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Final Fantasy: Legend of Balance is a game that is full of references to other things like, online Final Fantasy titles, console RPGs, and just personal inside jokes. This article is meant to go over some of the references, so those who may not understand them will maybe gain a deeper appreciation for what they are. There will be major spoilers in this article, so just be aware of that while looking through this.

Note that this section is currently a work in progress. Please comment if there is a reference you would like explained, we will be more then happy to explain it.

GENERAL SPOILERS BELOW

Final Fantasy XIV and Final Fantasy XI References
Final Fantasy XIV 1.0
Though not directly referenced in Legend of Balance, the main story heavily revolves around the real life events that surround Final Fantasy XIV 1.0. It was a game that was hyped for many years, flying under the codename project “Rapture” since 2005. In 2009 Final Fantasy XIV was officially announced announced at E3, and fans of Final Fantasy XI were excited to see a new Final Fantasy themed MMORPG being developed.

Unfortunately, many fans excitement turned into disappointment when an unfinished FFXIV launched in 2010 with a numerous number of issues including lag, connection issues, bugs, a lack of content, player progression restrictions, and a badly designed player economic structure. Reviewers and fans alike were disappointed and appalled, and the game that was hyped for so many years had become the laughingstock of the Final Fantasy series.

The End of Final Fantasy XIV 1.0
Because of Final Fantasy XIV 1.0’s lack of quality and its widespread negative reception, it was decided that Final Fantasy XIV would be remade from the ground up. Some members of FFXIV’s original development team were replaced, and the original Final Fantasy XIV 1.0 was destined to be destroyed.

In-game, over the course of a year, a red object floating in the sky called Dalamud inched its way closer and closer to the surface of Eorzea(the setting for FFXIV 1.0). On November 11th, 2012 when FFXIV’s 1.0 servers were officially shut down for good, it was revealed that the Primal Bahamut resided within Dalamud. Final Fantasy XIV’s 1.0 story ended with Bahamut escaping from his prison and wreaked havoc across land. Adventurers who witnessed Bahamut’s initial wrath on that day were teleported away to an unknown location by Louisoix before Bahamut was able to use a powerful attack.

The following is the final minute of Final Fantasy XIV 1.0 through Karina's point of view, right before the servers go down and the Bahamut destroying the world twist is revealed:
https://youtu.be/4wizMioA0Xg?t=8m40s

Final Fantasy: Legend of Balance picks up where this video leaves off.

Bots
Bots are third party programs some players used to gain advantages in both Final Fantasy XI and XIV, and were against the terms of service for both games. The most common use of bots used in FFXI were claim bots, which gave advantages to players while competing for monster claims. Some of the most famous of these bots were Mr. Argus, FFXIAPP, and NASA. In Final Fantasy XIV 1.0,players generally used bots to automate fishing, mining, harvesting, and crafting.

RMT/Gilsellers

Retainers and Market Wards

Retainers are hired NPCs in Final Fantasy XIV that manages a players wares, you could store items and sell items with retainers in FFXIV 1.0. You could also use them to buy items, but many people did not utilize this feature since it required you to actually already have the item before you could request it. Players would sometimes name their retainers ridiculous things.

The market wards were a place in Final Fantasy XIV 1.0 where retainers would stand around sell items through bazaars. At FFXIV’s original launch, players would have to search 100’s of retainers to find the item they were looking for, due to the lack of structure that was set up with the system. While looking through retainers, mainly players saw items listed for 999999999, because they wanted extra inventory space.

Auction House
Though this feature is in other Final Fantasy titles, it plays a major role in the economy of Final Fantasy XI. Players would use the Auction House to buy and sell items. Sometimes players would make a mistake while listing items, and other players would get items at a huge bargain.

Jipang and JP ONRY

The servers in Final Fantasy XI and Final Fantasy XIV 1.0 were set up to be global instead of regional, causing the North Americans and Japanese players to play on the same server. Though not all Japanese players were like this, many Japanese players in FFXI and FFXIV did not want to associate with the North American players at all, even though the majority of North American players were perfectly fine with doing things with the Japanese players. Reasons for this ranged from just a simple language barrier to just not liking the North American Players. Above is a typical search comment put up by Japanese players while searching for a party. Eventually some in the North American community started morphed the statement of JP ONLY as JP ONRY.

LM-17 and LM-11

LM-17 and LM-11 were codes that no Final Fantasy XI player wanted to see. These codes were given to players upon logging into Play Online(SE’s game hub that housed FFXI for many years) indicating that their accounts had either been suspended or banned.

When mentioning LM-17, many FFXI veterans think of a famous mass banning, generally referred to as the Salvage Bans, where a large portion of FFXI’s North American Endgame community was banned for duplicating rare items.

