-shirts Naoki Yoshida wears during his presentations at fan festivals always contain a hint about the unannounced jobs. For instance, he wore a Batman shirt at the 2014 fan fest, which fans interpreted as a hint at the Dark Knight job.
At the 2016 fan fest, it was the shirt with a Scarlet Witch motif that pointed at the Red Mage. When asked if it was intentional, the producer grinned: “Maybe I just like wearing superhero shirts.”
7. The “Great Goobbue Wall”
Shortly before the 1.0 version of the game was taken offline, the developers staged an apocalypse scenario for the remaining players during which hordes of monsters flooded the capitals. To prevent this, players summoned their Goobbue mounts to create the “Great Goobbue Wall” in front of the gates of Ul’dah, blocking the way of the monsters.
8. The Running Gag of the Dead Dragoon
After the launch of FFXIV: A Realm Reborn, the Dragoon job became infamous for its long animation locks. Bad timing when using abilities often led to Dragoon players ending up dead on the ground.
Although the developers adjusted the animations a long time ago, the Dragoon continues to be humorously referred to in the community as Loldragoon, Lolgoon, or Floor-Tank.
9. Yoshida – The Troll
During the Producer’s Letter in April 2017, fans begged to finally show the benchmark for the upcoming “Stormblood” expansion set to release in June. In Japanese, the benchmark is abbreviated as “Benchi” (bench), and Yoshida reacted with agreement… and showed a picture of a bench on stream.
As a bonus, there was the composer Masayoshi Soken sitting on it.
10. Final Fantasy XIV in the Guinness World Records
FFXIV scored two world records at the Fan Festival 2017 in Frankfurt. The first was for the longest credits in an MMORPG. This was due to the names of all players who financially supported FFXIV during the 1.0 version, the so-called legacy players.
The second record was for having the most original music pieces in an MMORPG. The composer Masayoshi Soken was particularly pleased with this record.
11. Singing Talents at Square Enix HQ
Many of the songs in FFXIV are sung by Square Enix employees. Mainly by Localization Lead Koji Fox, whose voice we can hear in songs like “Locus” and “Rise” from the Alexander raid.
Moreover, the songs of Lakshmi and Ravana were sung by regular SE employees. In an interview, composer Masayoshi Soken stated that he finds it impressive how Koji Fox continuously discovers such talents among the staff.
12. Final Fantasy Easter Eggs
For fans of the FF series, Final Fantasy XIV is a huge toy box full of references to other entries in the series. Some are obvious, like the Magitek mount that many fans should recognize from FFVI. Others, however, are well hidden and can only be noticed by true connoisseurs of the series.
For example, the red symbols of the main villains of FFXIV, the Ascians, were borrowed from the FFXII summons like Matheus and Cuchulainn. Players have tried to make a complete list of all Easter eggs, but since more are added with each patch, the thread eventually came to a standstill.
13. Producer Yoshida’s Fear of Flying
The director and producer of FFXIV, Naoki Yoshida, claims to suffer from severe fear of flying. It is therefore impressive that he flies several times a month across the world to attend various events and conventions.
For instance, he flew from Japan to China last August, during the Fan Festival celebration, and then went straight to Germany to perform on stage with fans at Gamescom before returning to Japan.
14. Raubahn Extreme
The incident known in the community as “Raubahn Extreme” occurred during the Stormblood launch and was based on a bug that occurred when starting a fight.
The instanced solo fight began with the NPC named Raubahn, and the high influx of players in the first hours and days after launch caused players to be kicked from the instance and unable to progress in the story. While the developers frantically tried to find a solution, players formed
