An Impassioned Plea for Ultrawide Cutscenes

[Endyss]

With all the amazing quality of life improvements announced for Evercold (and even more to come, I’m sure), I thought now might be a good time to suggest one feature that would make the biggest improvement to my FFXIV experience: an option to display cutscenes at the full aspect ratio of ultrawide monitors.

The Issue
I absolutely love how the game looks on my ultrawide monitor. The graphical update in 7.0 made it even better. However, it is incredibly frustrating that the most pivotal moments—literally the entire MSQ—are forever trapped in a smaller 16:9 area of my display.

Considerations & Reasoning
I know development resources are always limited. I would not ask for a feature that only helps a minority of players if it took resources away from things that benefit everyone. My understanding is that the game already renders these cutscenes at full display resolution, and the black bars are simply overlaid to force a 16:9 aspect ratio.
Cutscenes are built around a 16:9 frame. I understand that nothing important happens in the side areas and that those areas may show minor visual issues (for example, character animations stopping off-screen or models popping in). I also understand that the cutscenes are carefully framed for 16:9 to preserve the intended cinematic vision. Even so, having the full visual field available would still greatly increase immersion and the cinematic feel of these critical story moments.
Gameplay already supports ultrawide fully, so enabling it for cutscenes would create a consistent, immersive experience. Ultrawide monitors are also becoming more popular among PC players, and this small option would let high-end setups shine during the story—especially with the graphical improvements from 7.0 and the new content coming in Evercold.

The Request
A simple checkbox in FFXIV’s System Configuration called “Show Cutscenes at Display Aspect Ratio.” It could be off by default and require the player to enable it. It could also include a short warning: “Certain in-game elements may display incorrectly outside of the 16:9 ratio cutscene window.” This way, it remains an optional choice for players like me, for whom the benefits would greatly outweigh any minor issues.

This is literally my first time posting on these forums, and I registered just to make this request. I have been playing since early Endwalker, and I cannot tell you how much this small feature would mean for my enjoyment of the story. I am looking forward to Evercold and excited to see where our story takes us next!

Thank you so much for such an incredible game.

[SenahPanipahr]

I absolutely wish they would add this, I thought about the disclaimer myself. I'm not sure big companies ever want to take the marginal risk that someone unfamiliar with such monitors and aspect ratios sees a cutscene which misbehaves and thinks "buggy mess". It's a shame, because it's absolutely the kind of game (heavily story focused) where this kinda issue is extremely jarring.

[Shurrikhan]

So, there is an addon for this that fixes the issue easily because the cutscenes essentially are already in Ultra-wide... but simply blocked off / letterboxed at either end. >.>