The Final Fantasy XIV Summer Sale: 2023

Square Enix has a cash shop and is not afraid to use it. Yesterday began the annual summer sale with the added bonus of introducing new items for the North America Fanfest this weekend. The sale will continue through 16 August, introducing just a little bit of FOMO. But the FOMO is the normal kind involving a sale, not that the items will disappear from the cash shop. All previously released Moonfire Faire items are 30% off from the sale. New items will receive a 10% discount until the end of the summer sale.

What are the new items? First is an account-wide mount, the Garlond GL-IS. The mount is a motorcycle with a side car, thus allowing a friend to ride along. Of course, Alpha is sitting in the side car already, so your friend will have to sit on the back. The sale price is $33.30 which is a little pricy for my tastes. 

The next item is a new emote, the Advent of Light. A combination of a dragoon attack and a superhero movie, an emote I'm not sure I'd ever use. The sale price is $6.30, regular price $7.00.

Next up is a new set of cheer emotes. The first set was connected to the Songbirds, an NPC girl band. The new set of three emotes provides new colors to use when cheering on your favorite in-game bard group or club DJ. Each emote purchased separately costs $1.80 sale price or $4.50 for the pack. For anyone involved in the club scene, these emotes are probably a required purchase.

Finally we get to in-game music for player apartments and island sanctuaries. The first is the Eorzean Symphony Orchestrion Roll Set. The set of five rolls goes for $13.50 on-sale with a regular price of $15.00 beginning on 17 August. The five rolls comprising the set are:

• Shadowbringers (Orchestral Version) Orchestrion Roll / 1
• Endcaller (Orchestral Version) Orchestrion Roll / 1
• Your Answer (Orchestral Version) Orchestrion Roll / 1
• Close in the Distance (Orchestral Version) Orchestrion Roll / 1
• The Final Day (Orchestral Version) Orchestrion Roll / 1

The other music set, Pulse Orchestrion Roll Set II, is another set of five orchestrion rolls taken from the IRL Pulse remix album. Priced the same as the Eorzean Symphony Orchestrion Roll Set, the set includes:

• Unbreakable (Pulse) Orchestrion Roll / 1
• Equilibrium (Pulse) Orchestrion Roll / 1
• Beauty's Wicked Wiles (Pulse) Orchestrion Roll / 1
• I Am the Sea (Pulse) Orchestrion Roll / 1
• A Long Fall (Pulse) Orchestrion Roll / 1

Of the two, I really want to add the Eorzean Symphony Orchestrion Roll Set to my in-game music collection. I usually balk at a $15 price tag, but somehow $13.50 feels better even though the discount is only 10%.

Finally the two items from last year's Moonlight Faire, the Summer Sunset Attire and Authentic Summer Bonfire are available for $5 each. I grabbed both items during last year's event and if you have any interest in getting one or both, the items are of high quality. With the advent of using outdoor items on island sanctuaries, the bonfire would make a good addition.

Going through the offerings, I might drop $18 on the sale for the cheer emote set and a music set, which seems crazy when I step back and think about what I'm about to do. I mean, that's almost what EVE Online charges for one month of game play. But when I like a game where the items are valuable to me, I don't mind shelling out a couple of dollars to make my world just a little more comfortable.