Okay. At this point, I’m just going to suck it up and admit it: I may be mildly obsessed with Final Fantasy XIV.
A few months ago, in a haze of sleepiness and coffee deprivation, I saw a news item on the Lodestone for Final Fantasy XIV Online GO and got far too excited.
It was supposed to be an app in the style of Pokémon GO, except instead of catching Pokémon, you could take your gathering classes outside to find some rare materials and goodies.
I had started making grand plans about where I could go—until suddenly, I remembered what day it was.
It was April Fool’s Day.
Fast forward a few months.
Not too long ago, we got wind of the fact that Square Enix was working on a companion app for the very same game. Obviously, after my first experience with the whole fake-app-for-my-favourite-game thing, I wasn’t convinced, and I did not pay it any attention whatsoever after that point.
But wouldn’t you know it? This time, it was real.
Just last week, we got the announcement that the FFXIV Companion app had officially been released. Suddenly, I was aware of how my skeptical ways had failed me.
So obviously, I downloaded it.
I have to admit, I went in a little wary. I had checked out the website beforehand, and it said the app was having trouble syncing with the servers because of the sheer number of people trying to use it.
Then when I got to the product page, I saw that it had a measly two stars for its rating. I figured that was probably due to the backlog, but I was ready anyway.
I was pleasantly surprised.
The first thing you see when you download the app is a pretty badass Stormblood-themed loading screen. It doesn’t tell you a whole lot about what the app does, but hey, at least it sets the tone properly.
Ready Character One
When I got past the loading screen, the app asked me to pick which character I wanted to use for it. I do have a couple of alternate characters, but obviously, I chose to use Diana, my main.
It then warned me I wouldn’t be able to switch. Now I don’t know if that’s permanent, like uninstall-the-app-and-try-again permanent, but it doesn’t matter a huge amount to me because I really just use the one character. It might be more tedious for people with a couple of characters they play regularly.
It took a couple of seconds to load my data, but not as long as I was expecting, given the backlog.
Then, it was time to learn what the app does.
I didn’t really do my homework before I downloaded the app, so I was a little bit like a kid on Christmas, playing around with a new toy.
For the most part, it looks like the app is designed to:
- Let you talk to your in-game friends without having to be in game,
- Manage events (though I don’t know much about this),
- Check the items in your inventory/saddlebag/retainers, and
- Buy and sell items on the market boards
Honestly, I thought that was really cool. There have been days where I will literally just log in to either talk to my friends, or to check on my retainers and their sales.
So I decided I’d probably get a lot of use out of it, and I kept digging.
Time for a chat
Much like you’d expect from a chat app, you can add friends and send them messages. They do have to also have the app, so that limited my choices at first.
But I did very happily message Shane from across the living room, which is how we learned that the default notification sound for messages is the sound of a moogle.
I don’t know if there are words to express how happy that made me.
It also gives you a list of contacts, where you can see who in your friends list, linkshells, and free company also have the app, so you can pester them whenever you like.
Using the market board
This is the feature I’m most excited about.
In the main menu, you have the option to buy or sell things on the market boards on your server. I have four retainers who are all typically selling as many items as they can, and I like to be able to restock them as much as I can on busy days.
Usually, I use the Lodestone to see if they’ve sold something—but now, instead of just creeping, I can give them more things to sell, too!
The app gives you a daily login reward of one kupo nut, which can be used to pay the suddenly-demanding mail moogle to take an item to your retainer to sell on the market. It also caps you at two kupo nuts, which means that you can only ever send two things to the market boards at once.
But that’s still more than the zero things we had before, and of course, I have already used it a bunch!
Of course, there is always the upgrade.
It’s honestly not a surprise to me that there’s an optional upgrade for this app. There are already so many optional items and upgrades available for nearly every other aspect of the game!
The upgrade promises more than one kupo nut per login, and up to 10 that you can store, which is really good for the super-busy omnicrafters who always have a stash of expensive items to sell.
It also reportedly doubles the slots in your chocobo saddlebag, gets you a free extra retainer in-game, and lets you move items around between retainers.
Let me just say here, though, that I do not actually know what this costs, because I honestly can’t find the price (or how to upgrade) anywhere.
Besides, I’m happy with my two kupo nuts.
A few extra goodies
Because the app connects with a specific character on your account, it also connects with your Mogstation and Lodestone.
Which is how I found out that it comes with a few bonuses. Including an extra preferred aetheryte registration, which halves the cost of teleporting to that location. Super handy for places you know you go a lot.
Just don't use it while you're playing.
The second day I had the app, I was running around in FFXIV gathering some stuff for my baby FC. I suddenly remembered that I had wanted to look up the price of something but had forgotten like 10 times, so I figured hey, I have the app, I can check the price while I’m thinking about it and am nowhere near a marketboard.
Fun fact: The app only works when you are not logged in with that character.
Thank goodness it at least warns you, and doesn’t just straight-up log you out mid-session.
So there are my thoughts on the new FFXIV Companion app. Overall, I really like it, and I’m excited to put it to work!
YOUR TURN
One thought on “The FFXIV Companion app: A Girly Geek review”
I like it too! I was so happy the day it went live 🙂 Alas I’ve not used it much ad none of my friends have it so I can’t really chat with them. It’s cool to know it has a moogle notification sounds though 😀