Final Fantasy XIV Fan Fest 2019 Paris

porina · February 6, 2019

Last weekend was the Final Fantasy XIV Fan Fest in Paris. This is my first time attending a game specific event like this. Due to the weather the group I was with had to do some hectic travel rearrangement to get there at all, and we arrived just as the opening keynote and ceremony was over. At least it means no delay to get in and we breezed through security bag check and registration.

This is the entrance from the 2nd day. The queue was broken, as I was in a party as DPS, with healer and tank, and it didn't instant-pop.

This is the main stage. Seating was tight and it got warm. Think I heard there were 4500 people at this event. Just a few then!

This was the area for the special Yojimbo challenge. A preview as it were for future game content. Queues were quite long, can't remember but wouldn't be surprised if it was over an hour. You got around 5 mins to set up the controls, and go in. Most people probably have highly customised their home setups, and there was no way to transfer that. My main is Bard, but I managed to get enough of my skills set up quickly. Had to queue a 2nd time before I got a clear, which got a reward of a sticker. I believe in the past they gave out "I beat..." t-shirts, but not this time.

Positions had both controller and keyboard+mouse. Area was sponsored, so PCs were from Alienware, and headsets from Turtle Beach. I didn't pay close attention to any of it as I had to concentrate on the fight, but there was a mechanical keyboard I had no problem with, but tank in my party hated it. Mouse was on a rather small mouse mat which was somewhat challenging. Something I don't know, is if the game defaults to linear mouse, as the systems I used that day all behaved as such. That was my biggest concern, as I hate mouse acceleration and it is one of the 1st things I change when setting up a new install.

Similarly this was at the challenge roulette. Spin the wheel to see what you have to do. Only did this once, and we ended up with a relatively easy one. Zurvan X Wind up Cursor. While waiting we were speculating what this was. One mechanic seen in Rabnastre raid was the wind up cursor appearing spinning over your head, and you can only move in the direction it was pointing at the time. Well... it wasn't quite that bad. Keyboard players were asked to map WASD opposite to normal. I don't know what controller players did, although I heard from another team later on they had to hold the controller rotated 180 degrees. As keyboard+mouse, reversed WASD wasn't that bad actually. We could still turn normally using mouse, so in effect I only had to worry about swapping forward/backwards. There was another trick that I didn't use, which is pressing L+R mouse button makes you walk forward, and that was unchanged also. I thought that would be against the spirit of the challenge so didn't do it other than seeing if it worked.

Oh, these were not sponsored systems. They were PS4, with a generic membrane keyboard. I found that harder to use as I rely on more travel to palm-press left-ctrl as modifier.

Another view of the interior, these are two of the mini-games you could queue up for.

At the back is the merchandise area. There was a display, and you can fill out an order form and take it over to pay. They gave you a token which you then take to the collection area to pick up goods. It was busy early on, so they gave out tickets giving you a time slot to queue in, but it eased up in the afternoon and it didn't seem to be enforced after that.

Looking the other direction, there is the main stage at the far left. The aetheryte was a good landmark for meeting up with people. First time I met my game wife (he was nice), and later a youtuber I follow. In front of that were more mini-games, and the signing wall where you can leave your mark.

Just like in game, you get a chance to hit the cactpot. As part of the stuff you're given is a single ticket, with a chance to earn a 2nd one if you want. No surprise, I didn't get anything here.

Concerts were held on both evenings. I didn't know what to expect in either case and was pleasantly surprised in both. The first night was a piano concert by Benyamin Nuss, and vocals in part by Susan Calloway. Soken also took part, with some interesting twists. The 2nd night was The Primals concert pictured above. Yoshi-P did a part, but didn't want to add singer to his job title.

I don't do musical events generally. There was an announcement before both saying that no sound or video recording was allowed, but it was obvious there were many ignoring that, and didn't seem to be any enforcement. I only took some random snaps but knew it wasn't worth trying too hard as the phone quality would suck anyway.

After the concert was the closing ceremony, where they also got on stage other Square Enix staff. After some words, it was over until Tokyo. Look forward to it.

Just for turning up, you get the above loot. A bag, pen, lanyard, water bottle, wrist band, badges and stickers. Not bad. There's also a book (not shown) which had various info, and a section at the back for collecting stamps by participating in events.

I got the three physical items, the goobbue patch, korpokkur keyring, and auto-translate magnets. The latter should be interesting to mix with a lolcats set I have already... there was also chance for an extra cactpot ticket but I didn't do enough for that.

The staff also randomly appeared on the show floor, so there was some unscheduled signing chances. I got the two foxes, Foxclon, and Koji Fox. I would loved to have got a Yoshi-P and Soken too, but I wasn't in the right place at the right time.

On that note, it was certainly an experience. One that almost never happened due to travel chaos and requiring throwing a lot of money at the problem to be there at all. If anything, it would be nice if the queues could be shorter. With 4500 people there, it was never going to be easy. You want to do events? Queue. Food? Queue. Toilets? Queue. DPS simulator 2019. I also felt bad at one point, where Ayumi Namae was given another slot after the reveals in the Live Letter. She had to follow the FFXV crossover and other major reveals, and the pace change was too much. Lots of people left the stage area to go do other things then as time was limited.

Thankfully they don't do these too often, about once every two years in each region. I might have recovered by the next one...