FFXIV NPC Additions - Your Thoughts?

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I know what ya'll are going to say in terms of Eorzea and such, but I was thinking for ways for SE to pump more users into the realm of FFXIV and or the next upcoming installment.

To start, I have played almost all Final Fantasy Legacy Installments and played FFXI for 2+ years. When I started FFXIV, I was pleasantly surprised when I saw supporting characters like Biggs and Wedge pop into the game. I also saw Cait Sith and others in the game, which recently got me thinking.

Without derailing the game's storyline and such, why do you think SE has not sunk in some of the other supporting characters from other games?

I would love to see Vivi from FFXI put into place or others that have instrumentally impacted the franchise. There is an infinite amount of combinations, but I reiterate they don't want to detract from the story itself. I do love Heavensward's story line.

My issue how would they work them in. They can't be large characters like Squall / Tera / Kefka or any of those because people would lose their shit and ask for more and more. Which would basically mean FFXIV universe would be overtaken.

In essence they would need to create another game called like final fantasy universe due to worlds has already been taken. (Lame).

Anyway what are your thoughts without me putting my brain all on paper and making this too long?
 
This is an interesting topic.

I guess there are some characters who can be worked into FFXIV in the way that Wedge, Biggs and Jesse (etc) have been worked in. They are redesigned to fit within the FFXIV universe, but there are character traits which carry through.

Gilgamesh and Ultros are used in FFXIV without ruining the integrity of that universe. I guess in their case it is because FF already has a habit of reusing these characters (Gilgamesh, in particular, is implied to be warping from one FF dimension to the next).

Cait Sith (when he isn't the more developed FFVII puppet character controlled by Reeve) is also a generic monster in other FF titles, or a minor summon. The character can exist in any FF game without explanation, and without necessarily being taken to be the same Cait Sith as the FFVII Cait Sith.

Off the top of my head, perhaps these might be possible in the future:

  • Don Corneo (I don't see why they can't do what they do for Wedge and Biggs and Cid and start having a horny guy called Don Corneo in every game...)
  • Ward and Kiros (I guess these could be redesigned as soldiers, guards, etc, and retain some of their FFVIII characteristics).
  • Raijin and Fujin (as above)
  • Owzer (FFVI's eccentric art collector who resembles Jabba the Hut - Why not have a guy like this?)
  • Scarlet, Palmer, Heidegger, etc (the Shinra executives could easily be recycled for FFXIV)
  • Matoya (the famous witch with the awesome theme tune from FF1 is asking to be a Black Mage specialist somewhere in the XIV world - if she isn't already)
  • Baku, Marcus, Blank, Cinna, Ruby, etc (The Tantalus Theatre Troupe from FFIX could easily be adapted for FFXIV)

I chose characters who are relatively minor and can easily be adapted. The problem with main characters is that they'll be very difficult to isolate from their respective games. They can hold cross-over events (such as the one they did where Lightning appears temporarily), but if they introduce a lot of established major FF characters into the FFXIV world then people will no longer buy into the world of XIV as an isolated, convincing mythology in its own right.


An entirely new MMORPG which is a melting pot of FF universes from the start (and one where you can finally select a moogle as a race, please!) might be what is necessary to introduce major characters. If they did that though then they'll have to put in a lot of extra effort to make it not seem like an MMORPG version of Dissidia.
 
Matoya is in the game. She hasn't done much; she's a cranky former mentor to a number of ally characters and she's helped the main character access a couple of previously inaccessible locations as part of the main scenario story. "Vivi" is...sort of in the game as part of the Hildibrand story. It's obviously not Vivi, but rather a mammet that just so happens to look like him for fanservice reasons. Same goes for Krile from FF5. It's not the same little girl, but a Lalafellin scholar, hilariously enough. Then let's not forget that the FF3 Crystal Tower story has been repurposed to fit into Eorzean lore, with Emperor Xande, Doga and Unei. Oh, and the Warring Triad, with all three deities having their own origin mythologies and properties wholly different from that of their FF6 counterparts.

Minor named characters that occasionally show up for pure fanservice are certainly not something I'm opposed to. The game is a theme park anyway, and there's little sense trying to disguise it. As discussed already, just keep the major characters out of it, lest they want to compromise the game's identity egregiously. After all, this is still a mainline game with its own fleshed-out lore and universe, not Dissidia Online. Ideally I would still want these minor characters to still be subtle enough that it's not too overt and in-your-face, but distinctive enough in mannerisms, dialogue and physical appearances that a fan can still easily recognise and appreciate the re-imagined versions. If they really have to go to town with overt fanservice that doesn't even make much sense in the game's world (hi, Ultros!), that's what Hildibrand is for. That wacky world runs on its own wondrous (lack of) logic.

Additionally, while Sephiroth himself doesn't appear in the game, I like the more subtle direction they took with Nael van Darnus, the villain for 1.0. A silver-haired (though you don't learn this until way, way later in the Coils of Bahamut) rogue warrior driven mad, walks through flames, and ultimately seeks to bring down a meteor onto the planet. It's not amazingly subtle, because the connections are so easy to draw and it doesn't help that it was so clearly signposted when they announced that Nael leads the VIIth Imperial Legion, but it was still essentially putting Sephiroth into the game without actually having Sephiroth. Nael as the loose analogue fit into the narrative and the world, and I kind of liked that idea. Having said that, the Legatus for the VIth Legion who has been after the Warring Triad's power hasn't exactly been very Kefka-like.

So all in all, I've not really much to add. I'm open to having more FFXIV analogues of existing minor characters throughout the FF series, and I think with ones such as Matoya, it's been respectfully done to the degree that it respects the original without severely compromising the game's identity and in-universe logic. Personally and for...reasons, I've wanted to see the Qu from FFIX be its own Beast Tribe in the game in some swampy domain of Eorzea. Just imagine what their gluttonous Primal would be...
 
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