Hi, everyone!
Sicycre from the North American Community team here! So, how did you like our very first Digital Fan Festival!? I hope you enjoyed it as much as we did.
Missed the event? Worry not! You can relive the excitement directly from your preferred streaming platform’s archive/videos section.
Today, we’ll recap all the fun stage events from the show, so settle in for a long read!
Day 1 Recap
Keynote Address
After revealing the full trailer for Endwalker, Producer and Director Naoki Yoshida walked out onto the stage dressed in a gothic-looking outfit and wielding a scythe.
He then revealed his attire was designed after the new reaper job. The (virtual) crowds indeed went wild!
He announced lots of new information regarding Endwalker, including new areas, battle content, and much more. Did I mention male Viera? I can’t wait for November!
After the Keynote Address, we moved on to the opening ceremony where we were joined by Square Enix President Yosuke Matsuda and core members of the Development team to begin day one of the Digital Fan Festival.
How Do You Like Hydaelyn?
In this stage event, the Japanese Community team explored all sorts of in-game locations and landmarks with Lead Story Designer Banri Oda. He shared some behind-the-scenes information and lore regarding various foes and dungeons, which should give adventurers something to look out for when revisiting Matoya’s Relict!
Here’s a screenshot featuring our players from the Ramuh World! It was great to see everyone having such a good time!
Development Panel
Battle Content Designer Daisuke Nakagawa and Lead Animator Takanobu Miyazawa explained the process of designing raid content alongside some examples.
We learned what sort of wild ideas they began with and the kinds of technological ingenuity that went into making them a reality.
Welcome to Naoki’s Room
Yoshida was joined by Actor Kamiki Ryunosuke, who shared his experiences about how he started playing FFXIV, the ways in which he enjoys the game, and how MMORPGs can build strong connections between users who may be thousands of miles apart.
Later during this segment, Kamiki was given the title of FFXIV Ambassador with an inauguration ceremony.
Piano Performance
This piano performance by Keiko was mesmerizing and featured melodies that were soft at times, and strong during others. Based on some of the comments by Warriors of Light during the performance, I’d say this stage event definitely evoked everyone’s memories of the various adventures and journeys they’d undertaken.
As a note, Sound Director Masayoshi Soken mentioned that some high-end technology was used to make it sound as though singer Amanda Achen was actually singing live onstage!
After the piano performance, the core development team members returned to the stage to close out the first day.
Oh wait, there was one more thing! We had these beautiful flower arrangements that were brought in and displayed backstage!
Needless to say, day one was quite the digital experience. Now let’s move on to day two!
Day 2 Recap
Letter from the Producer LIVE Part LXIV
Day two kicked off with the Letter from the Producer LIVE where we revealed the release date for Patch 5.55. I’m REALLY looking forward to the main scenario questline to see how we get closer to the events shown in the Endwalker trailer! We also announced the schedule of upcoming seasonal and collaboration events. Honestly, I want those watches and that guitar though?! [Yes, please.]
We also invited Lead Story Designer Natsuko Ishikawa to answer some questions related to the main scenario and how characters are written. I wish we had a lot more time to go over some of these behind-the-scenes stories! They were really fascinating, and I could listen to them all day. She also shared a lot of personal advice and spoke at length about her own creative process!
Glamoured to Life Showcase
In this segment, we showcased various outfits and cosplays that our Warriors of Light put together to represent their favorite characters. It was amazing to see everyone’s enjoyment and creativity shining through via their choices!
Live Q&A
We received a lot of great questions for the Live Q&A, to which Yoshida enthusiastically responded to with some very thorough answers. If only we had time to ask him more!
Flashback with the Cast
In this segment, we invited Japanese voice actors Yuma Uchida (Crystal Exarch), KENN (Urianger), and Hiroki Takahashi (Emet-Selch) to chat with Yoshida about their roles and experiences.
They even did live performances for a number of scenes that didn’t originally feature voice acting, which was quite special and very impressive! Although this segment was only in Japanese, you may want to check this out as they voice over some memorable moments you may be very familiar with. Fair warning though, be ready to blame someone for cutting onions while you’re watching! /fakesmile
Who Wants To Be A Gillionaire?
The Western Community team and FFXIV content creators banded together in this amazing duty and trivia game show! We all had a blast, and we hope it makes you to revisit some past content as well!
Band Performance
And, of course, no Fan Festival would be complete without a high-energy performance from THE PRIMALS!
I absolutely HAVE to point this out but when they played The Long Fall, some members of the Development team showed their talents aren’t limited to the office, and that they have moves for the dance floor too! I couldn’t stop smiling, laughing, and vibing with them!
Yoshida also joined in the band again as a special vocalist! Along with Koji Fox, they jammed out to Titan’s theme song, Under the Weight! Truly, they know how to put on a show!
Closing Ceremony
With some final words from our team members, our first Digital Fan Festival came to a close. We had so much fun during the two days of celebration with our Warriors of Light. We honestly couldn’t do it without all of you!
While we couldn’t physically hold a Fan Festival event this year, thanks to all the power and energy we received from all our Warriors of Light, we were able to make this show go on. Our Development and Operations team will continue to do our best to bring more smiles to everyone’s faces and perhaps even meet new Warriors of Light along the way!
As always, we’re truly grateful for your support for FINAL FANTASY XIV! Thank you!
Sicycre
– Community team
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Check out the Digital Fan Festival 2021 website!
