Zyrusticae

Yuuuuuup. Guess it was too much to expect them to test these things out fully before EA. Ah, criminy...

Sure fooled me. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Seeing people want to jump ship from BLM just because Flare got nerfed just makes me wanna laugh, laugh, laugh at their expense. Honestly, if your attachment to the class is so weak that it's entirely contingent on them being unquestionably OP in dungeon speed runs... well, honestly, I don't really have anything nice to say about that.

Hyur are still more popular than Miqo'te. Try again.

The quintessential tomboy. However, she does not bow to peer pressure and never "grows out" of her masculinity (eventually identifying as 'genderqueer' as an adult). Which really shouldn't even be a noteworthy thing, except I've read and watched way too many stories and even actual parenting advice where they treat it as a "phase", which just straight-up pisses me off. *ahem* Anyway, she'd be a massive nerd on account of her dad getting her into computers, which means she'd be absolutely nothing at all like the Eorzean version of T'rahnu aside from being a tomboy, having vaguely SEA features, and possessing an outgoing personality (though I can foresee this part getting squashed over time after the thousandth time being told that people are 'surprised' by a 'girl' being into computers and video games and other 'guy stuff', among other things - wait, sorry, this was supposed to be fun, wasn't it?). You can probably extrapolate what her high school experience would be like from there.

Indeed. Bolded in particular speaks to me. If more folks questioned these kinds of things it probably wouldn't have become quite as, for lack of a better word, ubiquitous as it has now. But it is what it is. I wonder how difficult it would have been for SE to seed a few more Au Ra NPCs around the world pre-Heavensward. Certainly would have made the whole thing easier to swallow. But as mentioned before, a large part of it is really because race is something that is difficult to change and justify changing, as opposed to classes and location changes where you can easily pick up on them. It's a problem unique to the addition of entirely new phenotypes to the game world. But... why? I am just as well within my rights to speak my piece on this matter as much as you are. I can see that you feel pretty strongly about this, but that doesn't mean I'm going to silence myself purely for your sake. Maybe it's because I'm a bit detached from this whole thing to begin with, but calling for silence feels like a serious overreaction to me. I'm just discussing it and letting my feelings known. If you don't like me referring to pre-Heavensward Au Ra players as displaying a lack of patience or such actions being referred to as 'silly' or, then fair enough, but these are extremely mild observations and really not worth digging a ditch for. (And I'm unsure how you came to the conclusion that my ideas of what is plausible are "overly conservative", given all the questions about glamours Gegenji has raised that are still largely unanswered...)

Whether it's important to me or not is irrelevant. The fact is, people are engaging in some incredibly silly and implausible explanations for playing races that do not yet exist in-game because they don't have the patience. And I find that... well, silly, of course. Honestly, this whole topic probably deserves a thread of its own. I will personally avoid RPing anything that I can't at least reasonably represent in-game for a myriad of reasons, not the least of which is the fact that I would be MUCH better served trying to do so in chat rooms or forums rather than in the game itself. It doesn't matter that I REALLY love samurais and katanas or whatever, I just won't do it until they're in the game proper. No hypocrisy here, nopenopenope. But of course, I have zero control over what other folks want to RP. If that's what rocks your boat, then by all means, have at it! I just won't approve, and how much does that matter to you, really? I foresee this very thing becoming an issue in the future for any new races as well. I'd rather it be nipped in the bud now before it becomes a recurring feature of the game's RP, but of course, that's not going to happen. People will do as they wish, continuity be damned.

As far as armour glamours go.... I tend to pretend they don't even exist. Makes no difference to me because I play by 'heroic laws of reality' in which armor is just there to look nice and occasionally dramatically avert a deadly blow rather than something that is absolutely required for survivability in combat. My character in particular tends not to wear much in the way of protection at all, unless she's specifically gearing up for a job that demands it. I don't explain it away as glamours, even though I'm actually using glamours in-game - she's just actually running around with her vitals exposed because that's just the kind of person she is. And yet this is what canon is going with, judging by how the WoL could have been an Au Ra all along and no one bats an eyelash. Personally, that's what I'm going with, though I find it profoundly silly for people to be RPing as Au Ra in-game before they're even released because of the aforementioned lore problems with people glamouring themselves and all of that jazz. It's just so much trouble for something that doesn't really seem to add much to one's RP.

lolololololol I knew it, but I clicked on it anyway. Still pretty funny. Would be nice if it showed up. Would be hilarious after the FF7 remake, The Last Guardian, Shenmue 3, and Platinum-developed Nier 2 all showed up.

