Highlights
- Final Fantasy 14 quietly removed an NPC’s beard, causing confusion among fans about the unexplained change.
- The disappearance of Midas’ beard may have been to differentiate his appearance from another character in the game, Quintus van Cinna.
- While Cid’s beard was a deliberate design choice with a story, the mystery behind Midas’ missing beard remains unresolved.
A Final Fantasy 14 fan recently pointed out that the critically acclaimed MMORPG quietly removed the beard from Midas nan Garlond, an important NPC who briefly appears in Shadowbringers. This change was undocumented, unexplained, and over a year after the story was introduced, leaving many fans wondering why Final Fantasy 14 made the peculiar alteration to his model.
On April 7, 2020, Final Fantasy 14 Patch 5.25 introduced the Bozjan Southern Front, a special instance zone featuring a riveting storyline, group activities, and powerful items and cosmetics to earn. The quests to unlock this content involved reliving the memories of Cid nan Garlond, and it featured the first on-screen appearance of his late father, Midas.
Final Fantasy 14 Xbox Beta Is Now Live
Final Fantasy 14 begins its Xbox Series X/S beta, allowing new fans to try the critically acclaimed MMORPG on the platform.
In the following years, Final Fantasy 14 made a peculiar change to Midas without saying a word. In the original iteration, Midas had a thick, bushy beard covering his chin and jawline. However, Final Fantasy 14 fan Magitekwitch recently pointed out on Twitter that, at some point between February and June 2021 – a year after the NPC appeared in FF14‘s Echoes of a Falling Star update – Midas’ beard disappeared. This unexplained change was not documented in any patch notes or announcements and is still in the game to this day.
Midas nan Garlond’s Disappearing Beard in FF14
Fans are baffled as to why Final Fantasy 14 took Midas’ beard away. The prevailing theory is that it was to differentiate his appearance from Quintus van Cinna, who plays a role in Endwalker. Midas and Quintus are both older men with light hair, and important members of FF14‘s Garlean Empire, and though their hairstyles differed, both characters even used the same face and beard. Final Fantasy 14 would have been working on Endwalker at the time, so it may have wanted to make sure players didn’t get Midas and Quintus mixed up, even if they didn’t appear anywhere near one another. However, some players point out it would have made sense to remove the beard from Quintus before he was added, rather than taking it away from an NPC who had been in the game for a year at that point.
Interestingly enough, Midas’ son’s beard has a story of its own, too. Cid didn’t have a beard in the original Final Fantasy 14, as can be seen in the “End of an Era” cinematic trailer, but he grew one between then and his first appearance in A Realm Reborn when it was released 10 years ago. That said, while Cid’s beard was a deliberate design choice that was a part of the story, the mystery behind Midas’ missing beard is one that may never get a proper explanation.
Final Fantasy 14
Final Fantasy XIV’s original release was less-than-stellar, with many fans blasting the game for its array of issues. This prompted developers to cancel the MMO and rebuild it as Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn. Since then, the title has seen a massive resurgence and has quickly become one of the best MMOs ever made, with hundreds of thousands of subscribers online at any given time.
- Released
- August 27, 2013
- Metascore
- 90
