Akihiko Yoshida's influence comes through in some of the new gear.

[jazo]

hey cat girls, do your work and do cutesy eyes (like the ones of puss in boots) and ask for Bravely Default gear!!!!!

[Elim]

It's nice to see gear that isn't so... "busy". Lots of mmos suffer from random-doodads-and-baubles-syndrome when it comes to gear design.

[Inzoum]

Tactics Ogre Dragoon:



HW DRG set:

Aaah, so that's it!

That dragoon outfit seemed VERY familiar. Now I see it's actually a one-to-one copy of the Tactics Ogre design. The other designs have some similarities, but this one is definitely an intended replica. Square Enix have been nodding at a lot of their past works in ARR (heck, even Einhänder found its way in), however SE's only responsible for publishing Tactics Ogre: Let us Cling Together, which was developed by Quest.

[Lusavari]

Yeah, but Akahiko Yoshida still did the art for it. The Monk gear I posted is also a One to One replica, but it looks like this gear is dyable, thus, it's a base white rather than blue, like rogue. Archer is a bit more of a stretch, but I get the feeling we'll see Terror Knight and something similar to the male Fusilier. I think the male Fusilier may have been released in an earlier picture set.

However, this brings up another questions... Akahiko Yoshida (We really need a nickname for him to distinguish him from Yoshi-P) also did the art for Final Fantasy Tactics/FFT: War of the Lions. Will we possibly see some FFT/FFT:WotL gear as well? The outfits for Mystic, Thief, and Bard were all pretty nifty.

[Balipu]

Nomura is very "Anime-centric" with his designs as all his characters look almost the same or follow some anime sterotype. He's not bad but I do prefer Akihiko Yoshida or even Yoshitaka Amano due to their relative simplicity and subtle tones.

Yoshitaka Amano? Simplicity. Aaaaaahahahahahahahahaha. No.
Sorry, I don't want to offend, but Yoshitaka Amano's drawings are anything but simple. That's the very reason SE switched to Nomura for the 3D era. And say what you will of the man, but he designed some of the most iconic figures in Final Fantasy. If you type Final Fantasy into the google image search the results are almost exclusively characters designed by Nomura. However, his style is more modern than what would be apropriate for Ishgard.
But Akihiko Yoshida's style fits perfectly.

[Elazu]

Definitely SE's best artist.

[Zuhra]

gimmie that witch!

[Allistar]

Yeah. I'm quite a fan of these toned down looks.
A lot of the endgame gear now has so many details and baubles that they get lost among themselves.
Yoshida's an excelent designer. Always knows just where to stop and his designs are stronger in their simplicity. Easily recognizable while retaining a creative and fantastic flair.

I too love these toned down designs...I honestly felt that a lot of the gear we have now were more for flair and style rather than substance...especially the DRG gear. Bring on Mr. Yoshida's designs!!!

[Madsamurai]

Some of his more recent designs for a non-SE game





I love his stuff to bits. Bought every single artbook/Japanese game mags that has his stuff..
Come on just look at this painting by him man..dammit i need to look for this issue

[Lusavari]

That looks like concept art for Unsung Story since they recently got him on board for it. The Playdek copyright gives that away. Sadly since that's not a SQEX game, it's doubtful we'll see any armor/character designs from it make their way into FFXIV, though it would be nice to see a little something from it as a kind nod from SE promoting it.