With the release of every new expansion in Final Fantasy XIV (FFXIV), Square Enix drops a new 24-man Alliance Raid into the mix as well, and it always comes with a pretty engaging story to go with it.
The quality of these stories have been improving with each new iteration, and the latest offering — titled Echoes of Vana’diel and based off of Final Fantasy XI — is already shaping up to be yet another winner.
I’ve always joked that the events and collabs in FFXIV are really just well-done advertisements for other Square Enix joints (see: FFXVI‘s Path Infernal event). While there’s still more story to get through in Echoes of Vana’diel, Square Enix has already sold me on FFXI and convinced me that it might actually be worth checking out even today.
Like most other collab-style stories in FFXIV, Echoes of Vana’diel begins with a displaced adventurer who has somehow found their way to Tural. And, of course, he has amnesia, because how else is the game going to deliver its stunning revelations at the end of the second act when we finally find out that our new friend is probably an anti-hero but has decided to join the good guys because of the power of friendship? If I sound a little jaded, it’s probably because, after over two decades of playing JRPGs, I feel like I’ve seen all the tropes. Even so, Echoes of Vana’diel has me feeling strangely nostalgic for a game I’ve never even played before.
Over the years, the Final Fantasy series has evolved in tremendous ways. The jump from 2D to 3D was a big one, with Final Fantasy VII being widely considered the landmark entry of the series. Even with these big technological jumps, however, the old-school FF games never deviated from its one, defining element: a party made up of lovable characters who might come off as one-dimensional or trope-y at times, but would never fail to be endearing to the player.
That all changed with Final Fantasy XII when it became clear that Square Enix wanted to take the series in a slightly darker, more serious direction. Suddenly, characters began to take a backseat to the lore and world-building. More so than XII, FFXIII was the really controversial entry that gathered the most detractors in the modern era, with a convoluted narrative and one-note gameplay structure that got so stale so quickly that not even its fantastic battle system could save it.
Even FFXVI couldn’t help but dip its toes into the Game of Thrones pool, with political conspiracies, backstabbing, and tragic deaths slapped all over its introductory hours. It’s easily the most graphically violent game in the series, and also the first to feature sex and swearing in dialogue. The first time I heard a character say “f**k” in FFXVI, I audibly gasped and probably would’ve clutched my pearls in horror if I were wearing any.
Look, the point is that Square Enix clearly wanted the series to be more mature, and I’m just saying that you can’t go completely in that direction when you still have moogles and chocobos running around. You’ve gotta remember to keep the humor and light-hearted good vibes of the series as well.
Like the rest of FFXIV, Echoes of Vana’diel strikes a good balance between being serious and being goofy. On one hand, you’ve got the return of a side villain from Dawntrail, whom I’m sure has cooked up a very scary plan to plunge the world into chaos yet again. On the other hand, you’ve got freaking Prishe, who is just an adorable scamp in every sense of the word. When you first meet her, she immediately attacks you, though you soon find out that she’s actually been put under a spell to make her see everyone around her as monsters.
After completing the Raid, the Warrior of Light gets to know Prishe and the amnesiac Alxaal on a deeper level as the three bond over being fellow adventurers in their respective worlds. This is where Echoes of Vana’diel shines — Prishe’s jaw drops over her tacos when she learns that you’re a literal living legend, while the stoic Alxaal is just silently awed by your achievements. The contrast between the two is what makes the scene so comedic, and it’s only bolstered by Prishe looking so comically content with her tacos right before that.
It’s not as if any of this is new. Final Fantasy is no stranger to comic relief and making its characters look goofy just to lighten the mood. It’s just been so long since we’ve gotten a mainline Final Fantasy game that actually leans into that goofiness, which is what makes Echoes of Vana’diel and FFXIV as a whole feel so nostalgic and refreshing. This isn’t to say that the series can’t be serious either; FFXIV has tackled some pretty heavy issues in the past, and the current arc in Dawntrail explores the meaning of death, what it means to grieve the loss of your loved ones, and how we move on from that. That’s a lot to take in, but FFXIV also punctuates those heavy scenes with humor to help balance things out.
Toward the end of this first act of Echoes of Vana’diel, Prishe tells us that we have a big job ahead of us, but there’s no need to fear. Vana’diel’s been through a lot as well, but her world was always able to endure and survive because she had her friends — her fellow adventurers — who banded together and found a way to push on. As long as we have each other, there’s nothing you can’t conquer. It’s a very cheesy thing to say, but it’s not Final Fantasy without a bit of cheese.
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