Dragon's Aery

Dragon’s Aery is home to the HNMs Fafnir and Nidhogg, as well as a random flies named darters. Fafnir/Nidhogg had to potential to pop once every 24 hours, and drop rare items that many people coveted. People would stand around and wait for 3 hours every day for these dragons.

The following video shows some people waiting around in Dragon's Aery:
https://youtu.be/MoWyYxVq-Pk

Auto Translate

Auto Translate is a feature that is used in Final Fantasy XI and XIV to communicate things to people of different languages. Many North American FFXI and FFXIV players used this feature to try and communicate with Japanese players. Auto Translate also worked with French and German. Green and Red bars surround text that is auto translated.

In Legend of Balance, there are a few references to Auto Translate. One is during the Palomton scene where the bot jumps in the lake. Another one is during Ashiee's teams scenario where the gang needs the Autotranslater decode the puzzle inside the pyramid.

Warp Cudgel with One Charge

A Warp Cudgel was an item that many players in Final Fantasy XI had and used to travel back to a set location. The item itself could only be used 30 times total, so just having one charge left means that you could only warp once!

R Zero and 3102

During the battle with Tanaka in patch tower, there are two references. First, Karina and Ashiee are immobilized by an attack called R Zero. In FFXI and FFXIV, when you are experiencing a connection problem, the Receiving number on the top right of the screen will go to zero, and you are unable to move.

After they are immobilized, Ashiee and Karina are both rendered unconscious by an attack called "Disconnect", and Tanaka states that he has sent their consciousness to the void of 3102. In FFXIV, 3102 refers to an error where you have been disconnected from the game, but your character is still logged in. When this happens, you can't log back in and you have to wait an often annoyingly long time, during which your character is still in-game.

Claim Battle

In Ashiee's scenario, a minigame called the Claim Battle takes place. In FFXI and FFXIV, the first player to act on a monster "claims" it. In FFXI, this means only them and their group got to fight the monster. In FFXIV, it just means that they will get credit for the kill for sure. In FFXI, these claim battles were a good portion of the endgame, and players would stand around for hours in hopes their group would be the one to fight and get the loot.

Pile of Dead Bodies

In FFXIV 1.0, if your party (generally consisting of eight people) KOed within an instance, your whole party would be teleported out of the instance, dead in a pile.

Hasty Hand

"Instantly completes synthesis when successful, but worsens results of failure. Adequate skill guarantees success."

Early Final Fantasy XIV 1.0 Leveling

Back in the early days of Final Fantasy XIV 1.0, one of the most efficient ways of leveling up your character was to hit monsters with normal attacks and no gear equipped except weapons.

Copy and Pasted Terrain

One of the biggest complaints made by players about FFXIV 1.0 when it first launched was the copy and pasted terrain that could be found all over the games world. One example of this were the rock formations found in La Noscea.

In Legend of Balance during in the final area, there is a map with copy and pasted rocks through the zone with music once played in La Noscea.

Zerg/Zerging
Originally a alian race from Starcraft, Zerg/Zerging is a common phrase used in FFXI/FFXIV (and probably other MMORPGs in general) to indicate throwing a bunch of characters/people at an opponent/enemy to defeat it.

Mithqotes

Tarufell

Galka

Other Final Fantasy/RPG References
Final Fantasy IV's Dark Knight to Paladin Scene


Aerith's Death Scene

In Cecille's guild, one of the quest givers references the Final Fantasy VII scene where Aerith is impaled with a sword by Sephiroth and dies.

Kefka in the Desert

No one wants and on their boots. Ashiee mentions getting sand on her boots while in the desert, referencing a quote made by Kefka in FF6.

Dimensional Rift
Kutan Glitch
Room in Tanaka's Castle

The room in Tanaka's Castle is a direct reference to Ultimecia's Castle from Final Fantasy VIII. The paintings inside the room are the same ones from the Art Gallery.

Personal References/Inside Jokes
Waiting at Cutter

One night in FFXIV 1.0, our group of friends were doing a dungeon called "Cutter's Cry". You needed eight people to enter the dungeon, and on that night we were doing the dungeon with Flame. Before entering the dungeon, Flame goes away from his computer without telling anyone at all, not a word. For an hour, people in the group were trying to get his attention, saying "Flame?", with no response. The group decided to end the event because Flame was not responding. 20 minutes ending the event, Level 99 who was also in the party says "Flame?" and immediately after Flame responds "yes?" like no one was waiting for him for an hour and 20 minutes. Ashiee then asks him "where were you?!" and Flame responds "Waiting at cutter".

Sleeping Basilisks

Though the origins of this joke are a bit hazy, while playing Final Fantasy XIV 1.0 in Cutter's Cry, It was Orophin's job to cast sleep the Basilisks (Pieste/lizard things) while everyone else ran through to the next area really fast. You had to be quick, and Oro was really good at it.

