Alexander Appreciation Thread

Can we all agree that XIV is the best Alexander's ever looked when you compare him to his other incarnations in the series?

http://i.imgur.com/RVAX8dTl.jpg

Just look at this towering badass. Let's talk about how great he is.

And then you go inside

Going to have to go with a big no. The steampunk wanna-be abomination is a terrible adaption.

This is Alexander:

https://i.ytimg.com/vi/RGW7NZaD1lw/maxresdefault.jpg

...no. The concept art looks amazing, but in game he looks.. eh. FF9 Alexander is my personal favourite.

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Originally Posted by Ladon

This is Alexander:

https://i.ytimg.com/vi/RGW7NZaD1lw/maxresdefault.jpg

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why does he have wings here?

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Originally Posted by Maaizr

why does he have wings here?

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It fits with Alexander's Holy element within the FFIX universe. Also in the cutscene, it uses it's wings for it's Holy Judgement attack, as well as defending the castle, so yeah, I think it suits ol Alex.

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Originally Posted by Maaizr

why does he have wings here?

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His FF9 incarnation had wings. He only played a minor part in FF9 but it is also my favourite version of him.

The contrast between him being a machine and yet having angel wings is kind of like....poetry.

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Originally Posted by Maaizr

why does he have wings here?

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http://store.steampowered.com/app/377840/
Good chance to find out.

interesting - still looks off to me, but thanks for clarifying

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Originally Posted by Maaizr

interesting - still looks off to me, but thanks for clarifying

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If you're still interested, here is the scene showing him in action, i've always found it pretty awesome :)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tsYpasHUVc8

I think the ff14 version is ok, but i wish it had a more menacing look like in the concept art, i just hope theres a alexander fight and its as good as bahamut fight was

Sorry but no. Not gonna appreciate any side of this failed content. T11 looked epic, T13 looked epic, Alexander is just meh.

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Originally Posted by StrejdaTom

Sorry but no. Not gonna appreciate any side of this failed content. T11 looked epic, T13 looked epic, Alexander is just meh.

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This has nothing to do with the content but Alexander himself as a primal.
Read the thread, not just the thread title like most people do. :mad:

I think Alexander in XIV can`t look better than me in any other incarnation of the series. I mean seriously, im perfect.

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Now, primal Alexander looks amazing on artwork (as everything always in the history of stuff or things since the dawn of stuff or things) but in game doesn`t look bad either, sadly, what gives summons much of their grace and overwhelming awe when you see them is that they are alive things that move and cause beautiful destruction. Yeah, bahamut was imprisoned, but we saw him moving and pretty much going full apocalypse on an incredible trailer, and later on we fought him! ... As far as we know we just ASUME alexander moved... Tho i honestly skipped cutscenes because im tired to death of kobolds, as long as Alexander isn`t moving... Its hard to feel any "threat" coming from it.

History wise, all Alexanders, the ideal of the living castle and part of the fantasy trio of the dragon the castle and the knight (bahamut, alexander and odin). Have been always great, but its best incarnation will always be...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vHS3ZH0OShU
A big ass walking mountain shaking fortress capable of long range artillery nuke barrages. Holy aspected. Honestly i think XIV Alexander has took a lot from VIII.

Now, my personal favorite, doesn`t even summon, it only has a short cutscene dedicated to it and its role is very very limited.

http://vignette1.wikia.nocookie.net/...20120603044715
Archadian Heavy Carrier Class Flagship of the 12th Imperial Fleet, The Alexander.

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Originally Posted by Yasuhiro

This has nothing to do with the content but Alexander himself as a primal.
Read the thread, not just the thread title like most people do. :mad:

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And I wrote "looked" twice, which kinda implies I actually tried to stay on topic.
I commented on looks, not on gameplay. Only because I don't agree with you doesn't mean I didn't read 3 sentences you have written in OP.

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Originally Posted by Windseraph

If you're still interested, here is the scene showing him in action, i've always found it pretty awesome :)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tsYpasHUVc8

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I was really hoping Alexander in XIV would be a homage to IX.
Imagine Alexander being Ishgard used as a last resort weapon to fight the dragons? Borrows heavily from IX sure, but it's more interesting than Goblins trying to wake up a sleeping fortress that looks cool on the outside.

The whole Alexander content is boring to me. Did not capture me as much as the coils did.

