Cartoony style graphics....

[KiriA500]

Rokien, you seem to forget the "presentation" part of graphics. While Final Fantasy XIV clearly has a higher polygon count than World of Warcraft...it lacks all personality, thus making it boring and uninspired. Yes, WoW looks like a bucket of turds, but it presents itself so well that it works.

[Elexia]

I still can't see 20 feet in front of me on FFXI without having windower.

PS2 game ported to the PC, ported to the 360 with very little changes to it.

WoW, because they actually updated the goddamn textures/maps/etc.

That's not what aging well means, it means to age without updates. N64 graphics hasn't aged well nor has early Playstation game graphics aged well for example.

[Reika]

AAR isnt doesnt/isnt going to look 'cartoony'...

[Taika]

To me it's weird that people are assuming that either these are the PS3 graphics or that the "real" graphics will be somehow a lot better. And people saying "but the previous screenshots and videos have looked a lot better" make me feel like I'm seeing completely different materials than most of the posters here are.

For example, people have been posting this image as an example of these "higher quality" graphics:



It looks slightly better, yes, but the characters still feel really plastic-y to mee (they're like from some wax cabinet) and their gear doesn't look like it's made of any real material (I love the way all the clothing looks like it's made of actual fabric in the current version!). Also, to me this screenshot looks like it's from a dungeon cutscene...

This one, for example, does seem like it's from actual gameplay:


I don't know, does that really look better than the current graphics to some people?

Here's a comparison of the level of detail on character model:



When I look at those screenshots and videos - other than the cutscene parts which are breathtakingly beautiful - I feel like I'm looking at a much older game, certainly not the best-graphics-on-the-market MMO. All the 2.0 materials I've seen so far have left me with a feeling they're taking a huge step backwards.

Does it matter? Not for some. To me, yes. Of course it's difficult to judge when I haven't really seen it with my own eyes while playing the game - as playing something yourself leaves you with a different impression than watching the same thing from screenshots or video.

I just hope they'd release some screenshots and gameplay material with the highest graphics. Then we could stop arguing whether the high-end graphics will truly be on the next level compared to the stuff we've seen so far or not.

[Seig345]

I dunno... It seems to me that any time the across-the-board quality of graphics takes the next step, everything before it looks dated, in a negative way. Heck I don't think we even had individual fingers in FFXI, the thumb was the only individual digit, possibly an index finger for pointing... Then again, it didn't help the graphic quality was 20% cooler in the character creator, so maybe my memory is just skewed...

[Elexia]

I dunno... It seems to me that any time the across-the-board quality of graphics takes the next step, everything before it looks dated, in a negative way. Heck I don't think we even had individual fingers in FFXI, the thumb was the only individual digit, possibly an index finger for pointing... Then again, it didn't help the graphic quality was 20% cooler in the character creator, so maybe my memory is just skewed...

[Seig345]

Guess I'll go with Skewed, probably those stupid mittens my taru was always wearing X3

[KiriA500]

Guess I'll go with Skewed, probably those stupid mittens my taru was always wearing X3

Tarutaru didn't have individual fingers.

[PSxpert2011]

Man, Rokien... You do this thing where my brain is unable to function. Long time no see buddy.

Did you know if you google "rokien" you come up with this:

I'm sorry guys! Every time someone makes a post, it bumps up a pointless thread just to point out it's a pointless thread and I'm guilty of this. -.-;; (forgive meh!!!)

[Arcell]

Wow... I just woke up guys. I was just wondering why they wouldn't keep the hard realistic feel to it. It ages a lot better than a more cartoony feel. I'm not saying it looks like WoW or other games, but you can tell it's there. Just take a look at FFXI and WoW, what game aged better graphicly? Also, how anyone could like WoW's graphics is beyond me.

Really? I've always found that games with realistic graphics tend to age horribly compared to those with stylized "cartoony" graphics. I mean in my opinion Windwaker and Okami have held up better than most "realistic" shooters which prided themselves heavily on graphics upon release.