FFXIV FanFest Feels

I’ve only been playing FFXIV since April of this year so everything is still very new to me. Due to how I play and get distracted by creating multiple characters, I think the game will be new to me for many years to come. However, that doesn’t stop me from appreciating how much longtime FFXIV players love the game and how exciting FanFest is for everyone.

As I’m so new to the game, nothing is really a spoiler for me because I don’t know who is who and what’s happening most of the time. But I’m okay with that. I like learning as I go and not being too wrapped up in any lore that will cloud my enjoyment of the game. I was very impressed by the number of eight person whale mounts I saw hovering around the crystal in Revenant’s Toll, that’s for sure!

As the first night of FanFest started at a time when I was already in bed, I caught up on what was happening via Twitter when I’d wake up during the night. I watched the Endwalker cinematic and saw screen grabs from accounts I follow. My social media checking influenced my dreams such that I dreamt about an Elezen man who was an amalgamation of some of the cinematic characters. Thus the next day I created my first Elezen character.

I’m also very happy for the FFXIV community in that they’re going to introduce male Viera characters! From my understanding, male Viera are something players have been requesting for a while and it’s so refreshing to see a gaming company and its developers work hard to make such requests happen. The developers also say that female Hrothgar will eventually be in the game too and I genuinely believe them and I know they’ll do a great job with them! I love my female Viera and my male Hrothgar toons and I’m all for having even more variety to play.

I have yet to watch all of the Fanfest stream and I might not, but I did watch the video of Lead Composer Masayoshi Soken and Director and Producer Naoki Yoshida talking about Soken battling cancer while still creating music and that made me tear up. There was such genuine friendship and caring there that made me even more proud to be a player of FFXIV.

I also watched the Primals performance of “A Long Fall” with the meme dance and I loved it! The music is awesome and the meme dance was a nice touch and made me smile. I love the dances in FFXIV and that you can learn new ones by doing quests. I helped a friend find some of the dances and thus, the performance had a personal meaning for me.

In the short time I’ve been playing FFXIV, the game, players, and game creators have made a very positive impression on me. It’s obvious a lot of thought and love has gone into every part of FFXIV and the players I’ve encountered have been quite friendly. I imagine by next year’s Fanfest I’ll be a bit more in the know and have even more reasons to love the game.