Fashion is a big part of any video game, and Final Fantasy XIV is no exception. Once you’ve maxed out every combat, crafting, and gathering job in the game, what else is left? Fashion, of course.
FFXIV started out as a primarily medieval fantasy MMORPG, with castles, villages, and small towns that all fit perfectly with the cutesy fantasy core setting. But as the game evolved, Square Enix released increasingly outlandish costume options for players obsessed with creating the perfect glamour for their characters.
Before we knew it, Harajuku-style trendsetters were being seen strolling the high-fantasy streets of Ishgard; by December, players were frolicking in cosy knitted jumpers; and, perhaps most damningly, Square Enix also released the Tomestone emote, in which Warriors of Light whip out their Tomestone-themed phones and take influencer-style selfies.
Well. Hello Square Enix. In this world, only linkpearls exist. Thank you very much. Please remove the mundane mobile phone from my fantasy game. Think of my immersion!
Anyway, after pacing around my room in anger for an hour and deciding to stop sending a very strongly worded email to Naoki Yoshida himself, I got over it and continued to play FFXIV religiously for another 5 or so years.
But with the release of the Dawntrail expansion, it’s finally actually clear within the game world why there’s so much technology and modernity in FFXIV, and I couldn’t be happier.
Solution Nine serves as the new endgame hub for Dawntrail and is basically a tech haven. The in-game description of Solution Nine explains that it’s actually another part of Reflection (i.e. world) in FFXIV, and that this Reflection is much more technologically advanced than anything we’ve seen in the game’s previous expansions. There are people walking around with neat little headsets that literally bring them back to life when they die, and everything has a cool, clean sci-fi aesthetic.
Fashion-wise, think Tron or Cyberpunk 2077. People are walking around in fashionable hoodies in bright neon colours, and I love the high-tech look. FFXIV certainly highlights the contrast between Solution Nine’s futuristic setting and Turyolar’s more traditional sensibilities, and I loved watching the characters become accustomed to modern conveniences.
See, Square Enix? All I needed was a flimsy in-game reason to make FFXIV players look a little more modern and fashionable. That couldn’t be that hard, right?
The point is, not only is it nice to no longer have to feel like my immersion is broken every time I see someone use a tomestone emote, but Solution Nine has also opened up quite a few possibilities for the future of the game.
Now that modern technology is part of the FFXIV canon, who knows we won’t see more high-tech combat jobs in future expansions? While much of FFXIV is rooted in medieval fantasy, Dawntrail marks the start of a new adventure for the Warrior of Light, so I wouldn’t be opposed to the game trying out new ideas and taking the story in an entirely different direction.
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