Funny, I had close to the exact opposite reaction to this.

THAT'S THE DREAM! Too bad it's not happening for at least half a decade, if not longer. Good thing I have so much other stuff to occupy myself with in the meantime...

FINALLY. FF7 is one of those games that REALLY BADLY needed an overhaul. It's aged extremely poorly with its bizarre super-deformed 3D models. FF8 and FF9 at least look 'okay', good enough to not be eyesores, but FF7 is a whole other ball of wax. I'll be surprised if they don't continue using the 3D models on pre-rendered backgrounds in the remake, however. Because doing so would allow them to put an absolutely insane amount of detail on the character models and backgrounds. Do it Pillars of Eternity-style (but targeting higher specs, naturally). If it IS full 3D in the vein of the tech demo, well, I won't be disappointed. Either way, it's gonna look much better than the original, and that's really its biggest flaw (besides the translation work, anyway). Then again, I haven't actually played the game in ages. I'm not sure how well its gameplay holds up by modern standards...

Brayflox requires the tank to know how to dodge, hold aggro, and pull the boss out of lingering AoEs, the DPS to manage adds and not suck terribly, while the healer must know how to manage MP or go OOM especially during the final boss fight. It's all really, really basic stuff, but it's pretty jarring at times how often you run into people who don't even know the basics. Qarn, on the other hand, is a whole other ball of wax. If people know and pay attention to the mechanics, it's pretty easy. If they can't? Nothing will save you. Especially if they can't DOOODGE the beams of light at the end. Unfortunately, the dungeons never really exceed Qarn NM in terms of overall difficulty. Most of them are rough the first and second time, but after that everyone just goes on auto pilot because they have the mechanics memorized by heart and none of them really require more than just basic knowledge of the mechanics to succeed. Well, except for Aurum Vale. It's literally the only dungeon in the game that requires precise management of aggro radii. It's far too easy to pull more than you intended in there. And the worst part is that that particular skill becomes useless later on since no other dungeon has a layout so dense with mobs (and for good reason, really). Regardless if you succeed or not, however, there's definitely a HUGE difference in efficiency between a party that knows what it's doing and a party that... doesn't. The worst part about leveling a DPS class is running into a party where the tank doesn't know even how to use chain skills and the healer keeps running OOM or spams stone while ignoring the tank's HP bar. Sure, you might still get through the dungeon in the end, but it's always a grueling experience that could be improved with just very small changes. Unfortunately, the people who contribute to that may never really understand just how bad they are...

I am actually terrified that they will end up being a heavily gated mechanic that will separate the "hardcore" FCs from the rest of the player base. I hope it doesn't end up like that, but after the housing fiasco, and then how they handled the Hunts, I have to admit that I am not terribly confident about this. Definitely the "feature" I am most NOT looking forward to in Heavensward.

Lyn are extremely distinct from Elin. For starters, the character creation isn't complete arse (why the hell Elin can't have dark skin is completely beyond me), secondly they're not anywhere NEAR as sexualized (such outfits are the exception rather than the norm), and finally they can actually look old as opposed to just being this kind of creepy hybrid of adult lower half and kiddy upper half. But yes, the game is full of 'sexy' outfits for the other womenfolk, and that is something that kind of bothers me (especially when the character creation is strong enough for me to make a non-Lyn character that looks like an early teen, but then ends up wearing some really, ah, questionable material). Fortunately, there are outfits that aren't as blatant, the Kun/Yun race are also kind of an alternative that are less sexualized, and of course, you have the option of just playing as a guy (though the Gon often get gratuitous flesh exposure as well) or a Lyn. And I can't emphasize enough how insanely powerful the character creation is. It basically takes the system from Aion and applies it to better character models with four distinct races, which just means you have an insane amount of freedom to craft a unique look for yourself. And this is all besides the fact that, at least for me, the game is incredibly fun. The core gameplay loop, particularly the combat, is just so strong that I can play this game repeatedly for hours on end just because I'm enjoying myself that much. The stellar artwork, graphics, and animation work go a long way to helping that. The game's had something of 9 years worth of development and polish, and it shows. It may very well end up being the only MMORPG I play once it hits NA. Black Desert is a really odd duck. I can tell they cribbed a fair amount from Vindictus, especially in terms of the aesthetics. And each 'class' is like a predefined person rather than simply a class. Like, the sorceress has a very distinct look from the ranger, who looks very different from the Tamer, and even the character customization reflects this. Rather than having a base body that all characters share and modify, each class has their own body and face, which is really... really weird. I don't know why they do things that way.

