[Megathread] Final Fantasy XIV

[Kazgrel]

Is..is it bad I REALLY want this to be a thing? Or SOMETHING 16 bit..I miss the simplicity

Not really. I've been awaiting another proper installment in the Ogre Battle franchise for almost 20 years now, since beating OB64 when I was in HS...lol, time flies.

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Thanks Kyriani.

Wanted to start my first Anima on my Dragoon, I'm at the step to obtain the first "purple" model and I saw what I had to do after that...this umbrite step everyone is talking about looks to be a pain in the ass (as anyone said) but I'm pretty sure the crystal sand will give me more trouble than the umbrite to acquire from what I've seen...

I think I'm not gonna do it and just take my sweet 255 Kinna weapon and be done with Weapon grind for the xpac.

At this point they are pretty much glamour sticks/items. They will last up to 64-65, yeah, but unless you had already completed one anima already (thus having singing clusters and every other thing unlocked), not much point in starting an anima.

[dope_danny]

Yeah i really only want the DRK relic because that 275 model is THE DRK weapon model

[Sorrior]

The umbrite stage was soul destroying before they nerfed the cost by half... now its just awful. The gist is that, barring any lucky bonuses you get in the 2nd stage of umbrite turn-ins, you need 12,000 lore to get the umbrite you need. Before they nerfed it you needed 24,000 so the nerf is a huge help. It's still quite a hill to climb, but better than the mountain it once was.

I STILL wish they had instead buffed how much sand you get instead

[Kazgrel]

I STILL wish they had instead buffed how much sand you get instead

Between burning level allowances (that would go unused otherwise), gathering in Diadem, and throwing poetics at enchanted ink and thavnairian mist, I'm sitting on 60 sand in the span of 3 weeks, and I'm not even pushing that hard to get them; big chunk of it came from flipping red gathering scrips to blue tokens (I had forgotten I capped them over the past 2 weeks), so that plus 2-3 Diadem runs where I gathered for 10ish mins (long enough that 30 mins total had passed)...unbelievably easy to get sand now. I honestly expected the sand to be the hard part thanks to the cost of umbrite being cut in half...whew, was I ever wrong.

[Scufflegrit]

I believe Sorrior meant the treated sand you get when you combine crystal sand with umbrite, not the crystal sand itself. Like instead of getting 3 with a chance of proc up to 6, you get 6 with a chance to proc all the way up to 12 or something like that.

[Wrecktangle]

Logged in to see i got the Cloud Advent Children costume and dumped it in the chest, FC member asked why and when i told them i hated Advent Children for ruining clouds character and making him proto Lightning they went mental.

and THEN i told her i prefered The Spirits Within they thought i was mad, but thats a fun parasite eve/ff8 tone SE cinematic dammit

Since this is a tiny bit OT keep it short. How did AC ruin Clouds character exactly? How did he become Proto-Lightning? If you covered this in your blog, just link me to that.

Spirits Within wasn't good. It wasn't as bad as critics said it was, but it was boring, terribly paced and not at all that interesting. IMO of course.

[Kazgrel]

I believe Sorrior meant the treated sand you get when you combine crystal sand with umbrite, not the crystal sand itself. Like instead of getting 3 with a chance of proc up to 6, you get 6 with a chance to proc all the way up to 12 or something like that.

Whoops. Zero sleep overnight + having to work a shift that starts 3 hours earlier than what I would normally work...bad combo for attention span.

[StrawberryZebra]

Spirits Within wasn't good. It wasn't as bad as critics said it was, but it was boring, terribly paced and not at all that interesting. IMO of course.

I don't think it was an outright awful movie either, Alec Baldwin and James Woods were the highlights of it for me though. I think it would have worked out a lot better if it dropped the Final Fantasy name, other than having a Dr Cid it has very little connection to any of the games, and being marketed as an original stand alone Sci-Fi work. Being the first movie ever to use MoCap, being at the time the most photorealistic CGI work seen and having a star studded line up alone would have likely made it appeal to more people than being a video game tie-in.

None of that would have helped with the plot however, but I still think it would have seen more success if it dropped the Final Fantasy name.

