Greetings, everyone!
Bayohne here with a look back at the recent NicoNico Chokaigi event in Tokyo!

FFXIV was there in full force with lots of things for attendees to do over the two-day event. Since I'm sure most of you weren't able to attend (like me...), I figured we could share some of the fun on the blog!

Take a look at the FFXIV NicoNico Chokaigi page for a closer look at the event.

This year, the FFXIV booth was made up of two floors, with the giant inflatable moogle watching over everything.

Mini Letter from the Producer LIVE (Part 1)
The Heavensward benchmark trailer and Maehiro's ULTIMATE FIGHT videos made their debut here.

Benchmark Hands-on
There were Surface Pro 3 machines at the event that had the benchmark software loaded on it which allowed attendees to be amongst the first to create Au Ra characters.

The Japanese Community Team Stream Episode 0
Mochizuki, Itani, and "KK" from the Japanese Community team debuted their first live stream at the show!

Signing Boards
No event would be complete without the giant sign boards for the dev. team to post up in the office!

The Echo of the Sound Director
Anything involving Soken usually always ends up becoming some kind of improvisation, and this time around Soken attempted to add some ad-libbed rhythm to the Heavensward music.

Release your Inner Fat Chocobo
Fat chocobo hats, with included gysahl green treat, were given out at the booth!

Backstage Pass
With a two-story booth, you really do get a nice view of everything!

Backstage with Maehiro, Oda and Koji after their Ishgard "Lore Panel"!

The Official FFXIV Cosplay Team
We had the official cosplay team on hand to walk around and mingle with attendees.

Hm, one of them looks kind of out of place.

Yoshi-P turned 42 on May 1st! But even so, he's still out there cosplaying like a champ!

(By the way, you should check out his three posts on the forums where he responded to player "happy birthday!" threads: English, French, Japanese.)

I BEAT TI...TAIKO!
Everyone at the venue was able to test their rhythm against a very percussive treat - the rock solid Titan in Taiko no Tatsujin. It's a shame that it was only limited to the venue, but attendees had mountain busters of fun!

Minion Catcher
Look at all the minions in there ripe for the plucking - if you're skilled at it! There are an assortment of FFXIV goods that have been transformed into cute, fluffy prizes, and you'll be able to see them in arcades in Japan soon enough. There'll be more details on this in the near future!

Mingle with the Development Team
Tons of fans came by to talk to the development team, and the staff was delighted to chat with so many people.

This Yoshi-P altar-like creation was put together when he was not around...
(Project Manager M took it upon herself to decorate a bit with the items she collected from Yoshi-P while he was on stage.)

Well-Crafted Cosplay
The winners and all of the participants of the cosplay contest are currently being showcased on The Lodestone, but there were many fans who had great costumes but didn't enter the contest. So let's take a look at some of them!

Finally, we couldn't end the event without taking a huge group photo!

Thanks to all of the fans who came out to the event and tuned in to the broadcast!
- Bayohne