[Megathread] Final Fantasy XIV

[Granyala]

All too often someone will post brilliant art of a male character and it'll be downvoted, but the skimpiest and trashiest art of almost any female character will be praised to the heavens.

Teenage boys will be teenage boys.

[StrawberryZebra]

One thing I particularly loathe about the FFXIV Reddit - and FFXIV community as a whole - is the lack of variety in what is posted and fawned over. All too often someone will post brilliant art of a male character and it'll be downvoted, but the skimpiest and trashiest art of almost any female character will be praised to the heavens.

It's not just Reddit - Gotten an occasional remark about my characters appearance in game too.

I just hit the random button a few times and rolled with it. Ended up with a fairly generic looking male Hyur. I also don't bother with Glamouring anything so I usually look like my chraracter was designed by a child with an etch-a-sketch.

I get the odd snippy comment about how I chose to play that when I could have made my dream slutmog or waifu or whatever it is the kids are getting hard ons over these days.

[Wangming]

They probably just weren't thinking too much about trying to be consistent with the Echo and the Resonant at the time Stormblood 4.0 was being written. The Echo just wasn't super important to the narrative back then like it is now. It was just a plot device to justify whatever they wanted.

I like to think of the Echo as like the Force. It can be used for various things depending on how strong you are, and what your aims are.

In the Original trilogy, everyone had their own iconic brand of force use. Obi-Wan was a reclusive hermit, so he used mind tricks to stay hidden. Yoda was a little, physically weak midget, so he used the Force to lift heavy shit. Vader was basically there to intimidate and kill, so he choked people. Palpatine was THE evil wizard, so he conjured lightning. Luke was the only one with personal connections, so for him the natural thing was to pull things towards himself. That is where his strength comes from. Also in ROTJ when we first see him he uses a force choke and a mind trick to show his conflct between light and dark, and lifts stuff to show he is growing in power (becoming more liek Yoda).

We mostly use the Echo as a translator and as a way to get plot relevant backstory from people around us. The Sahagin priest used it to take over bodies and stay immortal. Fordole used hers to see attacks. Incidentally this corresponds nicely to the Geass use of Mao, Marianne, and Bismarck (Yes me moved from Star Wars to Code Geass). No paralel to the Ascian body merging trick that creates Primes, unless you consider Leila's mind connecting Geass, but it makes sense for them if you consider how much they like rejoinings.

- - - Updated - - -

It was even worse when I asked whether FFXIV should think about doing an engine overhaul or in 5 or so years moving on to FF17 or something. This one was more confusing to me because it was more of a question rather than a strong assertion.

A month after they announced measures that enables them to keep this engine for a decade more at least? Highly unlikely.

[Val the Moofia Boss]

We mostly use the Echo as a translator

I don't think there are any other languages in the game besides English and Draconic. Alphinaud has no problem talking with the fantasy Japanese culture on the other side of the continent. And since Dragons use telepathy in our heads, we understand them anyway.

[Granyala]

Alphinaud has no problem talking with the fantasy Japanese culture on the other side of the continent.

Eeeh, you do realize that Alphi has spent half his life studying.
Think there weren't any other languages among that?

Also, keep in mind that we have an instance of gameplay > lore when it comes to communication too. I mean no PC can understand the horde, yet suddenly you get a Tauren NPC and talking is no problemo.

[Val the Moofia Boss]

Also, keep in mind that we have an instance of gameplay > lore when it comes to communication too. I mean no PC can understand the horde, yet suddenly you get a Tauren NPC and talking is no problemo.

WoW isn't a good comparison because the canon (how the world works, how characters are characterized, what happened, etc) is different between the games and the books. At this point, humans not being unable to understand Tauren isn't really canon anymore, and it's clear that the language thing is mostly a gameplay gimmick and a holdover from the Horde vs Alliance faction split. The canon even fluctuates between different authors. Whereas FFXIV's canon is mostly consistent across everything, with only a few retcons here and there.

[Kaelwryn]

I don't think there are any other languages in the game besides English and Draconic. Alphinaud has no problem talking with the fantasy Japanese culture on the other side of the continent. And since Dragons use telepathy in our heads, we understand them anyway.

