Greetings, everyone!

Luxpheras here to give you a brief overview of the fun we had at PAX West over the weekend! PAX West is a huge four-day long gaming and entertainment event that takes place in Seattle, Washington each year.

FINAL FANTASY XIV took on the Washington State Convention Center this year with a lore book in one hand and a red mage hat in the other!

Those of you who have attended events like this before may know that we often host a primal Battle Challenge! This year, we put adventurers to the test against the Lord of Revel himself, Susano.

Warriors of Light with the clout to defeat Susano won a t-shirt, and we saw plenty of attendees coming back the following days and wearing their shirts with pride.

In addition to Susano t-shirts, we also had another FFXIV themed goodie to offer PAX attendees: Red Mage hats!

So. Many. Red Mage hats! Sicycre, Zhexos, and I had a blast folding up these paper hats and convincing every PAX attendee in sight to wear them around. The show floor was a sea of crimson and feathers! Weapons not included. Side effects may include Dualcast, inserting the prefix "ver" in front of every other word, and occasional popped collars.

Sweet loot aside, we also had a very special guest attending PAX West 2017. English Localization Lead Michael-Christopher Koji Fox came stateside to host a Localization and Lore panel.

In addition to the panel, we also hosted a number of interviews with Koji Fox throughout the weekend in the Square Enix Media Suite. Koji received a range of "super hardcore" questions, to more general ones revolving around how key points are localized between different languages. Lots of really interesting details came out of the interviews!

Here's two of the interviews available so far, take a look and see what new details of Hydaelyn have been revealed!

Gamer Escape - Lorecast 9: Koji Fox Interview at PAX West 2017 and MrHappy's FFXIV Stormblood: Lore Interview w/ Koji Fox From PAX West.

Mr. Happy embraced Koji Fox after his interview at the behest of Ethys Asher, a name that many in the FFXIV lore community are no doubt familiar with!

The "Tales of Localization & Lore" panel took place on Saturday, September 2nd and the theater was packed (here's a quick snap of the huge number of attendees waiting to enter the theater...)!

Bayohne seemed to have a tough time keeping Koji Fox from going too far off the rails...

If you missed the live stream, don't fret! You can watch the archived video here. It's chock full of...something!

By the way, if you've ever seen one of Koji's panels, you'll know he usually uses the title "Between Two Ferns" - himself using the moniker "Fernehalwes" on the FFXIV official forums. That means it's usually up to Bayohne to find a locally-sourced fern to act as the other "fern." Time was scarce, and Koji suggested using a drawing instead of buying the actual plant. Bayohne asked his artistic wife "very politely" (I'm told) to work on it and she knocked it out of the park!

Here's a close-up of the fern with a XIV-motif she painted with watercolors before the panel!

It's always a pleasure to attend these massive events as a FINAL FANTASY XIV Community Representative. Our team is always amazed and appreciative of all the FFXIV fans that come out to show their support every year. We even see some awesome FFXIV-related cosplays from attendees!

Scathach and Lyse posed outside the panel theater! (We actually saw quite a few Lyse cosplayers!)

A chocobo porter was ready to lead their team to victory!

And speaking of victory, the Lady in Red herself appears once again.

Naturally, Lyse was able to defeat Susano with the help of her Warriors of Light!

It was a long, tiring, and yet, incredible four days in Seattle. Thanks to all attendees who stopped by our booth, took on the Susano Challenge, and rocked those hats with us!

Until next time!

- Luxpheras

Community Team