[Dev Request] Samurai Armor in Kugane

[Ramesses]

Ahhh... allow me to explain:

Let’s be factual, the Genji Oyorori of Fending, Genji Jin-Baori of Maiming and even the Dai-Ryumyaku Jufuku Fending were already excellently designed symmetrically to stay true to the lore of the game and the ideals of the Genji Samurai gear for the Final Fantasy series. Since these are the main three styles of the traditional Samurai attire, the Devs did a great job in capturing their look—with the tank “clunky” version rightly being the one that adhered to the aesthetics the most because the Genji style denotes heavy armour. The healer and caster version are simply variants of it.

The Genji one for Samurai therefore had to look more stylized to make it unique from the others while also giving a blatant nod to the Edo ceremonial style. The current “cloth” style for the Samurai AF is also intentionally done as such because it is supposed to exhibit the style of the late Edo period. It is no coincidence that the elaborate “swirls” on the Samurai AF gear are also captured on the breastplate of the Genji Samurai breastplate. So at least give the conceptual art team some credit for trying very hard
to deliver a job very well done.

I would venture a guess and say perhaps it is not to your liking because Samurai is your (main?) and you particularly wanted a “symmetrical” traditional SAM armour to don your character with. I recommend getting the Stormblood: Art of the Revolution artbook and reading some of the Dev teams’ very illuminating, heartfelt comments (pages 304 to 311) on their design philosophies. The process of how they develop armours… fantastic insight.

[Edax]

Ahhh... allow me to explain:

Let’s be factual, the Genji Oyorori of Fending, Genji Jin-Baori of Maiming and even the Dai-Ryumyaku Jufuku Fending were already excellently designed symmetrically to stay true to the lore of the game and the ideals of the Genji Samurai gear for the Final Fantasy series. Since these are the main three styles of the traditional Samurai attire, the Devs did a great job in capturing their look—with the tank “clunky” version rightly being the one that adhered to the aesthetics the most because the Genji style denotes heavy armour. The healer and caster version are simply variants of it.

The Genji one for Samurai therefore had to look more stylized to make it unique from the others while also giving a blatant nod to the Edo ceremonial style. The current “cloth” style for the Samurai AF is also intentionally done as such because it is supposed to exhibit the style of the late Edo period. It is no coincidence that the elaborate “swirls” on the Samurai AF gear are also captured on the breastplate of the Genji Samurai breastplate. So at least give the conceptual art team some credit for trying very hard
to deliver a job very well done.

I would venture a guess and say perhaps it is not to your liking because Samurai is your (main?) and you particularly wanted a “symmetrical” traditional SAM armour to don your character with. I recommend getting the Stormblood: Art of the Revolution artbook and reading some of the Dev teams’ very illuminating, heartfelt comments (pages 304 to 311) on their design philosophies. The process of how they develop armours… fantastic insight.

I have mixed feelings about the Genji Jin-Baori of Maiming. On the one hand, it looks marvelous when my character or retainer is standing up.


The problem is that the Dragoon fights with the knees bent, so the bottom 1/3 of the armor smears and warps so horrendously. I dearly wish my Samurai could wear this instead. The Samurai in-game don't bend their knees when in combat stance so this kind of armor warping wouldn't be happening on this particular set.

The key problem I think is that we're not spoiled for choice. The Samurai class has so few sets of distinctive Hinganish armor to wear, with only one proper non-glam set.
I've seen lots of Samurai armor, and I think I know what the developer was going for, but I still think the in-game version is way overdone. Most Samurai armor, if it was asymmetrical, was only subtly so. I guess it's fine giving one set a Final Fantasy flavor, but Samurai don't exactly get a choice on which set of Samurai armor they get to wear because of the armor restrictions.