There absolutely is other languages in game. Ancient Hingan is more in line with japanese, while modern hingan is more inline with common hyur (therefore english) but still mixes ancient/japanese into their dialogue (why we have bakufu, ijin etc). Hingan alphabet is also obviously different from Eorzean. Elezens also had their own language, but that never really caught on as common hyur since elezens were mostly limited to the shroud area.

The echo does act as a translator, known as "The Power to Transcend Words".

For those blessed with the power to transcend words, language no longer poses a barrier to intercultural communication. Voice utterances fade and are replaced by an internal understanding of another's intentions. Conversely, words spoken by one with this power are immediately understood by all, without need of linguistic interpretation

From EE. This is also part of the Echo that Krile is very strong in, that's why she is able to understand the "whispers of the soul." Screenshot of the text, as with the the two other powers' blurbs.

We are a jack of all trades when it comes to the Echo, in that we have all three gifts which are Transcend Words, Worlds and Time.

[Wangming]

I don't think there are any other languages in the game besides English and Draconic. Alphinaud has no problem talking with the fantasy Japanese culture on the other side of the continent. And since Dragons use telepathy in our heads, we understand them anyway.

What about the Primals themselves? Like Ifrit or Titan? Or even the Ascians? Maybe I remember wrong, but I seem to recall we use the echo for that.

[Val the Moofia Boss]

What about the Primals themselves? Like Ifrit or Titan? Or even the Ascians? Maybe I remember wrong, but I seem to recall we use the echo for that.

I also forgot about the Ascians/Amaurotines, but it seems like they are just like the dragons, where they are "speaking" an unintelligible language, but the Scions (who didn't have an Echo) were able to understand them just fine anyway.

I don't think there is any language in this game where someone is speaking and normal person without the Echo is unable to understand what they are saying.

[Wangming]

I also forgot about the Ascians/Amaurotines, but it seems like they are just like the dragons, where they are "speaking" an unintelligible language, but the Scions (who didn't have an Echo) were able to understand them just fine anyway.

I don't think there is any language in this game where someone is speaking and normal person without the Echo is unable to understand what they are saying.

Are they though? I mean when they are in their meat suit they speak normal languages sure, but when they speak Amaurotians and we only have subtitles? Pretty sure only we talk to Hythlodaeus for instance.

[Val the Moofia Boss]

Are they though? I mean when they are in their meat suit they speak normal languages sure, but when they speak Amaurotians and we only have subtitles? Pretty sure only we talk to Hythlodaeus for instance.

The Scions can understand the Amaurotines, when they first meet the shades in Amaurot. They can also understand the Venat conversation.

[Wangming]

The Scions can understand the Amaurotines, when they first meet the shades in Amaurot. They can also understand the Venat conversation.

Ah yes, the recording. Good point, totally forgot about that. Then again, you are with archons. I guess somewhere between the MSQ updates we sat down with them to give them at least a B2 knowledge in Amaurotian.

[Ashleyxoxo]

After playing Shadowlands's shitty story, I have a newfound respect for FFXIV's story. It's not as good as a JRPG in that department, but it sure as hell beats other MMOs.

[draugril]

After playing Shadowlands's shitty story, I have a newfound respect for FFXIV's story. It's not as good as a JRPG in that department, but it sure as hell beats other MMOs.

Yeah, Shadowlands was... rough. All world-building, no personal connection or character development. It's just something happening followed by something happening followed by something happening. More of an interactive encyclopedia than an actual story.

[Wangming]

After playing Shadowlands's shitty story, I have a newfound respect for FFXIV's story. It's not as good as a JRPG in that department, but it sure as hell beats other MMOs.

I'd say 4.4 onward it's up there with the best of them. Dunno how 6.0 can top it, but I really hope they try.

[Val the Moofia Boss]

Famitsu interviewed Yoshida a month ago, but I haven't seen anyone talking about it.

Yoshida: It would feel too persistent if all the music is made to be overgrandious like those you hear in those impressive epic movies. So I told him to “make the strength of the music buildup to be nicely distributed across the scenario”.

Sounds like we might not get another stereotypical, epic orchestra final boss theme, which would be a nice change. Maybe it will be more quiet, or a smaller chamber orchestra, or maybe just an acoustic guitar playing or something.

