Please don't harass people for ignoring/disliking the story

[Atelier-Bagur]

Part of me wants for us to make an "EW is bad because burgers" meme and see how far that spreads.

[IkaraGreydancer]

While I don't actually care about the burgers I do dislike the hawaiian shirts and branded clothing that have made their way into the game, I think it clashes horribly with the aesthetic and aren't very well justified by the lore.
You can claim FF has always been like this but I disagree completely, every FF game has done a good job of making sure all of their components match each other aesthetically.
Not all the Final Fantasies are tabbards and tunics but if one person is wearing Louis Vuitton then you can expect everyone else to be wearing something to match outside of mythical or magical beings where the contrast is the whole point, while the games that have regular people in frills and plate armor generally won't have some random person wearing a tailored black suit and sunglasses.

Considering the game is basically a melting pot of eras I really don't see the issue. People pick n choose what fits n what doesn't and it makes little sense to me. You see things like the Weapons (the bosses) and none of that tech is old tech. That's VERY advanced tech(past our modern age) yet nobody complains about that not fitting xivs general old style.

Simple fix imo is to not wear or use said items if you feel they don't fit

[Ameela]

Considering the game is basically a melting pot of eras I really don't see the issue. People pick n choose what fits n what doesn't and it makes little sense to me. You see things like the Weapons (the bosses) and none of that tech is old tech. That's VERY advanced tech(past our modern age) yet nobody complains about that not fitting xivs general old style.

Simple fix imo is to not wear or use said items if you feel they don't fit

The Weapons are actually a perfect example of how Final Fantasy usually handles its sci-fi elements.
The reason the Weapons exist in the first place is because they're based on already existing monsters - the Ultima Weapon, which is a basis for the others, is literally just a giant lizard with armor grafted onto it. The reason Magitek as a concept is cool is because it's this really advanced technology that's only made possible in a high fantasy-type world, so despite how advanced it is all the technology is limited by what the people of that world perceive as efficient and dangerous. Of course Magitek Armor would be a bipedal, fire-breathing hunk of metal with huge claws, that's the form of the most dangerous thing the people of a world like this could think of.
The Ironworks armor is also a good example of this - it's obviously technologically advanced, but in terms of its form it's still modeled after the types of bronze or iron plating that you'd expect a low level XIV character to wear, it's just being powered up by Magitek.
And if we want to bring it back to the real world - there was nothing stopping some random weaver in the 14th century from coming up with a T-shirt, theoretically they had all the materials and knowledge to do it, but the conventions of that era simply meant they wouldn't ever think to try.

[Absimiliard]

The reason the Weapons exist in the first place is because they're based on already existing monsters - the Ultima Weapon, which is a basis for the others, is literally just a giant lizard with armor grafted onto it.

Ultima Weapon is a biotechnological weapon, but its internals do consist primarily of machinery. It was not, based on the information we currently have available, a lizard with armor grafted onto it. Were I to hazard a guess as to the reason for its shape, I'd tend to think the Allagans based it on the dragon-centaur things responsible for summoning Zurvan.

[Atelier-Bagur]

FFIX had Hawaiian themed gear. Sure it wasn't visible or anything but those items exist within the game world.


Just sayin'

[Ameela]

Ultima Weapon is a biotechnological weapon, but its internals do consist primarily of machinery. It was not, based on the information we currently have available, a lizard with armor grafted onto it. Were I to hazard a guess as to the reason for its shape, I'd tend to think the Allagans based it on the dragon-centaur things responsible for summoning Zurvan.

I'm mostly basing it off the fact that the two prototypes we see for it are more organic than mechanical, so in my head I always thought Ultima Weapon would have some kind of organism beneath the mechanical exterior.
Either way, despite being a giant robot it's still based on some sensible part of the world, it didn't just spring out of thin air.

...

As I pointed out, both the examples given for IV and VI are logical within the game's world, despite the technological advancements far beyond our own that would be required to build something like that both their form and their function make sense within the world they inhabit. It's not like the moment Magitek appeared the imperials were just like "wow we can make cars and T-shirts now", they created mechanized versions of the monsters and creatures that inhabited their world, because that's what they know.
As for FFVII, no one in that game is wearing traditional armor, they're wearing scraps held together by nuts and bolts that they found in the trash heaps left by Shinra. Of course I'm gonna expect a more modern touch with VII the moment I see screws sticking out of Cloud's shoulder pad and glove.
And FFX... well, let's just say that there may be some kind of thematic relevance to Auron being in a traditional and outdated Japanese garb while the rest of the cast is in more contemporary clothing... I'm not quite sure what the connection could be though...

