Comments from the Devs

[Spira]

yeah i get that its the battle of mor dhona.. but it was never clearly explained..

and theres the whole complicated when is it echo and when isn't it? bullshit.
don't need convoluted plot devices to tell a good story..
and a majority of people didn't get it either.

[xopher]

I got it just fine. /shrug

[Fievel]

Yeah the opening CS really wasn't confusing at all. The guy had an echo, anybody who did any part of 1.0's story would know that.

[Spira]

its quite obvious he had an echo or some vision or whatever, but the question is how the echo was relevant to the main storyline.
and really, to what extent was its importance that it was featured in the opening cinematic.

while the battle at mor dhona was a turning point sure in the whole primals in eorzea thing, you wonder if it was THAT important in the original storyline to be featured that way, or whether it was just for cinematic splendor.

...this is as opposed to say FFXII's opening, which served a distinct purpose of filling you in on the background story of the world and the events that happened.

XIV's opening reeks of a lack of coordination of developing storytelling elements, in a similar way that XI's opening was planned and created before the game itself really came into shape. they then added elements from the fmv into the game...

XIV cinematics for 2.0 are a lot more focused and actually draw from the game. The events that you see are clear and serve the purposes of telling the story in a way which wouldn't have been possible without it. In this sense, it made full use of this cinematic advantage. Also, they actually tie in with gameplay. The WAR specifically uses that great axe move that is available in game. also, the 2.0 legacy mount.. stuff like that.

I mean, you can already tell 1.0's cinematic was rubbish/fluff when there's no town which features an aetheryte plaza in the same area as a levequest provider.

[Alkar]

To be honest FFXI's opening didn't make much sense either when the game launched. Is Tavnazia even mentioned before the Shadow Lord battle?
Obviously Tanaka had plans to expand the story and that battle was meant to have a bigger purpose. All was scrapped when Yoshi-P came in.

[Raldo]

Stories in Final Fantasy games are, without fail, overly convoluted. Surprise, surprise.

[Evane]

its quite obvious he had an echo or some vision or whatever, but the question is how the echo was relevant to the main storyline.
and really, to what extent was its importance that it was featured in the opening cinematic.

The echo was used in almost every quest in the game, be it a storyline quest or a class/job quest. Also one of the reasons the people of Eorzea fight the Empire is because people with the echo ability were considered filth and on the same par as the beast tribes and must be slaughtered.

I mean, you can already tell 1.0's cinematic was rubbish/fluff when there's no town which features an aetheryte plaza in the same area as a levequest provider.

That's clearly The Quicksand in Ul'dah. The aetheryte was simply moved outside beside the stairs leading to the guild to, I guess, avoid lag?

[Stanislaw]

Yoshi-P smackdown yet again on the Beta Forums. Just made a huge amount of posts.

Check Rein's thread for the trans, although he's only started working on it now.

[Evane]

I just hope some interwebs vigilantes nuke the hell out of Rokien's PC.

[xopher]

Yoshi-P smackdown yet again on the Beta Forums. Just made a huge amount of posts.

Check Rein's thread for the trans, although he's only started working on it now.

Links when you get em

[miokomioko]

That's clearly The Quicksand in Ul'dah. The aetheryte was simply moved outside beside the stairs leading to the guild to, I guess, avoid lag?

The lore thread on the OF went into details about this a while back. The guildleve that triggers the protagonist's Echo experience actually says "Limsa Lominsa" on it because that interior was how they originally designed the Limsa Lominsan Adventurers' Guild back when S-E's CG department began working on the cinematic. They did, indeed, eventually push the in-game Aetheryte outside of the guild to avoid the congestion. However, by the time they decided to do that, the intro cinematics were too far along to go back and redesign the interior and re-storyboard the whole introductory scene.

So, they are specifically in the Drowning Wench. The Aetheryte was just moved outside and the interior slightly altered. You can actually pinpoint some of the Lominsan architecture when it pans around the room.

At least they admitted that blunder.

[Evane]

I stand corrected. The plants and the round interior made me think of the quicksand. But still my point was the town showed in the trailer was featured in the game.

[miokomioko]

Yeah, a lot of people were just assuming it was supposed to be Ishgard or something because that was the only Adventurers' Guild we haven't seen.

I'm pretty sure it was originally designed after this early 'Rapture' concept art.

