Letter from the Producer XXXVII: Alpha Begins and New Screenshots

[Raistlin]

Naoki Yoshida, producer for Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn, just released a short Letter from the Producer with some quick updates. Most significantly, he announced that the alpha testing of A Realm Reborn will officially begin on October 29, 2012!

Yoshi-P also snuck in some nifty screenshots from the developer’s stress testing of ARR. Here they are, with Yoshi-P’s commentary:

lftp1.jpg
”Adventurers turned up in droves to put one of the new instanced dungeons, Tam-Tara Deepcroft, through its paces.”

lftp2.jpg
”As you can see, the new engine can handle a lot of characters at once, and I even had the settings set to high. (In case you’re wondering, everyone is sporting exclusive alpha gear for the dungeon.) “

lftp3.jpg
”In preparation for the beta and official release versions, we’ve also been testing new content that pits large groups against enormous foes. There’s some chatting going on in the log, but the content name is wrong. (lol)”

lftp4.jpg
”One of our staff members took a widescreen snap while we were trading blows with the mighty adamantoise.”

Those last two screens are pretty awesome; I am eager to try out to redone battle system for ARR.

With the age of 1.x almost over, Yoshida told us that we definitely won’t want to miss the grand finale for the current game, which is coming up on November 11. He also promised us even more ARR info over the next few weeks, so we’ll be sure to keep you updated.

[Futan]

I really hate how they reuse models from XI.

[Rostum]

They're not reusing models, they're just improving on designs from a previous game.

[Ouch!]

What "models" exactly are reused--and in an upsetting way?

The character races? Were you upset every time chocobos and moogles show up in a new Final Fantasy title?

The job-specific armor? Does it bother you that white mage and black mage have had a distinct physical appearance since the first Final Fantasy?

The enemies? Do you cry every time you run into a cactaur or a bomb?

[Futan]

What "models" exactly are reused--and in an upsetting way?

The character races? Were you upset every time chocobos and moogles show up in a new Final Fantasy title?

The job-specific armor? Does it bother you that white mage and black mage have had a distinct physical appearance since the first Final Fantasy?

The enemies? Do you cry every time you run into a cactaur or a bomb?

Imps, Apkallus and that Adamantoise were direct rips from XI. If anything, they may have upped the poly count a bit. Otherwise, they're the same exact model and design. It's bad enough seeing the same mobs repeatedly in 1 MMO but carrying that over to another?

EDIT1: For reference:

XI Imp
XIV Imp
XI Apkallu
XIV Apkallu
XI Adamantoise

To be clear, I don't mind similar looking mobs but blatant copy and paste jobs from a 10 year old MMO is just laziness.

EDIT2: Also, I'm not talking about the texture mapping(aka skin), but the 3D model itself. To be fair, the Imp looks like it's been touched up a bit, but nonetheless it's still the same design and same base model.

[Ouch!]

This is hardly new for the series. How often do they carry over enemies with minimal variation to their appearance? Especially in the earlier pixel-era Final Fantasy games.

They look similar because--gasp!--their target audience for Final Fantasy XIV is the exact same people who played Final Fantasy XI. So they bring in a number of familiar enemies (apkallu, imps, puks, etc.) and mix them in with completely new or heavily redesigned ones (coblyns, kobolds, ixal, antelope, spriggans, marmots, jellies, mites, etc.). Looking similar and using very familiar models and character designs is part of the point, man. The original enemy designs heavily outweigh those they've brought over as prettier versions of the same models.

[Mirage]

FF8 cactuar (SPOILER)
FF13 cactuar (SPOILER)
Exact same design and the same colors. Just the poly count and texture resolution is changed!

FF1GBA Ahriman (SPOILER)
FF4 Ahriman (SPOILER)
Almost the exact same design, just drawn from a different angle with slightly varying colors.

Man, I don't think I can play any final fantasy game after this.

