We recently got around to seeing the Final Fantasy XIV x Final Fantasy XVI event, which does have arguable the best award for completing it in the game thus so far. Spoilers relating to this event follows!
The quest starts out in Ul’Dah, and is a level 50 quest, which I haven’t seen one of these start this high since the Final Fantasy XIV x Final Fantasy XV event and XI prior. Seeing as it does involve a pretty neat fight at the end, it does make sense though.
One runs into this feller asking who one is, and thus begins the story with the Wandering Minstrel coming along for the ride based on one of his dreams. In his dream he mentions a scarlet star crossing paths with a bright white star and interprets it as someone or something is about to need us in some way.
This leads us to the Burning Wall in East Thanalan, and after a quick seek & find (that I took forever to do), we find our visitor from another star (but we don’t know that yet).
After a quick greeting between him, the Minstrel, and I, he introduces himself as Clive who has forgotten everything else about himself and how he got here. I realize they’ve used this as the basis for other crossover events in the past, but I don’t ever really mind it. I mean, if I or anyone else just magically appeared on another world, I’d probably feel this way in some way or another too.
Anyway, so we escort him back to Ul’Dah to make sure he’s alright, and we being to help him remember who he is. Not really ringing any bells with Ul’Dah’s surroundings, the two of us decide to embark to Gridania via airship since we found Clive kind of between the two city-states. The Minstrel decides to stay behind and ask the locales near the Burning wall to see if they know who Clive is. Before boarding the airship, it’s to Clive’s surprise that airships are a thing on Etheirys and are commonly used, and appears this will be his first time on one. I’ve not played Final Fantasy XVI, so I don’t know if they have airships there or not.
Upon arriving in Gridania, I take lead and show him around town hoping it’ll jostle something to help his memories. Aside from him liking Gridania, nothing really does until he hears ‘Garuda’ from the Adder’s Grand Company HQ. This ultimately leads us to a meeting with the Seedseer who talks about Garuda with both us and Clive, and ends with the Minstrel arriving to tell/confirm to us that Clive is in fact from another world since no one has recognized his description nor the tattoo on his face.
This ends up leading into how to get him back home, and it involves Ifrit and him having to come to terms with a ‘terrible truth’ that his memory keeps blocking. So the Minstrel meets us over at Apkallu falls, to then send us to the Bowl of Embers to meet with a copy of Ifrit that can still kick our tails.
Clive examines the Amalj’aa Ifrit, and acknowledges the similarities between the Ifrit he knows and ours, but are still rather different. This memory recollection transforms Eorzea’s Ifrit into the one Clive knows, and he gets big as seen as the header image.
The fight itself is neat, and I personally think a bit easier than the one from the Final Fantasy XV event, which is good. I never really liked that battle greatly since there was a couple of rough spots in it. The two abilities one gets to use during the battle are a lot of fun. The dodge/counter-attack skill is fun, but I had a hard time puling it off when it was not mandatory, but thankfully the dodge part always works when not on cool down and is not needed for the DPS check, but it would make that part a lot quicker.
At the end of the fight, he remembers he’s in fact Ifrit and then turns into Ifrit to finish off the Ifrit we’re fighting. Ifritception!
His memories come back, realizing he killed his younger brother as Ifrit, and goodest of boys Torgal appears.
Torgal appears and is there to help get Clive back home, which is conveniently the same place we found him at. So one more hop across the land back to Thanalan later, we’re ready to follow Torgal to their departure place. This section is neat because if one has done the Coils of Bahamut, it makes this whole part about Phoenix a lot more filled in. However, even with not, it’s still a neat way it explains how Clive got here.
Once everyone says their goodbyes, Clive and Torgal poof away back home.
The Minstrel makes an interesting 4th wall remark and heads on his way as well, but not before giving one a couple of Torgals: a minion and a mount. The mount version allows for indefinite petting of Torgal making it the best mount ever immediately.
Overall, I really did like this crossover event. It was just the right about of things along with a really great instance fight at the end. However, it really didn’t make me feel anything for Clive so I wish we were able to hang out with him a smidgen more even if it was just in dialog. Comparing that to meeting and hanging out with Noctis or even Iroha as those two gave me an emotional attachment.
That’s really the only thing I could say against it, else wise was a nice little with a fun fight. Afterwards, music scrolls from Final Fantasy XVI can be purchased from the Gold Saucer for MGP where the other music scrolls are bought from. I still haven’t gotten any yet, but due to a certain wonderful black cat, we have one of those gorgeous songs playing at HQ right now.