Nothing quite captures the power and majesty of alexander like FF9 did. This FF14 incarnation of alexander is a little underwhelming. Even FF8 summon version looks better, probably due to the fact you see him in action constantly and thus visually know what his power is like, unlike FF14 where its "oh no, this thing thats very very very very slowly coming out of this puddle is bad if it comes all the way out. We are not going to show you why its bad, just take our word for it? K thanks bye".

Shame that the concept art does not represent what we received in game.

The concept art is gorgeous.

The implementation of that art in the game has been atrocious. Perhaps they're going to build him up over time and he'll actually look cool later, but right now we have a few pieces of junk in a lake, and the inside is uninspired, most especially when compared to the designs of Coil of Bahamut. I went back into T1 the other day for some glamour farming and had forgotten how awesome it looks inside there. The music also leaves a lot to be desired—the trippy, pop vibe to the music makes the battles feel like a light-hearted romp or something, much like the story does.

I can only hope Midas is cooler.

The goblin concept could have been cool but once they went and made them all dunces for no apparent reason any possible good story they could get out of Alexander went out the window. Hell even the non-goblin NPCs just feel like someone was out of there element.

Would it be a reach to assume the guys who write the story for the Hildy quests got assigned to Alexander because everyone else was busy writing story for the expansion?

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Originally Posted by Alahra

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They've already shown what he's going to look like when entirely out of the water, Alexander still doesn't look threatening and pales to the concept art shown above.

http://i.imgur.com/fqPM6R8.jpg

It's a real shame, they've managed to capture the essence of their art so many times before, to the point that the world is almost a living painting, but it fell flat here.

I really like the concept art.

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Originally Posted by Miste

The contrast between him being a machine and yet having angel wings is kind of like....poetry.

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Like a Machine God or a God in a Machine. I always love those kinds of things. x3
Mechanical deities are always cool to me.

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Originally Posted by Ladon

Going to have to go with a big no. The steampunk wanna-be abomination is a terrible adaption.

This is Alexander:

https://i.ytimg.com/vi/RGW7NZaD1lw/maxresdefault.jpg

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I cannot mash like enough... How does anyone like XIVs version of Alexander? He pops out of no where and just lazily crawls out of a river at the slowest pace imaginable... I'm sure he'll look fairly imposing come 3.4, but that doesn't change the fact that he will have spent the better part of a year crawling out of a river... That is not, in any possible sense of the word, epic.

Obvious spoilers for IX, but this is how you introduce Alexander. I don't even know what is going on with XIVs version, I call him Alexanderp... Anything he does is going to be mired by him spending a year doing nothing, he doesn't even feel like a threat, it feels like he fell off the short bus and we're reluctantly putting him down... At least Bahamut had an excuse for needing to pull himself together over 2.0~2.4, or rather at least Bahamut had a show of power before hand, and much of the main scenario emphasizing what a threat he was... Alexanderp? Shows up, just another Primal to put down, has done absolutely nothing. Couldn't they have stuck a Castrum off on a distant mountain, and come the end of 3.0, have Alexander summoned and Holy Judgment'd it to show off his power? IDK, anythings better than whatever the hell we just got in 3.0...

His in-game appearance is nowhere near as bad as his FFXIII look, but still nowhere near how threatening and ominous his concept art looks. I agree his FF9 adaption is probably the best incarnation of Alexander we've gotten.

As for the actual aesthetic, I could honestly have a field day with this one. I will just say I wish they gave Alexander to a less comic relief race, and maybe make it feel like we are exploring the interior of a primal. Alexander looks absolutely gigantic from the outside, like a castle. However, once you step inside, you are greeted with claustrophobic corridors and the standard circle boss fight arena. Its all just kind of... eh.

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Originally Posted by Colorful

It's a real shame, they've managed to capture the essence of their art so many times before, to the point that the world is almost a living painting, but it fell flat here.

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Oh, yeah that's...that's just...I don't even care. They're already doing an awful job of conveying how much of a threat he's supposed to be in the narrative, and that doesn't look any more threatening than he does now.

And let's not forget he's been trivialized to absurdity by making him an option for relic grind.

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Originally Posted by DragonSlayer45

Alexander looks absolutely gigantic from the outside, like a castle. However, once you step inside, you are greeted with claustrophobic corridors and the standard circle boss fight arena. Its all just kind of... eh.