[Futan]

If they were planning on doing that, they should've done that with the iconic mobs like Cactuar, Ahrimans, etc. as you mentioned then. Not random mobs. It doesn't feel welcoming for someone coming from XI, like myself, who wants a new experience. It just feels lazy. And these aren't exactly mobs people have happy thoughts associated with. While people leveled off Imps 60+, they were still hated for their various annoying TP moves. Apkallus were avoided like the plague due to their hate system as well as just being tough MNK mobs. And very few people actually enjoyed camping HNMs like Adamantoise. Then add onto this how much more you see MMO mobs than in single player games. XIers have probably seen them enough for a lifetime and aren't exactly filled with happy reminiscent thoughts when they see them.

Either way, were arguing opinions, which is usually an exercise in futility, so let's just agree to disagree.

[Mirage]

They were hated for their TP moves, but still were so weak that they became popular exp mobs. If they were too annoying, people wouldn't have grinded on them

And apkallus just look really funny/cute/lol. I don't mind them at all. They also do not have the same attacks in 14 as in 11. Same with imps.

[Futan]

They were hated for their TP moves, but still were so weak that they became popular exp mobs. If they were too annoying, people wouldn't have grinded on them

And apkallus just look really funny/cute/lol. I don't mind them at all. They also do not have the same attacks in 14 as in 11. Same with imps.

Just because they were easy and good exp doesn't mean liked fighting them. :P Unless you were a MNK, which pretty much just sat there the entire time smacking it anyways, they were ultra smurfing annoying. When I leveled my SAM with them, I hated them with such passion. Then with MNK, they weren't that bad. lol. Then I leveled DRG on them with another character and hated them again. lol.

[Ouch!]

I think Mirage's most important point is that the move sets for a majority of the mobs have changed anyway. Imps in FFXIV (actually devilets now) are mostly casters without any particularly obnoxious TP moves. You really don't encounter them very often except outside of certain levequests. As for apkallu, I honestly haven't fought many at my own level (I've wrecked some about 10-15 levels below me for the lulz, though), but I don't mind seeing them around. The battle system is very different from FFXI's. Aside from looking the same, "re-used" monsters play a bit different.

Also sabotenders/cactaurs in FFXIV are kind of a weird hybrid between FFXI's sabotenders and previous, less rotund cactaurs. It's weird.

[Rostum]

Iron Giants, Adamantoise, and Imps are quite iconic in the series as a whole.

[Raistlin]

I'm not sure how you can complain about repeated monsters from game-to-game within the FF series, as that's been pretty standard for a long time, especially for games within the same console generation. I'm not sure why it matters, anyway, as it has no impact on gameplay, but I can appreciate that a lot of people are less practical when it comes to graphics and appearances. The only time repeated use of the same creature models annoyed me was FFXIII, which only had about 10 monster types, and every new area basically just had higher-leveled forms of the same creatures.

[Ouch!]

Reskins within a single game is always more of a concern, certainly. It happens in MMORPGs a lot almost by necessity, but Final Fantasy XIV hasn't been a terrible offender. Each region tends to have its own native vicious fauna to fight, but they're not terribly bad about abusing color reskins for higher-level enemies.

[Loony BoB]

Iron Giants, Adamantoise, and Imps are quite iconic in the series as a whole.

This was my first thought as well. I was delighted to see them making a return, and making them look so similar to their traditional look.

I like new mobs - but I still like having traditional mobs in there, too.

Iron Giant: FFII, FFIII, FFIV, FFV, FFVII, FFVIII, FFIX, FFX, FFX-2, FFXI, FFXIV, FFCC, Type-0, Dissidia, Theatrhythm, Chocobo Tales, Chocobo Dungeons.
Adamantoise: FFII, FFIII, FFIV, FFV, FFVI, FFVII, FFVIII, FFIX, FFX, FFX-2, FFXI, FFXII, FFXIII, FFXIII-2, FFXIV, FFTA, FFTA2, FFCC, MQ, Legends III, Dimensions, Theatrhythm, Chocobo Tales, Chocobo Dungeons
Imp: FFII, FFIV, FFV, FFVII (CC), FFVIII, FFIX, FFX, FFX-2, FFXI, FFXII, FFXIII, FFXIII-2, FFXIV, Dimensions, Chocobo Dungeons.

I am fairly certain that throughout the series they have generally looked the same, which is pretty much what makes them iconic.