So yesterday we got hit with the Final Fantasy XVI crossover in Final Fantasy XIV. It was all right, I guess. But it wasn’t a surprise that we got it because Naoki Yoshida is a guy who plays video games. You can tell just from talking to him. I don’t mean that in an obnoxious fashion, just that you can tell that this is a dude who plays a lot of video games and thinks about them a lot beyond just asking if he’s having fun or not.
This is probably not in and of itself why there have been so many crossover events with the online titles in this franchise, but gosh, it sure does explain a bunch of them. And there are a lot of them. Enough that I can fill out an entire list of crossovers that lasts for this column. Not all of them have manifested in the games themselves, though, but a lot of them have just the same.
For the record, I am structuring each entry as [Game of Crossover] x [Game with Event]. If this bothers you… I’m sorry. I hope your day is decent otherwise.
1. Final Fantasy XI x Final Fantasy XIV
Right now, the total crossover count for Final Fantasy XI and FFXIV sits at two. As in, we’ve had two separate events. The first one just featured some giant Shantottos running around and was pretty forgettable, but we’ve had several reruns of the event in which Iroha hops over to FFXIV for some adventure. And we’re getting a raid series based on FFXI during Dawntrail, so that’s three times!
This means that if every adventurer in FFXIV had 100 gil for every protagonist from another title with a deep tie to the Phoenix who showed up in Eorzea, they’d have 200 gil. Which isn’t a lot, but it’s still weird that it happened twice.
2. Yo-Kai Watch x Final Fantasy XIV
I’ve never been fond of the Yo-Kai Watch franchise – not because it’s a clone of the Pokémon franchise, but because it’s a clone that doesn’t really do anything interesting aside from having ugly designs. Mythologically tied designs, sure, but that ain’t delighting me either. Still, if you feel obligated to catch the totality of these creatures, the game is quick to oblige on several occasions!
3. Final Fantasy XVI x Final Fantasy XIV
Come on, we… I just talked about this. Literally it was in the introduction. It’s only three entries in. Please.
4. Dragon Quest X x Final Fantasy XIV
Rest in peace, Akira Toriyama. Your work defined what so many pieces of media should look like to generations of fans, and that includes your work in JRPGs. Even beyond your character designs for games, the enemy designs you created for the Dragon Quest franchise are so iconic that having them in FFXIV are instantly recognizable even when the ostensible crossover source isn’t available in this country. I have nothing snarky to say about this. We lost an amazing talent far too soon.
5. Final Fantasy XIV x Phantasy Star Online 2
It still makes me sad that we never got the other half of the Phantasy Star Online 2 collaboration back when it happened, and it’s very unlikely now that it has been years, but it made a big splash when it happened. Players in PSO2 got to face off against Odin (which tells you how long ago it was) and even got some game-appropriate costumes and weapon skins. Sadly, the inverse did not happen, but it was an early mark to show that FFXIV had the legs to stand up and be iconic.
6. Final Fantasy XI x Granblue Fantasy
The Granblue Fantasy franchise has an odd relationship with Final Fantasy, and not just because Nobuo Uematsu has composed music for it; it very much feels like GBF is Pepsi to FF’s Coke. The Rolling Stones to their Beatles. The Babylon Five to its Deep Space Nine. “Oh, sure, you’ve got the pedigree and you were first and we’re clearly working from some of the same ideas… but you know, we can get pretty cool and original over here, too.”
This is reinforced by the fact that the GBF team was actually interviewed during FFXI’s anniversary celebration and that the original mobile game had a big crossover event with FFXI for the MMORPG’s anniversary. You could get a Kraken Club and everything. It was a neat tribute. Now if we could just get a flip-side crossover, or something in FFXIV…
7. NieR: Automata x Final Fantasy XIV
I’m counting this as a crossover because it’s very clear that the game itself does; it’s pretty overt about the idea that 2B and 9S are the same characters from the game and this really was some kind of crossing. It’s not very clean, though, and not just because all of the NieR: Automata stuff is functionally window dressing; the story is rather random and not very well written, seemingly reliant on your guessing at what certain things are supposed to mean.
Remember how in the post-raid quests there was the implication that something was causing the Dwarves to act differently but then that thread was completely abandoned without explanation? I love abstract endings and what they can imply, but this one was at best offering a suggestion that the best thing you can do when confronted by things you don’t understand is to leave them alone and hope they work out on their own. That’s weird, man. That is a weird take. Oh well.
8. Final Fantasy XIII x Final Fantasy XIV
Y’know, with all the gender unlocking we’ve gotten, it’s still kinda garbage that we haven’t gotten unlocks for Snow and Lightning’s outfits. Like, come on. I know, this event was ages ago and it’s been rerun a couple times here and there, so odds are low we’ll see any updates here, but it still bugs me a little. Not as much as how Lightning’s gunblade can’t be used by the job that uses gunblades, but that’s another matter altogether.
9. Final Fantasy XV x Final Fantasy XIV
If nothing else, I’m glad that Final Fantasy VII Rebirth has shown an example of building an open-world Final Fantasy game that isn’t bland and terrible, even if it does have its flaws. (I reviewed the game and got to play it early, so I got a lot of time to explore the title on its own merits.) This was honestly what I would consider the first of the more “modern” crossover events, treated as a whole thing with an established game; Final Fantasy XIII was when it was still unclear if FFXIV was actually going to do well.
10. Final Fantasy XIV x Final Fantasy XI
Yes, this also happened! There was a crossover event for FFXIV in FFXI! Life is hilarious sometimes. To be specific, it brought in Spriggans, which seem like something that should already exist in FFXI but somehow doesn’t. I don’t know either. Still, if FFXI development wasn’t slowing down so much… like, come on, FFXIV has you outstripped by three to one. Time to step up the crossovers.
Everyone likes a good list, and we are no different! Perfect Ten takes an MMO topic and divvies it up into 10 delicious, entertaining, and often informative segments for your snacking pleasure. Got a good idea for a list? Email us at justin@massivelyop.com or eliot@massivelyop.com with the subject line “Perfect Ten.”
