Breaking down some of the screenshots

[Laraul]

Specifically, people are talking about the ground and rock textures closeup. The current ground textures in Thanalan look normal mapped, while the ones in the 2.0 screenshot look almost like they're just textures.

I noticed as soon as I saw the 2.0 screens. If those screens are indeed how it looks when the game is run at the recommended settings, then I'd say the textures did get a minor downgrade. It's well worth it to give up some of the detail to achieve the variety in design we're getting and the game still looks amazing, possibly even more so thanks to the real-time lighting upgrades, but let's not pretend like it isn't there.

But changing the texture setting from highest to lowest actually does nothing. You get the exact same textures regardless of that setting. And there are no screen shots that show the ground or rocks extremely closeup. At least not head on. Maybe people who say the game is full of low res textures run with DoF off. That would possibly explain why people say the textures are low res. No one has seen the game in action either. Who are we to judge based on a few screen shots of completely different rendered scenes.

Have you seen the Inn in the current game? Have you not noticed that it's nothing but low res textures? And it's premature to judge the looks of a game that's not finished. Especially if you don't know what you are looking at. I don't even know if these images are from the game or conceptual renderings. I can tell you they aren't PS3 picts cuz all the screenshots are 1600x900. I can also tell you that it's highly unlikely SE or any one trying to promote a game would show it running less than at it's best. So why would you run it at "standard" or "low" settings?

Oh yeah, let's not forget that FFXIV launched looking the same as it does now. I don't think graphics should be the thing on the top of the agenda. Right now, my opinion of anyone who says that the graphics aren't "good enough" are f**king idiots. SE should never release screen shots again to you people.

I am really mad if you haven't noticed and i'm going to go lie down in the corner for a while.

[Keith_Dragoon]

Yeah but Lulu has a dark fireball icon next to her name and casting firaga in one of the shots. Chocobo? Really doubt it. Lulu is a mage, and so far the names they pick depict the classes they represent (Delita is paladin, Aerith is the white mage, etc)

Hence why I said pet which includes your main storyline companion and any NPC that might join you for a quest. I doubt jobs are going to be limited to players especially with party AI coming along with 2.0. Who knows, SE loves to make us speculate then smack us down with raw facts making all our hopes and reams turn to ash. :P

[Otaku]

Also i dont think its "alpha", they said its all finished up and now its just putting in content, if anything its Beta, even pretty much finished just additions and content.

We will know for sure tomorrow when more is explained in the interviews!

From Venture Beat interview

He was less willing to share when the subject of a release date came up. More generally, said Yoshida, he hoped to bring an early alpha test online by late September, which will roll directly into a much larger beta test. He hopes to have the game out sometime in winter (“ish,” he said) of this year.

So if I'm reading that correctly these SS's are actually pre-alpha

also

There will be a way for players to train their own Chocobos from birth, giving them unique abilities for taking a support role in-game, like a mage chocobo or an item-storage chocobo.

Read the whole interview here
http://venturebeat.com/2012/06/05/fi...ble-franchise/

[bobbygunz]

WHAT LOW RESOLUTION TEXTURES?!? I see NONE! Less than those in the present game. WHAT ARE YOU PEOPLE LOOKING AT? Are you people referring to the foliage and shrubbery not being in ultra-high detail? I mean one person refers to "low resolution textures" and everyone assumes the game has "low resolution textures." You just are seeing what you WANT to see.

Are you BLIND? Look at the ground. It's a flat surface tile with one or two different colours. . Look at the aliased edges around everything.

Everyone's blind.

[Felis]

The shadows are an upgrade, but everything else looks like a downgrade, and those aetherytes are very ugly. To think S.E. shows a demo on worst settings would be a stretch of the imagination, so I think it's safe to say, they downgraded graphics.

Those aetherytes are subscribed (concept art or artwork) and aren't in any screenshot.

edit: ok, there is one aetherite in one screenshot, but I don't see anything wrong with it from the distance

[viion]

From Venture Beat interview

So if I'm reading that correctly these SS's are actually pre-alpha

also

Read the whole interview here
http://venturebeat.com/2012/06/05/fi...ble-franchise/

Had not seen this, thank you.

[bobbygunz]

Those aetherytes are subscribed (concept art or artwork) and aren't in any screenshot.

edit: ok, there is one aetherite in one screenshot, but I don't see anything wrong with it from the distance

Really, you see nothing wrong with those tacky green loops? Our current aetheryte design looks way better.

[Otaku]

Just thinking about having a Choco partner has my mind racing
What DRG needs a wyvern now that they can have a BLM Choco by their side ><
Or a WAR with a WHM Choco, or even better a WHM with a WAR Choco
I can understand why they didn't want to "trickle" information out, every time I read a little more I have so many questions

[Doho]

Really, you see nothing wrong with those tacky green loops? Our current aetheryte design looks way better.

Purely subjective. I think they look fine.

[Starlord]

Pick Picky Picky! Downgrade or not Graphics still look amazing, and the Diversity in each area is out of this world from what I see From Forest to Desert, and all of the Rocks, Grass, Cacti etc are not all in the same place every 5 secs you walk ahead! So in the end this so called " Downgrade" of graphics is def. a better trade off to get Better looking zones in general. ( And for all you know this is just the graphics of the standard user, and higher ups can experience it X10 better than what were seeing now.)

The Character Creation screen is how I imagined it ( and I believe I made that idea up months ago, to Have a Nature~ish Background as you Customize your Character. ( Thanky you SE). The Character Creation in general looks amazing, being able to change literally EVERY aspect of your character, will really make sure no one copies your character 100% and every character will looks so diverse from the next, and More options= Awesomesauce.

Also having split roads in a Forest area makes me shiver with excitement! I can't wait to see more about this!!