Yoshida: When thinking of trying to adopt the expression of of dawn as reflected in “Dawning Moon” seen on the title*, I told the staff members that “it’s neither black nor white, but a platinum-yellowish glitter that can only be seen in that very moment”, and their response to that remark was a face that gives out an expression of “you sure are asking a lot from us”. (laughs)

You can see that there are barely seen elements we have included that show either a faint gold or yellow in the logo.

Though Shadowbringers began its story with unique weather conditions where the night never comes, we are preparing another surprise for the players once again in the game. We are going to adjust the game to fit the colour theme that we’ve decided here so I’d like the players to think that the game will provide a somewhat platinum feel here.

I apologise if the colour expression ended up being vague but the overall image would be to express the glitter that is born after running through and reaching the finale of the story.

＊The “Dawning Moon” refers to the Japanese title of Endwalker.

Maybe after you beat the 6.0 MSQ, there might be a skybox change where the world is blessed with clear skies and golden sunlight? IDK

Yoshida said that he would like to implement the Trust system for trials and old dungeons, but it is simply too much work on the part of the programmers having to get the Trust party members to work for the new dungeons as is, so they won't be going back and implementing trusts for old dungeons.

For the new PvP mode, they're going to reduce the importance of healers, and give the other classes some self healing/sustain. One of the objectives of the new game mode is occupying your enemy's base, so it's not a straight up deathmatch like the Feast. Will have a rated mode in addition to a casual mode.

The Feast might be removed from the game temporarily and return later when it is reworked.

[Wrecktangle]

I'd say 4.4 onward it's up there with the best of them. Dunno how 6.0 can top it, but I really hope they try.

FF14 storytelling is great for an MMO, but I just don't see the comparison to some of the greatest JRPG stories. It just doesn't have the characterization and development that those games have. It does do world building pretty damn well though, if only the locations didn't feel so empty.

Like clearly Yshtola, Thancred, and Gaius have a lot of development over time, but their stories don't compel me at all like seeing Elly's inner turmoil in Xenogears, Vivi's existential crisis in FF9, Lenneth/Silmeria's rebellion against her duty in VP1/2 respectively, or really any of the Persona characters in most of their mainline games. I think that's just a measure of the difference between genres.

[KrayZ33]

Like clearly Yshtola, Thancred, and Gaius have a lot of development over time, but their stories don't compel me at all like seeing Elly's inner turmoil in Xenogears, Vivi's existential crisis in FF9, Lenneth/Silmeria's rebellion against her duty in VP1/2 respectively, or really any of the Persona characters in most of their mainline games. I think that's just a measure of the difference between genres.

I think that's due to how "slowly" they change in MMOs compared to RPGs were you constantly advance the plot on a daily/hourly basis.
It's hard to follow individual character development when characters are featured only once every year or so.

Just compare them to Ryne for example.
Thancred's character was lucky enough to have met someone like her / to be coupled with her because any change Ryne went through, had to be reflected in Thancred somewhat and he gained a lot from that as a game-character.

And btw, I totally love that Thancred won't use cartridge based skill without Ryne in the team when you use the trust system. Or so I've heard at least, as I always included both.
That's a very sweet detail.

[Graeham]

The Feast might be removed from the game temporarily and return later when it is reworked.

GOOD!

Most of the PvP I do these days is in Frontlines. I don't bother with ranked PvP since it's infested with win traders/account sharers.

I also hate how new seasons coincide with the release of a new patch, so even if you want to make a legitimate effort like so many aspects of the game if you don't drop everything and do it immediately you end up missing out altogether.

I'd like a horizontal progression and more consistent rewards.

[Merie]

Sounds like we might not get another stereotypical, epic orchestra final boss theme, which would be a nice change. Maybe it will be more quiet, or a smaller chamber orchestra, or maybe just an acoustic guitar playing or something.

Considering how epic Hades' theme was when in kicked in just before the final battle, I absolutely need more of that. I do want that epic orchestra final boss theme to round out the Endwalker MSQ as it's the very last battle in a ten year arc. If after that when the game goes in a new direction they want to do more experimental stuff I'd be fine with that.