Alpha First Look: Video 2 - New Gridania - 11/08/12

[Gokulo]

I was puking with Limsa theme after 1.0 Alpha

[Eagleheart]

I was puking with Limsa theme after 1.0 Alpha

Good sir, that is sacrilege, and I challenge you to a crafter's duel in 2.0.

(>_> ) Wrist Flick > Throw Stone, ten paces. I shall see you on the battlefield.

[millionsknives]

Seeing this video, and how much the zones have changed, makes me really excited to see the new Ul'dah areas based on it's concept art. I think it'll actually live up to the art, which at first I couldn't believe because the scale is so massive:

[miokomioko]

Limsa Lominsa / La Noscea music is the most burned into my brain since the original beta. I even notice my roommate whistling it around the apartment.

[kisada]

love the zoning. i can't wait to accidentally go back into the zone i came from. GONNA BE SO NOT ANNOYING ANYMORE

[Lucavi]

My thoughts: It's got potential. Pretty good potential. They cleaned up the running animation to look less stiff, the colors look nice, and the whole design and music reminds me very much of FXII, which had a great overall vibe to it when running through that world. This vid reminds me of a fusion of XI and XII with a lethal injection of next-gen, and I'm just fine with that.

I'd like to be able to mod it to have more lush, like you can do with Skyrim, but it's looking very good.

[Oreth]

My thoughts: It's got potential. Pretty good potential. They cleaned up the running animation to look less stiff, the colors look nice, and the whole design and music reminds me very much of FXII, which had a great overall vibe to it when running through that world. This vid reminds me of a fusion of XI and XII with a lethal injection of next-gen, and I'm just fine with that.

I'd like to be able to mod it to have more lush, like you can do with Skyrim, but it's looking very good.

Would that be possible with an online MMO game? To get those high res mods on your local machine but it still runs well online?

[drwaffles]

Limsa's theme was almost good, but it made the mistake of being too sweeping and grand. I think it's a good idea to keep town/hub themes pretty understated as a general rule. Since you spend a lot of time faffing around in towns doing general bits and bobs, having a great bit blaring theme like Limsa's playing constantly is pretty wearing and headache-inducing. It also doesn't make sense aesthetically considering towns are supposed to be safe havens. The grandiose music should be saved and used appropriately for the exciting parts of the game.

I think XI did town music really well aside from possibly present-day San d'Oria since the bagpipes start to grate rapidly. Windurst, Bastok, Jeuno, Tavnazian Safehold, Rabao, Kazham, Norg, Mhaura, Selbina and Whitegate/Al Zahbi all had perfect BGM.

[vadre]

As others have said, liking the UI tweaks they're making and the things they're taking from XII. Yoshi's already said at some point in the past that he's interested in taking those aggro indicator lines from FFXII too so I'd be interested to see how/if that works without being too obtrusive.

http://www.dualshockers.com/wp-conte...0/ffxii_04.jpg

[miokomioko]

Aggro indicator lines would be lovely for pointing out the moron that pulls hate/aggros shit/etc.

[Spider-Dan]

Sharp zone lines are nice.
3:07 brought a big smile to my face. I'm hoping that elevation edges are locked until you jump; I like the idea of jumping down cliffs for shortcuts, but I don't miss the days of being sent to Garlaige basement because you're trying to avoid a link, or the even more harsh EQ days of "cat knocks over your drink, you look up and you're falling 1000 feet into a pool of lava".

I also get more of an XI feel from this game, though I can't really tell if that's because I strongly associate newness with early XI days.

[Gokulo]

Ehh, give me a time machine ; ;

[Spider-Dan]

Limsa's theme was almost good, but it made the mistake of being too sweeping and grand. I think it's a good idea to keep town/hub themes pretty understated as a general rule. Since you spend a lot of time faffing around in towns doing general bits and bobs, having a great bit blaring theme like Limsa's playing constantly is pretty wearing and headache-inducing. It also doesn't make sense aesthetically considering towns are supposed to be safe havens.

because pirates

[miokomioko]

I don't miss the days of being sent to Garlaige basement because you're trying to avoid a link

I'm probably in the minority, but I liked Garlaige's death holes. We already have careful-footing environments in Aurum Vale, I wouldn't be surprised if they made more... and I hope they do! (Aside from the fact that it makes playing with stupid people even worse.)

[Spira]

wow.
I'm very impressed overall, but the thing that catches me most this time round is the music..

i'm assuming SOKEN is behind all this.. and im not too familiar with his style..
but Gridania's music is remarkably ambient..
it starts with your typical grandiose stuff, and at 50s you get to see some kind of town theme.. (which uses an instrumental rhythm slightly reminiscent of windurst), at 2:39, you get to hear a motif that was featured in the Gamescom demo of the game while running around the black shroud. (it was a piano solo). I'm not even sure if its all in 1 track anymore, because it could just be very well timed ceding.
3:10 introduces another melody.. which i've been told resembles the Shire lol. it picks up in 3:49, but what interests me is that at 4:04 theres another identiable riff from somewhere else.. which is the "A Realm Reborn" trailer (1:08).

what i'm getting at is that I love how they're building on familiar motifs to connect the game this time round, to a noticeable degree that already works even before the ARR is released. this is useful because central themes can and do build familiarity for players and form a connection with the player.

this is something legacy really lacked. it had no central themes whatsoever. the melody supposed theme song for the game (Answers) is found nowhere else in the original scoring of the game. the tracks may have individually been good or nice, but it was entirely incoherent, thematically inconsistent and just all over the place. with all due respect to Uematsu, he should stay far away from MMORPGs

[Cichy]

Love the fact that the Grand Company headquarters are out in the open in the middle of town

[millionsknives]

Love the fact that the Grand Company headquarters are out in the open in the middle of town

What time is this shown? (I haven't played in a long time so I don't know what to look for.)

[Insanecyclone]

Zone lines from 12 is great.

[Cichy]

What time is this shown? (I haven't played in a long time so I don't know what to look for.)

it's the building with yellow flags at 3:53, all the headquarters used to be just inside a room that you had to zone into through the wards

[miokomioko]

I also appreciate how loud-and-clear each class guild is labeled with big red/black banners. The small docks got me curious where one might be able to take water-based transportation out of the Black Shroud.

They really took that "copy-pasta" criticism to heart, nothing looks obviously reused at first glance here (unless you're really looking for tree models and whatnot). It also looks like they got water refraction looking good (the posts of the dock can be seen through the water), now I'm just waiting for dynamic reflections though I'm not sure if I'll hold my breath for that one although it may have just been a shortcoming of Crystal Tools as XIII couldn't do it either.