After quite some time as FTP 1.x went subscription again. You had to subscribe for four months (I think) to be legacy. It wasn't progression, I have two legacy characters, one was WAR 30something, one was FSH 30 at the ending of 1.x.
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It's been some years, so my memory may be hazy, but in order to qualify for Legacy pricing in ARR and later—yes, you had to pay for 3 months of 1.19+. Doing this means you got the Legacy chocobo mount, Legacy tatoo Legacy price plan, and your name in ARR's credits (provided you filled out the appropriate forms).
There's a flag in several quests to notice characters as "Legacy" (or more specifically a Warrior of Light from Carteneau) which require specific quest completion of the 1.23 (maybe it was even 1.21) main scenario. This is a completely separate thing—you can have a Legacy tattoo, Legacy chocobo, and Legacy sub fee without canonically being a Warrior of Light from the Sixth Astral Era. You must have destroyed the Lunar Transmitter at Castrum Novum in order for Minfilia to recognize you at the Waking Sands during the 2.0 MSQ The Scions of the Seventh Dawn and for the Grand Company leaders and other Scions to remember you after the Praetorium. (I'm not sure if the Second Coil alternate dialogue is based off this same flag or off of Rivenroad completion.)
The characters you describe could've been Legacy characters, but could not have qualified for the altered cutscenes and dialogue in ARR because the duties to obtain those variations were level 50 duties during 1.23.
To have the legacy tattoo your character just had to be made during 1.0. I was only able to play about a month at release because my computer couldn't handle the game but I still managed to get a legacy tattoo on my character even though her highest level was 15 and I hadn't paid for a sub since release.
I've always wondered how difficult the Lunar Transmitter fight and the Nael van Darnus Rivenroad fight were back in their day, comparatively. Were they the equivalent of Trials, or Normal Raids? Or were they the equivalent of Savage or Extremes?
I've seen some footage of 1.x Moggle Mog, and I already know I probably wouldn't have been able to even try that, but for people who played 1.0 enough to reach the Lunar Transmitter or Nael van Darnus, it would probably be less daunting.
Mainly I'm curious if it's as big of a deal in terms of gameplay as it is presented as in the story.
This is what it was like destroying the lunar transmitter.
https://youtu.be/LgzeMVAiijw
Not my video btw I had at one point all the cutscenes from the journal recorded then lost them when I had to reinstall windows on my computer way back when I still used it.
Rivenroad was actually fun at one point you got to play the ffxiv version of missile command.. but with meteors and magic and arrows also
The story fights weren't nearly as daunting as Savage or even the Extremes, imo. The difficulty of Trials in modern day XIV has increased each expansion, so I'd be hesitant to say they were equivalent of "Hard" modes—they were certainly more challenging than any normal trials (including Hard modes) in 2.0, but maybe not as difficult as Steps of Faith, I'd say. Fights were typically much longer, I think, or at the very least they felt that way... and in the case of the Lunar Transmitter there was an entire open world dungeon you had to traverse and wait for patrolling Garleans to open doors for you (or did you have to kill the guards...? gods it's been so long). The normal mode of Rivenroad (I personally never did the hard mode!) was certainly difficult for players at the time, though. It was much more common to have people who hadn't completed the storyline and had difficulties finding groups to clear it (since there was little material incentive to help someone).
I got the Legacy chocobo mount, Legacy tatoo Legacy price plan, and my name in ARR's credits. Goobule too.
I seem to qualify for some 1.x titles, minor stuff, but can't find them. Are they found in some obscure place?
If you are missing titles you should be able to contact a gm about though when I was missing my Notorious Monster Hunter title they tried to tell me I didnt get it back in 1.0 and had to call SE directly for the copy pasta script the Gm sent me.
Basically double check your lodestone page under achievements and within the game to see if you have them and go from there.