I think the only thing that doesn't quite line up from the introduction cinematic and the actual game is the design of Mor Dhona. The glimpse they show you of the Silvertear Falls area looks geographically nothing like actual Mor Dhona. I know it's supposed to be all dried up and lifeless since the Echo scenes, but Mor Dhona's terrain couldn't have had all the waterfalls and shit that they show before the Malboro battle.

When will they learn that players want to eventually explore and play in areas that are showcased in cutscenes, intros, demos, etc. This is why playing the secret intro/demo level in Super Mario World was such a damn treat. This is why the complete lack of Tavnazia proper in FFXI is such a kick in the pants.

[Sephiroth]

Yeah I was very disappointed when I found the Silvertear Falls from the intro wasn't actually in the game. There was a Silvertear Falls on the map though so I always assumed it was there but being kept for a future expansion. Funny enough this remake actually gives them the chance to put that back in Mor Dhona, from what we see of it in the new intro it's back to being green but still very different to the one in the original intro. I wonder if the crashed airship will be in ARR somewhere.

[Niiro]

Yeah, a lot of people were just assuming it was supposed to be Ishgard or something because that was the only Adventurers' Guild we haven't seen.

I'm pretty sure it was originally designed after this early 'Rapture' concept art.

I think the only thing that doesn't quite line up from the introduction cinematic and the actual game is the design of Mor Dhona. The glimpse they show you of the Silvertear Falls area looks geographically nothing like actual Mor Dhona. I know it's supposed to be all dried up and lifeless since the Echo scenes, but Mor Dhona's terrain couldn't have had all the waterfalls and shit that they show before the Malboro battle.

When will they learn that players want to eventually explore and play in areas that are showcased in cutscenes, intros, demos, etc. This is why playing the secret intro/demo level in Super Mario World was such a damn treat. This is why the complete lack of Tavnazia proper in FFXI is such a kick in the pants.

Considering the large amount of mountains/plateaus and crags and crevasses in the zone I don't see why it would be so farfetched.

Huge parts of the zone (mostly in the N) were at a much higher elevation than the southern areas, I don't think it's so hard to imagine how the waterfalls and everything might have been before the whole fallout.

[miokomioko]

Considering the large amount of mountains/plateaus and crags and crevasses in the zone I don't see why it would be so farfetched.

Huge parts of the zone (mostly in the N) were at a much higher elevation than the southern areas, I don't think it's so hard to imagine how the waterfalls and everything might have been before the whole fallout.

I tried to assume that, but (and I think it's because of the copypastaterrain), nothing there looked like it held water, especially not those huge, wide waterfalls and completely flat plateaus they poured from in the Silvertear Falls scenes. Aside from that, I don't think there necessarily was any physical damage done to the area, just a completely halted/obstructed aetherial flow which made the region slowly wither.

I'm hoping they do it right this time and make the zone actually resemble the shape it used to be, just sans plants/water. You should be able to walk around there and actually see the relation and recognize it to some degree. Though, since that intro cinematic is no longer relevant to the game, they probably won't bother. This actually makes me more curious about what they're going to do with the massive and iconic Midgardsormr landmark since it won't be familiar to new players.

[Lucavi]

Stories in Final Fantasy games are, without fail, overly convoluted. Surprise, surprise.

We went to the moon, yo.

[Spira]

To be honest FFXI's opening didn't make much sense either when the game launched. Is Tavnazia even mentioned before the Shadow Lord battle?
Obviously Tanaka had plans to expand the story and that battle was meant to have a bigger purpose. All was scrapped when Yoshi-P came in.

The thing about FFXIs opening is that it is infinitely more relevant than XIVs for 3 main reasons.

1) Even if the cinematic didn't do the best job at telling a story, the narration did. It fills you in on the Crystal War and the alliance of Altana. You didn't need to 'figure out' when watching it that the scene was from the Great War. The only thing we didn't know was where the battleground was. XIV had to be figured out much later on.

2) The characters in the cinematic actually exist. Both Aldo and Emeline (Mathilde) were in the core game from the very beginning, and (re)introducing Aldo in the mission storyline definitely works as a way to highlight his significance as an NPC. I know when I first played i was like.. is this the guy from the opening scene?

