FFXIV In 2022, A Retrospective

Another year draws to a close. Countless glams were made. Duty roulettes were run. Too many creative ways of saying hello ("hi," "o/," "meowdy," "\o/") were typed out in rushed clacks. 2022 in Final Fantasy XIV was much like any other year, but while a lot of the old rituals stayed the same, we embarked on new vacations: farming and animal husbandry in Island Sanctuary, sparring with familiar gods, and visiting The Thirteenth shard.

Endwalker released in December 2021, putting a period to the struggle between Hydaelyn and Zodiark. Since then, main scenario quests have so far have felt like exposition--preparation for adventures in The Thirteenth shard to fully unfurl in upcoming updates. But 2022 brought a lot of other side-adventures and reworkings. The FFXIV team revamped the infamous Castrum Meridianium and Praetorium (two duties that used to be infamously lengthy), added the Pandaemonium raids, and, for the more intense players, added the new ultimate, Dragonsong's Reprise.

Below we've recapped Final Fantasy XIV in 2022. We hope reflecting on them brings you a bit of joy, and maybe even inspires you to share some of your own in the comments below.

6.1 took players to The Thirteenth shard, making it the second shard the Warrior of Light has visited. In Shadowbringers, players went to The First. But in contrast to the First, where it was overrun by light, The Thirteenth shard is consumed by darkness. From what we've seen of The Thirteenth so far, it's been The Gang versus Evil Goths. There are fantastic castle designs, cackling villains (Scarmiglione), and one very memorable trial featuring Barbariccia. Zero, Zenos' reaper avatar and voidsent, also becomes our tour guide into The Void. She'll likely continue to play an important role in future updates.

We always fight something extremely overpowered and larger-than-life as the warrior of light, but this year, some very familiar gods challenged us during the new Alliance Raid called Aglaia. Gods from The Twelve pantheon made an appearance, including Azemya, Byregot, and more. The Twelve worshiped by Eorzea have long remained mysterious, so it's exciting to finally learn more about them and who they actually are. It's suggested that players will uncover the pantheon's true identity through the course of the raid series.

RIP Zenos. He's supposedly dead, but the community keeps him alive with real-life alter egos--including this majestic animal. During promotions for Island Sanctuary's launch, the FFXIV team partnered with a farm called Mudchute. For a week, livestreams of the farm's animals appeared--and one chicken reminded players of Zenos with its lofty perch and arrogant plumage. The farm ended up officially naming the chicken Zenos.

Did you keep your farm animals pleasantly stuffed this year? Island Sanctuary was added in Patch 6.2 and much like the name implies, provided an opportunity for players to start a farm on a random island procured by the ever-enterprising Tataru. All resources are essentially contained to the Island, and more importantly, it's also where you can get the great farming jean shorts.

Adventure Plates are like profile pics, and arguably, can be considered a minor update, but shoutout to everybody who refused to chill and created silly, exaggerated, creative, and scrumptious character portraits. I can't tag some of the more wonderful ones I appreciated here due to… reasons, but just know they're great. We also received more wardrobe slots (400 more!), a very welcome update in the eyes of many players.

Lahabrea, the star villain in A Realm Reborn, got the backstory treatment in the Pandaemonium raids. Not that Lahabrea was entirely one-dimensional prior to the Pandaemonium storyline, but the new (old?) family drama certainly provided more flesh on a guy who was most notable for the scathing "Pathetic" line delivered during Praetorium. To some players, Lahabrea became the favorite FFXIV guy of the month. For more, you can read a deep-dive on the Lahabrea thirst that went on.