RPC has moved! These pages have been kept for historical purposes

Edgar · **03-29-2015, 03:52 PM**

(03-29-2015, 02:57 AM)Ryoko Wrote: I mean shit, the Garleans are supposed to place almost no value on the lives of their conscripts, yet even they give their healers helmets. The Garleans understand that no amount of connection with nature or aether is going to protect your face from shrapnel. So yes, if the Garleans understand it, then by extension the Devs must understand it. So now the question becomes, what the hell is wrong with Eorzeans?

My theory, here, is that from a Lore perspective it's to show that Eorzeans are more specialized, from their equipment to their skill lists, whereas Garlemald is a military, and as such, much is left to "standard issue". I don't think anything seems wrong with the Eorzeans, it's more the Garleans who have a serious problem.Â The Garlean infantry wears the same uniform for the majority of its roles. Even the guys with axes are wearing the same clothes as the "mages", and if it is true that there is some animosity towards the mooks in the Garlean war machine, I doubt its really the best armor ever, especially compared to Centurions and the many Magitek automatons. In fact, the Eorzeans seem better equipped to deal with threats in spite of an apparent loathing of helmets. Holy fuck, have you seen what that Black Mage does to a Reaper with one Fire III in the Battle of Carteneau? He blows it the fuck up and kills everyone around it. One shot, dead. So many, just, dead!Â

Another theory is that since Garleans use Magitek, not true magic, they're free to wear whatever they want. This is quite speculative, though.

The last theory, from a design perspective, is that it's so we can tell these guys are a bunch of conscripts, whereas we're the "humans". We're Eorzea! We're unique! The bad guys have no faces under those helms! It's a bad trope of dehumanizing the enemy so we can hate them more easily that's been oft repeated throughout various mediums, and I will admit I'm tiring of it, at least when it's not done to any great effect (I preferred it on Darth Vader more than I preferred it on the entire Imperial Infantry, for example).

Now then, I wanna talk Clerics,Â because it's the very thing that'd scratch your Mages-in-armor itch. Here's a typical Cleric, right here.

Kinda kickass, right? Notice the orientation of gear towards a fully offensive stance, the use of a blunt weapon, and the total lack of fucks to give. So why don't we have these in the game? It's really a combination of the Devs wanting to stick to the tried and true Jobs of FF that were the most easily recognizable for players to choose from, and that giving Cleric Stance to WHMs and SCHs (and thus making them damage dealers as well as Healers, which is basically what a Cleric IS) kind of made the point of a true Cleric class/job in the game a moot one. Why spend all that time developing a Healer/Hinder dedicated class and all the gear, quests, etc. that goes along with it when Cleric Stance does the same thing while also adding a bit of micromanagement to the primary healing classes? You don't. That's silly.

Compounding the issue further, Paladins and Clerics are like two sides of the same coin. In FF, the Paladin class can learn healing magic, and has a high hp score and defensive abilities (Just look at Cecil in FFIV and you'll know what I mean). These aspects influenced the design of the GLD/PLD in FFXIV and are still apparent to this day. The Dev team would have to go to some extreme lengths to differentiate the Cleric from the Paladin, and that might eventually go so far that the term Cleric no longer applies. Is it possible to do? Yes. Would it be time-consuming and difficult? Yes, and when combined with the stretching of its original identity, that's probably why RED and BLU have barely made it past the idea phase for FFXIV as potential jobs. Being creative and staying true to the source material is a major problem.

Rant: Mages, Cuirass, and Trends

RPC has moved! These pages have been kept for historical purposes