[Megathread] Final Fantasy XIV

[Val the Moofia Boss]

Those Japanese school uniforms have barely been out for a day and they're already everywhere I go.

- - - Updated - - -

Forget fighting dragons, liberating kingdoms, or overthrowing evil overlords.

Becoming an anime highschool student is the real Final Fantasy everyone always wanted, apparently.

[Graeham]

It's bizarre. I guarantee they'll be a rare sight once the novelty wears off. On my server, I rarely see any of the past mounts/glamours that were all the rage. It really does seem like a lot of people buy optional items the day they first go live, take some screenshots and then when they fall out of fashion never touch them again. At least until the next item added comes along...

Granted, I've bought some stuff from there myself but only stuff I knew I'd use in the long term.

[Hyral]

There's two things I particularly dislike, battle academy anime settings and when people go into dungeons glammed as something that no one sane would ever wear into battle.

Guess I can look forward to both combined in every single duty now.

[Val the Moofia Boss]

There's two things I particularly dislike, battle academy anime settings and when people go into dungeons glammed as something that no one sane would ever wear into battle.

Guess I can look forward to both combined in every single duty now.

Well, it's not like plate armor ever actually worked in video games or movies, and especially not in FFXIV. You have people routinely slashing and stabbing through plate armor like butter in cutscenes.

I think the Mandalorian and Kingdom Come Deliverance may actually be the only two games and movies where armor actually works, and even then you can still somewhat stab people to death through their armor in KCD.

[Granyala]

There's two things I particularly dislike, battle academy anime settings and when people go into dungeons glammed as something that no one sane would ever wear into battle.

Soo..... 90% of the ingame armor?

Come on now, most armor in games like these, most hair cuts etc are completely impractical. Always have been.

Then again, if you fight a giant fire spitting dragon, I doubt that there is such a thing as "appropriate armor".

- - - Updated - - -

Those Japanese school uniforms have barely been out for a day and they're already everywhere I go.

For s/o that dislikes them, you sure did make a looot of screenshots.

I think they look cute, not that Ifalna would ever wear sth like that. She feels far to old for it to be appropriate. ._.

[Hyral]

Well, it's not like plate armor ever actually worked in video games or movies, and especially not in FFXIV. You have people routinely slashing and stabbing through plate armor like butter in cutscenes.

Soo..... 90% of the ingame armor?

Come on now, most armor in games like these, most hair cuts etc are completely impractical. Always have been.

Then again, if you fight a giant fire spitting dragon, I doubt that there is such a thing as "appropriate armor".

Yes, actually. I don't like most of the armour in the game and particularly despise female armour. My suspension of disbelief extends to making me think covering your body with something when going into a fight can help some but it's completely broken when we are assaulting the Vault with an anorexic girl in a bra and microskirt leading the charge (I mainly tank so thankfully I don't see that particular thing much). As the guy who got banned said, you are free to do that stuff and stomach it but I'm also free to hate it.

Don't get me wrong though, it's a personal problem. I know this is a weeb game and as someone who doesn't care about anime I know I'm not the target audience at all so I would not think for a second to want it to be changed, this is the stuff that makes y'all happy. Just commenting I can unfortunately look forward to seeing it in every duty now.

[Maljinwo]

I refuse to tank if i'm not wearing something bulky

[Granyala]

Yes, actually. I don't like most of the armour in the game and particularly despise female armour. My suspension of disbelief extends to making me think covering your body with something when going into a fight can help some

Have you seen the new tank armor that is craftable? So many protruding ornaments, so many places an enemy weapon can "lock into" and either deliver the force or inhibit our movement. Completely impractical.

So just because armor does cover your body (you failed to explain in what way a metal plate would help against a magical attack though) does not mean it's design is good or even appropriate. A full body armor or schoolgirl uniform may matter when we fight other humans but it won't make much of a difference when you stand in front of Midgardsomr or Bahamut.

[Wrecktangle]

Have you seen the new tank armor that is craftable? So many protruding ornaments, so many places an enemy weapon can "lock into" and either deliver the force or inhibit our movement. Completely impractical.

So just because armor does cover your body (you failed to explain in what way a metal plate would help against a magical attack though) does not mean it's design is good or even appropriate. A full body armor or schoolgirl uniform may matter when we fight other humans but it won't make much of a difference when you stand in front of Midgardsomr or Bahamut.

