1When it involves real-world meatspace collaborations with Remaining Fantasy 14, the UK (and to an extent, Europe) often will get neglected whereas Japan and the States get to occasion with the likes of KFC, Mountain Dew, and GrubHub. I’ve led a tragic, Mountain Zu and /eatchicken-less existence, however now Sq. Enix has lastly tossed us English people a bone with its newest collaboration.
Who’s the chosen one of many food and drinks selection this time? It is Gong Cha, a sequence of bubble tea shops positioned all through Europe, Asia and america. Don’t fret in the event you’ve by no means heard of it. Regardless of its world presence, it has shockingly few areas all through, a criticism that has already been making the rounds throughout social media. Regardless of the collaboration being open to Europe, there are zero shops in nations like Germany and Italy.Â
In actual fact, solely 4 European nations can truly take part—six in the event you depend Australia and New Zealand, which for some cause Sq. Enix does. Even on the subject of the UK, all 15 of its shops listed on its web site are positioned wholly inside England; 4 of that are in Manchester, and an additional three in London. The difficulty transcends Europe too, as I’ve seen a handful of Reddit posts from American gamers complaining that their nearest Gong Cha retailer is a whole lot of miles away.
Luckily for me, I occur to have a Gong Cha retailer positioned inside a travelable distance. I am not precisely left wanting for boba retailers round right here, and in consequence I would by no means truly set foot into my closest Gong Cha. Till now, that’s. I am nicely again into my Remaining Fantasy 14 brainrot due to Dawntrail’s launch, and as a fan of boba and an unabashed shill for these types of issues, I made a decision to make the pilgrimage.
Feast match for a (Porxie) King
The premise of the collaboration is easy: Purchase sufficient drinks, and both get the in-game Porxie King mount or a enjoyable real-world Remaining Fantasy 14-themed boba tea keychain on your patronage. Fairly annoyingly, Gong Cha requires you to purchase three complete drinks so as to choose one among its rewards. As a lot as I’m a lover of boba, I’m only one girl. A girl who’s lactose illiberal, making the prospect of ingesting three milk teas inside 24 hours a barely fearful feat.Â
It is also fairly dang costly, with most of its drinks coming in between ÂŁ4 and ÂŁ6 right here in England, so someplace between roughly $5 and $7.75. Gong Cha is providing three collaboration drinks with particular cup designs to attempt to sweeten the deal, all of which had been priced at ÂŁ5.50: the cactuar matcha milk tea, the fats chocobo mango frozen tea and the fats cat brown sugar milk tea. I made a decision I used to be going to select up two fats cat brown sugars—brown sugar boba is by far my favorite—and a cactuar matcha milk. I’d have had the frozen mango, however once more, one girl! Three drinks! It could have melted earlier than I even had an opportunity.
As I marched all the way down to the shop to spend far an excessive amount of cash, I used to be admittedly a wee bit anxious. I would seen a few Reddit posts lamenting the collaboration, together with one which claimed their native Gong Cha in Sacramento had solely acquired a paltry 27 codes for the mount. Oh yeah, one thing I forgot to say. Regardless of being a digital merchandise, the mounts are being handed out on a bodily scratchcard. I am not one to query Sq. Enix’s ways, however a code on a receipt looks like a extra fashionable technique of distribution today.
Would I arrive to search out swathes of Warriors of Mild scrapping over plastic boba knick knacks and digital flying pigs? Would my native Gong Cha even remember there was a collaboration going down? I used to be visiting a mere 24 hours after the collaboration launched, however I used to be nonetheless nervous.
Fortunately, the method for myself was surprisingly clean. I used to be informed to position my order on one of many digital boards because the singular employees member shook and poured her method via 18 different drinks earlier than she was in a position to begin making mine—some for fellow Remaining Fantasy 14 nerds, others for normal (and probably confused) patrons. It is one thing I hadn’t even thought-about till I would arrived—as annoying because it was having to position an order for 3 drinks as a singular particular person, it have to be equally as large a ache for the employees who might have had their workload tripled in a single day.
I double-checked that that they had each the codes and keyrings in inventory, and the employees member confirmed that that they had a good provide of every little thing at hand. I believed that they had run out of 1 keyring sort whereas I waited for my order, however a pal of mine who visited a couple of hours later confirmed that every little thing was nonetheless obtainable.
After round 10 minutes of ready, I lastly had my drinks adorned with lovely Remaining Fantasy motifs and my mount code besides. I used to be additionally lucky sufficient to have one other buyer ordering sufficient drinks for a reward who did not play Remaining Fantasy 14, permitting me to snag a keychain with out having to order an additional three drinks and provides myself a sugar excessive. Thanks, variety stranger.
Spill the tea
Now hear. This mount. I knew what I used to be getting myself into earlier than I made the pilgrimage. There are two issues to notice right here: The primary one is that the mount was not created particularly for this collaboration. It was initially a part of a Japan-only collaboration with comfort retailer chain Lawson round two years in the past. However that is not the one case of recycling right here. The mount can be a reskin of 1 you may get hold of within the recreation at no cost. To be truthful to the sport right here, that is fairly widespread with these collaborations. The latest Mountain Dew mount was a reskin of the Zu mount launched in Heavensward.
There’s one thing inherently humorous about how little variations there are between the Portly Porxie—the mount you may get hold of at no cost by doing Shadowbringers’ Pixie tribe quests—and Gong Cha’s Porxie King mount. Are you prepared? Are available in actual shut.
They caught a hat on it.
Admittedly, they did additionally make the saddle inexperienced as an alternative of Portly Porxie’s pink. However getting dwelling, popping the code in and eagerly awaiting my mail to see so little distinction left me cackling as I sipped my fats cat boba and stared at my Malibu Stacy With NEW Hat mount. However it was right here, it was mine, and it was mercifully painless for me to go and acquire.Â
It is positively value reiterating that it is not been the case for everybody. Some American people are discovering their nearest Gong Cha is a whole lot of miles away, whereas others have complained a few fast promoting out of keyrings together with the aforementioned 27 code fiasco. It additionally appears as if scalpers are scooping up scratchcards to attempt to make a fast buck. My German FC mate knowledgeable me that he’d seen mount codes going for upwards of 100 euros, and it is not even the primary time this recreation has seen inflated costs popping out of a real-world collaboration. you, Eat Pizza emote.
It does really feel inherently Sq. Enix to be conducting these collaborations in such a stale, old-school style. It is 2024, we should not should be travelling for hours within the mere hope of getting a bodily card containing a key for a digital merchandise. Whereas I am joyful to lastly see one among these occasions grace the UK, I do hope a future collaboration occasion is extra inclusive location-wise. In the end, I’m fairly jazzed about  my fats cat taro boba keyring, which I can verify seems to be considerably greater and higher high quality in particular person than it does on the picture from the Lodestone’s publish concerning the collaboration. Silver linings and all that.
Oh, and the boba? Eh, it was alright. As a gal who may be very choosy about her tapioca pearls, I will be sticking with my go-to boba store. Sorry, Gong Cha.