Jollibee’s Final Fantasy XIV Box Meal Is an Otherworldly Value

This week, America’s Best Fast Food Fried Chicken Chain launched a brand new meal in collaboration with one of the biggest multiplayer games on the planet. Jollibee was nice enough to invite yours truly to a menu sampling to check out their new Final Fantasy XIV Box Meal, which contains a new drink alongside a heap of non-new food items. In light of that, I’ll tackle the “food” portion of the meal from a value/variety perspective. Now that we’ve tackled the formalities, let’s get into this meal!

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New Jollibee Meal!

Jollibee Final Fantasy XIV Box Meal Review

Pros: For a little over $20 per meal, you get an exclusive in-game emote and a lot of food. The Final Fantasy XIV Box Meal comes with an Original or Spicy Chicken Sandwich, an extra piece of fried chicken, a Peach Mango Pie, fries, and the new Blue Raspberry Aether w/ Crystal Boba drink. I’ve seen plenty of people on social media retract their sticker shock when they discover how much food they actually receive. Value-wise, the Final Fantasy XIV Box Meal is the “expanded free trial up to level 60” of meals.

Cons: Based on the social media reactions I’ve seen, the Final Fantasy XIV Box Meal will be many people’s introduction to Jollibee. I’m glad this collaboration is bringing so many new eyes to my favorite fast food chain… but where’s the Jolly Spaghetti? The standout “unique” food item at Jollibee is, without a doubt, their sweet-and-savory Filipino-style spaghetti topped with shredded cheese and slices of hot dog. (Don’t knock it until you try it, y’all.) If this meal is supposed to be the Jollibee tutorial, we definitely need to swap a side of Jolly Spaghetti into the space occupied by those purely functional fries.

Credit: Griffin Parker / Jollibee / SQUARE ENIX

Rating:

9.5/10

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New Jollibee Drink!

Jollibee Blue Raspberry Aether w/ Crystal Boba Drink Review

Pros: This drink isn’t called a “refresher” or a “quencher” specifically, but it’s definitely something along those lines. Flavorwise, this is a very comfortable blue raspberry–nothing super sour or super sweet, just a pleasant, refreshing drink with a nuclear blue hue. My tablemates and I couldn’t agree whether it tasted more like Bug Juice or a Kool-Aid Jammer, but we all liked it.

Cons: I love the inclusion of jelly boba instead of tapioca pearls, but I do wish those jelly boba were flavored. Using cherry or strawberry jelly boba would have added a pop of color and helped people realize the generous serving of boba in this drink. (The Jolly Gals who coordinated the sampling visit and I all ran out of drink long before we finished our boba.)

Credit: Griffin Parker / Jollibee / SQUARE ENIX

Rating:

8.5/10

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