The Return to Ivalice Alliance Raid in the Stormblood expansion has gone from being hotly anticipated two years ago to now done and dusted. So how does it stack up to the hype it generated when it was first announced?
The Return to Ivalice story was penned by the same creative director who gave us the Tactics series and Final Fantasy XII. The story was extremely engaging and the fact that it was filled with lore from both the Tactics series and XII, it created a lot of nostalgic moments for XIV players who had once in the past spent lots of time in Invalice in the good old days. For me at that time I was wondering how could they incorporate the Ivalice lore into Eorzea? They are very different worlds and they were seemingly different, so any kind of forced marriage would probably wreck the XIV lore while disappointing the Ivalice fans.
To my surprise, it was done brilliantly.
The fact that it first started off as a play being developed and staged by the a travelling theatre company based on some long lost Garlean Empire folkore “The Zodiac Brave Story” (yes that Zodiac Brave Story) was a great way to introduce this seemingly alien story. At this stage in XIV we don’t really know a lot about the Empire itself and thus it was a great introductory point for something so alien to Eorzea or Orthard. As we slowly progress through the story and the raid, the two worlds slowly met and assimilated, and by the end of the Return of Ivalice questline, everything made sense and the two seemingly different worlds became one.
The final boss in Ridorana Lighthouse from the Return to Ivalice storyline. I think Yiazmat was the end game superboss in FF XII.
For me one of the brilliance of the Return to Ivalice storyline was it managed to use the Ivalice raid to lead us into the world of the upcoming expansion Shadowbringers. This is a departure from the usual approach of just having the main story quest leading into the new expansion. In the past, with both the Crystal Tower in A Realm Reborn and the Shadow of Mhach in Heavensward, the Alliance Raid, though enriched the lore, are just stand alone stories that once you finished them bear little relevance to the future events in XIV. Return to Ivalice completely changed this dynamic, which I felt breathed a new life to the XIV narrative.
As mentioned earlier, the Return to Ivalice raid brought the Tactics and XII world into the XIV. However, while doing so, the story producer Yasumi Matsuno still managed to craft a nostalgic storyline that reminded us of all the history and struggles that Ivalice experienced in the Tactics series and in XII. The appearance of relevant races throughout the quest’s storyline brought joy to all the Ivalice fans, and not to mention the brilliant handling of iconic locales and creatures throughout the Ivalice lore. It is usually these simple homage that caught you by surprise and brought you back for more. I still remember how excited I was when I first saw the Red Chocobo showed up in the mob fight and cast the famous and deadly Choco Meteo on all the alliances. We nearly got wiped by it but everyone was excited to experience the death by Choco Meteo (which was something extremely frustrating in Tactics and XII).
As mentioned, the Return to Ivalice raid brought us back to a number of iconic locations with some iconic enemies. The first series started off in the Royal City of Rabanstre from XII and then morphed in the Legendary City of Lesalia in Tactics via the complicate underground Garamsythe Waterway featured in XII. In the second part, it took us to the famous (infamous) Ridorana Lighthouse (or Cataract) that gradually climbed up into the Clockwork City of Goug (Goug was the place where Moogles in Ivalice originated). Finally we returned to the Orbonne Monastery, where everything in the Tactics world first began. And it was a fitting end to the Return to Ivalice raid as it came a full circle both for the XIV storyline and the world of Ivalice.
The final boss in the Return to Ivalcie Orbonne Monastery raid. The legendary Ultima, also the final boss in Final Fantasy Tactics.
As I said, the Return to Ivalice raid brought huge nostalgic factors to XIV, more so than any other contents with Ivalice being so rich in lore and references. Apart from iconic bosses such as the Espers including Mateus, Famfrit, Belias, Hashmal, Ultima and the infamous Yiazmat from XII, we also have iconic characters such as Ramza, Delita, Alma, Mustadio, Agrias and Fran from both the Tactics series and XII popping up here and there. Even mob enemies were designed according to the enemies in the Ivalice world such as the Red and Black Chocobos, the Golems and Barmuus. Most of the races in Ivalice made an appearance too, including the Bangass, Seeqs and the Vieras (which most people were most excited, and even more so when it is going to be a playable race in the new expansion Shadowbringers). Further because of the integration of Ivalice into the Garlean Empire’s lore, it completely explained why the Garlean armour designs looked so similar to the Judges in XII and the Tactics Advance series, which to me is another brilliant reference.
Return to Ivalice has gone from just a standalone Alliance Raid quest to a full blown canon portion of FF XIV. Probably a lot of people, including me did not see that happening. I initially was just looking forward to a walk down the memory lane, but now we got a continued experience of Ivalice, which I think most Ivalice fans like me will have no objection to. For me FF XIV had outdone themselves with Return to Ivalice raid, so now the question became – what more can they do moving forward?
