Final Fantasy 14 Anniversary

[Ksenia]

Back in 1.00 very early in the game when I got my first cut scene and my hempen clad Conji girl showed up in the cut scene. I made sure to have distinct new stuff on for the second one and sure enough, it was 'me' in the cut scene, not a cookie cutter, prefab.

It was then, I knew there was something distinct about FF14.

[thejthar]

Not a huge moment but a nice fourth wall break by Thancred. Don't remember which quest it was but he asks you to do something for him and says immediately afterwards something along the lines "and you are going to do your usual silent nod in agreement aren't you." Gave me a good laugh.

[Istaru]

The end of 1.0. All of it, Rivenroad, Living on a Prayer quest, goobbue walls, the craziness everywhere. It really felt like something epic was happening.

[Anlerian]

Loving all of these responses, definitely interesting to see what other stuff I should check out (either in-game or through videos for some events no longer available).

Keep it up guys!

[Cakekizyy]

Not a huge moment but a nice fourth wall break by Thancred. Don't remember which quest it was but he asks you to do something for him and says immediately afterwards something along the lines "and you are going to do your usual silent nod in agreement aren't you." Gave me a good laugh.

How is that breaking fourth wall? He references usual response in game, not anything outside game.

[thejthar]

How is that breaking fourth wall? He references usual response in game, not anything outside game.

To me it looked like a fourth wall break as it seems he has become aware that we never talk in a cutscene. He's aware that whenever someone asks us to do something we just nod our head in agreement with whatever the character talking to us about and give no feedback like a real person would do.

[Alisa180]

One of the defining moments in the game for me was on Cid's airship, towards the end of the 2.0 story.

After rescuing the Scions from the Castrum, Alphinaud stood before them and gave a speech about hope. Keep in mind, before then, Alphinaud had been your typical, stuck-up and cynical young-man archetype. I explicitly remember thinking, 'wait, when did you start actually believing in the hope stuff!?'

It hit me at that moment that I was witnessing a very rare kind of character arc in this day and age. In so many stories, you see the young idealist being shot down by 'reality' and becoming more cynical. Alphinaud had essentially gone through the reverse, starting as incredibly cynical, and growing to become genuine idealist. That moment essentially cemented Alphinaud as my favorite FFXIV character, and the FFXIV story in general as a very good one.

Keep in mind this was *before* 3.0 and Heavensward. Before then, people had a lot of hate towards him. But me, I grew to love him more and more, another favorite moment being his speech towards the end of 2.3. He had grown to genuinely love the people of Eorzea, in a way not unlike his grandfather.

This arc becomes even more impressive and unique during the HW storyline, which explicitly took a turn towards dark fantasy, complete with Game of Thrones references. Most of the time, the story becoming 'darker' means the characters become more cynical. Not for Alphinaud. The events only strengthen his resolve, and at the end of 3.2 and through 3.3 he essentially plans (and does!) to partly rebuke the darker story by saving a certain someone. How many characters these days come out of a dark fantasy story with more optimism?

And this is just a fraction of the things that add up to Alphinaud being, not just my favorite FFXIV character, but one of my favorite fiction characters in quite a while.

TL;DR Don't let Alphinaud's pre-3.0 attitude fool you. He's one of the, if not the, most well-developed and well-written characters in FFXIV, and an *extremely* well-done character in general. He's worth paying attention to. And don't worry, he gets his head forcibly removed from his ass by the time the 3.0 story starts.

[Luluna]

Mine was the beginning of Version 1 and seeing my character walk up the steps to the deck of the ship...was quite magical.

Also the funny victory music going off in Alpha because they had messed up so every time somebody levelled up it was going off none stop!

Beating Ifrit and seeing piles of bodies piling up outside and then the final battle and the last goodbye...i feel a lot of the game died at that moment was quite amazing to be part of it though.

[Anlerian]

14 Hour Broadcast is coming up later tonight! Happy Anniversary 14!

[The_NPC]

Well as I have "Zero" 1.0 or even any 2.0 alpha/beta XP at my disposial & that my sentements about the betrayal at the Ul'Dah banquet of 2.55 & the Grand Melee in 3.2 were basicly covered by the 1st reply on pg1 (would love to re-fight that battle) I shall say I have 3 remaning:

1) Meeting Hildy's mom... you can feal the fear threw the 4th wall from Goldbert in that moment
2) the 30-50 story for DRK (didn't believe the hype at 1st, the lv50 fight is now in my top 5 FF14 solo-battle's I wanna re-fight, right under the "Grand Melee" of 3.2)
3) thou it may suck to remember, the death of that 1 guy in the Vaults MSQ moments (even thou I have trouble type/spelling you'r name you sir are 1 NPC we all shall miss... untill SE brings u back as a Zombie, then we shall have nothing but a "Facepalm" for you & SE)