Why are the opening movies not played ingame? (and other lore things)

[Dafire]

i was watching the opening movies today,and i was thinking, "why arent these played in-game when you reach a suitable point for the story",when i personally played through the 1-80 story,other than the ending credits for the .0 patches,you have no idea,if it's patch content,prepatch or when you're in the next expac,and i think the opening movies would do a great job of pacing WHAT content you are doing,if placed correctly,it's not even a hard implementation just tie the cinematic to one of the MSQuests, if you were a fan of the game,you'd be seeing them 3000 times over,since they are played in every convention and every promotional material(in this case the ShB one),but why isnt it played ingame???

As an addon to this issue,given how story focused the game is,that it has mandatory story progression,other than the opening movie issue,which is very good art that very few new players actually get to see,it would be a very nice touch to have the login screen/theme change as you progress in the expansions, currently it's either the ARR one if you have the free trial,or ShB one(since it includes all other expacs with the purchase), making not only the login screens art but also the music,be lost into obscurity

now,this would be acceptable for a regular mmo,but again with FF14 being so story focused,i think it would be a great touch if the login screen and theme,changed to reflect what your highest progression character has reached,meaning that new players will get to see and hear all of the login screens,while veterans experience no changes.

[RicaRuin]

Easy - they don't play the Opening Movies ingame because they are purely cinematic and don't really fit in with the story (see the weird Nidhogg-Hresvelgr Hybrid in Heavensward Opening). And sometimes, they are a mashup of different points in the story from a chronological point of view, hard to find a good fit.


The change to the Title Screen sounds nice though.

[DPZ2]

The title screen is an easy way to figure out the latest expansion you purchased. It isn't really a login screen, since that is still the standard Hydaelyn background.

The game doesn't actually "know" the highest level your characters have reached until after you leave the title screen, so I doubt it could be coded to show your progression.

[Iscah]

Most of the events shown in the trailers aren't chronologically within the story, and those that are have the generic "trailer WoL" standing in place of your individual character.

At best you'd have a few short fragments of the trailer being played in different places, and I think the shift in art style would be too jarring to be at all worth those few seconds of higher-definition video.

I'm also just not personally keen on how characters look in the trailers, for the most part. There's something off about their faces compared to their normal models.

[TinkerTech]

While you do have a good point of having difficulty denoting where one patch ends and another begins, the cinematics aren't the best way to delineate those. (See the above comments about who the Cinematics are less 'story exposition' and more 'here's all the cool stuff you'll get to see in the next expansion.') They look pretty, but they won't do a lot to delineate content. And that's not a bad thing! As someone who played straight to the end of 5.2, having cinematics reminding me of what I just played would probably be jarring. When it comes to story, there's really not a reason to go "We're gonna stop a sec and let you know that you've officially reached 4.3" It breaks the immersion and does nothing to add to the story.

[Morningstar1337]

The trailers seem to be FMV movies, which are rather difficult if not impossible to replace the WoL used with your character in given the myriad combinations of gear, hairstyle, race and other factors.

Also they tend to have elements that don't make sense in the context (Hraesvogg in HW trailer, the Forgiven Hypocripsy being in a different place, he fact that you can't switch jobs mid battle, etc)

Also for telling patches apart, the MSQ has quests named after the respective patches that tend to be the final quest for the patch and completing those would unlock an achievement that gives you a title that either is the patch name (Under the Moonlight, Prelude in Violet) or evokes it (Surrender of Souls, Of Virtuous Deeds, arguably Echo of a Fallen Star). Icebreaker is something of an odd one out, but the point if if you get an achievement from the MSQ at the level cap, you hit the end of the MSQ for the patch.

[Gula]

It was said that the trailers are made before the expansion is fully written, some elements are based off mere ideas and not all of them make it. Or if they do, it's wholly different from what you saw.

[Hazama999]

I'd honestly be down for the idea of the title screen changing as you go through the story. I realize that it's a way to know what expansion's the latest but eh... if I could change it to match your character's progression, I would. It seems like a neat idea.

[LucaKhah]

I'm sure that the burning village with Y'Shtola from the SHB trailer is actually lore in game?

[MikkoAkure]

I'm sure that the burning village with Y'Shtola from the SHB trailer is actually lore in game?

The Shadowbringers trailer scenes with the Scions are all what they were up to before you came to Norvrandt. It would be awkward if the game suddenly cut to an FMV for the 10 seconds spent on each scion.