One of this games larger unmentioned flaws: Sound Design

[Enur]

Having now tried several other mmo's (WoW, Guildwars 2, swtor, neverwinter and a few freemium games) i cant help but notice one thing they all have in common. Their sound is great. Now dont get me wrong, the music in ffxiv is amazing and the one soundrelated thing i have no problems with. But, and heres a very big but, everything from punching monster to getting gil feels incredibly weak.

UI Sounds

For the UI theres mostly standard beebs bloobs. No real complaint other than the gaining gil sound. In WoW, when i aquired a large amount of gold i could feel it. And it felt good. Very good. Almost addictingly good. While on the other hand in FFXIV when i get a huge amount of gil, be it from aquapolis to retainers, i feel nothing. I only see a number grow. And just seeing a number growing is boring, when i could feel the number growing.

Ability Sounds

This is were my biggest issue with the sound design is. Every single attack i have seen so far have been disappointing. As a monk i dont feel like im punching a dragon to the death. I feel like i am dancing behind it. My strikes have no weight behind them it sounds like, because animation wise, i am killing it with fortythousand fiery fists of fury. That just doesnt translate well when all i can hear is "slap, slap, slap poof". I believe that many newcomers also notice this consciously or unconsciously and move on. Without good sound in combat it just feels really boring.

Monster Sounds

For the various foes and fiends among Eorzea i think they all sound fairly generic. Its all the same screeches and roars. Boring, really.

For the humanoid foes there seem to be a trend going on with making all the voice acted foes have voice acting during combat. That worked really well for me in the vault as it gave the few members of the Heavensward a bit of personality. Were it didnt work for me was in the Praetorium and Aetherochemical Research facility. Gaius and Regula have voice acting during those fights but its way way way too low. I can barely hear it. Important fights could also do with a bit of "grunting" from the foes, to show that they also are getting tired and beaten.

Music

As i mentioned the music is awesome. Only real comment i got is that soken shouldnt use whatever human voice immitator he used in the Ultima weapon theme again. I like actual lyrics.

[HideoKojima]

I notice one of the background sound is amazing. During rain in North Shroud, when you enter some cave you can actually hear the rain sound different and i think this is amazing

[Rennies]

I wish we could turn off ally voice sounds without turning off the sounds of their skills/the voices of the enemy.. I don't wanna hear the same high pitched grunts every gcd. I didn't even know about Nidhogg's awesome voice til I watched a video of the fight- I've had voices turned off since my first dungeon.

[ADVSS]

I wish we could turn off ally voice sounds without turning off the sounds of their skills/the voices of the enemy.. I don't wanna hear the same high pitched grunts every gcd. I didn't even know about Nidhogg's awesome voice til I watched a video of the fight- I've had voices turned off since my first dungeon.

Usually used to alot of miquotes going "woop" with arrow twang noises,
but one instance, i was paired with a full party of male hyurs, and i swear i had DBZ going on in the games background lol

also theres this one male voice(mi'qote?) thats like "nnnnya-hah" and it reminds me of those goats from diablo everytime

[Rennies]

Yeah, the player voices totally ruin my mood. I don't understand how in the world they were approved.

[natyusha]

fyi there are separate volume sliders for the player, party members and other players.

[Marxam]

I wish we could turn off ally voice sounds without turning off the sounds of their skills/the voices of the enemy.. I don't wanna hear the same high pitched grunts every gcd. I didn't even know about Nidhogg's awesome voice til I watched a video of the fight- I've had voices turned off since my first dungeon.

imagine if this was a old school japanese game where they grunt every time you swing your sword. The only sound design that is my real complaint is the lack of VO in the bulk of the game. I feel a real disconnect when all I get is silent text from an npc who is trying to convey emotion or dread.

"Hear. Feel. Think?" More like "Read. Feel. Think."

[ADVSS]

imagine if this was a old school japanese game where they grunt every time you swing your sword. The only sound design that is my real complaint is the lack of VO in the bulk of the game. I feel a real disconnect when all I get is silent text from an npc who is trying to convey emotion or dread.

"Hear. Feel. Think?" More like "Read. Feel. Think."

i only jest about the player sounds, i actually love how all skills have a very unique sound to them, like for instance when im tanking i can hear the healer pop cleric so i know when to pop a cooldown in case, stuff like this, or when raging strikes goes off on a dps i know to pick up a little extra enmity, the sound design for skills is amazingly well thought up, even if they just shoved the same sounds from 1.0 like chaos thrust, but seriously, i love it, i just find the player grunts hillarious is all. And who can hate the skrillex wubs of gravity when an AST is dpsing? "drop the tank!" wub wub wub wub

[Alberel]

Strange, of all the MMOs I've played FFXIV actually has bar far the best sound design. The world always feels alive and combat sound effects have a lot of impact behind them. I still marvel at how authentic the explosion sound effects are for fireballs and such.

[ADVSS]

Strange, of all the MMOs I've played FFXIV actually has bar far the best sound design. The world always feels alive and combat sound effects have a lot of impact behind them. I still marvel at how authentic the explosion sound effects are for fireballs and such.

youd be sick of them if 2.1 black mage flare rotation was still allowed, i think my friend got sick of me saying "you guys seeing this?! 6 FLARES!" god i miss counting 6 seconds to flare forever, btw he was a tank LMAO