The JP FFXIV Twitter account posted some pics this morning..Follow

Kiss your TP goodbye, lolibiri are back!

those food-stealing jerks!

This makes me incredibly happy for unexplainable reasons.

They didn't reuse FFXI's .DAT.

FFXI's Version.

[Edited because apparently the person I was responding to got removed.]


Edited, Apr 16th 2013 7:35am by UltKnightGrover

... it looks the same to me!! I'm not trying to be snarky LOL.

Do I get a prize if I guess the answer? Spoiler

Yes he does, because that's his caricature.

I admit I'm not an expert on 3D modeling but the XIV mobs look definitely different than the XI ones. Maybe that's just me though. I'd love to see some mob models from other games than just XI too. Gremlins from XIII come to mind.

Well, aesthetically they look the same. For example, the FFXIV and FFXI models for the Goblins, Cactuars, and Colibri definitely have the same design.

But I seriously doubt they just copied and pasted the .DAT without making improvements to account for the higher-res textures of FFXIV ARR's graphics engine and higher specifications for the animations etc...

Edited, Apr 16th 2013 8:24am by UltKnightGrover

Just pulled the images into photoshop and layered them over one another, scaled them to the same size, and saw nearly zero difference in the models (even the texturing looks to be the same). It may have more vertices or something like that, but they were definitely created from the same original model (the smaller spikes further up on the tail even matched up identically). The beak might be slightly more "squished" but it's hard to tell because the angles aren't 100% identical, personally I think even that is the same or so close it's not really up for debate. The comment about them being "slimmer" is incorrect, as I have just looked at them pixel-for-pixel on top of one another and the bodies match perfectly (of course in game this will probably vary depending what your graphics are set to, I.E 16:9 vs 16:10 creates slimmer or wider models)

That being said... I have no problem with this, for the reasons stated before - it's an FF mob, we expect to see heavy crossover of mobs throughout the series. I would like to see some different "interpretations" of these mobs though, for example - in new areas it'd be nice to see colibri that aren't simply re-colors, but instead take on a different appearance in other ways. Some examples might be giving different breeds larger spikes, shorter beaks, giant wings, multiple wings, multiple tails, no tail, wide-finned tails, etc.

//begin sidebar-barely-related-rant
As long as they weren't just coppied in for the sake of a fillter-quest that involves killing 15 colibri or "go kill colibri and bring me 15 feathers" etc... I'm fine with it. I have this lingering feeling that we are going to see mobs just copypastad into the game en-masse and shown to the public in the next few months simply to fill grind quest holes as more of the game's "content" is "filled in".

What frustrates me is that FFXI had this really open world feel to it where you could explore and kill as you pleased, with some events here and there to really give you an experience to remember and challenges to overcome with friends. What I don't want to see is the game cheapened by eliminating the "go out and explore the world" feeling and replacing it with "do this fetch-quest then the next fetch-quest, then the next-fetch quest, and eventually you'll see everything out of necessity instead of curiosity".

I do feel FFXI should have had a "few" more obvious quest options available from levels 1-30 to just showcase what the game had to offer for a new player, but after that I'd like to just be "set free" into the world where I can explore what I want. I'm hoping FFXIV takes that approach, but from what I've seen so far, it doesn't look likely.
//endrant

yup the colibri and goblin on FFXIV look exactly the game as FFXI with just (obviously) better graphics.. which is 100% fine with me...

I mean Ifrit and Shiva look the same in almost EVERY final fantasy game with just better graphics as well right?

Yeah, those two look nothing like I can remember from other games. I like them but Ifrit is way to skinny for my taste. Clearly he is strong but at first glance your like, I can probably cut through his joints with a well-placed Great Axe or Sword.

Ifirt had looked alike up until FF IX in X he was a wolfish more akin to the one in XIV

As a cook in FFXI, I enjoyed those pink birdies.... made quite a bit of money from people. as well as other cooks did as well.