Lackluster Graphics in FFXIV

[Onidemon]

To all those who think FFXIV's graphics are on par with TERA online ... you must be smoking some good stuff while playing FFXIV.... TERA's graphics are gorgeous... and while FFXIV could be just as pretty or even better, well currently they are not. It lacks the level of detail TERA has and which bring the whole world to life and make you say wow! FFXIV feels so like it was made in less then a yr period.... which makes one asks the question... wtf happened during these 5 yrs??!

[Machazareel]

To all those who think FFXIV's graphics are on par with TERA online ... you must be smoking some good stuff while playing FFXIV.... TERA's graphics are gorgeous... and while FFXIV could be just as pretty or even better, well currently they are not. It lacks the level of detail TERA has and which bring the whole world to life and make you say wow! FFXIV feels so like it was made in less then a yr period.... which makes one asks the question... wtf happened during these 5 yrs??!

I'll have to kinda agree with this as well. When I first played TERA I was awed by how absolutely gorgeous the environments were. I haven't had that sensation with FF14 at all. The zones are extremely bland, and near everything in a region looks the same. Zones in TERA have a lot of little details floating around that really add to the impression. (flocks of birds flying in the distance, beautiful waterfalls etc). The game also runs a lot better than XIV does, thanks to actually having a properly pc-optimised engine. I'll won't be playing it more until it releases in the EU, though. Playing an MMO where everything is in another language is bothersome, and even though there is a crude english patch for the client, it's done with google translate or something, and seeing my class trainer with the title of Master of Four Prostitutes was kind of an immersion breaker.
FF14 has fantastic character models, though, and mob models. I expected that of course, since imo FFXI had some of the best character models in the MMO industry up until the release of 14.

edit: It's just a shame that so many of these great mob models are of standard wildlife. Killing scores of stuff like Coblyns and Marmots and such is so silly, and very unheroic. At level 1 in TERA I was fighting against big, menacing treants, at level 10 I had my a first boss fight against a mob around the size of XI's Fafnir.