ESO turned me off from the get-go just because their armor models are awful. It ain't no Souls game, that's for sure. Wildstar turned me off because of their really lame character creation. Well, that, and of their racial options, precisely zero appealed to me in particular. Aurin would have gotten close if the character creation were actually worth a damn, but nope. Nopenopenope! I'm REALLY picky about my character models, man. I just can't get past a game that doesn't let me make a character that looks the way I want them to look. Now, Blade & Soul, on the other hand...! Mmm, so good. I have so little to complain about with that game, it's kind of silly. Even after leveling 3 characters to the cap (two of them of the exact same class) and dealing with horrible foreigner latency and language barriers, I still love the damn game. Lyn especially appeal to me, as they're like a perfect balance between Miqo'te and Lalafell (or rather, what I wish Lalafell actually were). My favorite race in gaming thus far. I'll freely admit I am jumping ship as soon as the NA version is released. I have absolutely no qualms about that. HOWEVER, if XCOM 2 releases around the same time... Well, I'll probably die of happiness overload.

Machinist. Machinist, machinist, machinist, machinist, machinist. I WANT TO SHOOT GUN. GUN IS GOOD. GUN IS FRIEND. After that, I suppose I'm really looking forward to hearing Soken's latest work in long form. He only ever seems to get better at his craft over time. It's amazing how consistently good his work's been. And then, after that? Everything else. Basically. New areas, dungeons, main story, etc. are all on about the same level for me. Which is not to say I don't care about these things, but rather that I am simply not looking forward to them as much as I am just being able to SHOOT GUN. BLAMMO!

Personally, I'm a big fan of the more anthropomorphized moogle designs, like the ones Ian McConville did for his Mog Mod. Buuuut that's a pretty big departure from the original balloon-like design, so I'm not terribly surprised that FF12 is the last time we've seen it.

To be honest, I feel that is a bigger consideration than the class make-up of an MMORPG. Because, for the most part, there should be at least one class in any given lineup that appeals to you, since all of the major niches WILL be covered from the start, unless it's a game that's being shoved out the door too soon or something like that. The art style, on the other hand, either appeals to you or doesn't. I don't like most major western MMORPG art styles, so that alone causes me to pass on a fair number of them (especially World of Warcraft which I find anathema to my sensibilities). I just can't fully imagine someone who can't find SOMETHING they like in the quadrinity of warrior-rogue-mage-priest. Well, I don't disagree. Thing is, I'm still talking about prospective buyers here. People who've actually played the game at least for some time have a basis with which to make some kind of judgment. But a prospective buyer/trial user should have at least one class among the initial lineup that appeals to them if it covers every one of the usual niches. I mean, I'm trying to imagine the person who looks at Paladin, Warrior, Dragoon, Monk, Bard, Ninja, Black Mage, Summoner, White Mage, and Scholar and thinks "ehhhh.... I don't like any of those". How boring and one-track can you possibly be? I don't mind alienating myself from folks who think that way at all. There's no way I could find common ground with them. Not sure I'd even want to play with them. "EVERYTHING ELSE is conceptually boring... except for MY class!" Yeah, thanks, but no thanks. And this is, of course, assuming that the genre itself even appeals to them to begin with. Obviously, someone who just doesn't care for swords-and-spells high fantasy shouldn't even be looking at such titles to begin with. I certainly wouldn't recommend someone who only cares for cyberpunk and sci-fi settings to look into the game just because Machinist and Allagans (and, to a lesser extent, Garleans) are a thing, or else they'll just be set up for major disappointment. But they can already make that judgment themselves, and I'd much rather they couch their impressions in those terms instead of saying something clearly ridiculous and absurd like "none of the classes appeal to me!" when, really, the game's setting doesn't appeal to you so you should probably be looking the other way to begin with. Which I still think is absurd, because, seriously, what? But I will freely admit I am narrow-minded on this aspect, because I only ever seem to obtain ever-widening interests as I grow older. Things that I used to think were boring are now just the most fascinating things in the world to me. I feel like there is no limit to the things I want to explore and try out, and trying to imagine the people who only ever want to stick within a certain predefined niche only ever depresses me. And again, since I can't emphasize this enough, your experiences are yours! If you've actually played the game and given it more than a short test-drive I can't refute your experiences whatsoever. It's only the people who've never even touched the game and are passing judgments on the game's roster that I find much to question. Well, heh, I've already invested more energy into this shpiel than I really should have. I don't feel that strongly about it. It was just an idle observation and now I feel the need to explain and defend my thought processes. Can't be helped, I suppose. Anything that can be negatively construed gets that kind of response...