I'm actually wearing that set. I was surprised how much I liked the look. I HATE that the default color is black though. Game desperately needs dye channels. I'd love to have the gold metal with a white robe.

I tend to use the PLD specific sets or some combination of them except for my one PVP set one. I've always been a fan of the robed temple knight look so a combination of cloth and plate. I find they typically have the best balance of them.

[Granyala]

I thought it looked cool too. Except the chest area for women. Just looked.. weird to me.
Yet I realize that it is as unpractical to wear in combat as any platekini.

[Merie]

Girls wearing school uniforms into battle has been a thing since Sailor Moon. In a game with time travel and flying cars and dragons I'm not too worried about it.

[Hyral]

Have you seen the new tank armor that is craftable? So many protruding ornaments, so many places an enemy weapon can "lock into" and either deliver the force or inhibit our movement. Completely impractical.

So just because armor does cover your body (you failed to explain in what way a metal plate would help against a magical attack though) does not mean it's design is good or even appropriate. A full body armor or schoolgirl uniform may matter when we fight other humans but it won't make much of a difference when you stand in front of Midgardsomr or Bahamut.

That's why I mention suspension of disbelief and how it's personal. For example to me someone holding an umbrella in front of them will look more like a tank than a GNB because at least they are using something as cover instead of literally holding their weapon behind their head just to be a Dissidia reference, meanwhile to you it might just mean their chin is strong enough to make Varian proud. Likewise even if the armor is impractical, to me it still looks better if someone at least makes some effort to protect themselves than someone just prancing around with nipple tassels. We just have different breaking points for our disbelief in this fantasy setting.

[Xilurm]

There's two things I particularly dislike, battle academy anime settings and when people go into dungeons glammed as something that no one sane would ever wear into battle.

Guess I can look forward to both combined in every single duty now.

Welcome to... 2013?

Final Fantasy games have never had protagonists wearing "practical" outfits. It's always been about looking cool.

It's not like the actual tanky outfits are practical either.

This (fending chest):


Isn't any more practical than this (healing chest):


And I just realised I don't have any screenshots with the former being fully shown.

[Granyala]

That's why I mention suspension of disbelief and how it's personal. For example to me someone holding an umbrella in front of them will look more like a tank than a GNB because at least they are using something as cover instead of literally holding their weapon behind their head just to be a Dissidia reference, meanwhile to you it might just mean their chin is strong enough to make Varian proud. Likewise even if the armor is impractical, to me it still looks better if someone at least makes some effort to protect themselves than someone just prancing around with nipple tassels. We just have different breaking points for our disbelief in this fantasy setting.

Oh don't get me wrong: I dislike skimpy plate-kini tanks as much as you do.
In general, I am not a fan of slutmogs that are deliberately slutty.

Only exception would be a dancer in XIV, because erotic allure is part of the class identity.

[KrayZ33]

In my opinion, there is more than enough choice for everyone in FFXIV.

The current tomestone tank set for example is pretty nuts. Reminds me of Dark Soul. Pretty "mild fantasy"-looking too imho, except for the cloak.
*especially* good looking if you use the weapons from the last tome stone sets. They fit amazingly well.

The Darkknight blade looks like a common Zweihänder, the Paladin shield and sword looks relatively generic as a knights sword&board and even the Gunblade looks like a jagged blade or something. Really cool stuff.
I'll level a tank just because of that tbh.

That's why I mention suspension of disbelief and how it's personal. For example to me someone holding an umbrella in front of them will look more like a tank than a GNB because at least they are using something as cover instead of literally holding their weapon behind their head just to be a Dissidia reference

Huh? I always thought it's a wrath guard stance.
Isn't that a pretty normal guard stance? The sword pointing towards the enemy like the Samurai does in this game for example, is probably less useful in combat.. unless you want to thrust alot? But I always thought a Katana is used for cuts.
But what do I know (and I really don't know much about it) - either way, how would your guard stance look like with a blade such as a gunblade, I think it's a pretty good fit. At least there is nothing wrong with it because stances are not necessarily meant to be only defensive.

[Hyral]

Huh? I always thought it's a wrath guard stance.
Isn't that a pretty normal guard stance? The sword pointing towards the enemy like the Samurai does in this game for example, is probably less useful in combat.. unless you want to thrust alot? But I always thought a Katana is used for cuts.
But what do I know (and I really don't know much about it) - either way, how would your guard stance look like with a blade such as a gunblade, I think it's a pretty good fit. At least there is nothing wrong with it because stances are not necessarily meant to be only defensive.

