What the dog doin'? Upsetting me. That's what.
Final Fantasy 14 is no stranger to crossover events. Most recently, a FF16 crossover where you could wear Clive Rosfield's clothes and steal his dog hit the servers. But it's also had some cultural exchanges with Nier: Automata, GARO, Dragon Quest, and (most relevant to the sinful dog in the header image above) Yo-kai Watch, a Pokémon-adjacent franchise with its own line of RPGs that made its debut back in 2013.
The event itself sees players collecting a bunch of mounts, weapon glams, and minions (mostly by doing overworld events called FATEs with the minions out, and a special watch equipped). It first arrived in 2016, to be repeated in 2017 and 2020—meaning that it's been four years since any of these minions, weapons, or mounts have been achievable. Luckily, Yo-kai's so back, baby.
As per the FF14 lodestone, the revived event will run from April 24 until Dawntrail's early access release on June 28. To get the full gamut of rewards, there's a few layers to the grind.
First off, you'll want to unlock all 17 minions by spending Yo-kai medals, which you get by completing FATEs with the event's Yo-kai watch equipped. You can then get legendary medals by doing those same FATEs with the minions out, which you can spend to buy 17 weapon glamours. To grab all three of the event's mounts, you'll need to earn every minion and their respective weapons.
Unfortunately, that also means doing some events with Manjimutt, which we decreed the ugliest MMO pet of all time back in 2020. Usually I'm a big fan of dogs, but even I think this thing has a face only the most dedicated of watch-wielders could love.
According to the Yo-kai encyclopaedia, Manjimutt is "a trendy breed of human-faced dog. He has a tendency to frighten people who approach him from behind, drawn in initially by his cutesy appearance". He also "dreams of being president someday". According to a fan wiki, Manjimutt is "unfortunately, a bit of a pervert" in the series' anime. Upsetting. I'd also like to note that the page leaves his relationships section present, but completely blank.
Fortunately, the rest of the event's rewards look pretty appealing, and there's even a new set of adventure plate customisations available for MGP. You can view a full list of rewards on the event's website. Personally, I've got my eyes on the ears of the moon rabbit, though I suspect my completionist urges will see me grinding out everything—even if that means I'll have to tolerate Manjimutt's accursed presence in my minions page forevermore.
