In honor of Final Fantasy 14's upcoming Island Sanctuary release, the devs have partnered with a London farm to broadcast a weeklong livestream featuring real animals, and the community immediately became obsessed with a rooster which they've identified as Zenos in bird form.
The official Final Fantasy 14 Twitch account is currently in the middle of a weeklong stream leading up to the launch of Patch 6.2 and Island Sanctuary on August 23. The streams will feature a variety of animals over the course of the week, but the opening leg is focused on a chicken coop, with one gold-and-black cockerel that the community has collectively decided looks like Zenos.
Absolutely loosing it in the ffxiv Farm Livestream where everyone has decided this one bird is Zenos pic.twitter.com/OqjZu2yrIUAugust 15, 2022
The Zenos rooster became an immediate obsession - one worthy of his namesake. We're talking full-on fan art out here.
Lyse trying to get some sleep while Zenos keeps pickin fights#FFXIV #FFXIVStream #Chicken #MogchuteFarm #Zenos #Lyse #ZenosChicken #LyseChicken pic.twitter.com/UEAUzSazdXAugust 15, 2022
this is the first thing i draw after a major artblock huh#FFXIV #FFXIVART #Zenos #ZENOSTHEROOSTER pic.twitter.com/a0D1epesGiAugust 16, 2022
The memes have tested our reflexes so thoroughly that the farm has officially renamed the bird Zenos the Rooster.
ITS OFFICIAL!Everyone meet Zenos the Rooster!Zenos will really appreciate any donation towards him:https://t.co/gtLt111tvq#ZENOSTHEROOSTER@FF_XIV_EN pic.twitter.com/F1mq1ZRhZrAugust 16, 2022
Mudchute Farm is a UK charity dedicated to environmental care, so all these memes are ultimately supporting a good cause. The Twitch stream is still focused on the chickens at press time, and as I write this, Zenos is sitting on a high perch looking down at all the lesser birds, as he should.
On top of previewing the upcoming patch content, FF14 producer Naoki Yoshida has also been talking about what to expect from the next major leg of the story in recent interviews. It seems we'll see the seeds of the story for the next major expansion be planted much later than usual this time around.
Maybe the best farming games and the best MMORPGs are one and the same, after all.