Fine. You made me do this. T'rahnu Ihka blinked and rubbed at her eyes to clear out the discomfort from the extremely sudden change of clime - a task she'd began to perform routinely as her teleporting jaunts became more common. This time, however, there was definitely something wrong - this place did not resemble any place she had even seen in Eorzea. Hells, this didn't seem like a place any Earthly body could contain! Wait... Am I in Hell!? The Seven Hells were supposed to be a fictional place, the tales of which were told to gullible children to get them to behave as according to the good of society. And yet that was the only phrase that came to mind to describe the burning, firey, torturous expanse of evil that stretched out before her. How she was not yet burning alive, or how she was even able to think at all, was simply a mystery to her. "'Ello again. Long time no see." No. No, that's impossible. What could he be doing here? Where even is here?! She slowly turned her head to face the source of that vaguely familiar voice. Though she had only met the boy for an instant, many years ago, she could not mistake that look for anything in the world - only now he was clearly fully grown, wearing a decorated robe of some kind of hellish design. His countenance had a severe expression, one doubtlessly hardened by his time spent in... wherever here was. "Wh... what? Why are you here? Where... where are we?!" "Yer my servant. An' yer goin' to help m'get out o' this... Hell." She simply stood there, staring, eyes wide, in utter disbelief. This can't be real. I must be dreaming! The first step, of course, was denial. "I... I'm not your s...!" "Kneel." Suddenly, she was hit with an overpowering urge to kneel, like doing so would go against her very nature, her entire reason for existence. She could not resist it, and soon found herself on her knees. The boy-now-man whose name she did not know reached out with a hand, and she suddenly felt a tug pulling her head to the side, something she felt should not be possible. I have nothing there! How is he...!? She reached up to feel at the side of her head, and nearly died of shock. Horns?! Why do I... Why do I have horns?! Tears welled up in her eyes as she fully realized the dire predicament she was now in. Somehow, she had been summoned to the Hells, and worse, she had been transfigured in the process. There was no mirror to look at, but even just investigating her body with her hands told her that her new countenance was now probably more demon than Miqo'te. "Good. Very good. Now... we jus' change places." He smirked, and began chanting in a tongue that she was certain no mortal was meant to hear. Wicks of burning aether began to surround him in a whirling cone, coalescing above his head, building up in a crescendo before a great flash of light consumed him... and he was gone. But she was still there. In the Hells, transformed into an abomination, and in all likelihood, stuck there for all eternity. "NO!!" She sat up straight suddenly, blinking the sweat and tears from her eyes as they registered the darkness in front of her. Relief caused her shoulders to slacken as she began to return to reality. Oh, Twelve, what a nightmare! She gasped and sobbed quietly, holding her head in her hands as she wondered at the fate of the Keeper boy she'd left behind in that one little heist some years ago, why her thoughts passed at him now, years after the fact... and especially why he was at the center of such a terrible nightmare. Surely nothing bad's happened to him... right?

I'm sorry..... what? Liek... wut?! Okay, well, first off, he IS a conjurer, so that part's kiiind of okay. The part that's NOT okay is T'rahnu somehow... being... a voidsent demon? Not to mention, Rakka'li engaging in rituals of summoning voidsent?! This is a non-starter! I'd have to rewrite both of their entire backgrounds to RP this out, and that is SO not happening! I mean... gawd, it's just so bloody hilarious how it gave me a prompt that makes absolutely no sense with either the setting or the characters. I LOVE it. It's so wrong! I'd try to RP it in spite but... yeah, wow. Haha. Damn. I know I could have just re-rolled, but this shook me up so much I just HAD to share it.

