Why is Square Enix reusing the Forgiven Manatrigger AGAIN?

[Ultimatecalibur]

Gunbreaker unfortunately has a lot of shared models aka reskins already.

The Lakeland Manatrigger is a reskin of the Doman Iron Gunblade and the Coven Gunblade
Nabaath Manatrigger is a reskin of Molybdenum Gunblade
Gunblade of the Crimson Lotus is a reskin of the Ruby Tide Gunblade
The Deepgold Gunblade is a reskin of the Ghost Barque Gunblade
The Highsteel Gunblade is a reskin with the Padjali Gunblade

There are a lot of unique weapons, to be fair, and I think all of the Lakeland and Nabaath weapons were reskins, not just for gunbreaker. I think it's just more noticeable for gunbreaker because there are so few weapons for them in general.

To be fair, all those models were reskins/recolors for everybody else, many were multiple times over.

• Aery -> level 64 Crafted -> Lakeland
• Gubal Library -> Ghost Barque -> Deepgold
• Baldur -> lvl 60 ilvl 270 Crafted -> level 68 Crafted -> Naabath
• Ruby Tide -> Crimson Lotus (new model at StB release)
• "Grab bag" -> Bardam's Meddle
• i170 Tomestone -> Doma Castle
• Castrum Abania -> Fae

The Padjali and Kinna weapons were a grab bag of random reskins at release. The Empyrean weapons were all reskins of the High Allagan weapons save for SAM and RDM which reskinned the Horde weapons.

Only new weapon models added during ShB leveling were:

• Level 74 - Crafted "Bluespirit"
• Level 75 - "Ravelkeeper's"
• Level 78 - Crafted "Dwarven"
• Level 79 - "Forgiven"

I have nothing against recolors really and get why they do them from developing point (and they do recolors along with other jobs anyway so it's not surprising to have them), but using the same one in 3 consecutive patches.... makes me feel like we'll see 4th in 5.3. Why not using another model? There are some decent along with Mt. Gulg.

The Forgiven weapon was reused for the Gunbreaker's TEA "Ultimate" weapon (the Dancer's Ultimate was a reskin of the Shire Glaives) due to lacking a 4.X relic. The rest of the 5.2 crafted weapons are likely also going to be reskins of the Forgiven weapons. So the question is which other model would you have reskinned for TEA? The other 3 "unique" leveling models (Ravelkeeper, Dwarven and Bluespirit) wouldn't have fit in very well with the rest of the TEA weapons. The only real choices they had were the Forgiven and Shire models.

[SummonerSenah]

To be fair, all those models were reskins/recolors for everybody else, many were multiple times over.

• Aery -> level 64 Crafted -> Lakeland
• Gubal Library -> Ghost Barque -> Deepgold
• Baldur -> lvl 60 ilvl 270 Crafted -> level 68 Crafted -> Naabath
• Ruby Tide -> Crimson Lotus (new model at StB release)
• "Grab bag" -> Bardam's Meddle
• i170 Tomestone -> Doma Castle
• Castrum Abania -> Fae

Right, but the thing is; Aery, and Gubal were from Heavensward, the level 64s were in Stormblood, and the Lakeland weapons were in Shadowbringers, ie the reskins for other jobs happened over 3 expansions. So those reskins were WAY more spread out compared to gunbreaker, where, because GNB was only added this expansion, every reskin was in Shadowbringers.

To me, that's more what the issue is than the reskins. And honestly they dye differently so it's not even a huge dealbreaker, but SE should know that reusing models is a lot more obvious when it's over such a short period.

[Iscah]

Right, but the thing is; Aery, and Gubal were from Heavensward, the level 64s were in Stormblood, and the Lakeland weapons were in Shadowbringers, ie the reskins for other jobs happened over 3 expansions. So those reskins were WAY more spread out compared to gunbreaker, where, because GNB was only added this expansion, every reskin was in Shadowbringers.

For the Forgiven Manatrigger, yes, all the reuses are in Shadowbringers. The class didn't exist before that, but its weapons need to be added in to pre-existing sets that share models with new sets, so of course multiple versions of the same manatrigger designs are going to be added in keeping with the other sets.

For the longer list that SummonerSenah made and Ultimatecalibur responded to, they're "all in Shadowbringers" only because gunbreaker was added in Shadowbringers, so a number of Stormblood-era weapons have been added retroactively.

Let's take the Castrum/Fae models for an example. The paladin sword from Castrum was added in Stormblood. The sword from Dohn Mheg was added in Shadowbringers. The model was reused once.

Meanwhile, both gunbreaker models were added in Shadowbringers, because they inherently had to be. The model has still only been reused once.

And the Forgiven weapons.... if we assume all the crafted weapons are reusing those models, then all the models will have been reused once. The manatrigger will have been reused twice, ie. one more time than any other models have been reused. And at whatever future point they recycle the entire set of weapons again, the manatrigger will still have only been used one more time compared to every other weapon in the set.

If anything, since we now have Shinryu weapons incoming, it looks like they are working on it over time, and they just made sure they had the more gameplay-important leveling and tome weapons in place first.

[Halivel]

So the question is which other model would you have reskinned for TEA? The other 3 "unique" leveling models (Ravelkeeper, Dwarven and Bluespirit) wouldn't have fit in very well with the rest of the TEA weapons. The only real choices they had were the Forgiven and Shire models.

Welp, there are 60-70 leveling weapons, too. If it was me, I would look at 65th level gunblade actually. It has a nice thin model, that could fit not bad with steampunk theme. Or the Shire one same as for DNC.

[WhyAmIHere]

Welp, there are 60-70 leveling weapons, too. If it was me, I would look at 65th level gunblade actually. It has a nice thin model, that could fit not bad with steampunk theme. Or the Shire one same as for DNC.

That model, iirc, is reused for the Sigmascape-tier tome weapons.

[Halivel]

That model, iirc, is reused for the Sigmascape-tier tome weapons.

I guess you mean Ryuumaku set. I checked, they're different. But actually 65th lvl one shares model with 62th lvl "white" weapon (which I didn't notice earlier tbh).

[WhyAmIHere]

I guess you mean Ryuumaku set. I checked, they're different. But actually 65th lvl one shares model with 62th lvl "white" weapon (which I didn't notice earlier tbh).

I suppose.

The thing i've thought to justify the reuse, other than for TEA models, is "had GNB/DNC been implemented with RDM/SAM/DRK/AST/MCH, would that model have been reused at the same time anyways?" Like, every job gets weapons from dohn mheg that're reskinned of castrum abania. Every weapon from Ala Mhigo is a recolor of the Shisui weapons, etc etc. In that context then it makes sense for the models to be reused.

Still it's lazy when you consider No UwU/UCoB/ARR primals/HW Trials/SB Trials (sans ShinEX)/Alexander raid weapons/Delta and Sigmascape weapons/Lost Allagan weapons...
Huh. I'm sure there's more that I'm missing, like I don't recall if GNB/DNC got the Ala Mhigan weapons (what're now bought via centurio seals next to the hunt board in rhalgr's, for example, and whose armor models get reused with job swapped palettes in malikah's well... but i digress), but when you spell it all out like that... it's quite a lot. Designing, redesigning, modeling, texturing, testing, reredesigning, eventually implementing; all whilst other things need that same workflow.
Not playing devil's advocate here but In light of that, yeah, it shows SE did drop the ball quite with DNC/GNB weapons (TEA being, imo, the most egregious), but that it makes sense as to why they did.