Final Fantasy XIV Dragon Quest X and Final Fantasy XI Event Tutorials + Impressions

Hell of a title, eh? Unfortunately, it couldn’t be helped, as Square Enix decided to launch two tie-in events in Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn this month: a Dragon Quest X event, “There’s Golems in those Hills!” and a Final Fantasy XI event, “That Old Black Magic.” It’s great to see near-constant events since the Lightning event began in November, but these two quests are rather short, so you should be able to knock them off rather quickly.

First, you’ll need to initiate the Dragon Quest X event in Ul’dah and the Final Fantasy XI event in Gridania, so I’d suggest hitting up whichever one is closest to you at the time. Both events end on February 3rd and won’t take you very much time at all to complete, though, so you may want to wait a few days until the initial rush is over! I started with “That Old Black Magic” in Gridania, but it doesn’t matter what order you do them in.

You’ll find the quest giver, Khloe Bajhiri, at X:10, Y:11 in New Gridania. This level 10 quest is very straightforward: after accepting it, you’ll need to go complete two FATEs that happen in succession. The easiest FATE location to get to from Gridania is in East Shroud at X:12, Y:26, but you can also find it at South Shroud (X:15, Y:30), Western Thanalan (X:25, Y:19), Southern Thanalan (X:14, Y:38), Middle La Noscea (X:15, Y:12), or Eastern La Noscea (X:30, Y:34). That’s a lot of FATEs, but remember you only need to go to one location to complete the quest, so you can take your pick.

The first FATE located in East Shroud is level 11 and will find you fighting a bunch of large Spriggans, while the second FATE features the unnamed “Monstrous Sorceress” (though anyone who knows Final Fantasy XI should recognize her!). Since I did the FATEs the day the event went up, it was hard to see much of anything, and I was worried I wouldn’t get a gold medal since I wasn’t in a party. I only hit the Monstrous Sorceress a couple times, but I still got a gold medal! I’m not entirely sure, but I think you just have to participate in the event in order to get the item required to complete the quest.

The item in question is a Dainty Doll, which you’ll need to turn in to Vorsaile Heuloix in New Gridania (X:9, Y:11). You’ll then be treated by a very fun cutscene, after which you’ll get your reward! I don’t want to spoil too much of the fun for those who will be doing this quest themselves, but here are a couple screenshots that gave me a chuckle:

In awe of the giantess
Two of them?!

After you encounter Shantotto, you’ll be gifted with a Wind-up Shantotto minion.

I gotta say, the minion’s pretty cute:

Again, it was a very simple quest, but the reward is nice! 
Next up is the Dragon Quest quest (heh) located in Ul’dah. Interestingly, the requirement is only level 7, which is lower than the Final Fantasy XI quest. You’ll need to go see Havak Alvak at X:12, Y:8 to initiate it, then go find the Beefy Businessman at X:8, Y:12. He’ll ask you a very important question that you must answer correctly in order to proceed: 
As if I would say no! Just like the Final Fantasy XI event quest, you’ll need to go complete a series of two FATEs to complete “Breaking Brick Mountains.” Again, there are many locations, but the easiest one to get to from Ul’dah is located in Central Thanalan, X:17, Y:23. For the curious, here are the other locations: Lower La Noscea (X:27, Y:17), Upper La Noscea (X:34, Y:24), Central Shroud (X:23, Y:23), and North Shroud (X:15, Y:31). 
Like the Final Fantasy XI quest, the first FATE will feature a bunch of smaller enemies, and the second will be just one large enemy, a Stone Brickman. You can see I decided to party up for this one just in case I needed to get a gold medal for the FATE to get the quest item. 
The item you’ll need is the Brickman Chunk, which you can turn in to the Beefy Businessman to complete the quest. Again, I’m not 100% sure, but I think you just need to participate in both FATEs to get the item. That, or it’s very easy to get gold! 
Just like with the Final Fantasy XI quest line, I don’t want to spoil the cutscene that follows. This one, in particular, is a lot of fun! I’ll just leave you with these: 
Puff puff fans rejoice!
The expression on Chive’s face is priceless
For some reason, Square Enix decided to give not one, but two items for completing this quest: a Thug’s Mug and a Wind-up Brickman. 
Here are a couple shots for posterity: 
Love how it looks cel-shaded!
Goes pretty well with Chive’s Monk garb, eh?
I was a little surprised by how bare-bones these quests were, especially after the complicated holiday quests. Then again, I thought the Heavensturn event was rather tedious, so I guess something more straightforward is a good change of pace. The cutscenes were very fun, and it’s always nice to get new minions, so even though I would have liked a little more than just a couple of FATEs, it’s definitely better than nothing! Overall, though, I have to say my favorite part of these tie-in quests are the event-specific quest and FATE fonts and the cute slimes they added to the quest window for the Dragon Quest X event. I’m such a nerd! 

About Anne Lee

Also known as apricotsushi. Anne can be written with the kanji for apricot (杏), and sushi was the most quintessentially Japanese thing I could think of when I was 13, resulting in my goofy, albeit memorable, nickname.