Square Enix collaborated with four famous manga artists and cartoonists to promote the free trial demo for FFXIV. As part of this collaboration, four new short comics were shared on the Japanese official Final Fantasy XIV X account (formerly Twitter).
The authors participating in the collaboration include Usogui author Toshio Sako and Pop Team Epic author Bkub Okawa. Arnolds Hasegawa and Nuko-sama-chan were also featured in the collaboration and are two cartoonists and artists who draw daily life manga stories on their personal blogs.
Sako drew Usogui protagonists Madarame Baku and Kaji Takaomi playing games and gambling at the FFXIV Gold Saucer. Okawa, in contrast, drew Pipimi as a Reaper, trying to explain to Popuko how to play FFXIV and the different mechanics present in the game.
The manga drawn by Arnolds Hasegawa focuses on his FFXIV free trial adventures as a Tank of the Marauder class. Nuko-sama-chan’s comic features her becoming interested in the game and playing it after her friends convince her to try it, despite her initial negative first impression. Both stories also include parts depicting the Gold Saucer and FFXIV’s aspect of “playing a game inside of a game.”
In July 2023, Square Enix announced that the FFXIV free trial demo would change to include the FFXIV Stormblood expansion. This change came into effect in October 2023.
Final Fantasy XIV is available for the PS4, PS5, and Windows PC. An Xbox Series X beta test for the game will also appear sometime in February 2024.
