Thematic issues. Why all the sci fi.

[Zakuyia]

I feel like allot of you never played ff before this is a culture shock....Final Fantasy is a science fantasy series, It blends sci-fi and fantasy together. o. o so this is perfectly align with the ff brand narrative also its more science leaning than high fantasy.... so yeah alexandrea and solution 9 fit perfectly in the world of ff14

[Wasselin]

I feel like allot of you never played ff before this is a culture shock....Final Fantasy is a science fantasy series, It blends sci-fi and fantasy together. o. o so this is perfectly align with the ff brand narrative also its more science leaning than high fantasy.... so yeah alexandrea and solution 9 fit perfectly in the world of ff14

I've played a lot of FF and I'm not sure I agree. This is starting to become kind of incongruent. What we had before Endwalker was more in line with how technology and fantasy are usually presented.

I feel like they need to introduce some reason as to why the technology of Solution Nine can't or wouldn't be exported to the rest of the world.

[TheDustyOne]

While Final Fantasy has always had this mixture of futuristic sci-fi and medieval fantasy, I feel like with XIV in particular, the elements that got introduced over time have felt more jarring than anything else.

We've always had Garlemald and Allagan tech, with Garlemald in particular using their tech to manipulate aether to overcome their natural inability to manipulate it themselves. This felt more in-line with the tone and feel of the early releases where it was more an infusion of tech and magic for something more steampunk (magicpunk?), very much similar to what VI did. Allagan, while much more high-tech, was always something of an "unknown", its something that couldn't be replicated easily, and as such outside of Allagan ruins or Cids workshops, you didn't get much in the way of Allagan tech running everything in Eorzeas day-to-day life. The average thing you'd see technology wise wasn't much different from something you'd find during the renaissance period with a little magic-based steampunk thrown in. At worst, Omega felt out of place during Stormblood, but I can forgive that with knowing the backstory behind the dragons and Omega.

Fast-forward to Endwalker and now we suddenly have intergalactic space-ships that can travel to the edge of the universe in the blink of an eye and a moon colony of rabbits that throw rave parties. I don't think that can easily justified with "but FF8!". FF may have always done a mixture of sci-fi and fantasy, but it usually felt appropriate in their respective games outside 1 or 2 of them, here it just feels like a tonal mis-match once we get to Endwalker.

Personally, I think XIV does best when it handles more mythical and fantastic elements anyway.

[genuine_stranger]

I feel like allot of you never played ff before this is a culture shock....Final Fantasy is a science fantasy series, It blends sci-fi and fantasy together. o. o so this is perfectly align with the ff brand narrative also its more science leaning than high fantasy.... so yeah alexandrea and solution 9 fit perfectly in the world of ff14

Nah, I’ve played plenty of Final Fantasy games.
Most of the time, the technology has more of a fantasypunk or steampunk aesthetic, which thematically fits with what we saw in ARR through Shadowbringers.

Even in other FF titles, the most advanced tech usually fits within a Mhachi or Allagan-style design, rather than outright modern sci-fi.

FF8, the FF13 series, and FF15 (plus parts of FF7) are the outliers in the series, which lean much more into modern aesthetics and sci-fi.

[Ath192]

It blends sci-fi and fantasy together.

I don't think its blending as much as it is pouring oil and water in this game TBH.

[Azurarok]

3-4 numbered titles isn't exactly a small chunk. I think it's pretty all right to bring it over to a game that's filled with references to all sorts of games across the series.

[Ardeth]

I'm of two minds on this. I don't mind the magitech and the hints of sci-fi, but the aesthetic they've chosen is horrendous. Before, it was some glowy bits on a robe. Now it's techwear. Which for those that like it cool beans, but for me, it's ugly as sin. But again, I'm not mad at the players who like that. All I'm saying is I want my fantasy and less Cyberpunk.

[MikkoAkure]

I don’t feel that was the game that was sold to me when I bought it.

ARR's raids had us going into Allagan spaceships and parts of a fallen satellite filled with robots and the 1.0 trailer featured dragons fighting giant airships that were shooting them down with full-on 20th century machine gun fire so the anachronistic levels of technology have been here since before the original iteration of the game even launched. The infamous ARR MSQ dungeons have control rooms with giant computer screens, wrist-mounted radios, electronic jamming, and a fight with a giant robot in a sleek elevator.

The original art director for 1.0 was the same that did FFXII which also has airship dogfights with machine guns alongside knights with bows and chocoback so it's not a surprise. Anachronism has been a key aesthetic of the Final Fantasy series for decades.


I'm also not sure what your OP is about in regards to the three starter cities because most of the whole world is just as medieval as they are. The only contemporary technological societies are the Garleans and the Alexandrians and one of them has only just teleported into our world. Our nations are still adapting to sudden influx of technology from defecting Garlean engineers but we still have airships. Ul'dah has ceruleum derricks and refineries, and Limsa has guns, cannons, and ceruleum-powered pirate ships.

Everyone who isn't the Garleans doesn't need super high-tech to fight them anyway. When the average peasant can augment their strength with aether, let alone adventurers running around flinging fireballs and augmenting arrows to pierce through Garlean chestplates, technological research is going to be slow. Especially in a realm full of city-states that did not even have strong diplomatic ties with each other until 5 years ago. Technological progress requires necessity and communication and the Garleans and the Alexandrians are the real outliers here.

[genuine_stranger]

Amusingly, when the first screenshots of Solution 9 came up, people thought it was going to be FF8 themed instead because parts of it looked like it was lifted straight out of Eshtar.

Yeah, I also thought it would be related to FF8.

Though, it's been a pretty long time since I've played the FF series, so my memory is hazy on stories and names, and they all tend to blend together.

I've been on a quest to replay the whole series, but stopped after finishing FF4 about six months ago.

I really should get back onto it.

[Ath192]

ARR's raids had us going into Allagan spaceships

Anything Allagan isn't what's being argued against mostly. It is well blended and it feels more like ancient magical tech than star trek. You could tell they thought about how the Allagan technology and derived magitek would fit into the world.

It's the recent introduction of pop culture scifi and minimalism that doesn't blend well into the games aesthetic. When you walked into Azys La it the theme was clearly lost ancient technology and both you as a person and your character were in awe and wonder of what was introduced, likewise it looked much more retro-futuristic.

Now a days you're literally walking into trashy cyberpunk with shien streetwear and if you listen close enough you can probably hear the NPCs hollering at you YO YO YO WASSA HOLMES, YA GOT SOME ECSTACY ON YOU? all while they breakdance and drink fourlokos. I wonder if some people literally can't tell the difference. Like maybe an Allagan orb really is the same aesthetic as a harley davidson chopper or a DJI style drone to them.




I bet were a few patches away from the /reuseneedle emote. Sold separately of course.