Making Elite Marks Look More Unique?

[Surian]

What's wrong with having them just be bigger?

It's not like it's suddenly a whole new species. It's a specimen of that particular species that has grown bigger, stronger and more vile over the years and therefor has to be put down.

Girtab is still just a mite, even though he's supposedly the strongest of the mites and therefor was named.
Sabotender Bailarina has to be put down because it has grown a flower and turns other cactuals into a frenzy around it.
Myradrosh has grown so big it started feeding on anything with a red color (i.e. anything that bleeds) and not just red flowers.

A lot of the monsters already are not just bigger but have something unique to them, as small (read: realistic) as it may be.

It makes absolutely zero sense that you have a group of monster species that we're going to call A, and suddenly one monster of that species has 20 horns sticking out of him, bright blue colors and flames, just to give an over the top example because it has to somehow be more unique.

I think the developers did a great job keeping it true to the game and it's lore. There's a crab with a Giant's helmet on his back that he's using as his shell, bigger and more notorious specimens of existing monsters and even some bandits and beastmen that were so out of control that they had to be put on the list and there's even one albino squirrel. Nothing out of the realm of possibilities. They might be minor alterations from regular monsters, but i'd much prefer what they did over having them be rediculous.

[zeth07]

What's wrong with having them just be bigger?

A lot of the monsters already are not just bigger but have something unique to them, as small (read: realistic) as it may be.

It makes absolutely zero sense that you have a group of monster species that we're going to call A, and suddenly one monster of that species has 20 horns sticking out of him, bright blue colors and flames, just to give an over the top example because it has to somehow be more unique.

They might be minor alterations from regular monsters, but i'd much prefer what they did over having them be rediculous.

And yet there are in fact examples of that being true as stated.....

And like I said, it doesn't have to be some ridiculous changes, just something as simple as a palette swap to make them stand out instead of "it's just bigger", which I find boring for what are supposed to be rare/special monsters.

[Tupsi]

It makes absolutely zero sense that you have a group of monster species that we're going to call A, and suddenly one monster of that species has 20 horns sticking out of him, bright blue colors and flames, just to give an over the top example because it has to somehow be more unique.

That's the funny thing about VIDEO GAMES and a FANTASY WORLD, especially when Square Enix has already proven it to make sense otherwise in their other FF MMORPG - Even when you compare real life, it's called Mutations and different species. Did you know? "In real life" there's hundreds if not thousands of species of spiders and mites and a 'Notorious' one could actually be a different specie thus look differently or was something enhanced through being alive from x era to today? Notice how in today, things evolved to be differently to adapt to the change world, what if the notorious monsters were simply alive for thousands of years and came out of hiding? They would look different than their cousins of 'today.' That's some of the lore they used in XI to explain why Bugards in Abyssea time line have more horns than bugards in our timeline.

I mean, obviously I can go into my local forest and run into Chimeras, right?

Yes, but the Experimental Lamia you're refering to was man made and altered, therefor diffirent. they really tend to stay close to their own lore and dont do (a lot) of things that would be impossible in their fantasy world.

Yes, that's my point though...

They have the ability to make them look differently.

[Tiggy]

That's the funny thing about VIDEO GAMES and a FANTASY WORLD, especially when Square Enix has already proven it to make sense otherwise in their other FF MMORPG - Even when you compare real life, it's called Mutations and different species. Did you know? "In real life" there's hundreds if not thousands of species of spiders and mites and a 'Notorious' one could actually be a different specie thus look differently or was something enhanced through being alive from x era to today?

Just saying video games and fantasy world don't excuse foregoing common sense in defining a believable world with a believable lore. It is not free reign to do whatever you want. Especially considering the amount of effort square puts into making a believable and consistent fantasy world.

Also, in real life mutations of course happen, but rarely does a creature mutate beyond recognition and even then they generally will not survive long enough (if it was even born alive at all) to become "notorious". Even assuming your suggestion that it could be a different species it's rather unlikely that a physically large animal species will suddenly appear that didn't live in the area previous. It would need to be brought from somewhere else and introduced to the environment. These creatures are far to large to stow away on a ship so how do you propose this happened?

The primary time the game allowed for this kind of change was right after the cataclysm. That time has passed, and it isn't very reasonable to do this kind of thing anymore.

[Taruranto]

I think the developers did a great job keeping it true to the game and it's lore.

We kill Ifrit by casting fire on it.