Samurai armor

[Hartwin]

Hello forum community!

I have never posted in these forums before so I'm not sure if this is the right section for what I'm about to say. Forgive me my ignorance in these matters.

Wht I'd like to discuss is the aesthetics of samurai (SAM) armor, or lack thereof. I'm a samurai reenactor in real life and it peeves me to no end that FFXIV SAM doesn't have a decent looking armor, or more like there really is none.

Very few games out there have a samurai class and this is actually one of the reasons I play FFXIV. Adding actually samurai-looking armor to the game would make the job so much more unique looking compared to others (for example, DRG has a very unique looking armor style).

Historically, samurai is a heavy-armored fighter. They only started ditching it during the Edo period (around 17-19th century) when there was a relative peace. Perhaps the first SAM (lvl 70) job armour is designed after later perios? Kugane sure seems to resemble Edo.

I know that that Deltascape gear (Genji was it called?) is modelled after actual Japanese armor, but funny thing is, SAM one looks the least authentic. I think the best ones are DRG set which is probaby the most samurai-looking armour in the whole game and the tank set which resembles early samurai armor (Heian era and onwards).

I'm playing DRG atm to get the most "samurai-looking" glam. Since samurai mostly wielded spears on the battlefields, not katana (which was more like a side-arm) it's pretty belieable.

So what do you think SAM players out there? Does it bother you, or is it a non-issue? Am I just wishing something pointlessly specific? One could argue that samurai in clothing, which represents later periods, is repesenting SAM authentically as well (well, as far as authenticity can go in a fantasy game but let's not veer into that territory).

All opinions are welcome, of course!

Thank you for hearing me out.

[Kytrin]

I wouldn't mind some actual samurai looking armor either, but it'll be a while in coming I think. When Yoshi-P announced the job as a dps instead of a tank, he admitted that he was specifically going for the Edo period ronin a la Kenshin vs. the armor wearing badasses of previous eras. So that theme is very likely to continue for a while. Though we might get lucky and get some glam at some point that does give us that samurai in armor feel. We can only hope!

[Noitems]

The closest gear set I can imagine is the Kojin Armor set for ranking up the Kojin Beast Tribe in Stormblood.

[Iscah]

I'm playing DRG atm to get the most "samurai-looking" glam. Since samurai mostly wielded spears on the battlefields, not katana (which was more like a side-arm) it's pretty belieable.

That's interesting. I wonder if that was deliberate by the character designers - if they looked more at "what would a spear-wielding fighter be wearing in this setting" than strictly sticking to job titles. And/or by their usual design rules, the "heavy armour" designs need to go to tanks and DRG - so if that's what traditional samurai wore, that's the armour that goes to the heavy classes rather than 'light DPS' striking gear.

It's definitely the odd class out alongside monk and ninja (for shared designs) though, so it probably gets overlooked in favour of things that work for both those classes.

[VictorTheed]

Only heavy armor Sam outfit I can think of is the deltascape gear, you can preview and buy it in rhalgers reach, it costs item drops that drop from deltascape normal or Savage.

[Enkidoh]

Try mixing the Legacy Warrior's Mail with Iroha's FFXI gear and one of the Heavensturn helms as it's what I've set up as an 'armoured ronin' glam for my SAM (unfortunately Photobucket has gone to hell so I can't post an image of it sadly).

Also it's all past special event gear though so it might be hard to souce if it's not on the Mogstation.