Final Fantasy XIV is the world’s greatest MMORPG. That’s a fact. It’s an incredible feat considering that the original version of the game was so bad that it was shut down to be reworked and relaunched more than a year later. All that lore though has got to go someplace…and that place seems to be to the Encyclopaedia Eorzea books.

Final Fantasy XIV has millions of subscribers, and for a game that’s nearly a decade old, that’s damn impressive. It’s no small wonder though, the lore behind the world of Final Fantasy XIV (which is called Eorzea), is deep, interesting and most importantly…cool.

I played World of Warcraft in its heyday (I remember the server queues at launch!) but even that game’s lore never really drew me in as much as Final Fantasy XIV. I mean Arthas/Lich King? He’s just a version of Siegfried from Soul Edge with pretty much the same backstory too.

On the other hand, Final Fantasy XIV had the Scions of the Seventh Dawn, the nefarious Ascians and of course, Final Fantasy tropes like Moogles, Cactuars and Chocobos! Hell its final boss for the original game was even called Ultimate Weapon!

There’s reams upon reams of lore for the game…and while you can get snippets of it from quests and locations, if you want more, you have to get physical.

I don’t mean storm Square Enix’s office. I mean getting the Encyclopaedia Eorzeas.

These rare artbooks/ lore books cover a ton of ground regarding the world and characters of the game, from the monsters you encounter to the locations you visit.

It’s a great time to nab the Encyclopaedias because both volumes have been out of print for years. On top of that, the books that were available on the second hand market had their prices jacked up. That’s why if you’re at all into FFXIV, you’re going to want to get these bad boys as soon as they come out.

Chances are they’ll go out of print again soon.

Square Enix’s only releasing the new reprints in August so you still have a bit of time to get the money together.

They’re retailing for US$49.99 each on Square Enix’s US Store, but why to go that hassle?

They’re both available from Amazon and I managed to nab both for under $140.

encyclopaedia eorzea

Unfortunately, Amazon SG’s raised the price for Encyclopaedia Eorzea Volume 1 to $90 now but since the books have an August release, you can keep monitoring the page in case the price drops.

Sal's been in the industry since the early 2000s. He's written for a ton of gaming and tech publications including Playworks, Hardwarezone, HWM and GameAxis. Recently, Sal served as a juror for the Indie Game Awards at Taipei Game Show 2020. A geek and hardcore gamer, Sal will play everything, on any platform.