Echoes of Vana'diel FFXI Alliance Raid

[Enkidoh]

Irony is, Shantotto was just a minor NPC originally in FFXI, only involved in a couple of side quests to net a magic spell scroll, and shows up briefly for a few scenes in one Windurst mission and one of the expansion missions. Then she was added as FFXI's representative in the original Dissidia (and then only as a secret optional character seperate from the 'main' cast) and from then on she surged in popularity, having a whole miniexpansion (A Shantotto Ascension) involving her and even having the first FFXI crossover event here in FFXIV back in 2013 featuring her.

Personally, speaking as a Windurstian player, I never liked her personally, the stupid horse laugh and her psychotic personality that the other Windurst ministers tolerated just rubbed me the wrong way.

It was meant to be characters like Aldo, Lion and Zeid who were supposed to be the main NPC cast in the game, not an insane Windurstian tarutaru mage with delusions of grandeur.

[MoonPhaseAlpha]

Please, please, please have The Sanctuary of Zi'Tah music somewhere in this 3rd alliance raid... or at least as an orchestrion roll.

[TheGrimace]

I hope they add more XI sets and armor pieces in the future. The only way I could be happier than getting the Rogue's stuff is to also get a Brigandine and some Leaping Boots. Loki's Kaftan was always really cool, too. And the Homam set... I could go on.

[CidHeiral]

Please, please, please have The Sanctuary of Zi'Tah music somewhere in this 3rd alliance raid... or at least as an orchestrion roll.

I would be surprised if that one didn't make an appearance given its popularity. I would also love if they included the track for Battalia Downs but I think that one is far less likely lol.

[Scott]

I'm kinda sad Bastok is the only starter City that got shafted. San d'oria and Windurst players got the chance to see a small portion of their Home in new grafics. Only Bastok won't be able to see their home in new glory. Thats kinda sad and unfair.

[Powercow]

and shows up briefly for a few scenes in one Windurst mission and one of the expansion missions.

Ah, that's just the brilliance of Shantotto. Her disguise as Karababa is such a success that it fools even veteran players!

No but really she shows up in a lot. Warp 2 questline, BLM AF armor questline, couple of CoP missions and a bunch of ToAU missions, all before Dissidia came out. Then she shows up in several of WoTG quests and missions, and lorewise was always a major hero of the Crystal War and part of the party that brought down the Shadow Lord. (Well, kinda sorta WoTG's story is crazy but she was there in Zvahl.)

As for Aldo and Lion, they were the main characters of Rise of the Zilart, and Zeid was a major player in Chains of Promathia.

[Fawkes]

I'm kinda sad Bastok is the only starter City that got shafted. San d'oria and Windurst players got the chance to see a small portion of their Home in new grafics. Only Bastok won't be able to see their home in new glory. Thats kinda sad and unfair.

We've only seen Windurst and Aht Urhgan so far from the last raid, so who knows what else will show up. The Windurst area looked like it was boss-only with no trash, maybe Bastok will show up as a trash pull area like Ru'Aun and Qufim.

Aht Urhgan might also just be a Besieged miniboss/trash thing, all we saw was a brief glimpse of the Undead Swarm in the trailer with Lamia, Qutrub, and an Acrolith.

[Scott]

Thats true. Yes. But its kinda unlikely they use 3 City Areas in one single Raid Tier. I would of course be pleasantly surprised if this would be the case.

We've only seen Windurst and Aht Urhgan so far from the last raid, so who knows what else will show up. The Windurst area looked like it was boss-only with no trash, maybe Bastok will show up as a trash pull area like Ru'Aun and Qufim.

Aht Urhgan might also just be a Besieged miniboss/trash thing, all we saw was a brief glimpse of the Undead Swarm in the trailer with Lamia, Qutrub, and an Acrolith.

[LordTimmy]

The trouble with giving us AF and Relic gear instead of gear multiple jobs can equip is now I'm just going to be begging them for all the other sets too. Even if it's just a glamour.

HOOOOOOOLY F---CK!! WE GET RDM RELIC (AF2) AND AF1 YEAAAAAAAH *faints*,
THANK YOU, Square Enix!!!

And yes, I do believe we all could of get each jobs' AF for nostalgia, not gonna lie. So sorry to other jobs that didn't get it, I was hopeful that, like NIER raids, we all could get a coffer set with each job inside and randomly assigned on each run. But I guess it is what it is...

My possible take on why they didn't make other sets, of course this is my own speculation and may be with a lot of logic holes, people can decide if they make sense:

Using above image from left to right:

Samurai - We already have a lot of Samurai-y gear (but FFXI AF is quite unique, yes)
Puppetmaster - We don't have this job in 14
Ranger - Good one, but its close similar, Bard or, if using Guns, MCH are quite different enough to SE be indecisive
Beastmaster - They are going to add this so recently they didn't want to conflict it with FFXI AF
Scholar - We already have a lot of Scholar-y gear (but FFXI AF is quite unique, as well)
Ninja - Honestly, as a NIN on FFXI myself, I find NIN AF1/AF2 super bland and with odd shorts instead of pants, very weird imho and one of the "weakest links"
BLue Mage - diametrically different with current FF14 blue mage (A shame, tho. but that AF wielding a cane would of look odd to SE, I guess)
Black Mage - We already have a lot of Black Mage-y gear (Not having FFXI AF2 is a big bummer, not gonna lie)
Warrior - O.M.G. Sorry... But the AF2/AF2 is f-ugly xD. Became another 'weakest link', Warrior AF in FF14 rules. Oooga booooga xD
White Mage - We already have a lot of White Mage-y gear (Not having FFXI AF2 is a big bummer, I wanted condom hat UnU)
Corsair - We already one very Corsair-y gear already, Occult Crescent one.
Summoner - FF14 AF is way cooler already
Bard - Same reason as Ranger
Dragoon - Honestly, FF14 AFs are waaaaaaay more cool that FFXI
Geomancer - We don't have that job (yet ?)
Rune Fencer - We don't have that job (yet ?)
Dark Night - Another big bummer we didn't get it, especially AF2, had some purple accents that made it look awesome.

Paladin has already good gear, but I am happy we get FFXI AF2, is awesome.
Yay to not have pseudo skirts on RDM, don't get me wrong, but on males if we look at RDMs, they look cool but... from behind.... >.>; looks like we have a long skirt and we missed our 18th century french dancing ball event, xD. So, hurray for AF1/AF2!! (yeah, yeah, RDM aesthetics are based on French musketeers but... not with pseudo long skirts all the time, please xD)
Thiefs.... really confused on this one but... oh well...

As I said it previously, is a shame we didn't get randomized coffer sets at the end of the raid (since this is the last one), so everyone could get a shot.

My two cents.

[Fawkes]

Ninja - Honestly, as a NIN on FFXI myself, I find NIN AF1/AF2 super bland and with odd shorts instead of pants, very weird imho and one of the "weakest links"

I liked how it looked as a mithra. Tights instead of shorts and the flaps on the body were removed.

Thiefs.... really confused on this one but... oh well...

I assume it's the most "popular" job in FFXI because everyone levels it for treasure hunter. The Relic armor feels like a wasted slot though, they didn't even add the extra details for the arms/gloves.