Alpha First Look: Video 3 - The Black Shroud

[Tupster]

Many others have most likely said this before, but I really dislike the new movement animations. Falling from high distances and landing without even flinching, magically floating in place as the character rotates, and starting and stopping without any momentum. It just looks out of place in an otherwise beautiful and believable setting. I wish they'd just use the old animations.

At least the rotation animation (or lack thereof) is far better than WoW's weird foot shuffling. Every time I catch myself distracted by the rotation I remind myself that at least they aren't doing a weird dance like in WoW. In fact, the foot shuffling and constant jumping are one reason I could never get into WoW.

I'm probably a strange person for feeling this way, but I'd actually decide not to play FF14 if the animation is distracting and bad. Even if there is less animation, like FF11, as long as it all flows together in a believable way, like FF11 and FF14 v1, then great. Constant, nervous, figidity, animation would drive me away.

[Trenma]

Not that I didn't already know this from screenshots and Live letters; but damn it's nice seeing those zones re-made and not being so suffocating like the old ones.

It's amazing how well the Mobs blend in with the environment, looks so clean.

Really looking forward to exploring now (Please provide more videos )

[Jynx]

Am I the only one slightly dissapointed that unfurling the map happens in MASSIVE chunks?

Eh I guess I should take what I can get though it encourages people to explore the maps at least. (I'm just worried that simply getting to a aether plaza of the area will bassically reveal the entire area around it making it not actually encourage exploration but just reveal the map as people hopscotch to aether nodes.

[Zezlar]

Horrible running animation, awful useless jumping, beautiful scenery and music. Please SE I hope to Odin you're working on that horrible animation.

[Tupster]

Am I the only one slightly dissapointed that unfurling the map happens in MASSIVE chunks?

Eh I guess I should take what I can get though it encourages people to explore the maps at least. (I'm just worried that simply getting to a aether plaza of the area will bassically reveal the entire area around it making it not actually encourage exploration but just reveal the map as people hopscotch to aether nodes.

The problem with exploration in 1.0 was not that you already had a map. The problem was that there was nothing worth exploring. The map just made that obvious before you even bothered. The zones were just bad. The map system only made it more obvious. And even with the bad zones I could imagine 1.0 being more fun to explore because maps do not show have to show everything, but they pretty much did because the zone design was so pointless.

[Nuru]

The music was awesome, reminiscent of FF12 which is always cool!

Really looking forward to seeing more, the alpha is looking so promising!

Thats what i was thinking! Has a Hitoshi Sakimoto vibe to the music, which is more than welcome! Hitoshi Sakimoto and Akihiko Yoshida belong together!

ah... i mean..

yeah!

[Arcell]

Am I the only one slightly dissapointed that unfurling the map happens in MASSIVE chunks?

Eh I guess I should take what I can get though it encourages people to explore the maps at least. (I'm just worried that simply getting to a aether plaza of the area will bassically reveal the entire area around it making it not actually encourage exploration but just reveal the map as people hopscotch to aether nodes.

Honestly I kind of prefer it over the radius reveal. I'd always end up with some little space unrevealed somewhere and regardless of how important it actually was I'd have to go uncover it just for the sake of map completeness. Then you have to run around all the edges just to make sure you have absolutely everything. I like the small chunk reveals. Honestly those who want to explore will do so, those who don't care will just do the bare minimum. At least we don't have the entire map uncovered right from the start this time.

[Tupster]

I hope the auto-mapping system is only for field zones. I'd really like it if dungeon zones required you to complete a quest or something to get the map. That has always been one of my favorite aspects of FF11 because sometimes getting the map for a zone was next to impossible, but once you got it, what an achievement that was! I didn't get maps of the Emptiness until they raised the level cap on those areas and even then I had to brave level 100 mobs... (for a map that looks like somebody sneezed on a tissue).

EDIT: If this feature was back ported into FF11, I'd have the maps you could just buy be the ones that auto-reveal, but maps that you have to do a quest for would still require a quest.

[IndigoDarkwolf]

Very nice. Covers Central Shroud between Gridania and Bentbranch, a tour of Bentbranch, a waterfall north of Gilbert's Spire, a tour of Hyrstmill, and a tour of Spirithold/Warren Prison, south of Greentear/Greentear Selective Cutting Area.

[Andrien]

The music is perfect, I'm blown away in amazement. BRAVO!

Just got to include inertia for character movements, and for when they're turning left and right etc.


Jumping also looks good. I saw in this video, and other videos that they've jump over fences, rocks and ledges to get over obstacles, and to get from point A to point B faster.

For the alpha ver. This is a great feature they've demoed. I hope they show us more.