Tidal Talisman (Merchandise)

Release Date: 08/18/2008
Price: $42.99 (+$8.50 S/H) / ¥4500 / £24

The Tidal Talisman depicts the great serpent Leviathan circling around the huge stone pillars that were said to have held up the heavens. The strap is made of synthetic leather and the pendant and ends are silver-plated metal.

The main draw was that buyers would receive a reward code to grant their characters the Tidal Talisman in-game item, which enabled whole party teleportation from specific zones to set destinations.

The Final Fantasy XI Player's Collection

The item had a planned very limited sales window, from August 18th, 2008 until September 1st, 2008 for Japan and North America. In Europe, sales did not open until October for a similarly limited window. It can only be assumed Europe's supply was sourced from the remainder after North American and Japanese sales. Due to the delay, some Europeans had in-game friends from other regions order them one to be forwarded to them.

It is not known how many were produced or sold.

The Tidal Talisman was to be the debut of the Final Fantasy XI Player's Collection, a new line of physical products based on the game world of Vana'diel. It ended up being the only item produced, though more were planned. See the Player's Collection page for more details.

Reception

Some players were displeased with Square selling a physical good and tying a non-cosmetic in-game reward to it. They saw it as a form of pay-to-win, since the initial release was well before Home Points and Survival Guides allowed you to swiftly teleport around the game world. Some went so far as to liken it to RMT.

Many players were very pleased to purchase the item and get the in-game reward regardless, or utilize a friend's. The ability to warp to Nashmau from Aht Urhgan Whitegate was massively useful for groups that did Einherjar, as the boat ride was rather lengthy and missing the boat resulted in being excluded from the event or forcing your group to wait.

Upon receipt of the item, some buyers reported the metal had already oxidized and turned black. It appeared to be bad luck with an individual unit, as many others lasted for years without such results. Silver-plated metal and synthetic leather are not generally aligned with high quality products and many accused SE of charging a ridiculous premium for an item that likely cost them much less than $10 to produce.

Packing

The item is housed in an outer box with a plastic protective sleeve.

Included inside are:

• The Tidal Talisman itself
• A Certificate of Authenticity
• Player's Collection pamphlet

Photos

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  Tidal Talisman front of box

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  Tidal Talisman back of box

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  Tidal Talisman ends of box

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  Tidal Talisman opened box

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  Tidal Talisman closeup

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  Tidal Talisman side angle

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  Tidal Talisman Certificate of Authenticity

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  Tidal Talisman Players Collection pamphlet

Promotional Video

The original promotional video for the Tidal Talisman was embedded as a Flash video on the marketing pages. Flash is no longer supported by most platforms, so it has been re-uploaded to Youtube and is below.

Related Links

• Official Tidal Talisman Marketing Pages - US - JP
• Creator's Voice Blog Post (Archive.org Backup)
• The History of Final Fantasy XI/2008