[Eleccybubb]

I don't think it was an outright awful movie either, Alec Baldwin and James Woods were the highlights of it for me though. I think it would have worked out a lot better if it dropped the Final Fantasy name, other than having a Dr Cid it has very little connection to any of the games, and being marketed as an original stand alone Sci-Fi work. Being the first movie ever to use MoCap, being at the time the most photorealistic CGI work seen and having a star studded line up alone would have likely made it appeal to more people than being a video game tie-in.

None of that would have helped with the plot however, but I still think it would have seen more success if it dropped the Final Fantasy name.

I watched that movie then burned the VCR to stop it tainting my household. That's how bad I think it is.

[Kaelwryn]

I love Spirits Within, and I don't care what anyone says. It is a decent movie IMO.

[Graeham]

Rufus Shinra is my favourite character in FF7 so seeing him make a return in Advent Children was enough for me to come to love that movie.

[Faroth]

I know this is FFXIV and we are veering off topic, but I'll allow it (and contribute to it >_> ) for a teensy bit since we're light on XIV news and discussion:

How I imagined The Spirits Within Development:

Director: Guys, this isn't good.
Writers: What do you mean?
Director: We're making a movie.
Writers: Right?
Director: Movies are 2 hours at best. You've given me a 457 page script. That equates to around seven and a half hours.
Writers: That's pretty short...
Director: Short for a GAME, a GAME, not a movie!
Writers: Hmmm....




Regarding Advent Children, that movie was kind of a mess because Square in their infinite wtf'ery did not include the 100% required reading On the Way to a Smile. Seriously, if you've never read/listened to this, you might see Advent Children entirely different.

Tifa's and Denzel's in particular stabbed me in the heart with all the feels. DENZEL for crying out loud. I didn't care about that kid from the movie, but man, his story is so dark I feel so soooo bad for him. T-T His episode details how he loses his parents when the plate fell on their Sector, his orphaned life, being taken in, what happened the day the Lifestream saved the planet (and messed up a whole lot of people), and then how he watches other children sick and dying or how people leave children dying in the street, etc. etc. up until he's about ready to just give up and die before he eventually winds up with Cloud and Tifa. It's rough...

Tifa & Denzel are basically required to get a full picture of Advent Children and how their lives have transitioned from game to movie. It feels more organic and the strain on Cloud & Tifa's relationship is believable here rather than seeming like Cloud is just pining for Aerith. At least, all in my opinion, of course.

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?lis...PFqTO0mqCjOMQp

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Rufus Shinra is my favourite character in FF7 so seeing him make a return in Advent Children was enough for me to come to love that movie.

On the Way to a Smile includes episodes for Shinra as well.

The Kids are Alright is about the Turks and not too bad either.

[Kazgrel]

I forgot that movie even existed, tbh.

[StrawberryZebra]

I watched that movie then burned the VCR to stop it tainting my household. That's how bad I think it is.

In theory, a Sci-Fi action adventure movie with a never before seen level of photorealistic CGI graphics and a great cast should be a winner on paper. In practice however it really needed to be handled by a screenwriter who knew how to write something like that, not a game studio trying to play Filmmakers.

That being said, the general premise should have still had a pretty broad appeal to it, but I think it being attached to the Final Fantasy brand is what doomed it to poor sales even before it was out of the door.

At the very least they should have released it after FF 10 in the hopes of making more people aware of their brand before dropping a hugely expensive movie and hoping to get a good return on it. It would allow them to really double down on their marketing for both, as well as being a solid opportunity for cross promotion. For whatever reason, Japanese developers just never seem to think logically about these kinds of decisions.

[dope_danny]

In theory, a Sci-Fi action adventure movie with a never before seen level of photorealistic CGI graphics and a great cast should be a winner on paper. In practice however it really needed to be handled by a screenwriter who knew how to write something like that, not a game studio trying to play Filmmakers.

That being said, the general premise should have still had a pretty broad appeal to it, but I think it being attached to the Final Fantasy brand is what doomed it to poor sales even before it was out of the door.

At the very least they should have released it after FF 10 in the hopes of making more people aware of their brand before dropping a hugely expensive movie and hoping to get a good return on it. It would allow them to really double down on their marketing for both, as well as being a solid opportunity for cross promotion. For whatever reason, Japanese developers just never seem to think logically about these kinds of decisions.

At the time they were desperate to be pioneers in the 'digital, rentable actors' market they thought was the 21st centuries first big cyberpunk become reality. They wanted Aki Ross to be an actual actress they would rent out. We know how that went down.

