It’s been ten years since the launch ofFinal Fantasy 14: A Realm Reborn, and in the time since the game has received constant updates and four hefty expansions. Considering that even the events of 1.0 are canon, which launched in 2010 and are now completely unplayable, that’s even more lore to keep up with. I wish I had the same stellar memory as the old lady from Titanic, but it’s been thirteen years, and I’m struggling to remember everything about one of my favourite games.
My long term memory is terrible. I have played, read, and watched certain games, books, and films countless times, but everything becomes a bit hazy unless I’ve done so recently. Final Fantasy 14 is much the same. I remember the general plotline, but I can’t necessarily place all the events in the right chronological order, and I’ve certainly forgotten plenty of subplot points and minor characters.
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There have been so many times over the years that a character will pop up in the story and I don’t immediately realise they’re a returning character. When the Crystal Exarch revealed himself to be G’raha Tia in Shadowbringers — a big reveal moment for most of the community — it was completely lost on me. I had forgotten him entirely and had to resort to Google when my Warrior of Light clearly knew who he was, but I was sat there baffled.
I’m always in awe of fans who manage to remember every little detail, which helps them to form interesting theories about the world, characters, and plot. I will never be that person, and I’m sure I’m not the only one. The main scenario campaign is already a lot to remember, but there’s also an abundance of side content that often gets referenced in the main story too, or characters that cross between the two, so how can we remember it all?
Final Fantasy 14 has a Journal feature that records your currently active and completed quests, but it’s quite the slog to click through each quest to try and remind yourself what happened. It doesn’t give you the full breakdown, either, it’s just the flavour text and quest log instructions. Then we have The Unending Journey feature, which allows you to watch past cutscenes. Again, you have to click through and piece things together, and you’re not getting any context outside of the actual cutscenes. In short, it’s hard to keep track of everything without sifting through wikis all the time.
Final Fantasy 14 sorely needs some kind of in-game encyclopedia or archive feature — which I realise would beabsolutely massive —but surely that just emphasises how much it’s needed. There is far too much to remember. It would be great to be able to recap events at a glance, a summary of each expansion or large patch update, the ability to check out specific characters, locations, or boss details to explain when and how you encountered them.
Having an in-game feature like this would also make it tailored to your Warrior of Light, so you’re not going to accidentally see spoilers as you might do when browsing a wiki. For example, if I could have looked up G’raha, it could have relayed details of only the events my character was aware of — updating as I progress — without the risk of seeing the rest of the Shadowbringers story before I’ve played it.
An in-game encyclopedia would help me keep on top of things I need to know and would also be great for players returning after a long hiatus. I started replaying the original A Realm Reborn campaign last year, and I’m enjoying catching up on so much I’ve forgotten. Still, I’m kidding myself if I think I’ll have enough time to dedicate to replaying the whole story so far anytime soon. I’m not even up to date with the main scenario on my main character. By the time I finish it, I’ll have forgotten the beginning again.
Updated July 07, 2025:Someone has kindly pointed out the existence of the Unending Codex to me, which is a great start, though not quite what I had in mind regarding the level of detail I was looking for or being able to search specific things.
Having it locked until you reach Patch 6.1 is a bit of a pain for any players wanting to keep track of things before this point, and it starts pretty empty with you having to progress to unlock more information from the look of things, which is why mine is relatively lacking (I’m so behind on the main campaign, I’m sorry). With any luck, this is something that will be built on in the future and I’d love to see it be made accessible for newly created characters and track everything from the get-go.
