Unboxing of Final Fantasy XIV: Collector’s Edition

Very rarely, if ever, do I purchase collector’s editions of any games. Since almost every major game release has one, most of them end up in the bargain bin a few months later and that hardly justifies the premium you have to fork over to get an extra DVD or some unlockable content. However, I do make exceptions for Final Fantasy games and MMO’s, and we just so happen to have one that is both. So what kind of goodies do we get in this bundle? Let’s find out, shall we?

If you haven’t yet seen one in Gamestop or any other retail stores, this is what the box looks like. Yoshitaka Amano did the artwork, as he has done for Final Fantasy games in the past, which looks fantastic.

You’ve probably seen a stock photo of it before, but it doesn’t really give you a good grasp on just how big it is. I put it alongside my old Final Fantasy XI box just to give you a size comparison.

The box is actually kept inside of a clear sleeve that you have to lift off in order to actually open up the box. The back cover is just a slip of paper that comes out after you remove the plastic for the game, and it hides the logo on the back. I keep it in the sleeve anyhow, though.

The box opens up just like a book, with the DVD containing the game on the left side, and what appears to be a book and authenticator on the right. I placed the slipcover alongside of it so you can see what that looks like by itself. It doesn’t look like much, I know.

Starting on the left side, here is a closeup of the DVD case the game comes in.

Opening up the case, the left side has the manual and all the codes for the Onion Knight helm, Square Enix members, redemption for a signed certificate, and a free trial for a friend, all of which I couldn’t show you for obvious reasons. On the right, is the DVD for the game as well as a Making Of feature.

Moving on, we have an authenticator that you can assign to your account to keep the hackers and the gil farmers away from your goods. The button generates a one time code that you must type in each time you log in. Only time will tell how well it actually works.

Just below that is the book, which servers as both a journal as well as a collection of artwork. Looks like the cover is made out of quality material and has Final Fantasy XIV engraved in it.

This next picture has all the blank pages which have some faint artwork on the corner of each page (might be tough to tell by the picture).

This is a couple pages from the artwork located near the back of the book.

Some cool stuff in this bundle, though I wish we could’ve gotten some of the goodies that Europe received such as the cloth map and tin mug. But for the extra $15 you could do much worse, especially since you’ll be spending more than that in subscription fees in the long term. Anyways, thanks for reading my unboxing of FFXIV. Keep an eye out in the future for the full review.