Stuff I Miss From 1.0

[Alhanelem]

I don't know how people could love the old animations so much. They don't feel "beautiful" or "crisp"- they felt clunky and clumsy, like my character was going to trip over his own shoelaces. The current animations are far better than any of the 1.0 fanatics will give credit for.

[Chezen]

* Actually traveling by boat from Thanalan to LimLom and not by cutscene.

Ooo I nearly forgot. I REALLY miss the cutscene walking onto the elevator.

I was also surprised that the cutscene of when you first get your chocobo didn't survive, when it was even requested back into the game. I really liked that scene.

[Gramul]

Coerthas
Yoshida's absolutely freaking gorgeous art direction for characters and armor.
A reserved and natural tone that wasn't the terrible grit and bloom most "realistic" fantasy worlds have these days.
A sense of momentum and weight to animations.
Coerthas
Wasn't obsessed with being just fanbait and more with its own lore and world.
Coerthas
Open world caves and dungeon like places.
Free way to get in and out of LL.

Why did you completely destroy Coerthas?
It was my favorite thing about the game. And you killed it.
Nothing remains of its beauty. You scorched it and covered it in endless snow. Now it's a generic ice land. Why did you do it?

But I like most of the other changes. Especially the variety in world design.


Oh. And belts. I miss being able to choose my own belts. But that's a tiny thing.

Nostalgia is a hell of a drug.

Don't feed me dismissive nonsense.
I was playing it not more than a year ago. I can pretty clearly remember what it was like.

[Recycler]

Why did you completely destroy Coerthas?
It was my favorite thing about the game. And you killed it.
Nothing remains of its beauty. You scorched it and covered it in endless snow. Now it's a generic ice land. Why did you do it?

So much this

[Virtuso]

Awwe yeah that first ride with your personal chocobo cutscene was awesome. I miss Mor Dhona and how it used to be. Before it was pure terror manifest. Simply the idea of going there filled you with dread and all the while there no matter how powerful your character was, one wrong turn could be the end for you. It also felt massive with plenty of twists and turns to get lost in. And invading the imperials base there was an epic adventure in and of itself. A real nightmare to traverse. It was really special before. Now....it's just any other zone....cramped and safe. *sigh*

[Fensfield]

Ah that reminds me..

Obviously missing the belts aside, one of the other things I miss?

The bridges.

Yes, I know the vast majority of them were there to cover up v1.0's reliance on streaming from the HDD, but all the same crossing those huge bridges into the cities - not to mention Gryphon Crossing in Coerthas - just felt.. epic, for want of a better word. And I miss just being able to hang out on them. In the late stages of v1.2x they added the ability to teleport past the bridges connecting Gridania and Limsa Lominsa to the field areas if you wanted, not to mention Ul'dah's tunnels, so crossing them wasn't mandatory. Removing them just feels.. sad. Most people don't even know Gridania connects to the central shroud by a bridge - the only way you see it is by getting yourself into a fiddly angle to look up at it from the lakeside below.

Worst of all though? Because of all this it's now obvious we're never going to get to walk the path between Coerthas and Ishgard when that city is eventually opened. I was looking forward to doing that from the very first time I saw the Gates of Judgement, but.. now they've made it very clear just being able to enjoy stuff like those crossings is never going to be part of their design philosophy.

[Gramul]

Ah that reminds me..

Obviously missing the belts aside, one of the other things I miss?

The bridges.

I could go on for hours about everything I loved and everything I miss about that place. The massive bridges are a big part of them. Also, the trees, the music, sense of danger, the green, the distant mountains hidden behind mist.

The most beautiful depiction of Eastern European mountains I've ever been able to explore.

[Enkidoh]

I have to chuckle at everyone requesting the old Coerthas when all it was was a mostly empty copy and pasted version of Konschat Highlands from FFXI (right down to the windmills and stone circles!).

Like all the zones in 1.0, it looked good at first, but once you spent just ten minutes running through it, the textures started to noticeably repeat - seeing the same rocky outcrop, the same tree model, the same patch of grass, got on the nerves. It made points of interest stand out because everything else was so samey - they looked like they didn't belong (and most such 'points' were just there deliberately to break up the monotony - having no story/gameplay connection at all, like the white willow tree that was in the Black Shroud (and seems to have disappeared in ARR).

Also looking at the map the old wooden bridge entrance to Gridania seems to have been abandoned - the Blue Otter Gate just links directly into the Central Shroud and bypasses the old route (presumably because of all the damage the area took during the Calamity).

However, there are a lot of things I do miss from 1.0, but they're just little things that I can live without, things like:

some of the original soundtrack (but I have the soundtrack album so I can listen to that anytime I want
the old GUI graphic style (but not the lack of functionality it had )
the original scenario (especially the Path of the Twelve story, and the related Path Companions)
some of the missing abilities from 1.0 like the GLA's Red Lotus, Aegis Boon and Phalanx (I can only speculate that the later have been removed because they're planned to be added at higher levels/for new classes or Jobs.)

But I can live without these things as they're just icing on an already overly sweet cake.

[Gramul]

I have to chuckle at everyone requesting the old Coerthas

How kind. Thank you.

[darkstarpoet1]

i miss the original thm the way it was. i didn't mind them removing some of its abilities, but the problem was they made each class the job and then added the job system on top of it. for example a thm is now only a blm with nothing else it even remotely branches into, but it loses a bunch of it's damage ability when playing on the class because it's the same as the job.

the incap moves on mobs. the first time fighting the great buffalo and breaking the horn or knocking the head off the skele was awesome to see it visually happen.

the hunting notorious monsters and farming materials to make gear that is BiS when hq and then being able to use it and then sell it. it required all 3 disciples to get the BiS slot of gear instead of one facerolling dungeons to get unique untradeable bs gear.