Ffxiv's Zones Looks Extremely Bad and Outdated

[Thaciscokidd]

At the digital can fest Yoshi said it was something in development but no details beyond that. I got the impression that it wasn't far along and it would be a few years.

https://gamingbolt.com/final-fantasy...engine-someday

The way its worded maybe the next Xpac after Endwalker.

[Vyrerus]

If we're being real real, I'm more nostalgic for Ultima Online. Neither 14 nor WoW hold first love status for me, and we're always "the other woman" in my eyes. Even then, there were few areas in UO that I would sit around in. Hell, there are zones in ESO I'll just afk in for hours over a 14 zone. I'll watch the npcs, the ambient wildlife mobs do their thing. Observe the day and night cycle as the world twirls around. FFXIV reminds me too much of the Korean MMOs I played in high school with fields of mobs to grind on, nothing more. Besides ARR zones, of course.

So the aforementioned WoW Zone then. Then also, few still equates to some.

I'd find the mob farm analogue accurate if we spent time grinding in the overworld over every other thing. I suppose Fates can be grinded for hours, but that was never my jam. Though the little stories in each Fate do make the zones feel more lively.

Though you're making me think of Lufaise Meadows from FFXI. There was a lake, lagoon, Lieremieu Lagoon or something like that. I think that was the name, anyway, it's been a long time. Either way, a few times in a game day a little dragon would dart down over the lake, and touch the water like it was a kingfisher, and then zoom away. FFXIV really could benefit from stuff like that, but I don't think the overworld will ever be the dev focus. It took until Heavensward to get constantly looping zone music... before that long stretches of silence in ARR zones, sigh.

[Kozh]

It must have been a while since you've really looked at the ARR zones. Go wandering around Ul'Dah, there are a bunch of doors that are roped off that have the "No Entry" sign on them. And, frankly, that's not a bad thing. Just because you exist in a world doesn't mean you're entitled to ever every building and home. You could be seeing places people live, and being the warrior of light doesn't give you a pass to just walk right into their home. The fact that we can't ever everyone's homes is MORE immersive to me than if we could since it's more realistic.

Yeah yeah, you can't enter buildings in cities. But outside of it? You can access most of buildings in settlements. And yes, not able to enter any of it is a bad thing.

First, this is a mmorpg where RP is common, and not everyone RP as the WoL. Buildings being accessible gives more freedom for RP purpose.

Second, being able to see npc inside their home helps more with the world building. For example, they can show us a family sitting around the fireplace, or grieving a dead family member laid on the bed, to set up the mood. Now every npc has to be outside of the building, which means usually they are standing alone looking dumb.

Just because it's realistic doesn't mean it will be good for a video game.

[Jeeqbit]

Not outdated at all.

You had to try really hard to find that one. It's a picture of an area we didn't used to be able to see or fly to because there was not any flying before, so of course when going back and adding flying the textures would be rushed.

[Crowzer]

I don't think WoW and FF14 can be visually compared, but here are some screens that I did :

Some FF14 zones :














WoW zones Shadowlands (I haven't played WoW for months) :

You had to try really hard to find that one. It's a picture of an area we didn't used to be able to see or fly to because there was not any flying before, so of course when going back and adding flying the textures would be rushed.

Try hard what ? Just TP to Middle La Noscea.
But agree with you on the 2nd sentence because indeed, we were not supposed to fly here at first. But devs could have been work a bit.

Edit. No need to fly actually :

[ReynTime]

Yeah yeah, you can't enter buildings in cities. But outside of it? You can access most of buildings in settlements. And yes, not able to enter any of it is a bad thing.

First, this is a mmorpg where RP is common, and not everyone RP as the WoL. Buildings being accessible gives more freedom for RP purpose.

Second, being able to see npc inside their home helps more with the world building. For example, they can show us a family sitting around the fireplace, or grieving a dead family member laid on the bed, to set up the mood. Now every npc has to be outside of the building, which means usually they are standing alone looking dumb.

Just because it's realistic doesn't mean it will be good for a video game.

Never forget how in the Othard region absolutely none of the eastern style settlements with exception of one Namazu house have any interior design.

[MoofiaBossVal]

FFXIV has too many things going against it for me to consider the zones to be good looking.

• Abysmal anti-aliasing.

• Finnicky lighting. Stuff looks bad at night or in shadow. Stuff only looks decent during the day time and if you use /gpose spotlights.

• Most importantly, FFXIV's general environment art design isn't as appealing as WoW's.

When I played FFXIV, I took very few screenshots of the environment. The only decent looking zones in FFXIV are Ul'dah, Western Coerthas (at night, contrasting the vast white snow against the black starry sky), Kugane, Ruby Sea (mainly the underwater sections), and the Peaks (when looking up at the floating salt pillars), the Ala Mhigo garden, and the Tempest. You also need to be using reshade.

Contrast that with WoW. The game is insanely beautiful. It'd be easier for me to list zones that don't look very beautiful. WoW's zones are also much, much more imaginative than FFXIV's. You have Vash'jr, an underwater zone with a sunken city. You have Deepholm, a vast underground cavern zone. You have Suramar, a vast city city. Outland, a fractured planet. Argus, another fractured planet with huge jaw dropping backgrounds. Bastion, a land of beautiful floating islands (FFXIV's Sea of Clouds and Churning Mists look pretty ugly in comparison). Zangramarsh, a fungal/mushroom forest. The Wandering Isle, a country riding on the back of a giant turtle (which also has the Wood of Staves, a forest made of the staves of monks who passed away). Shadowmoon Valley, a beautiful valley covered with beautiful clouds and a huge moon hanging in the sky.

Another thing about WoW's zones I have to praise is that they look fantastic without performance hit. The one, single exception is the zone city of Suramar (probably due to the sheer, absolutely ludicrous amount of foliage in the city).

[Krotoan]

FFXIV has areas that feel like actual locations though. They're not these super busy cartoon worlds like other MMO's.. Now while that's "boring" to some.. it makes the world actually feel like a real place to me. When I'm out doing things it feels like I'm traversing a world, not bouncing from scene to scene. The bleak areas are very bleak and cold and empty. All of Ishgard and it's surrounding areas made me feel like I needed warmer clothes.


It's really all personal taste though... and yeah.. it could use some texture updating, but lots of the old world suffers from hardware at the time's limitations. It had to be playable.

So I'll agree it's showing its age, but.. "extremely bad".. naw. Still looks leagues better than some of the stuff that's brand new.

[Payadopa]

I agree with the zones being boring and lifeless. They do look pretty, tho.

[DPZ2]

Contrast that with WoW. The game is insanely beautiful.

The link was interesting. Brings to mind the works of Thomas Kinkade. If that's your aesthetic, then more power to you.

Personally, I find this game's aesthetics to be beautiful as well.

Your assessment is personal, as is my own. Valid up to the point where the art team for this game can choose to ignore either in favor of what they plan to do in the future, rather than recreating a game aesthetic you might appreciate more.