 | I’m Olivine Peridot, subreddit mod, staff artist, and administrator of our unofficial Discord server. I’ve been playing this game since the ARR beta and I’ve been fortunate enough to attend every single North American fanfest since 2014 (and even had tickets for the doomed 2020 Fanfest). Since I’ve been doing this for a while, I wanted to write up a review of this year’s event for those who are curious and might want to attend in the future. Full disclosure: this year Square Enix offered the subreddit staff two media passes alongside a significantly higher number of content creators and media representatives than previous events, which we really appreciated. There were no conditions attached to our attendance and we paid for our travel and accommodations ourselves. While I won’t go into details, I can assure you that the FFXIV team still has their eyes on this subreddit! Keep on posting your feedback, comments, memes, constructive criticism, or at the least your eloquent and well-organized rants. On to the review:
The queue on day 0 before registration opened Anaheim’s late April weather was mild and pleasant. I subconsciously packed for Vegas and ended up rather chilly inside the venue, with a few of us joking they’d cranked the air conditioner as part of Evercold’s marketing. One of our drivers told us this is LA’s “winter” and the temperature will rise until October, which I hope Square Enix keeps in mind when scheduling future Fanfests. The venue itself is the largest yet, and Fanfest was given plenty of floor space to spread out. The main stage had its own room with ample seating for the panels and concerts, with large screens and overflow seating in the activity room so nobody had to miss anything. The decor was fantastic with the Aetheryte, photo spots, and the giant Dancing Green. And THE COUCH. The signature board had been taken over by sticker traders giving away goodies left and right, while the areas outdoors around the fountain were great for cosplay and meetups. There were a decent number of food options in the area, both inside and outside the convention hall. Media was provided with lunch, but my poor husband had to stand in line at the snack bar next to the stage for an hour to get something close to our seats. There were a few food stands in the other room with decent food. On day 2 I managed to snag him a tasty burrito the size of a brick and a can of pop for $20 with no line. The plaza outside had two rows of food trucks, the surrounding hotels had their own restaurants and food courts, and Downtown Disney was a short walk away. The lines on day 0 and 1 were immense, as expected. Staff were very good at managing the lines and making sure people got in promptly when the venue opened. I arrived a bit late on day 2 so the line was non-existent when I showed up. While there was a lot of standing outside, registration was indoors in its own room with plenty of space. I saw a few people with shade parasols which I would highly recommend for sun protection for future fanfests. Venue staff were professional and enthusiastic, a definite improvement over 2023. All previous NA Fanfests have been held in Las Vegas. 2014, 2016, and 2018 were held on the Las Vegas strip in October or November, surrounded by food options, entertainment, and (most importantly) shelter from the Vegas heat. 2023 was held at the Las Vegas Convention Center in July: a veritable food desert where attendees were subject to long waits outside in direct sunlight. The lines for the interior food trucks were unreasonable, with many of us ordering delivery to the venue doors so we wouldn’t have to leave. Getting back to the Vegas strip required a tram ride. I recall day 2 of the 2023 fanfest being nearly empty because many had given up and decided to watch the panels from their hotel rooms, only showing up at the end of the day for the Primals concert. Day 2 of this year felt about as busy as Day 1, even without a Live Letter. All in all I was satisfied with the new location and will be happy if they hold the next one here as well.
Our lanes in the alpaca race I won’t speak much on the content of the panels, but I will say that the crowd was hyped and enthusiastic for pretty much everything. It was a pleasant relief after the lukewarm reception of Dawntrail and subsequent internet dooming, restoring my faith in the community. And while I never lost faith in the devs or the community team, their enthusiasm on stage reassures me that they’re always earnest in their desire to make a great game. The amount of content revealed during the keynote and subsequent panels was great. People joke that NA fanfests never reveal good content, but I felt satisfied and I’m looking forward to the announcements in Berlin and Tokyo. One major disappointment with the Lyrics panel: the AI bit was cringe, and there definitely was awkward laughter and boos from the crowd. FFXIV, we love your original content, no AI please. I unfortunately spent so much time meeting people and doing sticker trades that I wasn’t able to participate in many of the floor activities. I regret not queuing for the Dancing Green activity because it looked like everyone was having a blast, and I was kinda bouncing along to the music as I roamed the show floor. I won a ticket for the Meet & Greet, where I not only had a chance to talk to Koji, but got to see him, Soken, Foxclon, and Matt Hilton interact with the rest of the fans in line as well. Just seeing these guys interact with everyone, posing for photos while making time for quick chats, is a treat. Someone gave Soken an otamatone and he played a few notes. When it was my turn to talk to Koji I gave him a light hearted apology bow on behalf of this subreddit (just in case) but he assured me he was cool with us. But he asked for hugs, so now he has Reddit Mod cooties. One last note, where the heck was the Battle Challenge? I look forward to it every year and prepped pictures of my hotbar in anticipation, so I was disappointed that it wasn’t included in this one. I wonder if there’ll be no additional trial included in the Hildibrand story?
I admittedly have no interest in Vtube Idols and barely knew of Ironmouse before her guest announcement. It’s definitely not my thing. But learning more about her, I have a lot of respect for her for making the best of her circumstances after everything she’s gone through with her health. Seeing them roll her out on a big mobile screen was funny, but she contributed so little to the music panel, I’m not sure why she was included. I’d like to have heard her speak more about music and lyrics rather than sit beside Koji and nod as he spoke. Her concert was fun, and a lot of people in the audience were really hyped even as me and the rest of the old people in my row stared with bewilderment. Her singing is good. If she comes back next time, I might wave a pink penlight a little.
