Thursday 11 April 2019

A Nocturne for Heroes: FFXIV X FFXV


 Well this one has been a long time coming hasn't it? over 2 years since its release in November all the way back in 2016, and boy thats flown by hasn't it?, FFXIV is finally having the crossover with the last mainline single player entry in the franchise. A little bittersweet since the actual release of FFXV was kind of a hot mess in some ways. The game launched pretty unfinished, the had to patch in scenes from the movie Kingsglaive to try and explain events, the story goes nowhere then falls apart trying to wrap up a story that barely began, strange wastes of time and money on things like an Assassins' Creed tie in and generally trying to be this "jrpg as a service" that helped contribute to a colossal multi million dollar loss for the companies fiscal year that saw the games future content cancelled and the creative director left or was let go from the company. So not only has general interest in the game as the new hotness faded but in general its taken a place for some as the new worst entry in the mainline series that for most was held, depending on who you asked, by FFXIII or FFIII.

 So just like Lightning showing up in Eorzea was met with groans as it was used to advertise what rumours suggested was a Valkyria Profile sequel -something fans of that series have been crying out for for years that got reworked because FFXIII's production overproduced assetts that needed to be flipped to make a profit while Agito XIII came out as the forgotten on release FF Type - 0 and 'Versus XIII' was considered dead until it would later be reworked into the frankensteins monster of a title FFXV limped out of a loooong production hell- with Episode Ardyn seeing the finale of the whole disastrous "Project Fabula Nova Crystalis" the connotations to FFXV and Noctis showing up might seem less like enjoyable fan service and more of a reminder that the single player games in the mainline series haven't really been good since XII and haven't been truly exceptional since IX back in like 1999.

 Not that groans and eyerolls at another failed mascot will put people off chasing a flying car thats a four player mount right?

 What we know so far is that the event starts next Reset. Outside the Immortal Flames Gand Company building you will find an NPC named 'Kipih Jakkya' who starts the quest "The Man in Black". You need to be lvl.50 and completed the Ultima Weapon questline ending with the fight against Lahabrea at the end of A Realm Reborns pre inital credits roll MSQ. All we know so far is from the trailer. You fight the Imperial Soldiers and mechs, do some camping and fight a different form of Garuda. The camping suggests that this might not all be farming the same two fates for tokens like Lightnings event was.
 The rewards shown thus far are Noctis' outfit, his hairstyle, his Triple Triad Card, half a dozen Orchestrion scrolls and of course the Car Mount which rumours suggest has been datamined to cost 200,000 MGP at the Manderville Golden Saucer. Personally i'm sitting on nearly 500k as i work my way through the last couple of things i dont have but i just save it from the super easy challenge log stuff. It probably won't be that hard to get during the event and i imagine it was made in such a way returning players can easily get it, maybe as part of the event the MGP buff comes back or something?

 Personally i like the mount well enough, we already have Clouds Motorcycle, a Magitek Walker AND Claw to fly around on so at least this actually has a flying mode compared to the Bike or the bloody Elephant from the Ananta! i am surprised there thus far doesn't appear to be any weapons though. The Engine blade is kind of a bland, forgettable weapon but they tried to push it in a bunch of stuff the year after release like in Nier Automata and a boatload of Square Enix owned Gacha Mobile Games.

 All in all i'm predicting a lot of foot traffic at the golden saucer for many, i know a few people who took long breaks coming back just for this, but also thing those of us who have the MGP already will breeze through the quest. So if its time limited and not something like monster hunter i'll take some screenshots, maybe record some footage and then back to the usual routine.


 I swear i'll get Paladin to cap by Shadowbringers! Maybe.

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