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They actually get a small thumbs up from me there, because of the vent in A4. I mean, that's a faction of what they needed to do to make it feel like I was inside a Primal and fighting with him while dealing with whatever boss there was, but it's also the best encounter, at least from a map standpoint, that they've created since they decided Rivenroad was too good for us... Well, T9 probably still beats it just for the sheer spectacle of that encounter, but T9 was still just a boring circle in the end, made somewhat disappointing by the fact that it started out as Rivenroad minus the stairs... That vent got me so bloody excited the first time, shame they wasted it on dealing with some pos add...

The appearance of Alexander itself isnt the major problem. Its the raid itself which make this primal even more boring and unimpressive. Any primal, no matter if Ifrit or Bahamut are nicely designed and very interesting because of their mechanics and presentation. Remember the beautifull lightning-effects when Ramuh appears? Or the stunning rock-theme from Shiva? Or the Landslide/Bomb/Add-Phase in Titan Ex?

What do we have for Alexander?
Alexander just move a bit out of his lake and thats it. There is no threat at all, because he dont move any further. He just sit there and think: "What a wonderfull day! Hey... those small ants are looking interesting. Maybe its a good idea to let them in.". You fight a primal? No! You fight goblins, toothpaste and Faust. Alexander itself seems not to care about anything.

Binding Coil of Bahamut. Bahamut was trapped, sealed away, broke free, destroyed Eorzea and vanished. But you learned, that you have stop Bahamut to rise again. Otherwise, Eorzea is doomed. Damn, you will even fight against Bahamut itself and that was awesome! Hell, T12 and T13 were my personal highlights! Beautifull designed and extremely fun to play.


Alexander Gordias is boring and uninspired.

I remember when they first told us we'd be exploring inside of Alexander for the next raid, I imagined a giant, Gothic castle—perhaps something like Ishgard, as someone else mentioned, with moving chambers and golems, clockworks, and other "arcana" for defenses.

Instead, we got a comic relief villain made even sillier by the bizarre decision to localize them as the Illuminati—at least the Order of the Blue Hand or whatever it is doesn't pull it's name from what amounts to a pop culture reference, even if it's not particularly threatening.

*sigh* There's just so much wasted potential here.

You can rely on the forums to be filled with negativity :D

Anyhow, I personally really like the steampunkish theme of Alexander, it's only a shame we didn't get to explore more of its inside! I loved how everything was sortof askew in A1 and A2, made it feel more like you're inside the Alexander that you see outside.

I like this Alexander better

From Final Fantasy Type-0

My favorite Alexander:
http://www.fact.co.uk/media/585502/howls.jpg

No seriously, he's just a crossover between the worst-looking giant Mecha ever and Howl's Moving Castle.
I apprechiate that I got the core and shut that thing down before it could ruin more of that beautiful landscape in Sharlayan.

My favourite Alexander is 9's version
My least favourite is 13's...even though I'm a 13 fanboy...Alex there looks vile.

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Originally Posted by Averax

I like this Alexander better

From Final Fantasy Type-0

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Never seen this one before but this is how you make alexander dramatic and epic.

Big mistake in FF14 is to not show what alexander is capable of in a cut scene, but just tell us in text. Bahamut in 14 is epic not because its Bahamut, but because we saw, through cutscenes, what he is capable of.

Alexander's look in XIV is okay. Not as good as IX's version but a decent iteration nonetheless.

The problem, as others have mentioned, is how he's been presented so far. The image of him halfway out of the river with both hands on the ground is how he should've appeared, followed by a small display of his power. That way he looks more imposing despite being inactive. Right now he looks like he's clinging on for dear life trying not to drown.

Forgot the story for Alexander.
But is he sentient in this game? From what I remember and correct me if I'm wrong, the goblins just made a giant fortress for themselves that's named after a series mainstay primal.

I dunno about Alex being self aware. I guess you could say he's fundamentally no different to a wind up minion, except he relies on aether to function.

I prefer Type-0's Alexander. :(

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Originally Posted by Averax

I like this Alexander better

From Final Fantasy Type-0

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yeah, got beaten to it

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Originally Posted by Yasuhiro

words

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They didn't make it they summoned it and live in it believing it will destroy everything but keep them safe and not harm them. I am pretty sure Alexander is self aware its just because he isn't full strength yet so most likely his awareness isn't as high.