Anyone Else Feel, That the World is Too Pretty?

[PapesseLudovique]

For a planet ravaged by a global (continental) calamity? It's only been what, five years since Bahamut laid waste to the Eorzea?

Anyone else think it should be more like The World of Ruin from FFVI? Or, at least have zones that conjure that imagery.

The world is amazing, but I get the feeling I'm in a post apocalyptic world, minus the apocalypse. We're not really shown the devastation. We're not shown how it affected people, just told through occasional dialogue, but you wouldn't really know it from the day to day life of these people.

I dunno, I can get past this minor gripe, but it seems like a dropped ball. Hopefully we'll get new zones/content that display the effects of the calamity more closely, so we can get a feel for the impact it had.

[AzuraWinters]

I agree with you. I've always thought that the world recovered really fast in 5 years. Maybe they should had set the story 20 years after the calamity.

However, in the story it says the calamity devastated Eorzea, and Eorzea is only one continent of the planet (does the planet have a name?). I guess the other continents weren't affected as much.

[Vaen]

Well, lore-wise, it makes sense that there are hyper-lush, visually unique places after the Calamity because Dalamud forced a lot of Aether to the surface of Eorzea. And it's causing all sorts of changes, kind of like global warming. Lore-buffs, is that right?

Aether is the planet's life-force. And now, in the aftermath of the Calamity, we are swimming in it, causing big, glowing vegetation, giant crystal growths, strange magical anomalies, and so on. Plus, there are (a few) places where the devastation is used to amazing visual effect. The shattered earth and debris looks really beautiful in certain parts of Thanalan and The Shroud.

I do wonder, though, where is that battlefield shown in the opening movie? Didn't that happen in Mor Dhona? I've traveled around half the zone and haven't seen it. Maybe I just haven't gotten to it yet. But is that in-game? That area should be a big no-man's land with lots of debris and ruins from the Calamity, just like OP is looking for.

(does the planet have a name?)

The planet is called Hydaelyn

[Interfectorum]

It's a planet of magic and wonder lol, things recover fast with magic!

[PapesseLudovique]

Well, lore-wise, it makes sense that there are hyper-lush, visually unique places after the Calamity because Dalamud forced a lot of Aether to the surface of Eorzea. And it's causing all sorts of changes, kind of like global warming. Lore-buffs, is that right?

I do wonder, though, where is that battlefield shown in the opening movie?

The planet is called Hydaelyn

Yeah but nothing in the story hints that aether repaired the damage. Just references to how bad it was. But even if there is an explanation, the problem is that we're told, not shown. It doesn't have a real impact, if the player never sees the suffering, or effects of the calamity and why we need to prevent it from happening again. That's literally an example of saying "a wizard did it." Like, yeah we had an end of the world scenario go down. But before the player shows up, all the wizards quickly turned it back into the planet it was before, so it looks pretty much the same. But you should have seen it then!

Also,
The Battle of Carteneau, fought in the Carteneau Plains in Mor Dhona.
http://finalfantasy.wikia.com/wiki/Battle_of_Carteneau

[Mavlok]

They have spells that can raise the dead (okay, incapacitated); I'm sure they have land repairing ones.

[Seig345]

As far as Mor'Dhona goes, if you go to Mor'Dhona, and look at the map, you'll see we can't even access more than half the area. It used to be you could run all the way around the lake where Midgardsormr's remains are still wrapped around the wreckage of the imperial flagship, but now you can only see it past the southern border of the current available area, and only when the 'weather' allows you to see through the area's very extreme visual effects that seem to be caused by the disrupted Aether.

It used to be you could walk from Thanalan straight into Mor'Dhona, and while you still can, i've noticed you have to do so using a bridge built by the Empire. Whatever landscaping that bridge crosses over didn't used to be there. You simply walked through a pass from Thanalan into Mor'Dhona, no giant gaping pit.

[Vaen]

Yeah but nothing in the story hints that aether repaired the damage. Just references to how bad it was.

Also,
The Battle of Carteneau, fought in the Carteneau Plains in Mor Dhona.
http://finalfantasy.wikia.com/wiki/Battle_of_Carteneau

Oh, well the aether accounts for the environmental repair, the lush plant life and all that, but you're right, it doesn't account for the fast repair of buildings and man-made things. It would be interesting to see more ruined/broken places in the actual cities of Limsa Lominsa and Ul'Dah.

There is that one big lighthouse in Western La Noscea:


and also in Western La Noscea there are some ruins of small cabin-like houses that are now infested with goblins or kobolds or something. I remember some lowbie quest saying those houses were destroyed in the Calamity.

There is actually a lot of environmental damage and evidence of the Calamity out in the game world.

But I would agree that it would have been cool to see some actual damage in the main cities. It is a little suspicious that they look perfectly pristine and even more decorated than they were before the Calamity, with not a broken structure in sight.

Also, apparently the part of Mor Dhona where the Battle of Cartenau took place isn't accessible in-game at all right now (edit: thanks Seig345 ). It'd be cool if they add that in and we can see ground zero where Bahamut landed, and all the destruction.

[Enkidoh]

For a planet ravaged by a global calamity? It's only been what, five years since Bahamut laid waste to the world?

Anyone else think it should be more like The World of Ruin from FFVI? Or, at least have zones that conjure that imagery.

The world is amazing, but I get the feeling I'm in a post apocalyptic world, minus the apocalypse. We're not really shown the devastation. We're not shown how it affected people, just told through occasional dialogue, but you wouldn't really know it from the day to day life of these people.

I dunno, I can get past this minor gripe, but it seems like a dropped ball. Hopefully we'll get new zones/content that display the effects of the calamity more closely, so we can get a feel for the impact it had.

Actually the devastation caused by Dalamud's fall and the rampage of Bahamut was not as widespread as you would think, it was far more localized, as it didn't actually affect the whole planet of Hydaelyn physically, but just Eorzea (specifically the Aldenard continent and the island of Vlybrand) - this is shown right at the start for a new character where the player is basically regarded as unaware the Calamity had even happened by other npcs because they're evidently just arrived from another country outside Eorzea.

And the effect it had on the general population is still being felt five years later - you just have to look at the refugee camps surrounding Ul'dah to see just how many people were left homeless and destitute (and a cutscene during the main storyline actually references how hard life is in the aftermath of the Calamity).

There's also plenty of areas shown where the land is obviously damaged and warped by the Calamity, especially areas where the aether released during it has erupted out of the land, breaking the very land apart and then cooling into surreal shapes (the Burning Wall area near Highbridge in Eastern Thanalan and pretty much most of Mor Dhona is a case in point).

Not to mention the Black Shroud is totally different to how it was pre-Calamity - the Shroud was so named because the forest canopy was so think it bathed the forest floor in perpetual shadow - that's no longer the case, especially in the North Shroud where most of the trees are still burnt and their foilage brown from the firestorm that raged through it.

There is plenty of examples of the result of the devastation found and mentioned during the game, you just have to actually read what's being said during quests and actually look at the landscape to see it.

[PapesseLudovique]

snip

True. And thanks for the image, I was wondering where that tower was.