The game should have alcohol

[Fyrebrand]

I never even realized it, but are there really no alcoholic consumables anywhere in the game? No beer? Wine? Sake? Where has the rum gone!?

That seems rather silly, considering how ubiquitous alcohol seems to be in Eorzea. There are quests -- both optional and as part of MSQ -- where you deal with drunk NPCs. Every Adventurer's Guild is literally a tavern. There's that whole part of the MSQ where you recover an endangered strain of grapes and restore a once legendary winery. I'm sure we all know that scene in "The Parting Glass" where a certain someone raises their goblet, swirls it about before savouring a sip of... what are we supposed to imagine, diet pepsi? If you do the sylph beast tribe quests, you find out that even they get sloshed on "milkroot."

It seems like everybody in this game drinks, except the player character apparently. Even during the scene in Heavensward where you dine with a certain Ishgardian noble, you each have THREE wine glasses in front of you -- but there is no explicit drinking. A servant comes and offers you wine, and your character visibly declines.

Clearly, imbibing alcohol is meant to be seen as commonplace in Eorzea, but Square Enix has gone out of their way to avoid portraying the Warrior of Light in partaking for some reason. If they don't want to force that upon the player, that's fine, but it's weird that they don't even give us the choice -- even in some niche consumable item. I would even support them deciding that alcoholic drinks don't give any sort of benefit to stats, or even the xp buff, just to allay fears that the game is "glorifying" alcohol in some way.

[Krotoan]

I never even realized it, but are there really no alcoholic consumables anywhere in the game? No beer? Wine? Sake? Where has the rum gone!?

That seems rather silly, considering how ubiquitous alcohol seems to be in Eorzea. There are quests -- both optional and as part of MSQ -- where you deal with drunk NPCs. Every Adventurer's Guild is literally a tavern. There's that whole part of the MSQ where you recover an endangered strain of grapes and restore a once legendary winery. I'm sure we all know that scene in "The Parting Glass" where a certain someone raises their goblet, swirls it about before savouring a sip of... what are we supposed to imagine, diet pepsi? If you do the sylph beast tribe quests, you find out that even they get sloshed on "milkroot."

It seems like everybody in this game drinks, except the player character apparently. Even during the scene in Heavensward where you dine with a certain Ishgardian noble, you each have THREE wine glasses in front of you -- but there is no explicit drinking. A servant comes and offers you wine, and your character visibly declines.

Clearly, imbibing alcohol is meant to be seen as commonplace in Eorzea, but Square Enix has gone out of their way to avoid portraying the Warrior of Light in partaking for some reason. If they don't want to force that upon the player, that's fine, but it's weird that they don't even give us the choice -- even in some niche consumable item. I would even support them deciding that alcoholic drinks don't give any sort of benefit to stats, or even the xp buff, just to allay fears that the game is "glorifying" alcohol in some way.

you... can buy an emote:
https://store.finalfantasyxiv.com/ff...us/product/624

It says it's "grog".

Considering Grog is either an alcoholic drink or clay bits.. and there doesn't seem to be muddy anything spilling out of that cup I'd say they just wrote it so that if your personal headcannon is that your character doesn't drink, you can easily maintain it.

[Vyrerus]

There's some dialogue options in the Dwarf beastmen dailies.. or was it the healer role quests? Ah, whatever. You're given direct options to drink a few times throughout the SHB MSQ, and a dialogue option where you can have your WoL say that they enjoy alcohol or not.

Some of the food options in the game are alcoholic by description. Frozen Spirits from HW is a drink made with ice crystals and fermented cloud bananas. There were a few others.

NPCs get drunk all the time and are shown drinking too. Hell, the intro to the game has a drunk merchant chat you up in the cart, followed by a moogle swindling his booze.

I'm a big fan of the toast emote, and I would love if we had more cutscenes where we're given the option to drink alcohol, but I don't think we need an intoxication system in game. The novelty wears off quickly, and it's not nearly as fun as playing while actually drunk.

I'd like to sit down and have a drink with Thancred, Estinien, Hien, or Merlwyb. Heh, I would have loved to join in on a round of drinks with Moenbryda and Thancred. As long as it's centered around characterization and story, then I have no problem with it.

[TeraRamis]

Isn't practically one of the first interactions between Tifa and Cloud an option where Cloud can order "something hard"...? I definitely want to say the original FFVII was intended for younger audiences than FFXIV's totally unfiltered player world.

[Ath192]

I support this idea

[TeraRamis]

Actually, thinking back to FFVII, I want to say drunkenness was pretty much a constant in that game. You frequently encountered characters that were clearly tipsy or even completely hammered. Wasn't Dyne - Marlene's real father - pretty much drunk in every scene he was in? Not to mention all the bars you walked through, Cid being a depressed, cigarette-smoking lush, etc., etc. I was 14 when that game released in 1997. It didn't scar me - I'm approaching 40, and have like 2 drinks a year.

[TheMightyMollusk]

Uh...the literal giant zone that’s a huge casino. Which includes betting on chocobo racing,spending money on mini games, gambling your money away on scratch offs etc etc.

Does it still count as gambling when you can't actually lose MGP anymore? The only way to lose it by playing is to just not pick up your Jumbo Cactpot tickets until they expire.

I don't object to a drinking system in the game, but it's not something I'd use. I do question if it would affect the game's rating, though, considering different countries have different rules on such things.

[Halivel]

I do question if it would affect the game's rating, though, considering different countries have different rules on such things.

It likely would, but let's get honest here: the age rating should have been raised long time ago anyway. In my country it's 18+ since HW if not earlier.

[Kozh]

Clearly, imbibing alcohol is meant to be seen as commonplace in Eorzea, but Square Enix has gone out of their way to avoid portraying the Warrior of Light in partaking for some reason. If they don't want to force that upon the player, that's fine, but it's weird that they don't even give us the choice -- even in some niche consumable item. I would even support them deciding that alcoholic drinks don't give any sort of benefit to stats, or even the xp buff, just to allay fears that the game is "glorifying" alcohol in some way.

The reason for that is because canon wise, our WoL has ptsd over drinking poisoning. Aside from msq they only drink with Giott (healer role quest), and perhaps the dwarf beast tribe (i don't really remember if we did).
If you want to do it for some sort of rp, I guess using consumable foods is close enough.

[Rinhi]

you do drink something if you've done all your shb role quests, too