The First Walk Made Me Want Even More Vana’diel In Final Fantasy XIV

Posted by By our-little-miss-is-home December 7, 2024 32 Views 8 Min Read
The First Walk Made Me Want Even More Vana’diel In Final Fantasy XIV



Key Takeaways

  • The Final Fantasy 11-themed raid in Final Fantasy 14 is a nostalgic trip down memory lane.
  • NPCs in classic FF11 gear, iconic locations like Jeuno, and familiar bosses make for a bittersweet experience.
  • I live in hope for more FF11 in FF14, such as an expansion featuring Vana’diel areas and content.

As an old FF11 player, I knew Final Fantasy 14‘s Final Fantasy 11-themed raid, Echoes of Vana’diel, would be heavily nostalgic to play, but I didn’t realise just how much I would love seeing the FF11 world I once knew so well recreated in the much better graphics and mechanics of FF14.

A Trip Down Memory Lane

Jeuno: The First Walk has you enter the streets of Jeuno, a city hub from Final Fantasy 11, and it’s so perfectly recreated that I found myself running to the back as if I was going to go to my mog house. But alas, it was sealed off. This area is overflowing with FF11 references, with ghostly shades making comments that will stir the memory of any past player. There are mentions of paying for teleports, and trying to trade tarot cards. It’s all there to remind you of similar shouts you made as a player in those streets decades prior.

Final Fantasy 14 mobile on a phone.

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Even the NPCs are dressed in their classic FF11 gear. The Elvaan with his Vermillion Cloak and staff brought back memories of having to create macros for my Red Mage to swap out elemental staves for each and every type of spell, all for that added little boost.

All that inventory space I needed to keep all my different gear sets that would change depending on macros… and the annoyance of switching jobs only to find some of your gear must be in storage as you stand there in your underclothes. But hey, at least you have your staves.

The Mithra in the Scorpion Harness and Optical Hat (lovingly dubbed ‘the O Hat’) conjured up memories of taking on Hakutaku in the Den of Rancor just to earn it. And despite the fact it’s a fugly-looking hat, I used it on so many jobs, because after all it gave Accuracy+10, Ranged Accuracy+10, and Evasion+10. We deserve each other, this hat and me. Every NPC and every detail about what they had equipped brought back so many memories. It was like being back in FF11 for real, passing other players in the street and wanting to examine them to check out their gear.

Face To Face With Old Adversaries

Then there was the raid itself. It was like seeing my FF11 life flash before my eyes as we encountered Prishe (and thankfully, her goofy costume was explained away), Fafnir, the Ark Angels, and the Shadow Lord himself. Aside from Jeuno, the raid takes you to the Boyahda Tree and Ru’Aun Gardens, though the word that comes to mind for the latter will always be ‘Sky’ for me.

And the trash monsters in between bosses weren’t just trash. They were memories. They are monsters native to those areas in FF11, and there are also Notorious Monsters (NMs) cameos as a little treat, ones that I remember spending endless hours camping for, such as Aquarius and Despot. Everything in the raid brought back so many long forgotten memories.

The whole experience was bittersweet. I enjoyed the raid not only because of the actual gameplay (despite many deaths), but also for all the memories it held for me. It made me sad to remember those days when I was a hardcore FF11 gamer, and recall adventures and friends I had back then that I’ll never have again and who I never speak with now. More than anything, it made me want more FF11 in FF14.

Vana’Diel Could Be An Expansion Location

Of course, we will get more Vana’diel in FF14. This is just the first part of the raid series. No doubt we’ll see other locations, monsters, bosses, and maybe even other characters make an appearance, but I want more than that. Final Fantasy 11 launched in 2002, and has a long lasting legacy. I’m impressed it’s still active, though with a much smaller player count than in its heyday. Eventually, FF11 will decline to the point of closure. It might still be a while off, but it’s sadly inevitable, as with any live-service game – especially one with an incredibly popular successor already established in the wild.

When FF11 goes offline, it would make for a great FF14 expansion. It doesn’t need to be literally taking FF11 and slapping it into FF14 as a remake, and I think FF11 is too big for that to be feasible anyway. But we could take a large chunk of Vana’diel and its different areas, and spin it into new content for FF14. With the different shards, it’s narratively logical. Even more so now that Dawntrail has the scions actively researching travel between worlds and Vana’diel has been acknowledged as one of these other worlds already.

When the sun sets on Vana’diel, it could rise on new FF11-themed content in FF14. More than just a raid, but a whole expansion. It would be a lovely way to commemorate the series’ first MMO and pay tribute to it when it finally does close its doors. We could get reimagined content types, a new Dynamis (though I don’t want to go back to scoring attendance), and Vana’diel-inspired or replicated areas with FF11 monsters, NMs, and rewards. And if I’m really hopeful, recreating San d’Oria, Bastok, and Windhurst, the three main starting cities in FF11, would be incredible.

I know the likelihood of this ever happening is slim to none, but I can’t help but put the idea out into the universe in the hope it might make something happen. Realistically, I’ll have to be content with as much FF11 as we can squeeze out of the Echoes of Vana’diel raid series, but I’ll always live in hope for more.

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