New GNB sounds, why?

[Wistfulwaffle]

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I think this is a case of romanticizing what we don’t have anymore. By no means were the old sounds perfect. It was very soft and didn’t have the same impact as other FF games featuring a gunblade. The explosions are more in line with FF8 now, or did you have a problem with that, too? Tbh, the new Dissidia absolutely nails the gunblade sound and I hope the dev team for xiv takes some notes. Your other points seem a little melodramatic. isn’t adding to the explosion, by definition, giving it more oomph? It’s not like the animations changed. The momentum is the same. Feeling like the entire role is ruined because of minimal changes just seems a little silly.

[firedrake]

I think this is a case of romanticizing what we don’t have anymore. By no means were the old sounds perfect. It was very soft and didn’t have the same impact as other FF games featuring a gunblade. The explosions are more in line with FF8 now, or did you have a problem with that, too? Tbh, the new Dissidia absolutely nails the gunblade sound and I hope the dev team for xiv takes some notes. Your other points seem a little melodramatic. isn’t adding to the explosion, by definition, giving it more oomph? It’s not like the animations changed. The momentum is the same. Feeling like the entire role is ruined because of minimal changes just seems a little silly.

I can see how to some people it might seem silly to have something like sound effects influence whether or not one plays a job, but I assure you that it matters a lot to some of us. I can only speak for myself, but I have posted in most of the GNB sound effect threads and expressed my opinion that this singular change in the sound design almost completely turned me off from playing the job, which is something that I had been hyped about since the original reveal. I'm only playing it now because I find the mechanics fun, and I'm confident that they will revert the sounds. If they don't I may just drop it entirely, which is a shame because leveling the job was easily one of the things I was the most hyped to do.

I don't have much experience with FF8. It was honestly the one FF that I haven't found enjoyable enough to play through so I can't comment on the SFX from there. Dissidia I haven't really played either, but I have watched videos and played the demo. I've heard the gunblade sounds in that and they honestly are pretty good. That being said though, I disagree that the original sounds were soft and lacking impact. More specifically, I don't think that the change they implemented made the sounds harder or more impactful. Now our main combo sounds like we are hitting a cardboard box with a bat instead of slashing our mechanical sword through enemies. And they completely removed the trigger/gunshot sound as well, leaving the whole combo just a series of thuds. Our other combo turned into nothing but a series of explosions that drown out the slashing, especially in group play. What's even worse to me is that these two combos have entirely different sounds for when our sword hits something. One is a thud, the other still retains the slash. It's not even consistent between abilities which just hurts the feel of the job even more.

This is starting to sound a bit ranty so I'm going to wrap it up. Bottom line is that the feeling of a job is important and audio plays a big part of that feeling for some of us.

[Valic]

I think this is a case of romanticizing what we don’t have anymore. By no means were the old sounds perfect. It was very soft and didn’t have the same impact as other FF games featuring a gunblade. The explosions are more in line with FF8 now, or did you have a problem with that, too? Tbh, the new Dissidia absolutely nails the gunblade sound and I hope the dev team for xiv takes some notes. Your other points seem a little melodramatic. isn’t adding to the explosion, by definition, giving it more oomph? It’s not like the animations changed. The momentum is the same. Feeling like the entire role is ruined because of minimal changes just seems a little silly.

It's more like, imagine if every skill was a "Fell Cleave". Your "Fell Cleave" no longer gives you the "oomph" because every other skill in your rotation is the same feeling as is. It's apart of the portion of your job that should feel rewarding and satisfying... when you take that away, what's the point in having the aesthetic if its not going to provide the unique satisfaction the job provides? You play WAR for those fell cleaves that feel like you're shredding into something. You play BLM for those mass explosions you get after building up your mana again. You play jobs for a specific mechanic or aesthetic and they in turn provide you a certain joy for playing them. Gunbreaker.... mechanically works but aesthetically as far as sounds work, it doesn't flow like it originally did and it throws me very off. A job can be flashy as hell but this is prolly the best example I can give you.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7_cDT5_Vmdc

I don't have much experience with FF8. It was honestly the one FF that I haven't found enjoyable enough to play through so I can't comment on the SFX from there. Dissidia I haven't really played either, but I have watched videos and played the demo.