Well, my answer on this topic remains mostly unchanged: 1. Armor made out of exotic materials and charged with aether provided by materia and magic. Real-world armor need not apply. 2. Final Fantasy-style supernatural toughness, also fueled by aether. I mean, if you can take a Fire III to the face and survive, I don't see how a bullet or a bunch of shotgun pellets would be any different. 3. Final Fantasy-style 'Move Like Cloud' agility, also fueled by aether. Aether aether aether aether aether aether aether. Seriously tho, just dodge them bullets, what are you, a pleb? 4. Joestar Family Secret Technique: RUN AWAAAAAYYY!! If none of the above apply to you, who says you need to stick around to get your face blown off? Nothing beats a hasty retreat - save for an equally or more hasty chase, anyway. Just make sure you put a few obstacles between you and the source of those terrifyingly nasty flying shells. 5. Diplomacy. Wait, why's this gunman wanna gun someone as cute as you down, anyway? Surely we can all work this out? There's no need for violence. And them's muh 2c.

A bigger part of the 'consequence free' Fantasia RP, as rare as it might be, that really bothers me is simply the displayed lack of respect for how much something like your appearance, your sex, your self-image, and even your internal bodily chemistry affects everything about who you are and how you interact with the world. Part of it is likely simply sheer ignorance, possibly from a lack of perspective, education, experience, or a combination of all three, but seeing it playing out in front of me is just... well, it's not good for me, I'll put it like that. I feel like any event that life-changing should be played with the gravitas that such an event deserves, rather than played for cheap laughs or just because the writer got 'bored' (which, itself, is obviously another big red flag). But of course, on the flip side, some of these stories can be really fascinating to read through. Like many things, it's a matter of execution. I don't hate the concept itself as much as the failure of those who use the concept to immensely juvenile ends. I don't, either, especially when it contradicts a number of statements from people much higher up in rank. Anything less than Yoshida or the Japanese writing team should be considered suspect, really. Doubly so when it comes to lunchtime musings posted on Tumblr of all places. That is terribly disrespectful. The English localization team is literally down the hall from the Japanese writing team, and Koji Fox himself can be considered a part of the core writing team as he is responsible for a large portion of the collaborative effort. For all intents and purposes, they are part of one writing team that includes the Japanese writers. This is contrary to most other development houses where the localization team is a separate division or resides in another building or is even outsourced to another company entirely. As far as I'm concerned, this is as good as Word of God and there's no point trying to deny its legitimacy.

I think where you're getting confused is that I am referring to outright refusing to play a game - not even attempting to try it out - because the given classes don't appeal to you immediately as being 'narrowminded', NOT simply having a preference for one role or one class or the other. I consider a certain amount of willingness to tread new territory and try out unfamiliar things to be a basic part of modern living, so yes, I DO consider it unhealthy when someone displays that level of stagnation. On the other hand, if someone has actually experienced all of those things and given the game a fair shake, that's an entirely different matter. In that case, you have actual experience to fall back on, and obviously I cannot convince you that your experiences were somehow 'wrong' (like, duh). But that wasn't the scenario that was originally outlined. In the end, I remain wholly unconvinced that the number of players who are going to be turned off of the game entirely for lack of a specific class is anything more than a tiny minority. I also believe that a number (but not all) of the people complaining about the lack simply don't like the game in general, in which case classes still don't actually fix anything because their issues are with the core gameplay loop, something that would require a radical restructuring of the game to fix. All that being said, I am, again, in favor of some restructuring to make the game less alt-unfriendly. Shared retainers, an account-wide 'MSQ-completed' flag, and other such niceties would go a LONG way towards this. I am also not terribly opposed to the new job masters simply being located outside of Ishgard. I'm just saying that, in the end, Squeenix likely isn't going to be feeling much hurt from this decision. They're certainly not going to hear the end of it, however. Folks sure like to make their voices heard.

Well, I really don't know what to tell you, because I manage to entertain myself playing pretty much all of the classes (besides Paladin for very obvious reasons). I really do think that lots of folks confuse not liking the core combat with not liking a particular class. Odds are very high that you simply do not like the combat system itself if every single available class bores you. It's not like class mechanics change up the gameplay that much (though roles, on the other hand, obviously do). But this conversation really goes nowhere if no one actually mentions exactly what it is that they dislike about playing X class versus playing Y class versus playing another video game entirely. What do you actually like? What does the game fail at? How would another class fix those failures and/or pander more towards your particular sensibilities?