Games Happy

One of the crucial placing elements of Last Fantasy XIV is how every participant can immerse themselves in their very own distinctive method. You may merely progress by way of the story, solely subbing for every new patch; maybe you spend your time tackling the video games hardest raids, or you’ll be able to play the marketboard, adorning your home with probably the most unique of housing gadgets. You may spend hours upon hours idling in Limsa Lominsa or the Quicksand after perfecting your Glamour by way of hours of meticulous planning. 

With the XIV group, there’s actually one thing there for everybody; and in a method, it makes occasions like FanFest a lot extra particular for the way they provide a possibility for the totally different sub-groups of the fandom to get collectively in individual to share their love of the sport, even when that love itself takes very totally different types relying on who you ask. But there may be one facet of XIV that appears to unify the group, even once they would possibly diverge on what elements of the sport they’ve grown to like; the music.

Whereas a lot of FanFest was streamed, there have been two notable exceptions; the Piano Live performance with Keiko and Amanda Achen on Friday, and the rock live performance – that includes The Primals – on Saturday. Whereas the remainder of the present had gamers scattering about to do their very own factor, assembly up with pals or queueing up for the Battle Problem and Merch Line (Savage), come time for the live shows on each nights and there was fairly actually not sufficient seats in the home for everybody to have a spot to hearken to the music; massive scores of followers had been pressured to both sit down on the conference heart ground or stand to the facet in the event that they wished to attend the live shows.

Final FanFest, which was digital solely, had these live shows streamed as there was no bodily occasion for followers to attend; and each Masayoshi Soken’s humorous singing and trusty Tamatone turned memes for the group, alongside Sq. Enix straight adopting a fan meme for A Lengthy Fall; borrowing the color-coordinated shirts representing the varied roles in a Gentle Get together as gamers grooved by way of The Twinning, a very talked-about dungeon from Last Fantasy XIV: Shadowbringers.

Whereas each Soken’s Tamatone and the color-coded shirts made a return for this 12 months’s live shows, each Amanda Achens and Jason Charles Millers’ singing stole the present; favorites from Endwalker reminiscent of Your Reply, Circulation and Shut within the Distance left a lot of the viewers in tears, and outdated favorites reminiscent of To The Finish and Brute Justice’s theme did a lot of the identical.

There’s an argument to be made that the connection between Last Fantasy XIV and its fanbase borders on harmful floor, edging nearer and nearer to a parasocial relationship; however with regards to these live shows it is clear to see that a lot of the keenness that Artistic Enterprise Unit III holds for his or her followers is real, and it is equally clear to see that this ardour is rewarded in variety.

For the entire points that FanFest confronted this 12 months – some unknowable, such because the extremely uncomfortable heatwave that graced Las Vegas final weekend, others the results of flawed planning – you would be hard-pressed to seek out anybody that attended the present and had an opportunity to hearken to music from the sport and walked away dissatisfied. Personally, I’ll be telling tales in regards to the time Soken hopped on the piano with Keiko for a duet of the Labyrinthos theme for years to come back; and it is those self same tales, when shared with others, that strengthen the bonds a group shares. FanFest 2023 may be behind us, however the recollections we made that weekend will probably be advised for years to come back.