Chocobos have been in Final Fantasy 14 for years. They are mounts that can participate in combat. Cute." Kwet!" He squeaks. It's hard not to love a chocobo.

Red chocobos are different. Scroll through the Final Fantasy 14 subreddit and every few posts are a meme about how scary red chocobos are. They absolutely kill people.

Final Fantasy 14's patch 5.35 was released on Monday, but it took a day or two for the killer chocobo rumor to really spread. In fact, it is not just a red chocobo, but a specific enemy that players fear. Patch 5.35 adds a new system called "Critical Engagements," where players can line up to fight battles on behalf of the Bojan Resistance. Some of these battles pit players against a new chocobo named Red Comet.

Dozens of players can participate in these battles, but apparently that's not a problem for the red comet. Monsters.

After being annihilated by the red comet, players began posting how evil it was. [and then the memes started. I love this meme. I think what I really like is the face of the red comet. Does that really look like the face of a murderer?

Yeah, kinda.

What I like about it is that it's a long running joke in the Final Fantasy series. Chocobos are rarely a major threat--usually they're the star of a mini-game or easily tamed in battle--but the Red Chocobo has a history of being a bastard. In one particularly infamous battle in Final Fantasy Tactics, a swarm of red chocobos hurls meteors at the party over and over again. They are relentless.

In Final Fantasy 12, there is a powerful level 99 red chocobo that is difficult to find but drops a particularly useful item: a ribbon. This is not the first time red chocobos have terrorized Final Fantasy 14: two years ago, red chocobos showed up in a Final Fantasy 12-themed "Return to Ivalice" raid, causing what players called the "Chocobo Massacre of 2018". Yasumi Matsuno, the designer of Final Fantasy 12, was also the designer of Final Fantasy Tactics. There seems to be a connection here.

My guess is that Red Comet will not be nerfed. Players will have to learn how to avoid its meteors or embrace its flaming embrace.