2.0 environments are they more interesting?

[Seif]

Are the new environments living up to your expectations?

We've seen the same screens few times now.
What worries me that my big problem with the first batch of XIV landscapes were that they were so mundane.

Cliffs deserts and forests. Nothing we haven't seen before a thousand times and it's the one area where SE has consistently blown the competition out of the water in every FF game.

Bland forests of grid and beige desert are (if these screens are to be believed) going to look like this:



and this:



Think about the timing of these screens too. Why would you NOT want to show the first batch of screens that address specifically the reasons why most players didn't find the current world interesting?

Wouldn't you want the outsiders to think "whoa now this new 2.0 game looks much better than that first attempt!"


The concept art was promising but we just haven't seen that level of originality in screenshots yet.

Are these new iterations of the same places setting the mood for the rest to come or do you think these are just the boring filler areas and they're holding back the good stuff. And if so why?

[Seif]

Full disclosure here: I've loved the environments of every single FF game so far since VI including the -2 games.

[bobbygunz]

Sorry, but what do you actually want? A field of glow sticks and primary-colour landscapes like Guild Wars 2 (which looks like it belong on Nickelodeon or something)?

Only thing wrong with those screenshots is the graphical downgrade from our current version.

[Len]

The only way to go is up, honestly.

From the scant details from those screenshots, it already looks massively improved.

[SuzakuCMX]

Sorry, but what do you actually want? A field of glow sticks and primary-colour landscapes like Guild Wars 2 (which looks like it belong on Nickelodeon or something)?

Only thing wrong with those screenshots is the graphical downgrade from our current version.

They're not optimized yet + not finished + on Yoshi-P's personal laptop.

[Gramul]

Sorry, but what do you actually want? A field of glow sticks and primary-colour landscapes like Guild Wars 2 (which looks like it belong on Nickelodeon or something)?

Only thing wrong with those screenshots is the graphical downgrade from our current version.

I think he wants square to show off the new and interesting looking areas, like what we saw in the concept art.
These screens don't really show how much the world is going to deviate from what we know aside from Grid being more open and Tha having more plants.

[Seif]

Sorry, but what do you actually want? A field of glow sticks and primary-colour landscapes like Guild Wars 2 (which looks like it belong on Nickelodeon or something)?

Only thing wrong with those screenshots is the graphical downgrade from our current version.

No absolutely not.

I've heard this argument before that anything different than the current design must look like WoW/diablo and that is simply absurd.

Take XI for example. Very gray game, very muted games still original and compelling visual design. XII very muted colors most areas were almost colored just in values of the same hue. Still very recognizable visual design and very unique to XII only.

X was colorful I'll give you that. But was it Guild Wars/WoW cartoony colorful? No, not even close. What was memorable about it was the journey created by the original and ever changing scenery that was always true to X's main themes.



Now these XIV screens on the other hand to me (and yes we can disagree on liking stuff I'm completely okay if you think they're the s**t, its ok to disagree) could easily look like they were lifted from any game out there.

If you changed the characters I wouldn't doubt if somebody told me these are from Age of Conan, Risen or Dragon's Dogma.

[Seif]

They're not optimized yet + not finished + on Yoshi-P's personal laptop.

No these are from the SE's PR site not from someone's laptop =/

Also I'd like to point out that I'm not worried about the graphics at all. What I'm talking about here is the visual design.

[Azurymber]

I doubt at the moment there are many new areas. Its probably just re-designs of the current areas. New areas will probably come with an expansion.

[Mirage]

Full disclosure here: I've loved the environments of every single FF game so far since VI including the -2 games.

Yeah man, FF13-2s environments are fucking amazing. Almost amazing enough to make me forgive the story .

Seriously though, they are really good.

More on topic: I think the thanalan and shround we see here are huge improvements. At least based on what can be seen in the few screenshots there are. Keep in mind the shroud was the biggest level-design-flaw in the game. Coerthas and Mor Dhona are pretty all right, just need a few tweaks, really. Wouldn't make sense to showcase these areas when most of the complaints were over other areas.

Layout-wise, La Noscea isn't "that" bad, it just needs to not have so much obvious blatant copypasta. If the caves and cliffs (and all other copypastaed variations) didn't look the same, they could have been in the same location as they are now and at least I wouldn't have minded.