Wark Digest #208 - A New Day For Vana'Diel
Welcome back to the Wark Digest, your weekly newsletter of new developments and historical insights from the Final Fantasy universe. I’m Chris, aka Hoogathy, and this week Sephiroth and Final Fantasy XI have something in common: both refuse to be a memory.
This week’s newsletter is 2057x words, a 10-minute read.
Gathering Sephiroth
Considering Final Fantasy VII Remake part 3 is a decent wait away, there’s a surprising amount of buzz about Sephiroth in the news lately. He’ll never be a memory… especially if we keep getting cool new art of him, teases of his role in “R3make,” and unusual new backstory straight from Nomura himself.
What’s going on:
The legendary SOLDIER made waves recently when amazing new art of him was revealed for Magic: The Gathering—Final Fantasy, drawn for the set by Tetsuya Nomura
The art is for the variant version of the double-faced card “Sephiroth, Fabled Soldier / Sephiroth, One-Winged Angel”
The vertical piece depicts four stages of the silver-haired villain, from his young form in Ever Crisis, to the standard look everyone knows and loves, to Bizarro form, and finally Safer Sephiroth
Nomura said of the piece: “There is also a reason that the design for Safer Sephiroth is different from the original game, but I unfortunately can’t share more about that.”
…which is so blatant, he might as well have said it directly: this is probably inspired by an upcoming appearance in part 3 of the remake trilogy
The main difference is that the titular wing no longer replaces his right arm; otherwise it’s a beautiful rendition of the classic form, blending seamlessly with Bizarro Sephiroth
Meanwhile, Nomura spoke to Polygon about Masamune in an interview posted this week, and comments about the sword’s length raised some eyebrows:
Nomura named Sephiroth’s sword “Masamune” because it had appeared in previous games as one of the very strongest swords possible to obtain—so giving it to the villain tells veteran players that he’s a major threat
“Each time Cloud went through a tweak in design, the accompanying Buster Sword seemed to grow larger. Reason being, I thought the juxtaposition between Cloud wielding a giant [broadsword] and Sephiroth, who is far more powerful, wielding a skinny katana would be quite interesting.”
When asked about the difficulty of staging scenes with Sephiroth when his sword is so long:
“With each appearance, the length of his sword is adjusted based on the title’s specifications. In other words, we didn’t design the scene based on the length of the sword, but rather, designed the length of the sword based on the game design. I have a rough guideline that his sword should be around 10 feet long, but this has never been consistent across any of his appearances, including [FFVII Remake] or any merchandise, etc.“
“Masamune’s blade has an organic quality to it, lengthening and shortening as needed. In the recently released second season of The First Soldier arc in Final Fantasy 7 Ever Crisis, there actually is a scene in which the Masamune grows longer for the first time.”
What we thought:
First of all: I’m not even the biggest Sephiroth fan, but Nomura’s new art is so beautiful I’d get it tattooed right up my arm
The card itself has an interesting effect to represent Super Nova—it’s not the most stylistically-accurate, but it is appropriately powerful for a final boss
The “redesign” or changes to Safer are mostly stylistic, except for that arm; if this is indeed the version we’ll see in part 3, or at least a hint at that version, it would make sense with the vibe of the trilogy and the things they’ve done already
Let’s be honest, the wing-arm worked in the OG but has held back some of his other appearances slightly—the wing-chop attack is almost goofy for a figure of such seemingly divine stature
Now, the sword thing… Let’s look at each chunk of the quote separately
That Square Enix presents Masamune slightly differently in each media Sephiroth appears in actually makes perfect sense—in the same way that we can have multiple different perspectives or retellings of the Nibelheim Incident
Sephiroth is a legendary figure, and each retelling and/or narrator will perceive or portray him a little differently, all looking at someone who’s larger than life; when that legend is also carrying an incredibly long sword, it makes sense that some versions might embellish it more than others
It almost invokes the concept of the Unreliable Narrator; it’s hard to nail down the specifics because he causes such awe and terror, anyone who witnesses his grimmest work can’t fully process what they’re seeing
What matters is that this tall reed of a man is wielding a katana that’s even longer than him (depending on which interpretation of his height and Masamune’s length you’re taking as gospel)
The Nibelheim Incident is portrayed in a similarly inconsistent way: Cloud, Tifa, and Zack all have very different perspectives (especially Cloud), partly shaped by their emotional responses, things they don’t want to remember, etc
So if it seems a little longer in one story than in another, that’s fine; in fact, it’s a pretty neat detail
…but unfortunately, Nomura kept talking about it
Suggesting that Sephiroth can control the sword’s length at will due to “organic qualities” is a harder lore flex to justify
(And yeah, if your mind went to a dirty place at any point in this discussion, you’re far from the only one)
On paper it almost makes Sephiroth sound like Gin Ichimaru from Bleach, and that’s a pretty hard detail to justify, even in a world as kooky as FFVII’s
The comments make it sound more drastic than it is—it’s not like Sephiroth is abusing the ability—but at the same time, it’s better to leave it at the previous explanation than to treat it like a retractable tape measure
Extending swords aside, Ever Crisis is introducing some interesting lore to Sephiroth’s backstory (and Wutai and the Centra in the process)
None of it was needed per se, but it’s the kind of background lore that’s fun to see without truly changing the “canon”
Between this and Teen Sephiroth showing up on that MTG card, Ever Crisis is getting a pretty solid push toward relevance (if it can keep up, but that’s a whole other topic)
What’s next? Speaking of the MTG set, I got to preview not one but two brand new cards over at CGMagazine today—particularly a FFVIII card(!)—which you can check out here!