XIVs characters are meant to symbolize adventurers sure, but the lack of anyone anchoring the scene made it hard to do storytelling. It might be this fact that led them to keep the same characters (esp. the male hume lead) in portraying adventurers for ARR cutscenes. He will probably never have an identity but the familiarity provides that anchor

3) Both games were designed with rich history, to be sure, but the Crystal War was the main event and biggest one prior to the start of the game that contributed to the rise in the Age of Adventurers. There is an immediate causality between it and the initial game, and they actually make a lot of mention to the Crystal War pretty much everywhere. Promo material, missions, npc text, etc.

The Battle at Mor Dhona was an odd choice to me, mainly because it didn't have such a causal link. It did mark the halt of the Garlean invasion, except this was never mentioned, but rather that they "mysteriously" stopped invading the Eorzea city-states. Considering the focus they placed on the invasion of Ala Mhigo being the trigger for the premise of adventurers, and it being the most prominent part of promo material regarding the backdrop of the game, i'd think that might have been a better thing to portray.

I think the only thing that doesn't quite line up from the introduction cinematic and the actual game is the design of Mor Dhona. The glimpse they show you of the Silvertear Falls area looks geographically nothing like actual Mor Dhona. I know it's supposed to be all dried up and lifeless since the Echo scenes, but Mor Dhona's terrain couldn't have had all the waterfalls and shit that they show before the Malboro battle.

When will they learn that players want to eventually explore and play in areas that are showcased in cutscenes, intros, demos, etc. This is why playing the secret intro/demo level in Super Mario World was such a damn treat. This is why the complete lack of Tavnazia proper in FFXI is such a kick in the pants.

This is how i feel too.

[Alkar]

The thing about FFXIs opening is that it is infinitely more relevant than XIVs for 3 main reasons.

1) Even if the cinematic didn't do the best job at telling a story, the narration did. It fills you in on the Crystal War and the alliance of Altana. You didn't need to 'figure out' when watching it that the scene was from the Great War. The only thing we didn't know was where the battleground was. XIV had to be figured out much later on.

2) The characters in the cinematic actually exist. Both Aldo and Emeline (Mathilde) were in the core game from the very beginning, and (re)introducing Aldo in the mission storyline definitely works as a way to highlight his significance as an NPC. I know when I first played i was like.. is this the guy from the opening scene?

XIVs characters are meant to symbolize adventurers sure, but the lack of anyone anchoring the scene made it hard to do storytelling. It might be this fact that led them to keep the same characters (esp. the male hume lead) in portraying adventurers for ARR cutscenes. He will probably never have an identity but the familiarity provides that anchor

3) Both games were designed with rich history, to be sure, but the Crystal War was the main event and biggest one prior to the start of the game that contributed to the rise in the Age of Adventurers. There is an immediate causality between it and the initial game, and they actually make a lot of mention to the Crystal War pretty much everywhere. Promo material, missions, npc text, etc.

The Battle at Mor Dhona was an odd choice to me, mainly because it didn't have such a causal link. It did mark the halt of the Garlean invasion, except this was never mentioned, but rather that they "mysteriously" stopped invading the Eorzea city-states. Considering the focus they placed on the invasion of Ala Mhigo being the trigger for the premise of adventurers, and it being the most prominent part of promo material regarding the backdrop of the game, i'd think that might have been a better thing to portray.



This is how i feel too.

Yes but none of that was available at XI's launch. Don't forget that the game launched in the US with a full expansion. In Japan the game basically stopped after the Shadow Lord battle in the city missions and really none of that was available at the time.
Tanaka was going to eventually expand on the opening just like he did in XI but things didn't go as planned.

[Spira]

i think you're mistaken by which missions i mean.
All of what i mentioned was available at launch.

We meet Aldo for the first time in Tenshodo as part of the original mission storyline which requires you to retrieve the magicite from beastmen strongholds. We just don't get to know him that well until Zilart, ACP and ASA tho.
Mathilde on the other hand has always been in Selbina, tho only CoP and ACP storylines bother to point this out, and otherwise theres no way to reunite the siblings.

Tavnazia wasn't suddenly introduced in CoP, and has been referenced fairly often even before Zilart release, with the most significant one being the WHM AF quest, which was introduced when the level cap was raised to 60, in Nov 2002, which was 6 months into the launch of FFXI in Japan.