Refriender

Introduction

The Final Fantasy XI Refriender system is a website that was introduced by Square Enix on November 9th, 2018. It was subsequentially shut down on June 5, 2023, stating: "The FFXI ReFriender service requires Twitter functionality to operate, and recent changes at Twitter have removed the ability to login or register for the service."

The website was created in order to assist adventurers in reuniting with friends who played Final Fantasy XI together in the past. Ad promotions were even paid for on Twitter and Facebook to promote this new website.

How the system works

The service is only available in North America and Japan. The overall feel of the website is similar to Tinder. You sign up with a Twitter account, select your character information, and then you are given a slideshow of other registered adventurer's names with character model portraits. The adventurers you see are based on the character information you provided such as world, linkshell, and years that you played. You then have options to select on the left and right of a portrait that say "I know them." or "I do not know them."

The players that you say you know will then get a notification saying that you said you know them, displaying your character name and portrait to them. If the player in return selects that they know you, you will then receive a match notification in return. At this point you can then access a dialogue box with predetermined phrases to send to each other. Instead of doing this, you have the option to reveal your twitter handle to the other player to have a real conversation with them.

Note: Only a Twitter handle is required to register. No verification with PlayOnline or a Square Enix Account is completed, so it is easy to spoof fake profiles with the website.

Shining Bless Promotion

At the same time of release, a spoof in-game event was designed called the Shining Bless Concert in order to promote the Refriender website.

A website of its own along with the promotional video below were released in order to raise awareness and drive traffic to the Refriender system.

Other Promotion

Square actually promoted Refriender at conventions, including PAX East in March 2019. Featuring a tablet that could assist attendees in recovering and registering their account, along with a fairly large poster of the Refriender artwork.