Still i genuinely enjoy the movie. Its not amazing but its one of those turn of the century sci-fi flicks like Titan AE that were all coming out at a Sci-Fi boom with things like the matrix and naturally they could not compare.

Still the world had a very FF8 meets Parasite Eve tone that i found refreshing at a time when IX and the teasers for X were suggesting the deiselpunk of the mid 90's FF was being put on the backburner once again. the story and characters was sub ghibli generic quasi enviromentalism a lot of japanese sci-fi with no horror aspects tends to be at that point but certain scenes like James Woods giving a haunted speech about a time when they couldnt see the Phantoms yet and his wife and daughter were two of hundreds caught on a beach as everyone around them starts dying to what looks like nothing and it was the first time a cgi character looked like they were hurting even a little and for an adult cgi flick thats real rare.

Plus i just liked the world and honestly would play a game in that setting. A little bit Crisis Core a little bit Lost Planet maybe. Like a more aliens over robots horizon maybe.

-bare in mind i know its like a 7/10 at the absolute best for anybody but i never had the virtiolic hatred of it for not being a straight 90 minute game cutscene like advent children, because thats the thing when you look back we have a straight final fantasy movie set in one of the games universes, its hard to be that mad at something that dared to be a little different and for something made over 17 years ago looks pretty damn good.



and hey, at least its not just a long advert like Kingsglaive

[Faroth]

Agree the name hurt them. The recognition gamers may have had was immediately gone when word of mouth came out that it's "Final Fantasy with absolutely nothing Final Fantasy in it other than a guy's named Cid."

[dope_danny]

Agree the name hurt them. The recognition gamers may have had was immediately gone when word of mouth came out that it's "Final Fantasy with absolutely nothing Final Fantasy in it other than a guy's named Cid."

Well it only takes a little to put people off. I know i dislike Advent Children mostly because that became the defacto way they would represent those characters from then on which kind of makes this sort of dissonance when the Cloud in that is very much not the dude who did a squat contest for a cross dressers wig so he could infiltrate a dons brothel and behaves far more like a less passive aggressive Lightning in tone and mannerisms. That said a lot of people at the time were faaarrr more butthurt before it even released because Square said its big plan to recover from the catastrophic losses of Spirits Within and the Square Pictures venture was almost word for word "Exploit our most popular games in the series for as many cross media tie in products as we can" which soured waaaay more people to AC before it released than SW did.

Theres actually a really fascinating fan documentary about it on youtube i wish i could remember the name of talking about FF7 was exploded into this huge project involving novels, mobile games, movies, spin offs and even tentative plans for a 7-2 that in the longrun actually lost them money. Dragon Quest kept the new SE afloat along with a assload of PS2 rushed out games like Unlimited Saga but at the time they wanted 7 to be a marketing vector on the same level as Eva is in japan but it really lacked staying power and then their next hope was the 'fabula nova crystalis project' and we all know what the majority reaction to XIII was and Agito and Versus would not show up till a decade later.

its a shame i dont have the link since it made the "we need to reboot FFXIV to save the brand" move make a lot more sense when you know just how badly this 'take what fans love and straight up exploit it till they are sick of it' strategy made the domestic reaction to the brand in japan fall to as low as "thats those theatrythmn games kids love based on that series thats bad now right?" for the mainstream.


But really the whole series needs a long tv series about its making of. Theres always been rumours that while Parasite Eve was the beta test for a lot of FF7's mechanics that got reworked into a game based on a novel, that so much left over art assetts were used in FF8 -hence why it came out so soon between 7 and 9- and if true i would love to see a film about the making of 8 and what lead to that strange, strange final product.

[Wrecktangle]

bare in mind i know its like a 7/10 at the absolute best for anybody but i never had the virtiolic hatred of it for not being a straight 90 minute game cutscene like advent children, because thats the thing when you look back we have a straight final fantasy movie set in one of the games universes

I responded to you earlier, I'd like to hear your opinion on why AC was bad, and how they ruined Clouds character. Curious what I missed.

[Anzaman]

Did some A11S today, sadly raid-time got cut by work.. so eh, only had 1 hour.

Got it down to 34%.

[Aruhen]

Did some A11S today, sadly raid-time got cut by work.. so eh, only had 1 hour.

Got it down to 34%.

Keep plugging away at it. That's a really fun fight.