Wizardry Variants Daphne is in the middle of its first cross-company collaboration, a limited-time Final Fantasy XI event that runs until September 10, 2026, with transit ads promoting it across the Greater Tokyo area.
Wizardry Variants Daphne, the 3D dungeon RPG from Drecom, is currently running its first collaboration with another company's IP. The event with Square Enix's Final Fantasy XI, titled "Castle of the Deep Dark Fantasy," began on July 30, 2026, and runs until September 10 at 12:59. It adds a collaboration-exclusive dungeon and story set in Northern Hollow, where a suspicious castle appears and the lord's sons go missing.
Three Final Fantasy XI characters join as new adventurers: Prishe, voiced by Aya Hirano; Iroha, voiced by Inori Minase; and Zeid, voiced by Shin-ichiro Kamio. Players can obtain one of six recruitment items, choosing among these three or three legendary adventurers: Red Beard, Arboris, and Avenius. The event also introduces Relic Weapons, obtainable with Gil and upgradeable through reforging, plus a Trade Broker for trading reforge materials.
The collaboration was announced on July 3, 2026, with further details following on July 24. A special conversation between Wizardry creator Robert Woodhead and former Square Enix developer Hiromichi Tanaka accompanied the announcement, with Tanaka noting that the ninja job in the original Final Fantasy was directly influenced by Wizardry. The event also includes an item distribution within Final Fantasy XI: the "Mask of the Abyss," based on Daphne's Masked Adventurer, scheduled for August.
Drecom has invested heavily in promotion, running transit ads on the JR Yamanote Line, at 38 stations in the Greater Tokyo area, and inside taxis, starting August 1 and August 3. The interview between Drecom's Keisuke Kanayama and Square Enix's Yoji Fujito revealed that quests, characters, voices, weapons, battle systems, and dedicated jobs were built as one-off content, with the initial plan cut to about half its original size. The collaboration follows the release of a 45th anniversary main visual by Jun Suemi on June 11, 2026.
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Drecom announced that Wizardry Variants Daphne has surpassed 4 million total downloads worldwide. To mark the milestone, a campaign running from August 20 to September 9, 2026, gives all logging-in players 2,000 Orgu Gemstones plus Rare Remains. The update also adds the alternate style adventurer Heroine of the Evening Calm Elize, voiced by Yu Kobayashi, and the new quest Fordraig Labyrinth Exploration.
The Final Fantasy XI collaboration event 'Castle of Deep Dark Illusions' is now live in the dungeon RPG Wizardry Variants Daphne. The event brings Castle Zvahl into the Daphne world, with the Dark King's hatred eroding a lord's family. Zeid, Prishe, and Iroha join as playable characters, and the event reproduces FFXI elements including Relics, Notorious Monsters, and even the game's notorious 'life sentences'.
Wizardry Variants Daphne will start a collaboration with Final Fantasy XI on July 30, its first with another company's IP. Drecom's Keisuke Kanayama and Square Enix's Yoji Fujito discussed the collaboration's origins in an interview, with a full article planned soon.
Drecom has begun running transportation advertisements for the collaboration between Wizardry Variants Daphne and Final Fantasy XI, with displays appearing on the JR Yamanote Line, at 38 stations in the Greater Tokyo area, and inside taxis. The ads, which feature the collaboration's key visual, started appearing on August 1 and August 3, 2026. Static images are shown at stations and on trains, while video ads run on rear-seat monitors inside Tokyo taxis. Display periods vary by medium: station platform bench ads run through August 15, Yamanote Line hanging ads through August 16, and Akihabara Station's large digital signage and taxi in-car ads through August 9. The collaboration itself is a limited-time event, with the interview between the two directors revealing that quests, characters, voices, weapons, battle systems, and dedicated jobs were all built as one-off content. Square Enix's FFXI producer and director, Yoji Fujito, said the volume of content surprised even the supervising team, and Drecom's Daphne director, Keisuke Kanayama, noted the initial plan was cut to about half its original size.
Drecom opened the collaboration event between its 3D dungeon RPG Wizardry Variants Daphne and Square Enix's MMORPG Final Fantasy XI on July 30, 2026. The event, titled "Castle of the Deep Dark Fantasy," runs until September 10 at 12:59. It adds a collaboration-exclusive dungeon and story where a suspicious castle appears in Northern Hollow, the lord's sons go missing, and players must track the ghost castle to bring them back. Three Final Fantasy XI characters join as new adventurers: Prishe, the Cursed Child of Tavnazia, voiced by Aya Hirano; Iroha, the Singer of the Star's Song, voiced by Inori Minase; and Zeid, the Black Iron Whirlwind, voiced by Shin-ichiro Kamio. Players can obtain one of six recruitment items during the event, choosing among these three collaboration adventurers or three legendary adventurers: Red Beard, the Rebel Against God; Arboris, King of the Sea of Trees; and Avenius, the Flash. The collaboration also introduces Relic Weapons, special equipment obtainable with Gil and upgradeable through reforging, plus a Trade Broker in Northern Hollow Village for trading reforge materials. Special supplies and limited-time missions offer additional scrolls and Gil. A dedicated website includes a Collaboration Rank Test quiz and a promotional video.
Drecom announced on July 24, 2026, that the 3D dungeon RPG "Wizardry Variants Daphne" (iOS, Android, PC) will begin a collaboration event with Square Enix's MMORPG "Final Fantasy XI" on July 30. The collaboration includes an item distribution within Final Fantasy XI: the equipment item "Mask of the Abyss," based on the player character "Masked Adventurer" from Wizardry Variants Daphne, will be given away during a distribution period scheduled for August. Further details of the event are to be announced in subsequent reports. To mark the collaboration, 4Gamer.net published a special conversation between Wizardry creator Robert Woodhead and former Square Enix developer Hiromichi Tanaka, who worked on the first three Final Fantasy titles. In the discussion, Tanaka noted that the ninja job in the original Final Fantasy was directly influenced by Wizardry, and that the medieval fantasy world brought to computers by Wizardry became a driving force for his work. Woodhead and Tanaka also reflected on the early days of computer game development, including packaging innovations and the experimental nature of titles like Wizardry IV.
Drecom announced on July 3, 2026, that a collaboration event between the 3D dungeon RPG Wizardry Variants Daphne and Square Enix's MMORPG Final Fantasy XI will take place in the summer of 2026. Specific content and timing details are to be announced later. Final Fantasy XI began service in Japan in May 2002 and will celebrate its 25th anniversary in 2027. The game has released five expansion packs, including Chains of Promathia and Seekers of Adoulin, and its latest scenario, The Embryo of the Eclipsed World, has been distributed since 2020. Wizardry Variants Daphne is the latest entry in the Wizardry series, which marks its 45th anniversary in 2026. The collaboration will bring together the world of Vana'diel from Final Fantasy XI with the harsh dungeon exploration of Wizardry Variants Daphne. The announcement comes as Final Fantasy XI approaches its 24th anniversary in 2026.
Drecom released a main visual by illustrator Jun Suemi for the 45th anniversary of the RPG Wizardry on June 11, 2026. The artwork features characters from Wizardry Variants Daphne and the novel Blade & Bastard. A special survey collecting fan memories and messages runs until August 31.