Critically-acclaimed MMORPG Final Fantasy 14 is beloved worldwide, prompting creative players from across the globe to immortalize parts of the game in fan art projects. One such fan from China used his prodigious building skills to make a perfect replica of the Final Fantasy 14 city of Old Sharlayan within Minecraft.Old Sharlayan is one of Final Fantasy 14's two hub cities found in its latest expansion, Endwalker. A storied city of scholars, the beautiful Grecian-inspired city was somehow one of the more mundane locations visited in Endwalker.FF14 fan Alexander Hammer posted the two-minute video showing off his Minecraft recreation of the city on Bilibili, China’s alternative to YouTube. The video features a breathtaking flyover of the various districts found within the city, each recreated to look nearly identical to the hub as it appears in Final Fantasy 14–down to the Minecraft character walking through the city akin to the Warrior of Light doing the same in the area reveal trailer. At first glance, one could easily mistake stills from his creation as a screenshot from Final Fantasy 14.
Hammer’s recreation of Old Sharlayan joins the many other Minecraft replicas of FF14 hub cities. Fans from across the globe have made recreations of Ishgard, Kugane, the Crystarium, and more over the years. Technically, Final Fantasy 14 fan and Twitter user LemonKaju had recreated Old Sharlayan before the expansion’s release based purely on the cinematic footage and guesswork–an impressive feat on its own–though Hammer was able to go into much more detail with the actual city now available to explore.
Alexander Hammer has made other Minecraft recreations as well. In addition to a video showing off his in-game Final Fantasy 14 house, he also has recreations of Irithyll of the Boreal Valley from Dark Souls 3, as well as Minecraft-versions of the real-life British Parliament building and the cathedral of Notre Dame, each with the same absurd levels of attention to detail as Old Sharlayan.
Final Fantasy 14 fans were understandably floored by Hammer’s work on recreating Old Sharlayan. The accuracy with which many Minecraft artists can replicate other aspects of pop culture never cease to amaze, and Hammer is exceptional even among them. It is unfortunate international fans of his work aren’t able to take a closer look at his work due to barriers of language and culture, but at least his fellow players can appreciate his work via his videos.
Final Fantasy 14 is available now for PC, PS4, and PS5.
Source: Bilibili