One of the merch displays in the registration hall The merch line, if anything, is the one thing a lot of people can agree was a disappointment. I pre-ordered a lot of my merch online before the convention, but I always enjoy snagging a few more things at the venue. Our plan was to queue on Day 0 immediately after getting our wristbands, but they had a problem with the system and had to give us paper reservation tickets instead. By the time it was our turn a few of the big-ticket items (like the Mini Aetheryte) were sold out. Merch has always been a nightmare except for in 2018. I don’t understand why they won’t do pre-ordering for on-site pickup like the 2018 Fanfest did, which was the only time merch was ever run smoothly.
I still had the official Fanfest app installed from last year and admittedly used it as little as possible, since I found it to be finicky and inconvenient. I did appreciate the push notifications telling us when lines were capped and when panels and concerts were about to begin.
The goodie bags were nice this year, with the sticker book greatly appreciated by all the sticker traders who surely inspired it. The hat and pins are good quality. The mini messenger bags provided were nice looking, but I’d say the 2023 bags were my favorite (I’m using the cross-body bag as my travel purse). The zipper pulls on the 2026 bag were prone to falling apart, and by day 2 dozens of them were littering the ground of the venue. If you still have one, make sure you reinforce it before it falls off. One disappointment I have is that the bag didn’t come with any sort of pen, which all previous fanfest bags came with (useful for getting signatures and swapping usernames). Also, nothing tops the squishy stress grapes. I’ll also join the chorus in wishing for in-game items to be included with the price of the ticket rather than a separate purchase on the cash shop. My humble request for next year is a mini ita bag with a window for us to put all these pins and stickers in!
One of my biggest concerns about this year’s fanfest was ADA compliance, which was a huge problem in 2023. I’m able-bodied, but I happened to be sitting near the ADA section in Vegas, so witnessed several of the incidents attendees were complaining about, such as the removal of ADA seating for the concert mosh pit and asking standing attendees to step back into the ADA area. At the start of Day 1 I spoke to a few people in the ADA line and asked them to contact me if there were any violations, and as of now I’ve heard zero complaints. As far as I saw myself, ADA attendees this year were given proper accommodations.
My last shot of the signature wall before we left on saturday Outside of the panels and concerts, the community was the absolute highlight of the event. I brought over 1000 buttons to give away on behalf of the subreddit, plus subreddit/discord art sticker sheets and stickers of my personal WoL for the sticker trade. I spent half the convention handing those out and getting all sorts of goodies in exchange. The sticker traders absolutely took over the signature wall, and it was a delight to see so much art slapped across it (as long as they politely kept their stickers off other people’s signatures). The reusable sticker books given to us this year hint they definitely knew about it, but I must have gotten enough stickers to fill three of them. I could measure my stack of stickers in inches, not to mention the ribbons, MtG tokens, and 3D printed trinkets other people handed me. The sticker trade is a pillar of the community at this point, so I hope Square Enix works it into the next Fanfest’s festivities. There were all sorts of unofficial events around the venue as well. Several streamers were on the floor doing pop-up meet & greets with con-goers forming orderly lines on their own behest. The tables behind the food trucks outside had Mahjong set up. There was a Final Fantasy XI meetup by the fountain which I snuck into, and some absolute madman had a real DJ booth set up. Not to mention the Aquarium Meetup, which I wish I could have attended. The biggest takeaway is that everyone I encountered was in high spirits. In 2023, so many people had been beaten down by the heat wave and were frustrated over poor management and the venue’s terrible location, so 2026 was a breath of fresh SoCal air. The FFXIV community is as healthy as ever.
My husband and I are non-drivers so we rely on rideshares and public transportation to get around. It cost us about $85 to get from LAX to our AirBnB (15 minutes from the convention center) though it was around rush hour. You can take a train from the airport to get closer to Anaheim before getting a ride share, but it would have still cost us $50 plus the price of the train tickets, so we went for the more convenient option. On Sunday our friends just rented a car. If future fanfests take place in Anaheim I’ll try to get a hotel within walking distance of the venue.
Requiem decor, very inclusive Square Enix kindly gave us entry vouchers for the Requiem Cafe FFXIV collab, which we attended on Thursday night. I got the New Adventurer Drink and the Good King Moggle Mog sundae. The drinks and treats were a little too sweet for my taste, but the collab goods were well-designed and I picked up some acrylic clips and keychains. I think I would have enjoyed it more if there wasn’t such a huge line, since I felt bad for the WoLs standing outside waiting for us to finish. I hope the success of this collab encourages Square Enix to do more cafe collabs or open permanent Final Fantasy/Eorzea Cafes in other locations across North America.
Jollibee with it's decked out drive-thru I’m already a fan of Jollibees, so I was way too excited when the collaboration was announced. Square Enix gave me a food voucher so I made my way towards the local dressed-up Jollibees on Sunday night, and I was honestly impressed by pretty much everything. They went all-out on the decor inside and out (I was laughing at the fake turf in the drive-thru lane so you could feel like you were riding through Eorzea), and it was shockingly clean for a restaurant which had been swamped all weekend. A very polite man at the door kept the line in order, while the cashier kindly offered to split our order without us asking so we could get two /eatchicken emotes instead of one. Unfortunately, they were all out of the blue raspberry drink, but they substituted it for the delicious pineapple drink. I’d highly recommend Jollibees if you’ve never been there before, they’ve got one of the best fast food chicken sandwiches you can get in America. Sticker trade haul That’s all I can think of at the moment, but if you have any questions about this or past Fanfests I’ll gladly answer. Likewise, I’d like to hear your personal experiences! submitted by /u/OlivinePeridot [link] [comments] |
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