“Its the little things.” - A look into Final Fantasy through the eyes of a 13-Year WoW player.
Hello everyone,
Often do I talk about why it is that I quit World of Warcraft after 13 years of nigh-uninterrupted subscription in favor of Final Fantasy XIV. Though with this post, I hope to set the record straight and give examples in one concise post that aim to explain it a bit more fluidly. This will mostly cover the visual aspects of the game, though if you don’t know the epic score that is expected with every Final Fantasy game I would suggest looking that up yourself.
As the title suggests, most of it is the little things. Details that WoW lacks. And while the argument can be made that “They’re two different games.” there are some parts in here that are so disappointing. Things that make Blizzard just look lazy in comparison.
I’ll be starting with some of the larger details and eventually move on from there to the nuts and bolts that really make this game stand out. I hope you enjoy the read, and consider joining up with us on the Mateus server.
One of these spells is not like the other:
This is likely to be one of my favorite talking points. One of the greatest things about FFXIV is the casting animations. Not one class ability animation is shared between two classes. Red Mage abilities are cocky, confident and the Black Mage just seethes with raw power. Class fantasy is something oft talked about with Blizzard when these guys just nail it. Just look at how as I cast Fire IV, you see the sound barrier breaking as the energy leaves my hands to turn into the explosion that it is about to become:
And whats more? Most of the abilities even for the same class don’t share an animation either. While the Red Mage ability ‘Fleche’ has you bring your arms up to call upon swords of ice to pierce your target, ‘Contra Sixte’ has your character vaulting off of their own blade to get up into the air and send a blast of energy straight down at a target. Ninjas when they use their finishing abilities physically jump onto the shoulders of their enemy, no matter how large, just to jab their daggers into its throat.
This isn’t even my final (fantasy) form!:
I did say that I was starting big, didn’t I? In WoW, I have never in 13 years experienced a fight where I was awestruck at its magnitude. Every single one of them lacked impact, even as we faced down Argus’ world soul to free the Pantheon did it not feel truly breathtaking.
This is where Final Fantasy shines. So many of its boss fights, especially in Heavensward and Stormblood are so ridiculously creative and unique. I’d like to present one of my favorite examples: Susano, Lord of the Revel. He is someone faced around level 63 as part of the leveling experience where you and 7 others need to best him in combat. After taking a bunch of damage, he disappears into the floor... only to emerge as a 10 story tall monolith made of water, to which he rips a massive sword out of the ground and proceeds to attack the tank with it.
Alright, sounds par the course. Tank takes damage, fight goes on. Right? Wrong! Your tank engages Susano in a clash of blades, parrying and holding back his massive sword with their own weapon while the raid destroys the sword. And after his second swing when the force of the shattered blade strikes the ground it leaves a broken tear through the middle of the ground for the rest of the fight. This was a leveling boss, and I was blown away by the sheer scope of the encounter throughout.
Home is where SE’s heart is:
We’ve wanted it. We’ve asked for it, and eventually we were answered with... Garrisons. While this is a feature that has only recently gotten a lot of love from the developers, the housing system in FFXIV is robust. The way that you design your apartment or house is limited only by your imagination (and a generous item count). You can create anything that you set your mind to, memorable places with character and many different themes from coastal shanties to Eastern diners. I won’t spend a lot of time on this part, its something that you need to see for yourself. And it won’t even cost you a raid tier. ;)
Hide Helm? No thanks:
I’ll begin with one of the first things that I noticed when playing this game as it was one of my largest minor gripes about WoW because it, to me, is the penultimate sign of indefensible lazyness that has become Blizzard’s commonplace; Hats and helms. Have you ever put on a really cool looking hat in WoW only to find that your character suddenly has all of their hair chopped off? It ruins the look, and for me makes me almost never want to show helms because of how atrocious it can appear. Final Fantasy not only shows hair under their hats, but it does it differently for every single one of the massive amounts of hairstyles in the game. To where it looks natural, and like that particular hairstyle has been put under the hat.
And for my long-eared friends, such as the Elezen, Miqo’te and the horned Au Ra? Your ears don’t just clip through the armor that you’re wearing. Look closely below and you will see that extra stitching has been added on to make the ears coming through seem natural, like it is meant for that. And even those that don’t do this have armor that comes out over the ears and looks like it was bolted onto the original design, with rivets and all.
The Aesthetic:
Yes, I know. The most pretentious and overused word of 2018. Though I would be doing this game a great disservice by not mentioning it. Look at how the rain falls in Kugane which is one of the main cities, the ground becomes slick and players’ cloth armor looks like has soaked through. Even going inside of a building can you hear the rain falling upon the roofs above.
Or how about when fog or a blizzard sweeps through Coerthas, reducing visibility and feeling so natural and real:
When your hair and robe billow in the wind, and outfits look natural and intricately designed. Chestpieces aren’t just either one solid mass, or a body-covering robe. You have jackets, and coats that aren’t just made for casters. And the robes don’t always cover the body, but they always compliment it. And what’s more? Your legs don’t even disappear when wearing them.
Again, Class Fantasy:
Some of the issues that show WoW’s age are also related to how stiff and symmetrical everything feels. You run with a staff the same way you run with a sword, the same way you run with an axe. With FFXIV’s design, every animation is different. Here we see the Samurai sprinting animation which fits them, the blade out to the side while their other hand holds the sheath:
And if you don’t like the way your character poses in their idle stance?
Then just change it! All it takes is using /cpose and you can change everything from the way that you hold your weapon, to the style that your character sits in chairs with.
Once more, with feeling!:
The game’s engine is extremely smart. Are you doing /hug to a female Au Ra, or Miqo’te as one of the towering male Au Ra? He will kneel down to bring his arms around her. Is she standing on a chair and closer to his height? He won’t kneel down, because he doesn’t need to. Your character will look toward their target, and even some of the emotes change based upon whether you’re targeting something/someone or not. You laugh differently when you’re sitting down than when you do standing up and if you don’t think that’s the tightest shit ever, get the hell out of my face.
At last, the end:
In all, Final Fantasy XIV is a labor of love and every single bit of it shows so prominently in the details that they put into this game. From the moment that they decided to rebuilt the failed 1.0 game from the ground up and relaunch it, they have proven themselves over and over again that we, the players, are who they do it for. This is a game that is constantly evolving, growing even larger with every new patch, it has story moments that will make you cry (unless you’re a heartless monster and make it through The Vault’s ending cinematic) and deliver big budget film or novel quality writing.
And just in case you haven’t been convinced that this is a project with heart and soul put into it; Here’s something from just last month where Naoki Yoshida, the director of the game and man responsible for rebuilding it dropped by on Mateus, the server that I play on, just to hang out on the E3 Stream and be bombarded by the love, respect and thanks that the players do not owe, but willingly give to him. Show me Chris Metzen walking around Stormwind and I’ll eat my keyboard.
My name is Kenji Nasagi, and I’m a switcher.
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