FFXIV FanFest London 2014

Final Fantasy XIV Fan Festival Review

 This may be a little late but here we go! It’s not so much a review but more of a summary of events with some pictures thrown in but I hope you enjoy it neither-the-less.

Opening Ceremony & Main Presentation:

A clash of drums! A flash of light! Yoshi-P (Naoki Yoshida, Director of Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn) came into sight! Shu, El, Nay and Haf were all together with some random friends of Shu’s that he bumped into for the queue to the venue while Numi was busy being late because he forgot to bring his pass from the day before.

El’s expression is priceless.

The event started off with a summary of the reveals at the last event. They started off the main presentation with the recently released video, showcasing Final Fantasy XIV Update 3.0; Heavensward.

A list of reveals at the main presentation includes the following;

• Flying Mounts:
  • Black Chocobo
  • Single-Rider Airship
  • More to be revealed
• Fully 3-dimensional explorable areas, take to the skies!
• New Beast Tribes:
  • The Vanu Vanu
  • The Gnath
• New Primals:
  • Bismark – The Vanu Primal [Trial Encounter]
  • Ravana – Savior of the Gnath [FATE Encounter]
• New Class – Dark Knight
  • Party Role: Tank
  • Weapon: Greatsword (Two-handed Sword)
  • No base class required
  • Wields both weapon and power of Darkness
• New Class – ???
  • To be revealed at Tokyo FanFest on 20th-21st December 2014
  • Clue “007”, “James Bond” and “Golden Gun”

Activities

Originally he had figured we’d spend a a few hours there, leave and then come back again in the evening but there was so much for us to keep busy with.

• Adventurer’s Academy – Try out Behemoth Riding, Elezen School or Archery, Pugilist Reaction Trial and Monk Steady Hand Test
• Aesthetician – Get a Tattoo or your hair styled
• Discipline of the Hand – Jewellery making with the Ul’dahn Goldsmiths or mask making with the Gridanian carpenters.
• The Eorzea Exhibition – Visiting a gallery of artwork and sculptures from the land of Eorzea
• Carnival Stalls – Lasso the Behemoth horn, Fishing challenge, Spriggan shy, target testing and Chocobo feeding
• Green Screen – Take on Shiva in the ultimate green screen experience
• Photobooth – Photo opportunity! Say cheese!
• Chocobo Signature Wall – Leave your mark on the wall.
• Ul’dah School of Alchemists – Essential oil blending with the Ul’dahn Alchemists

Unfortunately there was insufficient time with all the queuing to try everything out. Hopefully we’ll get the opportunity to try again come FFXIV Fan Festival 2015!

Odin Battle Challenge:

Potentially the most interesting event that we took part in was “Urth’s Fount”, a unique trial that does not normally exist within the game. In previous Final Fantasy events, players had fought and had the opportunity to win “I beat _____” shirts for Titan and Leviathan. This time, it was Odin’s turn. Urth’s Fount is an 8-person Trial version of his “Steel Reign” FATE located in The Shroud with adjusted mechanics.

• 1st Queue – Attempt 1: Failure – At least we know the mechanics first hand now!
• 1st Queue – Attempt 2: Out of time – The twenty minute timer ran out, time to queue again!
• 2nd Queue – Attempt 1: Failure – Whoops! A couple mistakes
• 2nd Queue – Attempt 2: Success! Been there, seen that, got the t-shirt, yada-yada… Except that we actually did!

 It’s finally over… All that remains is his Zantetsuken

Battle Challenge Roulette:

The battle challenge roulette consisted of:

• Garuda – The Howling Hand
  (You may only use one hand)
• Leviathan – The Whorlwalker
  (Walking is permanently tabbed on)
• Ifrit – Titan-Egi of Embers
  (No tank classes allowed, just a Summoner’s Titan-Eigi)
• Ramuh – The Stay Dead Tree
  (No reviving. If you die, you stay dead.)
• Gilgamesh – Musical Chairs on the Big Bridge
  (When the adjudicator says “change”, mopve to the computer and character to your left.)
• Titan – Healer of Crags
  (Only one healer)

It was Numi who took a spin of the wheel

Ultimately we got one which we enjoyed, “Leviathan”. It was a very slow fight, a fact we knew from the initial walking charge at Leviathan. Ultimately, we won and bagged ourselves some swag. I personally think it would have been interesting to try the Gilgamesh fight as it’s the only one we wouldn’t really have the opportunity to try again in the future.

Market Ward:

We waited in that queue for soooo long. It was really long. Some guy in front of us wouldn’t shut up about the culling of the Moogle population… although he was right though.

Curious how El seems the most awake of all of us

It left us very tired and very sad. No Moogle plushies! =(

Closing Ceremony:

We wanted to go to this event but… after a disappointing three hour wait in the queue for little-to-no items. We missed the band! =(

Light Party? Full Party!:

The Orphans would like to give a massive thanks to the Owls in teaming up with us in taking part for all of the in-game events. For their hard work and service, they have earned the title “Honorary Orphan” to the Orphans of Treno.

The Orphans and Owls, triumphant over the elder primal Odin

• Shuartzu Iakuoy – Paladin <OoT>
• El Macho – Monk <OoT>
• Mimi Sunstalker – Scholar <OoT>
• Numinor Benn – Dragoon <OoT>
• Hafix Skamara – Black Mage <OoT>
• Dynamite Babe – Warrior <Owls!>
• ??? – White Mage <Owls!>
• ??? – Bard <Owls!>

<OoT> Orphans of Treno [@Raganarok Server]
<Owls!> Timber Owls [@Moogle Server]

Shu’s Personal Message:

I really enjoyed the event, perhaps more-so than the others I think. I found it was such a fun opportunity to meet and hang with some of the other Orphans in real life and I truly hope we all get the opportunity to do so again in the future. If there’s another event next year, I fully intend to go! While the queues were disappointing, I definitely found all the activities very fun, especially the Odin fight!