Brace yourselves: FF14 has just pulled the ripcord and unleashed Dawntrail's most-wanted fashion item

I just felt a great disturbance in the FF14 fashion scene, as if millions of players’ wallets suddenly cried out in terror. Getting your glamour right is, as we all know, the true endgame of Final Fantasy 14, the thing that pushes people to grand feats of savage raiding, grinding, and even ultimate prog. One of the most reliable (and fastest) ways to look good, however, remains pulling out your credit card and heading to the Online Store. Well, a lot of Warriors of Light are probably going to be doing that now, because the casual Sphene set is finally here.

I’ll do my best to avoid any real Dawntrail spoilers, although there’s somewhat of an inevitability to it when talking about an outfit belonging to a character who doesn’t show up until the back half of the most recent Final Fantasy 14 expansion. It’s safe to say that Sphene has become one of the most universally beloved characters from Dawntrail, and there’s been a ravenous appetite among the MMORPG’s audience for her two main outfits to be made available to us. As we gradually turn our gaze towards Evercold, Square Enix and CS3 have relented at last.

We got the regal ‘Neo Queen’s Attire’ dress back at the end of April, but the real winner, her casual combo of hoody, jean shorts, leggings, and boots, has now arrived. Dubbed the ‘Neo Citizen’s Attire,’ it has one immediate benefit that its more formal counterpart lacks: a divide into three separate pieces for body, legs, and feet. Everything is double-dyeable, with the top half’s channels split between the shirt and jacket (unfortunately, the coat’s inner lining is seemingly forced into being a lighter shade of the outer part). There’s no gender lock either; hopefully that’s now fully a relic of the past.

The one thing it’s most notably lacking is the ability to wear the coat without the bulky hood. Perhaps that’s functionality that could be added with the ‘armor piece toggle’ feature planned as part of upcoming expansion FF14 Evercold. I could see a similar option being popular for the shorts, although arguably the combination of them with the leggings is a big part of the reason it’s such a popular design, as it’s the nicest pairing of those two elements I’ve seen.

The Neo Citizen’s Attire comes in at the standard ‘NPC costume set’ price of $12 / £7.44. However you feel about the presence of paid cosmetics in an MMO with a monthly subscription, one fact seems certain: Queen Sphene’s mean jean machine will clean up in the FF14 fashion scene, and that means it’s basically guaranteed to be a money printer. Square Enix CEO Takashi Kiryu did all but promise more funding for Game Director ‘Yoshi-P’ and his team during Fanfest Anaheim, so I suppose it’s got to show those returns.

“That’s the funding for FF17 sorted,” Reddit user ‘Froglegjoe’ jokes on a post about the new glamour set. It certainly feels as though the FF14 Online Store has been on a real roll of late; the Runway Walk emote is a must-have for fashionistas, and feels as though it should always have been there. Meanwhile, the $30 / £20 Hardy-Daytona motorbike mount is sitting comfortably alongside it atop the best sellers list. Expect the Neo Citizen’s Attire to join them in short order.

If you’d rather grab something a little older, there are a few other items currently going for half price on the Online Store. There’s a real Heavensward theme here, including the 3.0-era designs for Alphinaud, Y’shtola, Thancred, Krile, Ysayle, Aymeric, and even the Knights and Mages of the Heavens’ Ward themselves. Given that Evercold feels rather like the first expansion’s spiritual successor, perhaps that’s fitting.