It's been a long road to redemption for Final Fantasy XIV. Starting off with a launch in 2010 so terrible that the game was pulled and Square Enix was forced to apologize, the game finally returned in 2013 as Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn and, finally, Final Fantasy fans had an MMO that actually felt like a Final Fantasy game.
Now it seems Square Enix's patience and dedication to the game has been rewarded, as the current number of player accounts worldwide has topped 10 million, a healthy number for an MMO. Square Enix has also announced the release of Patch 4.06 which sets up the seasonal Moonfire Faire festival.
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Now, admittedly that number includes free trial accounts, makes no mention of active player base, actual subscribers only reaches around 1 million, and generally World of Warcraft has around 10 million people actively playing the game at any one time, even now. Still it's good for any MMO that's not World of Warcraft though, especially for one that was so vilified at launch.
Patch 4.06 doesn't seem to offer that many exciting enhancements unfortunately. A few content and Battle enhancements, some item price changes, and a lot of minor bugfixes, with the only significant change being that the automatic logout function has been removed, which isn't particularly interesting.
What is of interest however is the Moonfire Faire, which Square Enix is advertising with a tasteful piece of artwork.
The Faire launches today and runs until August 26. To get started with it head to Limsa Lominsa and find Mayaru Moyaru to begin the event, which gives players access to new armour, including dyeable sets, and items including the wonderful Evercold Shaved Ice ice cream which can give you a brain-freeze. And no, I'm not kidding. Once this event has concluded all the exclusive stuff is gone until next year, so get going. Go on, shoo. Just show us the pictures afterwards.
