Shocker

[eyloi]

People raided with that combat system?

[mouseno4]

People raided with that combat system?

I have to agree with you. The combat system in 1.0 looks HIDEOUS! I doubt i would get past the first DAY playing that, good cutscenes/graphics or not.

[BlazeChronic]

1.0 wasn't even that bad, I don't understand what all the fuss is about. Yes, at first, there were no chocobos. There was no real story. There were no NMs, and no end-game...

But the game was deep and gratifying, like FFXI. Things took effort, and when you leveled up, people actually congratulated you, because it was an accomplishment. (again, like in XI). The UI was terrible, sure. But I play a game for playing the game, not screwing around in the menus and complaining about it. The fatigue system was 'meh' ... I prefer a rested exp reward system over one that hurts the hardcores, I guess... I stayed up until the first patch that had NMs, and really I'm kicking myself in the arse that I didn't stay for 1.23.

I really like ARR, and I disagree with OP, as I think ARR really looks beautiful, and OP may just have an underperforming PC/GPU. But I do think 1.0 was more aesthetically pleasing. 1.0 and ARR are both leaps and bounds prettier than GW2 and SWToR, those are the only 2 MMOs I've played in the past few years. Better than Aion too, and WoW I've only seen videos but that game looks like a cartoon.

I have the highest possible graphics settings. The settings do NOT GO ANY HIGHER.

Buuut, you said it yourself, you didn't play 1.0. So you have no way of knowing. You just watched videos on the internet. Sorry I bruised your little internet ego.



EDIT @ Kiri: you can meme-laugh all you want. 1.0 took time and dedication, leves were useful, exp party grinding was a thing. This game is a joke for casuals, you can go 1-50 by pressing one button. Not deep. Not gratifying. And I'm not talking about getting pleveled in 1.0.

[Bossycow]

1.0 wasn't even that bad, I don't understand what all the fuss is about. Yes, at first, there were no chocobos. There was no real story. There were no NMs, and no end-game...

My problem is that the UI was SO bad in 1.0, that it got in the way of my gameplay! I felt I was very patient with the game, then after spending 15-20 minutes on figuring out how to repair a ring, I was like, "what am I doing still trying to play this game?!" I didn't feel "accomplished," I just felt like I wasted my time, when there's far easier and enjoyable and quicker ways to do the same tasks in other games.

As far as the topic, I actually was able to admire the landscaping MORE in ARR... I do admit I felt characters looked better in 1.0, but eh, it's not by much, and I'm not THAT picky. I still think the landscaping of this game looks really good!

[Psion]

People put way too much importance on graphics. The truth is, graphics mean diddly-squat. What matters isn't graphics, it's aesthetics. The latter is far more important to immersion. If the game has clashing styles, then no matter how detailed the models are, it won't look like anything but a very detailed pile of dung. This was in fact, 1.0's biggest failing with, as others have already pointed out, landscapes that were pretty much copy-pasted terrain everywhere. I remember finding a mesa in thanalan 1.0, finding you could go inside it, and going "oh, wow, this is neat". Then I saw another mesa 500 yalms away... that was exactly the same. and another. and another.


2.0 rectified this, BIG TIME. I remember Yoshi-p saying there would be around 3 major "points of interest" in each zone, but in reality, each zone i've gone through has had dozons, from the sylphlands, to urths font, to the wanderer's palace entrance, to the various hamlets, to the burning wall.... the list goes on and on. Honestly, even ffxi's zones don't hold a candle to ffxiv as far as diversity goes, although I doubt even 1.0's black shroud can hold a candle to the convolted pathways of the yuhtunga/yhoatar jungles.

Graphics only need to be sharp enough in a game for information to be conveyed in a clear manner, and considering we did just fine playing games like ffvi without issues, it doesn't take much to do so. Aesthetics are the true soul of a game, conveying it's story using art styles, and you can do so regardless of whether your game is ffxiv, or something low key graphics wise, such as Patapon.

[PSxpert2011]

Yup, the graphic was way better but at what price?

Tanaka was tough as nails when designing XIV(primarily for anti-RMT measures) and after heavy-critique and complaining, the system had gone through revisions and modifications but the graphics... damn! Even my PC (less than $1K worth) was having issues staying connected and crashing...

I adapted to alot of changes for the better but there wasn't any graphical tuning, you ether sucked it up of spend more on moding your PC. Then, there was the server instability, my gawds! Crash after crash will trying to learn the system... (sigh)

[Andrien]

1.0 and everything about it was a big pile of stinky copy pasted garbage.

[Lisotte]

The game undoubtedly did look pretty... but only if you had a supercomputer developed by NASA.

I do miss the font in 1.0 though; this new sci-fi stuff isn't as good, and detracts from the high fantasy atmosphere.

[Gramul]

I liked the lighting system better.
Dynamic systems always have this really heavy contrast like the light is always real close and the shadows are so blobby, no matter how high you put the resolution.

[amnie]

the only game I'd remotely compare graphics-wise is The Secret World, which you can't even completely compare either, because the style is just... different (naturally, it's set in the 'real world' while ARR is... well.. final fantasy)

I don't care if this game isn't as good as a current handheld game (though I call ** on that one)
this game will still look pretty 10 years from now simply because the STYLE they chose looks pretty.

you remind me of the people that don't play old FF games because they are waiting for a HD remake. ugh.

FFXI, while having an extremely dated graphics engine, still looks nice today because of the style they used which is identical to the one they used in this game.

*nods* exactly! while waiting for ARR to start I went back to XI to see what's up. granted I noticed the game looks 'older' these days, but I never felt that 'yuck' feeling you get when looking at other games that came out during that time. it definitely aged well - and I'm not concerned. though I don't really play MMOs for that, either. I've been playing SW:TOR for about 2 years now, and while I still strongly dislike the graphics style (the quality is much better with the latest released planets) I'm having immense fun. graphics really really really only plays a very minor part in my enjoyment of a game. and with that I'm going back to level-grinding in FFI :P