Final Fantasy XIV launches Monster Hunter collabo today
Monster monster!
The PC launch of Monster Hunter: World is still a few days away but one of the game's hunted monsters has escaped Capcom's cage and sought sanctuary inside Square Enix's MMORPG Final Fantasy XIV. The dinodragon mascot Rathalos hits FFXIV in an update today, letting Fantasists fight the "King of the Skies" to score loot including armour made from his guts, a diddy Rathalos flying mount, and a wee Palico cat friend. The crossover goes both ways, with bits of Final Fantasy already popping up in Monster Hunter: World on consoles, though with our delayed launch it's not exactly clear what will happen with that on PC.
FFXIV's "The New King of the Block" quest pits eight players against the big liz, which will play a bit more like a Monster Hunter fight than the usual FFXIV boss battles. He'll come in a tougher four-player version too. In return, players can receive Rathalos-themed armour, cute Palico and Poogie pals as minions, a Rathalos mount, and some new tunes to play.
See the event page and patch 4.36 notes for more details.
The monster-hunting does require players own FFXIV's Stormblood expansion, have finished its main quest, and nabbed high-level gear, so it's not one for Monsterheads to casual jump on over to check out.
Monster Hunter's own Final Fantasy crossover event features a battle against frequent FF monster Behemoth, as well as Dragoon armour, roaming Cactuars, and a Moogle outfit for Palicos. But given that the game's coming to PC six months after consoles, the timeline of content plans is real hazy.
The PC release of Monster Hunter: World is due this Thursday, August 9th. While early reports from games media with pre-release access pointed out problems with crashing and performance, it has improved as the launch creeps nearer.