How Does This Game Have Good Graphics?

[bobbygunz]

Style and Graphics go hand in hand and are equally important, if one must outweigh the other then style must always be at the forefront. this is why the FFXIV we have now has great models, but the FFXIV we'll be getting has style.

Just because something isn't flamboyant or over-the-top doesn't mean it doesn't have style. Understand that designers and artists can make a concientious decision to make a world which is subtle and unasssuming. Not everything has to be a Nickelodeon cartoon or constantly "epic".

If you look at the world and the amount of detail the designers invested into even such small things as light fittings and cultural architecture (like the doorways in Uldah; the wooden beams in gridania; the roughyl hewn rocks in Limsa to give just some examples) you realise the game does have a lot of style, and each area is teeming with individualised assets. You can look into any room and see designs specific to that culture/nation.

It's such BS to say that this game doesn't have style.

[Falen]

It's such BS to say that this game doesn't have style.

I believe the question is less than this game has "Style" as that the style isn't well woven together. You can see how the cities were developed and who developed them (in-game/lore), but I (and I assume plenty of others) can talk to the citizens, and they don't feel like they care about their surroundings as much.
For example, I talked to one of the NPCs in the area around the Ul'Dah Inn entrance and he says "Oh, this area was specially opened for the public during these hard times" or something. But the area isn't all /that/ special looking that he would have needed to say that. The area doesn't feel like it has a history that would need that isolation, unlike the Statesrooms you visit the Grand Company leaders in. Those areas are normally cut off because they have a purpose for it,
so why is that NPC (in dark armor with a sword and shield) there, in the center area, saying this? In the stead of being placed near the entrance to the Statesroom on the top level of Ul'Dah? What's so special about that room on the bottom floor in the center that it would be normally cut off to the public, despite the area design saying, "Hey, want to get from the Coliseum to Sunsilk Tapestries faster than going around the outside ring?"
Sorry if it's a bit...rant-y. Trying to explain what I mean. The area is good, but the people around it, and their history with the area...don't feel real, or believable.

[Dragon]

I don't see why you need to bash the creator of that video when he's actually saying the same you said..
Sure, aesthetics will always be subjective, but since they are used to set the mood (for example, using only grey-brownish colors in Deus Ex Human Revolution was fitting the "dark future" mood the game was supposed to convey while fantasy MMOs are supposed to convey a feeling of "go out into this vast beautiful world and have some awesome adventures" for which those colors might not be a perfect choice) they are important.
Katamari might be "crap" to you but the simple style, the bright color palette etc. used are totally fitting the mood of the game - fun, nonsensical rolling around.
This doesn't mean you will enjoy the game, but it means the game might be more enjoyable if you like these types of games.

Also, the video creator and his team are all video game developers, saying they have no clue at all makes no sense

I personally enjoy FFXIV's aesthetics and think they fit the whole more-close-to-reality idea the game is following well.
But since aesthetics are subjective, the OP might think differently.
Since - like you and everyone else before you said - GRAPHICS are measurable though it can easily be proved that FFXIV's graphics are anything but bad.

Watch the video for yourself.

The fact is he tried to throw off his view of aesthetics as objective. He bashed games like Gears of War (hell I don't even like half those games like GoW) because they contained too much 'brown'. Case closed.

[Atoli]

[...]..because they contained too much 'brown'.

Well it really is a trend right now to throw in a lot of 'brown' to make things look more 'realistic'.
But if I look out of the window I see everything but brown.
I think it's just a lazy approach and I'm happy SE is not going this way with FFXIV.

[Dragon]

Well it really is a trend right now to throw in a lot of 'brown' to make things look more 'realistic'.
But if I look out of the window I see everything but brown.
I think it's just a lazy approach and I'm happy SE is not going this way with FFXIV.

Point is, the author bashed a game for being "too brown" and yet praised Katamari/SotC/whatever for their limited palettes in a video that's supposed to be about the differences between aesthetics and graphics.

It's not even close to being a lazy approach, palettes are there to build certain kinds of atmosphere. Games about war should always have certain palettes, just like kiddy games should have a certain kind of palette. A lazy approach would be using a universal palette for everything, something that those people bashing GoW for "being too brown" or what have you want.

[Valmonte]

Just because something isn't flamboyant or over-the-top doesn't mean it doesn't have style. Understand that designers and artists can make a concientious decision to make a world which is subtle and unasssuming. Not everything has to be a Nickelodeon cartoon or constantly "epic".

If you look at the world and the amount of detail the designers invested into even such small things as light fittings and cultural architecture (like the doorways in Uldah; the wooden beams in gridania; the roughyl hewn rocks in Limsa to give just some examples) you realise the game does have a lot of style, and each area is teeming with individualised assets. You can look into any room and see designs specific to that culture/nation.

It's such BS to say that this game doesn't have style.

Rocks, Door Beams, Lamps, are you serious? who the hell walks around and goes ohh that's a pretty rock or that door beam is beautiful. if those are your only examples you've proven my point. instead you should use better examples like the water wheel in Gridania, or the Jewel smashed into the tree also in Gridania. that's the style people notice not some doorbeams and lamps.

[bobbygunz]

Rocks, Door Beams, Lamps, are you serious? who the hell walks around and goes ohh that's a pretty rock or that door beam is beautiful. if those are your only examples you've proven my point. instead you should use better examples like the water wheel in Gridania, or the Jewel smashed into the tree also in Gridania. that's the style people notice not some doorbeams and lamps.

You wouldn't understand anyway.