AMEN TO EVERY BIT OF YOUR POST. And also just to quote and answer in this... FF8 being the only FF I played prior to FF14, as well as Dissidia... I feel as though the original sounds were a better depiction than what we have now as an FF8 fan. Fan or not even, a good sound that's unique and matches the identity of the job (fast paced, fluid combos, still bursty feeling) works.... You shouldn't have to match the past 100%, and FFXIV always references its ideas to other FF's, but it never 100% outright copies every single exact detail, it adds some form of twist in one way or another. I'm sure there's smaller scale details you can say it has copied absolutely perfect, but as far as jobs go at least, there is no need to mae an exact replica of something that already exists. Or otherwise.... just play the thing it comes from. FF8's explosions are nice, but I disagree they're as loud as what we have now. How do I now? Mute a video and play our current GNB sound for one of Squall's normal attacks + the explosion. It doesn't fit.. it doesn't match, and it doesn't have to, it just has to fit the job. I didn't have a single complaint about the job being an absolute gunblade fanatic so... I guess my point here is, fan of where it references from or not, FF14 prides itself in making what it is with the universe it exists in. DRK doesn't use a spear like Cecil, RDM uses a rapier and a thingamabob, and SMN doesn't bring out gigantic summons... It's okay to reference it without it being the exact same job. Dissidia was nice but... that's DISSIDIA. So... if I wanted dissidia, I'll go play it. FF8 is nice too, not the best FF but I loved it... but if I wanted everything exact from it, I'd go play it.

frankly... I was beyond hyped every skill is named exactly as all the limit breaks from FF8 and every skill from each gunblade user. It made its identity feel unique and allow you to be the general gunblade user people have wanted. I'm also ranting at this point... So.... yeah... Sound is definitely a BIG part of a game's immersive experience, even just the experience itself.

[Wistfulwaffle]

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Sound being the reason for dropping a class just seems incredibly shallow to me. A class that mechanically flows together and provides a decent pay off are the most important aspects. Everything else is secondary. I disagree about 14 having better sound effects. It was passable at best, but again, it’s not something I pay attention to in a majority of content. We don’t need the exact same sounds as other renditions, but it’s okay to take some inspiration. In the end, this is all subjective, but all I’m trying to get at is to enjoy the class for what it is and move on. I’m confident we’ll get a fix at some point.

[Vahlnir]

Sound being the reason for dropping a class just seems incredibly shallow to me. A class that mechanically flows together and provides a decent pay off are the most important aspects. Everything else is secondary. I disagree about 14 having better sound effects. It was passable at best, but again, it’s not something I pay attention to in a majority of content. We don’t need the exact same sounds as other renditions, but it’s okay to take some inspiration. In the end, this is all subjective, but all I’m trying to get at is to enjoy the class for what it is and move on. I’m confident we’ll get a fix at some point.

Yeah, it wasn't a deal breaker for me. Would I like to have the old sounds back? Of course. But the new ones aren't exactly horrible either imo. I actually like how the explosions sound now more than the old ones.

[Valic]

Yeah, it wasn't a deal breaker for me. Would I like to have the old sounds back? Of course. But the new ones aren't exactly horrible either imo. I actually like how the explosions sound now more than the old ones.

They kinda are horrible though. They sound very muffled and overdone. I'm sorry but on a class I was enjoying slashing and feeling swift, I don't like feeling clunky and loud af. Was kinda the main take away from this tank not being the typical "I'm a big meaty, armored beast" idea.

Unfortunately, I'm very passionate about game immersion and sound is a 3rd at least to me. It'd be like if you played CoD and out of no where they decided to make every gun sound like a soft pillow punch when shot (that was actually why I took back Black Ops back in the day). It just kinda ruins the feel of the gameplay at that point for me. While I know some won't get it because its prolly just a job they can easily give up, this was something I put my heart into and gave up my DRK after they dumbed it down because gunbreaker was the next coolest job and close to my heart being an FF8 fan. Then they had to bother it and I'm just kinda tired of them fking with my favorite jobs at this point. Mechanically or aesthetically, I'm just kinda sick of the feel being ruined for jobs I had fun with how they were. I didn't run into this problem much into SB because Red Mage was fine as it was released, DRK was enjoyable, NIN only got better, DRG too. ShB kinda changed a bit much for me, and the fact I felt GNB was perfect and now they changed it to become this was is a bit of a punch in the gut "to me". Again, I'm sorry if people look down or consider this shallow, but you take pieces off of something that someone loves, it's not welcome when other people made the decision for you on something you had no issues with to begin with.

Its actually rather infuriating.