Create a Legitimate FFXIV Account From the Philippines

Originally posted on Reddit..

As far as Final Fantasy XIV registration goes, Square Enix believes only 3 countries exist in the entire world: North America, Europe, and Japan. If you try to create an account from any other region, not only will it fail, but Square Enix will flag your email address and lock it out from being used for 24h. This lockout refreshes every time you try, too, leading many people to believe they killed their chance at playing this cool game.

It’s not impossible to circumvent, though. I managed to help a number of people, some IRL friends and some through this subreddit, to get their Eorzea passports in order. These steps still work as of 3 months ago, and nothing has changed regarding the registration process so I have every reason to believe it still works now.

You do not need a VPN, a fake address, or even a US credit card. You only need mobile data and a smartphone, which Blizzard believes everyone owns so it shouldn’t be a problem for any of you.

1. First, turn off WiFi on your phone and enable mobile data. Globe or Smart, doesn’t matter.
2. When you’re ready, open your phone browser^† and, to be extra safe use this exact link to register: https://freetrial.finalfantasyxiv.com/na/
3. Make sure your browser doesn’t redirect you to another website. If it doesn’t say /na/ at the end, change it back so you’re in the North America site.
4. Fill in the account details normally and make sure your location is set to United States, so you don’t have to worry about region issues later on.
5. When you get to the email address though, make sure you’re using an email address that hasn’t already been flagged by Square Enix. This means don’t use any that you’ve already tried and failed to register with recently. If you already tried and failed with your main email address, you can use a dummy or secondary email address for now, and then change it later on (after 24h, by then your main emails should be safe to use again).

That should be enough to get you to login to your account. You can then change your associated email address through the Mogstation.

^† Yes, use your phone. As in mobile phone browser to do all this. For some reason, even if your desktop/laptop is connected to a mobile hotspot, the security flags it.

Bonus tips:

• The free trial is basically the entire core gameplay level-capped to 60, including the base game b(“A Realm Reborn”) and the first expansion (“Heavensward”). You can play this trial indefinitely, even upon reaching the level cap. And the level cap is per job class, so you can reach level 60 as a Scholar and then do it again as a Dark Knight, and so on until you cap out every single job.
• There are limitations with the free trial, mostly related to social features. You cannot create a party (however you can join one if invited, and can matchmake with others in dungeons using the Duty Finder). You cannot create or join a guild (called “Free Company” in this game). You cannot buy or sell in the player-driven market/auction house. You cannot recruit or dispatch Retainers.
• If you ever decide you want to buy the full game, you can keep your free trial account and progress. You can even buy the game from Square Enix’s storefront, hold onto the key that you get, and apply it only when you’re ready to upgrade to the full account. This makes it possible to take advantage of a sale while not feeling pressured to take full advantage of your free trial before the sale ends. I bought the game at 50% off last July and only activated the product key in October.
• The free trial “ends” as soon as you pay any amount of money to Square Enix. This includes buying and activating any of the full game upgrades, any items from the Mogstation, the “Crysta” premium currency, etc.
• Choosing a Datacenter will determine which servers you can create characters to play or guest on. So if you’re planning to play FFXIV with friends, make sure you coordinate on your chosen Datacenter and World. Maybe try to take advantage of any “Preferred World” bonuses that might be in effect. Generally, you’d want to play in the Japan-based datacenters to take advantage of its relative proximity to the Philippines (e.g. less lag).