Oli!

Oliwat Kokiwat does the lighthearted thing 24/7 all day every day. He also adventures so often that people think he's a homeless guy. Fancy that! His concept is generally ridiculous built for misadventures, so if you want any of that, him him up. Alternatively, if you want a general friend Adalhaid Rask could also fit. They can be meek together in the corner.

How long would that organization have existed prior to the Au Ra's arrival? If it's been around for a while, I'd love for the character that I'm brainstorming to be a "retired" member of it. The gist of what I've got so far for her would be a former emotion-lacking no-nonsense swordsman that decided to attempt to put adventuring aside and serve as a butler and bodyguard for rich people instead. Much more peaceful work environment. Much more money gained each day. We haven't worked that out yet. We're really wanting to see what Heavensward does to the world, and what the lore on Dark Knights and Au Ra will be like. The organization won't be just Dark Knights (it can have any characters who operate like knights), but you never know when a lore obstacle might come up, and we are much more likely to work within the lore than try to find a way around it. Let me know when you've decided on something then! She'll likely be a PLD.

Why have a Voidsent pet when you can have an awesome soldier-robot instead?

How long would that organization have existed prior to the Au Ra's arrival? If it's been around for a while, I'd love for the character that I'm brainstorming to be a "retired" member of it. The gist of what I've got so far for her would be a former emotion-lacking no-nonsense swordsman that decided to attempt to put adventuring aside and serve as a butler and bodyguard for rich people instead. Much more peaceful work environment. Much more money gained each day.

Yeah I'm trying to think how anyone can face off against guns and drones if you're a melee combatant. Can't always be "aether" esp for characters such as mine who are all physical. Mages could counter machinists probably. Has the Matrix taught you nothing?

1x Scarf of +2 Softness 2x Golden Silk Neckties of Sharp Dressing 1x Cashmere Overcoat of +100 Style. I like to look good. 8-)

Actually, the reason why we don't see any distinctions in several of the places that you mentioned is literally due to magic. Coerthas was actually an unchanging set of grassy highlands. Then Dalamud fell, which reportedly released enough aether to permanently mess with the climes themselves, resulting in an endless and unrelenting winter. As for Thanalan, I can't remember where I heard this, but it's possible that Thanalan isn't actually a desert because it doesn't rain, but because Thaumaturges screwed with the aether at one point and ruined the place. Again, I can't remember where I heard the second one, so take it with a grain of salt. The first bit on Coerthas, however, is accessible information within the game itself. However, based on the Coerthas example, I think we might be able to propose the idea that the reason why we don't see any climate changes is because the world's aether keeps everything locked into certain specific climates, either naturally or due to other reasons. If that's the case, then we wouldn't see climate changes regardless of the tilt of Hydaelyn's axis.

I don't like IC universe porting either. OOCly, however, Oli's general job and personality has roots in other places, starting with the personality of my Asura from GW2, coupled with the knowledge-gathering job of my Sylvari (also from GW2). His concept then enjoyed some baking time as a She in a superhero MMO as a dimension-traveling scientist. A slightly more comedic version of his concept then surfaced as, well, Himself, in this game. It's been a loooong trip! ...Now that I look at it, all of these steps seem completely unrelated. But trust me, they're connected. Somehow.

I don't really think it's all that nice to say that people are nitpicking and therefore unappreciative when they don't like something. I appreciate the fact that I have a game and a lalafell in a Gandalf hat. At the same time, I personally do not like the design of the new race. I don't think I've actively told people they should not like the new race either. I dunno. That doesn't seem right to me.

This might actually be less of a visual difference and more of a gameplay difference. Skyrim, one of the most Western-Looking things out there (and arguably kind-of ugly looking in general when unmodded) was apparently the first western game ever to get a perfect score from Famitsu. And that's a big deal. That's debatable. Skyrim from Famitsu had a high rating because of the PC version and most fans in Japan already bypassed the coding to alter their character models (Lightning from FF13 ie.) - and most of the Japanese players do love their games that they can alter the models in games. (Technically FFXI .DAT model modifications were also founded by Japanese too anyways) My understanding is that the reviewers reviewed the base game, which would make all of that irrelevant. My understanding is that while there are majority people who appreciate what's given to us, there is always those who are unappreciative with what's given to us and are annoyed by it. But in the end it's always about 80% appreciative people and 20% complaining people and the developers disregard 20% people because most of them will always be nitpicky about it. Just like my point that I said about 2ch people. I don't really understand how that translates to the idea "maybe Japanese people aren't 100% hung up on aesthetics literally all the time every day" but ok. Also I reserve my right to nitpick as a RED BLUDDED MURRICAN

Something something HASTY JUDGEMENT

This might actually be less of a visual difference and more of a gameplay difference. Skyrim, one of the most Western-Looking things out there (and arguably kind-of ugly looking in general when unmodded) was apparently the first western game ever to get a perfect score from Famitsu. And that's a big deal. That's debatable. Skyrim from Famitsu had a high rating because of the PC version and most fans in Japan already bypassed the coding to alter their character models (Lightning from FF13 ie.) - and most of the Japanese players do love their games that they can alter the models in games. (Technically FFXI .DAT model modifications were also founded by Japanese too anyways) My understanding is that the reviewers reviewed the base game, which would make all of that irrelevant.

