Eorzea feels like a world with no teeth.

[chococo]

I love how you guys compare a game with 8+ expansions to a game thats been out 5 months without any lmfao gotta love the forums...

well it's the structure and ideology behind the game. Having more expansions isn't suddenly going to change the game's direction. If they do, it means they've acknowledged it is a mistake now.

[Toranja]

I say we unleash a horde of tonberries out into the wild.

Those stabbing psychopaths will set things right.

[BlueMage]

Eorzea feels like a world with no teeth.

I agree. Eorzea needs a Sarlacc.

[ToraFomalhaut]

I agree. Eorzea needs a Sarlacc.

Throw in a few free roaming Graboids and Eorzea would be a world I'd be scared to explore.

[BlueMage]

Throw in a few free roaming Graboids and Eorzea would be a world I'd be scared to explore.

Been to Forgotten Springs lately?

[Arkghyom]

Scary! I don't want to go there!

[ToraFomalhaut]

Been to Forgotten Springs lately?

Yes and I squished them like bugs, very disappointing. Not once was I sucked under the sand and into the jaws of a fearsome beast, like the FFXI antilons in Altepa would do before bursting out and raining terror upon you via their countless drone spawn.

[Whiz]

well it's the structure and ideology behind the game. Having more expansions isn't suddenly going to change the game's direction. If they do, it means they've acknowledged it is a mistake now.

I was referring to world size. A lot of posters are comparing it to the FF11 world but its a world with 8 expansions vs 14 w/o any. that was my point.

[Andrik]

I was referring to world size. A lot of posters are comparing it to the FF11 world but its a world with 8 expansions vs 14 w/o any. that was my point.

I think they were referring to individual zones, rather than the world as a whole. La Theine, Rolanberry, Beaucedine, massive zones that were in FFXI from launch.

For me, however, what I miss most is how some of the dungeons were intertwined with the outside zones. A few examples:

- Eldieme Necropolis and Batallia Downs, in particular the tiny island in the sea. I loved going there, even though there was little reason to.
- Quicksand Caves and Western Altepa; getting to the heart of that dungeon really felt like an adventure.
- The different entrances to Pso'Xja, each with a different level cap, each serving a completely different purpose.
- Temple of Uggalepih/Rancor Den and Yhoator Jungle; probably my favourite area of any RPG I've ever played.
- King Arthro's spawn area in Jugner Forest.
- Horutoto Ruins/Toraimarai Canal/Sarutabaruta

All these things made the world feel more complex and "alive", for want of a better word. All things that FFXIV can never replicate, as long as Yoshi insists on all dungeons being instanced.

[Enkidoh]

As I said before, FFXI's zone size is simply an illusion created by making player characters run very slow by default - because you're running so slow, of course it's going to take longer to get from one side of the zone to the other, and hence artificially make it seem larger than it really is. All ARR has done is take off those blinders, and thus show a zone for what it truly is. Compare maps of say, East Sarutabaruta with the Central Shroud, both starting areas. They're pretty much the same size.

And before you pass judgement, many of those zones you mentioned weren't even in FFXI from launch - they were only added in expansions years after the game was first launched. Hence it's unfair to compare FFXI's eleven years' worth of content and related zones with ARR, a game which has barely been out for more than four months. Compare it with FFXI at launch (I mean, the Japanese original launch, not the US launch which came with the first expansion), and things would be very different.