Even At 23, Final Fantasy XI Cannot Be Stopped
Final Fantasy XI celebrated its twenty-third birthday last weekend, and the long-running MMORPG is not quite done yet… though, it may have come close to calling curtains not too long ago.
What’s going on:
Though news on the game is infrequent (if not annual), FFXI announced updates including expanded gamepad configurations, new trials, and new Limbus content
One of the most notable new changes is a Character Race Change Service, comparable to Final Fantasy XIV’s Fantasia system
Player requests for this feature were high, especially from the west
It is worth noting that it’s a paid service, and does affect character stats
Speaking to Dengeki Online for the occasion (via Automaton), Director Yoji Fujito related that the game might not have reached this milestone if not for the ongoing support from players
As the team had previously announced before the 20th anniversary, 2024 was once identified as the end of FFXI’s updates, at which point it would have moved into Maintenance Mode, only maintaining the servers that keep the existing experience alive and making no further changes—literally life support for an online game
The Voracious Resurgence event was essentially the team tying a ribbon on the game, and they expected the game to decline after its conclusion… but the opposite happened
“We thought, if The Voracious Resurgence wrapped up and FFXI clearly started losing its momentum, then maybe we really should prepare to end it. But that didn’t happen. I took this as a sign that we should keep running the game.”
The servers were due to be shut down as the physical machines were getting outdated, but instead, Square Enix deemed it worthy to do a server replacement to keep the game running
According to a 2024 player survey, 53.4% of Japanese players (45% of players outside of Japan) reported playing “basically solo” despite the game’s prevalence for playing in groups
The “Echoes of Vana’Diel” collab with FFXIV did cause an observable uptick in interest of the older sibling—FFXIV streamers have dipped their toes in FFXI, and the player base has not only remained steady, it has “slightly increased over the past year”
Fujito says the team is devoted to the fans who have been with them long-term and wants to meet requests wherever possible
“There are many things [requested] that are not realistic, but even in such circumstances, we have a strong desire to continue making FFXI. Our first goal is to reach the 25th anniversary, and then the 30th anniversary, and we would like to maintain FFXI as a place where everyone can enjoy playing, so we hope that all adventurers will continue to join us in building Vana'diel.“
What we thought:
Every time FFXI comes up, I’m amazed that it’s still going strong after all this time, especially when there’s more stimulating, modern MMORPGs to fill its role, or even the flashiest one in town is its own sibling
The game is running with a literal skeleton crew, so getting much new (and worthwhile) content is hard to pull off, but they’ve just about managed it
FFXI’s philosophy on Fantasias is quite different from FFXIV, almost stubbornly insisting that you stick with a decision you made in character creation months (or even years) prior
And yet, they gave in on this one for the greater good, so maybe there’s hope for other elements that need change
It’s all well and good to say they want to be around for the 30th, but realistically, at this rate it’ll hit that milestone like a zombie shambling across a finish line
FFXI is maintaining a basic status quo right now, but holding the line for another 7 years is going to be a tall order without considerable fresh content to invest in… and that could be tricky with nothing new and substantial
Or perhaps more importantly, the game launcher on PC should be reworked if they want to stick around, and some of the associated systems… but again, does the maintenance crew have the manpower to make such an extensive change happen?
It really is impressive than FFXI continues to be relevant enough to keep the lights on and defy its fate, especially in Square Enix’s current situation—that they invested any hardware into the game says a lot
What’s next? Players can enjoy expanded rewards from the in-game Vana’versary Celebration Campaign, like a free Mog Bonanza Weapon Special just for logging in before June 9, or a free-play period for existing/previous players, up until Monday, May 26.
Around the Union
Our unofficial/casual Summon Month continues on YouTube with “7 Overpowered Summons That Broke Final Fantasy Games!” Sometimes summons are more fluff than substance, but others can literally break through the games’ barriers—and it’s those summons that we shine a spotlight on.
And in our second video, “Final Fantasy VII Has Some Weird Secrets”, we surprisingly aren’t talking about Sephiroth’s extending sword. Like any era-defining game, fans have been dissecting FFVII for years in pursuit of easter eggs or other oddities. Gather around to take a look at some of the most interesting findings, and be sure to share your favourites with ffriends!
Now you’re up to speed! From the whole team at Final Fantasy Union, thank you for subscribing. Please let us know what you think of our coverage, and what you’d like to see covered in our weekly installments. As ever, if you’ve enjoyed our work, please share it with your friends!
Join the discussion on our Discord!
Or, find Final Fantasy Union on social media: Facebook | Instagram | Bluesky |
Until next time, kupo!
