Is it just me, or did FFXI have better animations for cutscenes?

[LineageRazor]

FFXI cutscenes were pretty wretched at the start, but later on they became amazing. Some of the battle cutscenes in Rhapsodies of Vana'diel in particular, but Wings of the Goddess had some great ones, as well. The comment above about your character becoming more "involved" isn't a bad point, but I don't think that's what accounts for the improvement. ALL characters, NPC and PC alike were given better animations. I chalk it up to the staff simply getting a whole lot better at what they were doing. Practice makes perfect, after all!

That said, it's kinda tough to compare the epic cutscenes in FFXI to the cutscenes here, because the cutscenes here rarely have to do with anything, well, EPIC. By and large, the vast majority are just conversations. Not much opportunity to show off animation skills when folks are just standing around talking. Pretty much all of the epic battle scenes are actual instanced battles, not cutscenes. On the rare occasions when they DO do battle cutscenes, such as the fight against the Sahagin where Yugiri and Thancred got to show off, it wasn't bad at all, imo.

[Xlantaa]

They need better animations for normal stuff too, not only the cutscenes. Most battle animations are OK, and the battle is quick so doesn't matter. But, the other animations are just... meh. EVERY action uses the same animation (potion animation for all item used), running is robotic, most the emotes are robotic too (with exceptions like dances and that), run, actions, jump and all are very basic. I like the 1.X animations like run and that. They should bring it back. This were more natural. Also add more variety. No se the item animation for everything.

I prefer a complete rework on animations much more than improve graphics.

[Gramul]

I'd say XI had better cinematography for the most part. But the Hildebrand cutscenes are a strong step above the rest.

Now the early 1.0 XIV cutscenes where fantastic. Especially the unused Titan one.

[NaesakiAshwell]

I feel like as time goes on the animations will be improved anyway but there is still one thing holding it all back.

Now I'm probably going to get get slammed for saying it but I think part of the problem is the limitations of the PS3 version, but at the same time they can't just halt support, it needs to be phased out gradually ideally by the time 4.0 comes around at the earliest.

I am genuinely curious what percentage of the player-base is on each platform, I'm going to go out on a limb and assume the majority of the PS3 players are the Japanese demographic since they are taking to the PS4 more slowly than the west has.

Now before any one accuses me of hating, this isn't about PS3 players being bad or anything like that, far from it (The platform doesn't make the player bad, a bad player is a bad player regardless of it), I think they are being denied the greater experience that the PS4 and PC version can provide while in the same boat those versions are being denied a lot of things simply because of the PS3 version.

I think SE offered incentives before for people to upgrade from the PS3 to the PS4 version? I reckon if they want to entice more PS3 users to upgrade to PS4 they are gonna have to offer bundles and maybe a cheaper sub for X amount of time for choosing to spend a good chunk of money on a new console.

[Warlyx]

nothing beats COP 1-1

https://youtu.be/xkMChPk84uo?t=88

[SpookyGhost]

I always thought it was funny that they used these really weird Gary's Mod-esque facial animations in the Hildibrand cutscenes, but I could kind of forgive those since they were meant to be wacky zany xD xD xD

But then they started using it in actual cutscenes...

[Jynx]

XIV certainly has better animation it's not really a question but man at least in 1.0 my character looked a little more alive during cutscenes.

[dinnertime]

1.x had good cutscenes even on minor sidequests from, for example, DoH classes but here, the minor cutscenes are these same angles and motions every time, and I don't think the things happening necessarily need to have one in the first place.





At least most of the MSQ cutscenes and Hildebrand quests are high quality though.

[Nici]

I pretty much feel the same as most people in this thread...we want more from our character to do and interact/participate in action cut scenes instead of side character NPCs do the cool stuff (I'm looking at you thancred and your cool battle with the warrior of darkness).

It's good to have discussions like this on all aspects of the game, its why i like coming to the forums, but the only way we can get SE and YoshiP and his team to hear us is to be more vocal on stuff like this, next time they take questions for an upcoming Live Letter let them know!