Does your starting city affect anything?

There are two things that I know for sure that are affected depending on which city you start in.

The first one is an Achievement. You'll one of three achievements depending on the city you start in after a point in the MSQ. You can only get one achievement per character. Thankfully the Achievement log won't show the other 2 achievements in your achievement log since they're impossible to earn.

• Out Of Ul'dah

• Leaving Limsa Lominsa

• Gone From Gridania

The second thing that is city-specific is a special 'ceremony' item that you obtain during the early MSQ. While these items are also one per character, they have generic looks meaning you aren't missing out on unique glamour gear.

• Voice of the Just: Obtained from starting in Ul'dah.

• Monoa Mask: Obtained from starting in Gridania.

• Dress Shoes: Obtained from Starting in Limsa Lominsa.

Those are the main ones I know for sure. Hope this helps!

Those items are not exactly unique in appearance though - you can get regular gear with the same appearance easily enough.

When you join a Grand Company as well the initial scene at the Waking Sands where the GC representatives try and curry favour with you has a slight bit of dialogue that acknowledges your starting city, specifically, the GC representative for the GC of your starting city will say something along the lines of "And you also began your adventuring career in <insert city name here>" But as previously mentioned you are not bound to the GC of your starting city, you could choose a completely different one (like, start in Gridania and join the Maelstrom for instance).

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Originally Posted by ZhaneX

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Originally Posted by Taika

You can hire retainers from other cities than your starting city, so it doesn't really affect that.

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True, but given that you'll get the initial quest in your starting city, and thus hire your first retainer there, and then probably second out of habit...

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The quest that unlocks retainers is in Waking Sands for everyone. It doesn't correlate to your starting city. (Besides, even if you did hire your retainers in the same place, you can still change which city they're selling from at any time. I spread mine out, so that I have one selling from each city's market.)

The actual differences are: 15 levels worth of the story. An occasional slight dialog change thereafter. And one gear item that's unique in name, but generic in appearance. The only part of that that's significant is the first 15 levels of quests. (I consider that part worth starting three characters, one from each city, and playing each of them through that first segment of the storyline, up until the point where the stories merge, even if you don't want to continue with all of them after that. People who aren't as interested in the storyline probably wouldn't, though.)