This past weekend’s Final Fantasy 14 Fan Fest in Berlin was all the time going to be a unique experience for me than the previous Fan Fest held in London. Last time, my Free Company was in full attendance (shout out to Team Bread), and we stuck together like a raid group, going from one activity to a different and blitzing all of them. It was an utterly incredible weekend.
This time nonetheless, it was like I’d travelled to a unique Data Center. Every part was familiar, but I didn’t have nearly as many familiar faces around me to experience all of it. And that was just the start of me realising that Fan Fest is an oddly perfect mirror of how we behave as Warriors of Light in Eorzea, and I couldn’t be happier about such a realisation.
Quest Log
One other journalist and I set ourselves the duty of completing the Grand Mystery Game on the app, which challenged us to resolve various questions and puzzles and input answers to secure ourselves the prize of some coveted FF14 stickers.
You already know when latest content launches in-game and also you see a throng of players around a certain spot, and you simply know there may be an issue destination point or NPC waiting there. That is exactly what it was like, but in real life. Now you’ll be telling me we can purchase a house identical to in Final Fantasy 14 as well!
After rigorously solving the sudoku puzzle in The Last Stand Cafe (read: sent it to my husband to resolve as we did not have a pen available), we were on the hunt for a cat in Solution Nine to reply which color its collar was. The clever thing was that multiple areas looked identical to Solution Nine, so we were going to every area and scanning around for the elusive feline.
The crowds of individuals were definitely an easy-to-spot clue for where you needed to be, nevertheless it was also funny how much questing here mirrored questing in FF14. I’ve lost count of how over and over I have been doing a quest and someone in /say will likely be helping others and telling them the reply or what they should do. After collecting all of the letters (we expect) from Living Memory and attempting to work out the anagram, one other Warrior of Light walked past saying “it’s Alexandria”. Job done.
One other task required a hefty queue to get into the ocular on the Crystarium that we didn’t need to commit to. We ended up brute-forcing it as the reply was a selected reflection, so we just entered each until we found a winner. I prefer to consider this was us channelling the identical energy as if you don’t desire to attend for an obligation to pop, so that you rope FC friends into doing it with you to avoid the queue.
While it could seem we were being carried to the win here, we legitimately solved five of the eight without outside help. We earned those stickers. After which, in true Final Fantasy community fashion, we helped other Warriors of Light get their stickers by simply telling all of them the answers. Yes, they missed out on the enjoyment of counting hidden bananas in trees in Tuliyollal, but let’s just call that the equivalent of skipping cutscenes.
Anywhere you went, it felt like a mirror image of wandering around Eorzea. Fans grouped for photos, and will as well have had the Gpose icon above their heads, while crafters showcased their very real crafting skills within the crafting areas. Other WoLs were trading stickers in pockets scattered everywhere in the halls, people were admiring and complimenting cosplayers on their glamours, and a few were taking the time to sit down down and AFK for a bit to recharge.
Everyone was putting their RNG luck to the test with the lottery-granted meet and greet, merch, and activity slots, and a few people were even wearing AFK shirts to indicate when their social battery was at a low point, they usually needed some trip.
Rejoice Your Wins
It wasn’t just the overall ambience, community spirit, or activities on offer, either. We were all representing our WoLs faithfully, though it took me some time to know just how much. I spent the weekend attempting to get every minion pin from the gacha machines, after which I realised that I spent Fan Fest the exact same way as I spend my time in FF14: minion hunting.
I managed to get 7/8 of the minion pins, and no, I won’t comment on the sum of money I spent to attain that.
I don’t consider myself a hardcore player as my item level isn’t impressive, I eat dirt greater than most, and I don’t really touch raids or any difficult duties (unless minions are involved). I often feel just like the odd one out, but I’ve left Fan Fest feeling more confident about myself and my WoL than ever.
It may be all too easy to feel like an imposter amongst “proper players” if you compare yourself and your individual achievements (or lack thereof) to those that are storming through Ultimates and wearing rare gear. Nonetheless, as we chatted about minions within the press room and I discovered I had the very best collection out of anyone, I realised I had my very own strength, I just hadn’t really valued the hours I’d put into minion hunting and thought of it the identical level because the hours that players put into content I deemed more necessary.
Hearing everyone discuss their in-game passions was incredibly heartwarming, and seeing everyone’s Warrior of Light shine through their achievements, rankings, and discussions was interesting. All of us champion and obsess over different facets of the sport, and sometimes it’s all too easy to forget that.
One journalist who has been working her way through Dancing Mad and is a raid regular was telling the remaining of us about her exploits, all the times her group have been practicing and perfecting their runs. It also wasn’t lost on me that the PR guy answerable for corralling all of the journalists together and planning the weekend, is the co-leader of an FC, and so it seemed relatively fitting that they were leading real life as much as in-game activities.
If I could impart one piece of wisdom from this past weekend, whether you were at Fan Fest or not, it’s to have fun your individual wins, regardless of how small they could seem. What you excel at and luxuriate in may not be what everyone else is doing, but that doesn’t make you less of a Warrior of Light.