hythlodaeus appreciation zone

I’m sure this has been done, and apologies if I’m wrong on anything, but I wanna ramble about it just in light of the news about the new raids. Not to say how you should feel about crossovers and references, but more as a context thing.

The short version is that a lot of XIV world-building comes from previous games, so hopefully the new VII raid will follow suit! I don’t know enough about the crossovers with other franchises to comment on those (even though I did the Nier raids), so this is just a few examples from other Final Fantasies.

But references other titles in XIV can be categorised usually into one of these (spoilers for the whole game!)

Recurring Concepts

These are things that appear in most/many FF titles. They are used and designed differently in every game, but share some similar qualities. Some examples are: the Warriors of Light, Crystals, the names/designs of certain Primals, the jobs, Cid, Biggs and Wedge, and many common creatures, like Moogles, Chocobos, Morbols, Tonberries, Cactuars, Ultros and Typhon etc.

Allusions/Homages

These are allusions to other games that aren’t staple for the franchise, usually referencing one specific character or concept from another title. There are many, many of these, and some are more overt than others. Some examples include: G’raha Tia’s role in the Crystal Tower storyline possibly alluding to Desch from FFIII, and the Warriors of Darkness alluding to FFIII’s WoD as well. Hien’s family background is an allusion to Cyan from FFVI - with Hien himself alluding to Cyan’s son - as is Doma itself. Krile and Galuf Baldesion are named after the characters from FFV. The Ascians/Convocation and their associated constellations are named after entities in the Ivalice series (excluding Azem), as is Venat. Zero’s arc and job change partially mirrors Cecil’s from FFIV. Sphene, Zelenia, and Otis are homages to Garnet, Beatrix and Steiner from FFIX, along with Alexandria. The Eden storyline is also partly a homage to FFVIII, with allusions to things like Squall and Rinoa’s relationship or Ultimecia (with some more direct references as well, e.g. Eden itself)

Direct References

These are the things that are directly based off something from another game, often visually identical, but with unique lore designed to fit XIV’s world.

Major examples are: The Gold Saucer, the Crystal Tower raids, Matoya and her cave, the Warring Triad, Return to Ivalice raids, Tenzen from the Four Lords questline, Omega (the character) and Shinryu, the aforementioned design from Eden, the Weapons from Werlyt, Golbez and the Archfiends, as well as many more boss designs, dungeons and glamours from throughout the game. Most of the Manderville references, e.g. Gigi/Vivi, Yojimbo, PuPu and Oglops fall into this category as well.

Cross-dimensional Travel

These are the plot lines where a character from another game is ported into XIV directly, and usually returns to their own world after the story is done. Final Fantasy has been an established multiverse since FFVIII (1998), so this isn’t uncommon in the series, but it isn’t frequent in XIV.

This is Gilgamesh in the Manderville questline. He has been world-hopping through the franchise via the Interdimensional Rift for irl decades, and he is nearly always the same guy from back in FFV. If you see Greg in another title (and he looks like himself, I believe is the rule?), then it likely is the same person we meet in XIV! The limited-time crossover events where Iroha, Noctis, and Clive come to Eorzea are also examples of this (and several XIV characters have been transported to other worlds in the franchise as well. This is just a thing that happens in this series).

Simulation Storylines

These are where a character is made aware of another FF world (due to the established canon connection between every game), and they import characters and settings from that world into XIV via a simulation or construct. They’re not actually the characters in the way that Gilgamesh is, but they behave exactly as the real thing would.

There are only two examples that appear to do this: the Omega raids (specifically O1-O9), and the Vana’diel raids.

Perhaps there’s more, but those are what I can think of!

And actually, on raids specifically, while storylines like Void Ark or Arcadion feel more grounded in XIV’s lore, nearly all of them have some small reference to another game in the series! I believe MotR is the most unique to XIV in that respect.

I am really enjoying the headcanon rn of Fandaniel and Halmarut having friction as colleagues based on rather... misaligned goals. Especially if they were made to work together in the Ascian Buddy System