Casting and spell animations...lackluster?

[Peregrine]

Added dev tag to discussion. Got to use them, especially on the few areas we all agree on.

[Xquiel]

agreee!!! FFXI's effects are better than FFXIV!!! please fix this =/

[Hotohori]

I'm sorry but I would have to disagree on skills being too lackluster because there are many skills that improve graphically when going up to their tier II or III versions. Higher level skills in general have better animations for people to enjoy. (Simian Trash, Wide Volley II, Rage of Halone, Maim, Chaos Thrust, etc) The number of skills per combat class are simply too many to expect a special animation for each and every one. Just wait for more tier III, IV, and V skills to come and people will forget how weak tier I versions appeared. Skills without a know higher tier version are all pretty unique and fancy already. Light slash, Light strike and other base attack skill have an amazing 4-5 different animations which can occur which is better than I expected at least.

As for the lack of variety in casting animations there are currently 56 different poses in FFXIV while FFXI only had 42. Every class (Gladiator, Pugilist, Lancer, Marauder, Archer, Conjurer and Thaumaturge) in FFXIV has a different animation for casting magic as does each race/gender (8). In FFXI, the cast animations were only for the different types of magic (White, Black, Blue, Summoning, Ninjutsu and Song) and races/gender (7). So as long as more classes are released, you can expect to see more casting stances to go with them.

[Akumu]

I'm sorry but I would have to disagree on skills being too lackluster because there are many skills that improve graphically when going up to their tier II or III versions. Higher level skills in general have better animations for people to enjoy. (Simian Trash, Wide Volley II, Rage of Halone, Maim, Chaos Thrust, etc) The number of skills per combat class are simply too many to expect a special animation for each and every one. Just wait for more tier III, IV, and V skills to come and people will forget how weak tier I versions appeared. Skills without a know higher tier version are all pretty unique and fancy already. Light slash, Light strike and other base attack skill have an amazing 4-5 different animations which can occur which is better than I expected at least.

As for the lack of variety in casting animations there are currently 56 different poses in FFXIV while FFXI only had 42. Every class (Gladiator, Pugilist, Lancer, Marauder, Archer, Conjurer and Thaumaturge) in FFXIV has a different animation for casting magic as does each race/gender (8). In FFXI, the cast animations were only for the different types of magic (White, Black, Blue, Summoning, Ninjutsu and Song) and races/gender (7). So as long as more classes are released, you can expect to see more casting stances to go with them.

I could care less about the animations/stances/poses... The actual visual spell(or weaponskill) effect is really terrible for a game that prides itself on detail. Stone I+(and other spells) on XI had more impact than the spells on XIV currently. I haven't seen one spell that made me go WOW! or EPIC! yet... I would even settle for a thats cool! I don't want to just copy/paste the spells from XI but hell that would be an improvement.

edit:

[Peregrine]

It's Flare. FLARE. The one flare. The only flare. FF Flare. Second-only-to-meteor flare.
I'm okay with Fire I and II looking *okay* but come on now. If Telah cast half of these ancient magics do you know how much crap he'd be given by the team?

[RahJah]

I agree. The spells need to be more intense/rich in their audio and visual qualities. It would make casting jobs much more attractive.

[Silent]

I agree completely with this post. The battle animations are very boring, and a lot of them are not even very noticeable. If they made them more flashy, and colorful, along with bigger astounding animations then it would instantly make the battle system feel a little better. I can't wait to see what they do.

[Hotohori]

It's Flare. FLARE. The one flare. The only flare. FF Flare. Second-only-to-meteor flare.
I'm okay with Fire I and II looking *okay* but come on now. If Telah cast half of these ancient magics do you know how much crap he'd be given by the team?

Again there is a Flare II already in the .dat files. As for amazing weaponskill animations, was there any in FFXI that were amazing pre-50? The .dat shows that FFXIV has skills prepared for up to rank 100 and we are only looking at the tier I to II versions of the skills at best when already evidence of tier III, IV and V yet to be seen.

[Kiroh]

Again there is a Flare II already in the .dat files. As for amazing weaponskill animations, was there any in FFXI that were amazing pre-50?

Penta Thrust was pre-50 in XI, and it was pretty effing cool. But frankly even Raging Fists (late 30s for MNK iirc) was way better looking than the majority of skills in XIV. Power Slash was like level 10, and it looks better than most skills I've seen in XIV. Earth Crusher, Seraph Strike, Tachi: Hobaku; Jinpu and Koki, Viper Bite, Freezebite, Starburst, Sunburst, Gust Slash, Cyclone, Sturmwind, Circle Blade, all of those skils had better graphic effects and all (except perhaps koki, can't remember exactly the level on that one) were pre-50.

Also, Flare 1 in XI looks WAY better graphically than Flare 1 in XIV, no excuse for Ancient magic looking like barely recognizable pops on a monster and doing less damage than the tier 2 nukes.

[Akumu]

Again there is a Flare II already in the .dat files. As for amazing weaponskill animations, was there any in FFXI that were amazing pre-50? The .dat shows that FFXIV has skills prepared for up to rank 100 and we are only looking at the tier I to II versions of the skills at best when already evidence of tier III, IV and V yet to be seen.

In my opinion FFXI red lotus blade had more impact then the one in XIV... All the lower tier spells also had better effects compared to this one. One thing If nothing else SE had in FF games was good visual effects(especially with spells) and these are just very shocking to have dropped in quality.