With the recent release of the Final Fantasy XIV expansion, Dawntrail, the hugely popular MMO has been going from strength to strength with its storytelling and battle content. You can check out our review here, in which we gave the overall expansion a pretty high score. As you may recall, the game originally launched way back on the PS3, which gave it some limitations when it comes to graphics, from the characters to the environments. With Dawntrail however, Square has overhauled the engine and pushed the graphics further than they ever have before.
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This includes improved locations; some of the newer zones are stunners, with the final zone in particular being quite the standout. But the big change and one that worried a lot of players was the fact character models were going to be updated. For some people, this was a real worry as they already have a history with the character they made, and any changes could be upsetting. Fortunately, it seems these changes have been implemented well and I haven’t really heard any major complaints at the results; quite the opposite, in fact, as lots of folk have expressed their satisfaction with the changes.
The first image is before the expansion, and the second image is after the graphical update for each of these examples.
Our first example of the change is this fancy Roegadyn who is named Big Volley. As you can see there is an increased level of detail in the skin textures, with the whole model now looking incredibly different. The amount of detail increased with the new lighting system really allows you to see the stunning improvements they have made with the texture work and overall models. The coat has so much detail in the 2nd image, you can see the stitching and the different types of fabric that makes up the outfit.
This fabulous Viera is also a great example of the new textures, with the ears looking even more fluffy then they did previously. Though its hard to tell in the photo, you can also see the improved textures and detail in the fingers, with them looking more blocky in the original release of the game, but now with the increased polygon count and texture work they far more realistic. Thank you to Kialandi Jiager for the images.
With these images of Sam Pharos, you can see how the improved lighting effects really impact the character models, plus the improved looking armour sets that now support the two dye channel system. Yep, with Dawntrail, you are now able to dye armour with two different colours. Some older sets do include this feature at launch but they plan to rollback and add more of the older gear in the future as the expansion continues with patch content.
Here we have a very stylish-looking Viera named Shinx Flash, which really helps showcase the point earlier in the article about the improved lighting effects on both the environment and the models. The second image really illustrates the huge improvement with the models and the environment from the previous expansions.
Though not the best comparison here, you can see the improvement in the hair texture and also how the ears have slightly more detail than before. In addition, the second image shows off the new glasses feature. Previously, glasses had to be glamoured in headslot in the armoury meaning you couldn’t wear a hat and glasses. Now glasses have their own equipment slot, allowing for headgear and glasses, so any headpiece now works with them (Unless you are a Viera or Hrothgar, in which case some headpieces are not visible on your character). The character in screenshots is Daddy Chille (my character!) on Gilgamesh, Aether.
Those are some really cool looking character models. The update to them was really impressive and yes, I snuck in my lalafell in the comparison – it just had to be done. But for those folk who did not enjoy the changes, FFXIV also added a quest in which you can earn a free Fantasia. These items are normally sold for real money on the cash store, but as the development team were aware that the changes were such a major deal, they are allowing folk to get one free from a questline in Ul’dah.
Overall, I feel like there has been a massively positive impact with the changes made to FFXIV. One thing is though not all NPCs have been updated with the graphical improvements, so they won’t look quite as polished. However, this is planned to be fixed over time with the Dawntrail patch cycle. With so many characters in the game due to it being 11 years old I feel like this is a respectable compromise, and most of the characters have been spruced up anyway.
Thank you to Square Enix & Bastion PR for providing the images used in the article.