Final Fantasy XIV: So How About That New Trailer?

I completely missed the boat on Final Fantasy XIV when it came out. I was busy playing World of Warcraft at the time, and the hype train was going full speed with the upcoming release of the Cataclysm expansion, so I wasn't really paying attention to the run up on Square-Enix's MMORPG. Moreover, when it finally did come out, there were a lot of complaints swirling around it, which convinced me not to bother with it.

Now after a year or so of heavy retooling the game is about to get rebooted with Final Fantasy XIV: A World Reborn. There was a big in-game event to commemorate it, and also a really snazzy trailer. I've not seen any of the festivities that took place on the various servers, but I did have a chance to check out the trailer, and it looked pretty good.

I particularly liked the visuals, but that's always been a strong point of Square's. More importantly, the video was able to quickly give me the gist of what's going on in the game right now just through music and video. There wasn't even any annoying narration, which was nice. About the only things I didn't like about video was Bahamut going around torching everything (I know this is meant as a bit of badassery, but I was getting quite the Deathwing vibe from it what with being a giant dragon burning stuff), and the music was also kind of cheesy. I'm told that the music is related to a bunch of recent events in the game, so I guess it will have a greater impact on those familiar with it, but as an outsider looking it, I didn't much care for it.

Nonetheless, it looked pretty impressive. I'm still not sure if I'll ever give it a try, though. I'm just not a fan of subscription-based MMOs anymore. Not to mention that I'm pretty happy just playing Guild Wars 2 and Phantasy Star Online 2. How about you? Have you had a chance to check out the trailer? What did you think of it?

Final Fantasy: Waxing Nostalgic about my Favorite Cid

There are plenty of little touchstones that one can find in the Final Fantasy series: chocobos, moogles, Gilgamesh, and so forth. The one that I find myself wondering about the most when I play one of these games is Cid. What will he look like? What kind of person will he be (besides an engineer-y scholar type)? I've always found him to be an interesting fellow, but there's one above all else that I'm particularly fond of and that's Cid Pollendina from Final Fantasy IV.

I think a big reason for this is because he was the first Cid I ever encountered. I grew up in the late 80s and early 90s, so when the Final Fantasy games came here (what few that did, that is), I was playing them before he got retconed into the first game, and the second and third games in the series didn't see a release in the West on the NES. After the first game debuted on the NES, the series just jumped right into part four on the SNES with the thing being renamed Final Fantasy II over here. So, I didn't even get to see the two previous incarnations of Cid in the second and third games in the series.  As far as I was concerned at the time, this was the only Cid there was because I didn't know any better at the time.

But yeah, my first Cid, my favorite Cid.

He's certainly a likable guy, if a bit on the loud and exceptionally confident side. Cid fills the archetype of the middle aged master builder quite well. It's certainly a character type that we see a lot of in anime, like Hiraga Gengai from Gintama, for example. I like that he pushes himself so hard for the team, and has very concrete views of right and wrong. It's these attributes that make him so likable. Sure, some of the other Cids also exhibited these traits to varying degrees, but this Cid in particular really amplified them in just the right way to make me warm up to him far more than any of his counterparts.

It probably also helps that Final Fantasy IV is my favorite in the series, so I have overarching positive feelings toward the entire game that likely make me look at this Cid in an even more positive light than I might otherwise. The characters in the game, the world I explored, the story in general, they all resonated with me in a big way. Final Fantasy VI does this as well, but IV does it just a little better for me, edging the former out of top spot in my books. So, being particularly fond of the game in general probably makes my like of this Cid all the more.

Anyway, go Final Fantasy IV Cid! You'll always be my favorite, you ridiculously likable, hardworking engineer, you! Do you have a favorite Cid in the Final Fantasy series? If so, I'd love to know which one. Hop in the comments and share your own thoughts about the character.