SoP is the real strong argument here where I will concede that yes, there is a jarring mishmash of aesthetics in that game, one which was rightfully ridiculed when it was first revealed, I should point out - and one that came after XIV had set a precedent for it already.

[kaynide]

As for FFVII, no one in that game is wearing traditional armor, they're wearing scraps held together by nuts and bolts that they found in the trash heaps left by Shinra. Of course I'm gonna expect a more modern touch with VII the moment I see screws sticking out of Cloud's shoulder pad and glove.

Jessie wears a fitted breastplate with pauldons over a chain shirt. If you know anything about plate armor, you’d know it takes a lot of work to refit it to a new body, and not just found scrap. Doubly so when it is as form fitting as it is to her.



My point is, you can try to justify whatever your opinion is, and you are entitled to it. You are welcome to believe the culture pre island colorful dodgeball was one of samurai and sunglasses.

But to state X doesn’t belong as point of fact is simply incorrect.

[Ameela]

Jessie wears a fitted breastplate with pauldons over a chain shirt. If you know anything about plate armor, you’d know it takes a lot of work to refit it to a new body, and not just found scrap. Doubly so when it is as form fitting as it is to her.



My point is, you can try to justify whatever your opinion is, and you are entitled to it. You are welcome to believe the culture pre island colorful dodgeball was one of samurai and sunglasses.

But to state X doesn’t belong as point of fact is simply incorrect.

Jessie's armor is clearly a bunch of metal platings she found and haphazardly soldiered off and restitched together with rusty hinges and belt straps. It's not like some master blacksmith made it for her.

Plus irregardless of how she aquired the armor her outfit is clearly a mishmash of different stuff that she threw together in order to create sort of mitilaristic outfit that would afford her some protection, it's not like she's in a full knight's armor like, say, Steiner from IX.
That's a far cry from how disparaging XIV's aesthetic is, sorry but to me Calvin Klein will never have a place in a Final Fantasy game unless it's explicitly set in a world and time period meant to mirror our own like XV's.

There's a big difference between these two pictures despite them showcasing supposedly the same thing on paper, what XIV does and what other FF's do isn't exactly comparable to me.

[kaynide]

Agree to disagree over Jessie's armor, but that's fine. She is essentially the only armored character in the game that we interact with so it's fair to say she is not the norm.

what XIV does and what other FF's do isn't exactly comparable to me.

This is the crux of it all- if it doesn't matter, then why is it wrong to have burgers and Hawaiian shirts in an otherwise pure-fantasy world? These are things that explicitly exist in this world.

Again, not liking is fine- even saying a Hawaiian shirt is out of place in say...Gridania could be fine in the same way a Kimono would be out of place in German Oktoberfest- and that's fine. But the entire world in FFXIV is not defined or restricted to any one specific time, place or aesthetic.

Your original statements were that these things do not belong- that's all I have/had issue with- not your feelings/opinions on it.

At the risk of sounding derpy, I believe FFXIV's world is a place where any and all kinds of things are able to exist, including space-faring, time-traveling, sword-wielding, burger-eating, god-slaying, mech-riding girls in bikinis.

[Kenky]

Remember that Burgers do exist in XIV, thanks to the Archon-Burger. That is rather popular in Sharlayan.

Each "segment" of the world is based on a different cultural trend, especially so in the Land of Adventurers itself (Thats Eorzea.) La Noscea is very maritime / Pirate-themed, so loose shirts, tight pants and bandanas ahoy. While Thanalan is all about knee-high leather sandals with more straps than a horse harness and comfortable, breathable clothes that ooze wealth.

That alone, a La Noscean adventurer would be very out of place in Thanalan and vice-versa. But because Eorzea is this hodge-podge of cultures, it has blended together over the years, due to uniting and trade agreements and the like. Keep in mind that Othard & Doma only joined the Eorzean Alliance not too long ago and already, you see people wearing Hingan / Doman clothes in Ul'dah. Then theres the very bright and colourful outfits from Thavnair.

To that end, it's not really "X is out of place" but rather "X is from different culture" Every FF has a different "Theme" of a sort, yet all under the Final Fantasy Banner. They've said many times that no Final Fantasy is connected to another (with the exception of 4 with 4 after-stories, 7 and Crisis Core, 13 and all the spin-offs there, etc) so to gauge based on previous installments is.. Misleading.

And to finish it off, before anyone brings up the outfits based on Lightning, Snow, Squall, Cloud, Zidane, etc. Those are References. Nothing more. If you read the tool-tip on the SDR Fenrir (clouds bike) it straight-up says it shouldn't exist / Doesn't exist in Eorzea.