Anyone Else Feel, That the World is Too Pretty?

[Seig345]

As far as Mor'Dhona goes, if you go to Mor'Dhona, and look at the map, you'll see we can't even access more than half the area. It used to be you could run all the way around the lake where Midgardsormr's remains are still wrapped around the wreckage of the imperial flagship, but now you can only see it past the southern border of the current available area, and only when the 'weather' allows you to see through the area's very extreme visual effects that seem to be caused by the disrupted Aether.

It used to be you could walk from Thanalan straight into Mor'Dhona, and while you still can, i've noticed you have to do so using a bridge built by the Empire. Whatever landscaping that bridge crosses over didn't used to be there. You simply walked through a pass from Thanalan into Mor'Dhona, no giant gaping pit.

[Enkidoh]

For a planet ravaged by a global calamity? It's only been what, five years since Bahamut laid waste to the world?

Anyone else think it should be more like The World of Ruin from FFVI? Or, at least have zones that conjure that imagery.

The world is amazing, but I get the feeling I'm in a post apocalyptic world, minus the apocalypse. We're not really shown the devastation. We're not shown how it affected people, just told through occasional dialogue, but you wouldn't really know it from the day to day life of these people.

I dunno, I can get past this minor gripe, but it seems like a dropped ball. Hopefully we'll get new zones/content that display the effects of the calamity more closely, so we can get a feel for the impact it had.

Actually the devastation caused by Dalamud's fall and the rampage of Bahamut was not as widespread as you would think, it was far more localized, as it didn't actually affect the whole planet of Hydaelyn physically, but just Eorzea (specifically the Aldenard continent and the island of Vlybrand) - this is shown right at the start for a new character where the player is basically regarded as unaware the Calamity had even happened by other npcs because they're evidently just arrived from another country outside Eorzea.

And the effect it had on the general population is still being felt five years later - you just have to look at the refugee camps surrounding Ul'dah to see just how many people were left homeless and destitute (and a cutscene during the main storyline actually references how hard life is in the aftermath of the Calamity).

There's also plenty of areas shown where the land is obviously damaged and warped by the Calamity, especially areas where the aether released during it has erupted out of the land, breaking the very land apart and then cooling into surreal shapes (the Burning Wall area near Highbridge in Eastern Thanalan and pretty much most of Mor Dhona is a case in point).

Not to mention the Black Shroud is totally different to how it was pre-Calamity - the Shroud was so named because the forest canopy was so think it bathed the forest floor in perpetual shadow - that's no longer the case, especially in the North Shroud where most of the trees are still burnt and their foilage brown from the firestorm that raged through it.

There is plenty of examples of the result of the devastation found and mentioned during the game, you just have to actually read what's being said during quests and actually look at the landscape to see it.

[PapesseLudovique]

snipped (good lord who designed this forums?!?)

Interesting. Thank you for sharing.

[Airget]

Well the damage is known if you played 1.0, for one the destructive force was so devastating to Coerthas that it changed a once green land, to one of a colder/winter climate. The connected points to Gridania and Coerthas show off a very ravaged piece of territory that is pretty much on the border of their homeland. The enemy forces made their camp in the uldah area that was ravaged by the calamity, the connecting areas between ulda/mor dhona are very much lacking life, very dead dark zone.

So the sights of the destructive force are there, for the rest of the areas, they repaired, rebuilt, if I'm not mistaken it has been 5yrs since the calamity and honestly in 5yrs time it's easy to recover.

Think of natural disasters that have occurred irl, and how much time it took them to recover. A lot can be repaired in 5yrs time.

[PapesseLudovique]

Well the damage is known if you played 1.0, for one the destructive force was so devastating to Coerthas that it changed a once green land, to one of a colder/winter climate. The connected points to Gridania and Coerthas show off a very ravaged piece of territory that is pretty much on the border of their homeland. The enemy forces made their camp in the uldah area that was ravaged by the calamity, the connecting areas between ulda/mor dhona are very much lacking life, very dead dark zone.

So the sights of the destructive force are there, for the rest of the areas, they repaired, rebuilt, if I'm not mistaken it has been 5yrs since the calamity and honestly in 5yrs time it's easy to recover.

Think of natural disasters that have occurred irl, and how much time it took them to recover. A lot can be repaired in 5yrs time.

Perhaps, but that doesn't really have the same emotional impact.

[Seig345]

Perhaps, but that doesn't really have the same emotional impact.

Then your complaint is that the game puts you down 5 years after the calamity, and not 5 months. 5 years was plenty of time for the continent to have recovered to the point it has.

In FFVI, god statues were pushed out of alignment, tearing continents apart and ruining the world's balance of life. in FFXIV, one elder dragon attacked. He didn't tear it up, and he didn't come down to destroy the continent, he was imprisoned, and therefore reasonably pissed off, and took it out on anything near by before going wherever he went for that Coil thing; he didn't take a giant elder primal plow and dig up every inch of the continent.

They didn't have to radically change the entire world's layout for 2.0, just explain some of the necessary changes. Gridania's been considerably changed in its layout. Just look at Old Gridania; there's several pathways now filled with rubble. The CNJ and Btn guilds, along with the amphitheater, all used to be accessed by paths that led off from the northwest corner of the city. now the theatre is practically in the center, and the CNJ and Btn guilds have been moved considerably southward.

In fact, the entire Black Shroud area is one giant gaping wound. The fact that you can see the sky at all is a sign of a huge change. It was called The Black Shroud because you were under 100% canopy within the entirity of the wood's borders. When Dalamud was nearing and the imperial airships were buzzing about, you could only hear the noise above, otherwise everything actually looked the same. You could hardly even tell if it was night or day. Gridania was the only place you could see the sky, since there were clearings enough for there to be a gap in the canopy. Limsa and Ul'dah are actual structures, which can be rebuilt or repaired. Trees, not so much, even with the aether, as made evident by the current state of the shroud.

[Arrak]

For a planet ravaged by a global calamity? It's only been what, five years since Bahamut laid waste to the world?

Bahamut's Coil cutscenes. A bunch of aether was forced into the world when Dalamud fell... which was believed to be Bahamut losing his physical form and reverting to aether. But...

[waycool]

It may be only five years, but that's Eorzea time. Do we have any idea on on how long a year on Hydaelyn is?

[Sephirah]

It may be only five years, but that's Eorzea time. Do we have any idea on on how long a year on Hydaelyn is?

Just going off the bithdays of characters, there are 6 astral/umbral moons in a year, so 12 months. And months in character creation are normal 30-31 day months. Of course, no clue how much actual time passes in these months.

[PapesseLudovique]

It may be only five years, but that's Eorzea time. Do we have any idea on on how long a year on Hydaelyn is?

Yes. The same length as ours. 12 months with the exact number of days as Earth.