Saving the world over and over again is nice, but when are we going to eat? In one of Final Fantasy XIV: Endwalker’s more intimate scenes, our hero of light and her friends share a scholarly fast food feast, and catboy G’raha Tia is delighted to learn that yes, he can has cheeseburger.
Despite the never-ending battle with overcrowded servers this weekend, I managed to sneak in several hours of playtime with Endwalker early access. I raised my Dancer’s level from 80 to 84, nearly halfway to the new level 90 cap. Along with my NPC friends, I toppled the tower of a trio of witchy sisters. I’ve explored exotic foreign lands, fought in brilliant battles, and murdered strange and glorious new creatures. But so far my favourite moment is when my friends surprised me with a late-night feast.
For those who don’t play Final Fantasy XIV, the MMO features a cast of supporting characters who’ve worked with my character, the legendary Warrior of Light, since the game re-launched in 2012. Players tend to get attached to characters like twins Alisaie and Alphinaud Leveilleur, or Shadowbringers newcomer G’raha Tia, the red-haired cat lad. A new expansion isn’t just about new adventures, powers, and gear. It’s a chance to catch up with our friends. To that end, this little repast is just perfect.
The scene takes place in Old Sharlayan, city of scholars, one of the first new cities visited in Endwalker. What do they eat in a town where everyone studies all the time? Why, exactly what I used to eat when I studied: garbage. Look at this spread. There are a couple of salads, sure, but then there is pizza, doughnuts, cookies, pie, cupcakes, and of course, massive, delicious-looking burgers.
I am surprised by the amount of detail that went into making these cheeseburgers look so good. They seem to be rendered in multiple layers, cheese, meat, tomatoes and lettuce. Just look at the screenshot atop this article, the way the different pieces slide about. No wonder G’raha Tia is so astounded by this new culinary discovery.
It’s hard to imagine the same team that modelled all of this food is responsible for the lazy-arse grapes that were making the rounds this weekend. Have you seen these things?
To be fair, while stretching credulity quite a bit, they could be some sort of new hybrid fruit that only looks like low-poly garbage with a grape texture applied. This is a fantasy RPG, after all. More likely, however, is that it’s just a rush job. Maybe the people working on them had to move over to the cutscene team to make the feast look so good.
It’s good to hang out with my Final Fantasy XIV friends again. Look for more from Endwalker the deeper I go.
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