This might actually be less of a visual difference and more of a gameplay difference. Skyrim, one of the most Western-Looking things out there (and arguably kind-of ugly looking in general when unmodded) was apparently the first western game ever to get a perfect score from Famitsu. And that's a big deal. (It's also funny to note that Gears of War 3, known in some circles as Buff Western McManMeat: the Video Game, scored a 39/40.)

Hello yes I am the RACE ADVOCATOR Lalafell are the best race but since those weren't listed YOU SHOULD DO A ROEGADYN OR A HIGHLANDER THIS HAS BEEN MY PROFESSIONALLY GUIDED ADVICE HAVE A GOOD DAY (Hello! I don't know where the racial information is at the moment, though I'm sure someone here could give you something!)

At the very least, let's agree that the females are dainty as hell. Don't know how I feel about that personally but whatever, I already stated I'm not a fan because Bleh. The daintiness does make me want to make an Jeeves-style Au Ra butler though. That also swordfights because gotta protect the homeland. I'll put her in a suit and everything. It'll be such class.

Our point of disappointment, now summarized for your viewing pleasure.

You guys are getting pretty Naulty with all these ice puns and reproduction talks.

I'm expecting this class combo to be a solid 90% of their entire population, honestly.

I think their words / title were intended to be read as "am I alone in thinking that the cast of this newest installment focuses too much on visual attractiveness as opposed to varied, interesting character design, something which we have oft looked forward to in Final Fantasy for many years?" And I think that's a fair complaint. Though the game's style seems drab in general to me anyway. Could they have stated their intent better? Sure, I guess so, but I don't think they're intentionally being a bigot or anything. It's Kool guise.

IF YOU FADE OUT IT SEEMS LIKE THE MONTAGE LASTS A LONG TIIIIIMEEEEEEEEeeeeeeeeeeee You'll be fine. Could even say it was bundled up tight and inaccessible, like Chakra. Also we should femroe dark knight together because YEAH

Oh god what did I start

This. To be fair, the designs are not exactly my favorite either, because the cast looks like slightly tweaked versions of either characters ripped off from other franchises (Hello Sauske!), characters from all their previous games, or are just... pretty bland designs in general. There isn't really a single one that sticks out in my head as memorable looking except Noctis and its because, again, I can't stop thinking of him as Sauske: The FFXV version. I thought this was what we were complaining about anyway. I don't care about whether the characters look bulky or not. I care about the fact that they all look the same. XIII had this problem at times too. Yawn.

The recent art direction of the main series has made me very happy that the Tales series exists. Mmmmm. Sweet sweet cel-shading. More Tales games, Japan.

Yeah, I thought about that side of it, but generally when it comes to that sort of thing, the counter-argument would be pointing to all the games that buckle down and do that anyway. Which are quite numerous, really. Add into that fact that there are increasing numbers of dev-tools that are capable of reformatting geometry based on character models (yes, those exist), and the technical limitations shrink as well. I think it's more of an aesthetic choice as opposed to a technical design one. No game comes to mind that had beast races that didn't have them from the start. TESO for example had the Khajit and Argonian from the start, EQ same deal, WoW as well. All of these games had the luxury of starting development for armor with the idea that they needed to develop different sets of gear for different body types and what have you. It is a lot different when you take a game where all races use the same exact models and then add in a race that now uses an entirely different model, because you have to then spend extra man hours to redesign old gear sets. While it's likely part of the decision is aesthetics like you said, I think the root of the decision and ultimately the main reason is technology and time required. WoW's Worgen had body structures that were vastly different from anything else that was playable / wore a lot of armor at the time. That definitely counts as something that was added since the start of the game, and a similar argument could be made for the Pandaren. In a similar vein, EQ had the Froglok, which despite existing earlier on, only became playable (and thus required lots of armor to be made and reformatted for them) after a patch later on in the game's life. Although one could still make the argument that these games had the general idea that there might be more beast races, I think that that pre-planning is easily balanced by the fact that a lot of the tools that could be used to smooth the process along did not exist, and everything had to be done manually anyway. While I agree that Worgen are very different body type than the other races in the game, if you go look at any Worgen wearing armor you will notice that WoW pretty much just didn't design armor for the body parts that were different, essentially making it so Worgen never wear visible boots because they don't want to design paw shaped versions, and most of the helmets are just stretched over their head in the same way they do it for the Tauren. Same thing goes for the Draenei. That's the sort of armor detailing I'd expect for any beast race, really. Helmets are stretched over the head because, well, you've got to cover the head. GW2 does the same thing with the Charr. If you've got a long head, you're gonna have a long helmet. Also, most boots actually are visible, they're just designed as open-foot variants. Boots with prominent cuffs or flairs will still have those design elements present. Covered paws would look silly anyway. Like doggie booties.