The Final Fantasy XIV Lore Book is a Thing of Beauty

This weekend's Final Fantasy XIV Fan Festival featured some great exclusives—like the announcement of the new expansion, Stormblood—but one of the biggest hits of the took the form of Encyclopedia Eorzea, the official lore book for Square-Enix popular MMORPG.

At this morning's Fan Festival localization panel, FFXIV translation director Michael-Christopher Koji Fox started his presentation by showing off the new book, which won't be available to the general public until October 17th. Though if you're here in Vegas and want to get your hands on Encyclopedia Eorzea a few days ahead of time, you'll need to stand in a five-to-seven hour line. (Maybe not the best idea for those of us who lack patience or young, line-friendly bodies.)

Fox has the rare distinction of being a creative lead as well as a localization director, so he considers this collection of FFXIV lore a true achievement. Written over a five-month period, Encyclopedia Eorzea contains 304 full-color pages and 205,000 words. Fox claims this book contains a 4-to-1 ratio of new-to-existing lore, and was subject to some pretty intense copy editing: Over the course of the writing process, he found and corrected 1000 "bugs"—meaning typos, contradictions, or other errors.

Square-Enix hasn't yet created a product page for Encyclopedia Eorzea, but according to information released at the Fan Festival, you should be able to place an order in their online store on October 17th. Final Fantasy XIV has one of the best and most unsung video game localizations in recent history, so consider Encyclopedia Eorzea a must-buy if you want an official in-depth exploration of the game's complex lore.