Final Fantasy 14 Players Are Hosting Vigils for Akira Toriyama

08.03.2024 - 23:35 / gamerant.com / Akira Toriyama / Square Enix / James Ratcliff

Several Final Fantasy 14 players took to the streets of Ul'dah to pay respects to the late Dragon Ball creator Akira Toriyama, with campfire vigils and outfits based on characters that Toriyama drew over his career. These vigils in Final Fantasy 14 are ongoing at the time of writing and are being held across several data centers, such as Aether and Crystal in North America.

On March 8, it was reported that Akira Toriyama died on March 1 at age 68. The reported cause of death was listed as acute subdural hematoma, but further details were not made public. Known for creating the Dragon Ball anime/manga franchise, and other works such as Sand Land and Dr. Slump, Toriyama was also the character designer for Chrono Trigger, Blue Dragon, and the Dragon Quest series. The upcoming Dragon Ball Daima was one of several upcoming projects that Toriyama was involved with before his death. With a career that spanned over four decades, Toriyama's works left their mark on popular culture globally.

Hours after news spread of Akira Toriyama's death, the Final Fantasy 14 player community took it upon themselves to honor him in a way that they had done before. Similar to the vigils held in 2021 for Berserk creator Kentaro Miura, several Final Fantasy 14 players took to Reddit to post where servers held vigils for Toriyama. They posted screenshots of the gatherings happening in the city of Ul'dah. In one post, a Redditor named mfpoke posted a small but growing vigil on the Cactuar server in North America. In the replies, other players posted their screenshots of vigils on servers such as Zodiark in Europe, and other cities such as Rhalgr's Reach.

At each vigil, Final Fantasy 14 players lit campfires and wore outfits based on characters that Toriyama created. While Goku and other characters from the Dragon Ball franchise were among the most prominent characters portrayed, characters from the timeless RPG Chrono Trigger, such as Crono, Marle, Lucca, and Frog, were also seen on different servers. Only time will tell how many of Toriyama's works will see representation as the vigils continue.

Though Final Fantasy 14 is in a content lull, that has not stopped players from gathering and paying respect to an author who gave them joy and inspiration, as Toriyama did. As players wait for more news of the Dawntrail expansion in the coming weeks, what else players will do in the weeks ahead remains to be seen.

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