Where did the booty go…?

[Alahra]

Were the butts destroyed in the calamity or something?

Basically, yes:

http://forum.square-enix.com/ffxiv/t...50#post1377850

Hello,
Lead designer Takeo Suzuki here.

We understand that you all care deeply for the detail and shape of your characters, and while the development team is really happy about this, we would like to keep the specifications for character’s butts as they are.

I’d like to explain a bit about why we changed the shape of character model’s butts. It all began when Yoshi-P and the character team sat down and reconsidered what should be prioritized for players when we moved from 1.0 to A Realm Reborn.

• Based on this discussion it was decided to place emphasis on the below:
• New races (male Miqo’te, female Highlanders, and female Roegadyn.)
• Increase the amount of content and the amount of reward items (equipment and weapons)
  (We want to make a team that can create more than four times the amount of rewards compared to what there was originally.)

As a result of thinking about what could be done to fulfill the above objectives all while converting everything over and optimizing all the data by completely remaking the graphics engine, we decided to reduce the cost by simplifying items that were too complex when making them. One aspect of this was the graphical display of waist equipment.

I deeply apologize for those of you who were really partial to what Miqo’tes looked like in 1.0, but this decision was made so we could relaunch with new races and a lot of new equipment. We will be implementing a wide variety of really cool looking equipment moving forward, and we appreciate your understanding on this.

I would love to have the older models back or at least something approximating them. But I don't know if it's something we'll ever see.