Doid and Miko

Doiden and Miko would do this in Linkshell chat whenever the other one logged in.

Building Dressers

One day before we were just about to run dungeons, Miko had to go away from his computer to go and fix a drawer. The next day when we were running dungeons, he had to go away from his computer fix something else.

Characters
Named Characters
Besides obvious Final Fantasy troupe characters (I.e. Cid), named characters in Legend of Balance are all (loosely) based on real people, and are typically named after their FFXI/FFXIV character avatars. Character dialog typically represents what that particular person would say/type in real life.

Tanaka
Tanaka was the producer of Final Fantasy XI from 1999-2012 and the producer of Final Fantasy XIV from from 2005-2010. While he was the producer of FFXI, and during that time "Balance" became a word that was heavily associated with him, eventually morphing into a joke that was used around the community. After the disappointing launch of Final Fantasy XIV 1.0, Tanaka was replaced by Yoshida as Producer.

Sage Sundi
Sage Sundi is Global Online Producer for Square Enix from 2001 - Present, but many people remember him as the guy who always told the Final Fantasy XI player base that he didn’t know, or that he could not tell us while answering questions about the game. Sage Sundi’s I don’t know attitude became a running joke among some in the Final Fantasy XI community.

Komoto
Komoto and was the Director of Final Fantasy XI from 2003-2008 and Final Fantasy XIV from 2005-2010. As of 2015 he is currently still working on Final Fantasy XIV.

Yoshida
Yoshida, commonly referred to as Yoshi-P, took over as the Producer of Final Fantasy XIV 1.0 shortly after its disastrous launch in September 2010. Since then, Yoshi-P has worked to create a new Final Fantasy XIV that would live up to the expectations associated with a Final Fantasy title. In Final Fantasy XIV, a character named the Wandering Minstrel is modeled after Yoshi-P. As of 2015, Yoshida is still the Producer of Final Fantasy 14.

Sakaguchi
Creator of the Final Fantasy series in 1987, and continued to work on the series till he resigned from Square around 2003.

Wada
Wada joined Square in 2000. In 2003 Wada became president of Square Enix during the merger with Enix in 2003. Wada eventually resigned his position as CEO in 2013. During Final Fantasy 14 2.0's live letters, Wada would sometimes come by and hold up pictures of FFXIV's Housing system.

Matsuda

Rokien
Rokien was a infamous Final Fantasy XIV 1.0 official forums poster. Most of his posts generally pointed towards his disapproval with the direction Final Fantasy XIV A Realm Reborn was going during its development. He seemed to generally like FFXIV 1.0 better.

In Legend of Balance he is one of Tanaka's minions.

Chrys

Goldbug and Ironbug

Nicholas

Taru and Darth

Bastok Iamtheone

Bastok Iamtheone is a person who played FFXIV 1.0. He would make posts on the official FFXIV 1.0 forums about a love story which didn't make sense to a lot of people. He would also post videos about some Love story, generally poorly edited and the majority of the FFXIV 1.0 community could not understand him.

Below is an example of a video he would usually post:
https://youtu.be/Ys8hbRNNzpY

In Legend of Balance, Flame has a conversation with Bastok Iamtheone. That conversation is composed of Youtube comments that Bastok Iamtheone actually wrote(slightly edited), and things that Flame has typed within FFXIV. "Shame is brought forth on Hyperion." is one of Bastok Iamtheone's more common youtube comment replys.


Side note:
During the break between FFXIV 1.0 and 2.0, Bastok Iamtheone created an RPG maker game called "Chrono Legends 1999 - a 20th Anniversary Project" and placed it on kickstarter. He was featured in the following video of failed Kickstarter projects: https://youtu.be/wno8GvEhydA

He also has a book on Amazon called "Bastok Iamtheone " The Perfect Love story": Science fiction stories", which can be found here:
http://www.amazon.com/Bastok-Iamtheone-Perfect-Love-story-ebook/dp/B00KD3FE7I

Town Names
Rosalia
- Named after Rosa Joanna Farell from FFIV

Cecille
- Named after Cecil Harvey from FFIV

Palomton
- Named after Palom in FFIV

Kutan

Named after Kutan from FFVI. If you go into town, one of the NPCs references the FFVI's Kutan Glitch.

Sundiland
- Name after Sage Sundi, more information under Sage Sundi

Jipang
- Named after Japan, more information under Jipang and JP ONRY

Squeenix

Items
Mirror of Ra
- Dragon Quest Item

Amulet of Garland
-Final Fantasy One

Posts

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Is it just me or is the first main character modelled after Agrias of Final Fantasy Tactics?
Very astute! I did pattern her outfit after that, because there aren't exactly a lot of Holy Knights in the series to draw inspiration from. =)
Thanks a bunch for this! Will make working on the Wiki easier!
No problem, it was mostly Ashiee's idea. I think it's handy to have!
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