Yes and no. It's a reference to Squall's stance in Dissidia which is wrath, but Squall does do more with it than just take hits to the chin. Then again it's been a hot minute since I last played 012 so could be remembering wrong but I'm pretty sure he does block with the blade often.

- - - Updated - - -

Oh don't get me wrong: I dislike skimpy plate-kini tanks as much as you do.
In general, I am not a fan of slutmogs that are deliberately slutty.

Only exception would be a dancer in XIV, because erotic allure is part of the class identity.

Yeah I have that exception for dancers too in any game they are available. And another one for monks since I have it ingrained from too many games that the monk class identity is bare handed and chested, or at least with very light clothing.

[Val the Moofia Boss]

And another one for monks since I have it ingrained from too many games that the monk class identity is bare handed and chested, or at least with very light clothing.

I think monks in D&D originated as the idea that they are stereotypical medieval European monastery monks going out on a mission to heal the poor and wind up fighting bad guys along the way, so they can't afford armor and weren't professionally going out into battle so the just wore robes. But then during 90s Dragon Ball and Hong Kong action flicks exploded, so the idea of monks blended together with Asian monks, as well as martial arts practitioners who practice in dojos just wearing robes.

[Nasuuna]

sorrows of werlyt questline seems to be overtaking the MSQ for emotional impact

we will see in 5.5 how it all wraps up

[Val the Moofia Boss]

sorrows of werlyt questline seems to be overtaking the MSQ for emotional impact

we will see in 5.5 how it all wraps up

The Valens scenes are great and the grotesque weapon designs are cool, as well as the fights. Also glad to see Terncliff, though I wish it was more fleshed out. I hope Werlyt isn't just a single empty street with 5 NPCs in it like Terncliff.

The kids are okay. I hope Alfonse makes it.

My biggest problem is with Gaius. How old is he? How many years was he a part of the Garlean empire? By the time he made Legatus, there was absolutely no way he could not have known that the empire he was working for was 90% evil. Also doesn't make sense how he could make Legatus just based off of merit, as in this evil empire you either need to be... well, evil to get promoted, or you need to have some sort of backing from a higher up. Who is likely evil. And there is the narrative continuing to bend over backwards trying to whitewash Gaius' actions in ARR.

- - - Updated - - -

The Bozja story has also been good but it leaves me wanting more.

I liked the first two tiers of Eden when it was you and Thancred and Urianger flying around in a spaceship restoring life to the world. I became less interested when they left but the last tier was decent.

The real stinker are the Nier raids. If this is what the stories of Yoko Taro's games are like then I'm going to stay way because so far it just seems like a bunch of edgy, artsy shock value nonsense. The only thing I liked about it was the Dwarf comedy and the bullet hell corridor in the second raid, and that was it.

- - - Updated - - -

Nier might have been nice as a collaboration like the GARO collab, where you can get glamours and minions and mounts and maybe some housing stuff, but I would have rather that the Alliance Raid series be something substantial like the Ivalice story, fleshing out the world with lore and new locations to visit and progressing the story of the game and such.

[Graeham]

To be fair, Garlemald wasn't really portrayed as overwhelmingly evil back in the days of 1.0, 2.0 and 3.0. It only took a sharp term when the writer responsible for large swathes of ARR and HW left to go work on FFXVI.

I'd argue they completely ruined Regula and Varis. The former by refusing to bring him up in any way even when it was narratively appropriate and the latter by having him do a complete heel face turn despite everything up until a certain cutscene presenting him as someone who wasn't happy about his people and homeland being manipulated and who also looked down on questionable experiments up until that point.

On the other hand, I'm sure the writers are well aware that a sizable portion of their fanbase views the world in black or white to the point of sending people death threats for daring to like the 'bad guys', so it wouldn't surprise me if they're trying to wash their hands of Garlemald for the most part. Much like the Ascians, it's a large part of 1.0 and standing in the way of the development team moving on to do something completely unique with no ties to the original game.

As for Nier? I'm not terribly impressed. Playing a male character, the glamour isn't to my liking. The fights are enjoyable enough but the story is rather lacking so far. I think the best aspect for me so far is the music rolls.

It makes me worry about what may be shoved into 6.0 for the sake of 'rule of cool'. I suppose we'll find out when the Fan Fests go live.