Heavensward & Knights of the Round

The KotR are in Heavensward, and I figured that'd be a decent thing to mention here, especially since this along with Diamond Weapon's appearance in Kingsglaive is giving us a look at some of what these things may appear like with updated visuals in the Remake, since they've both been done in close proximity to the Remake being worked on (even if those things are both very late game with it being a multi-part installment).






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I love this iteration of Knights of the Round and the fact that each knight has their own name now. Great stuff.

That fight is among my favorites in FFXIV based almost entirely on aesthetics. Ultimate End is awesome.

I felt stupid that I didn't really notice that these guys were the Knights of the Round until they transformed and I saw their outfits, but I was pretty pumped when I did.

Heavensward is dripping with classic Final Fantasy lore. Matoya's Cave is a primary quest location and it plays a remastered version of her original theme.

That said Kingsglaive's old gods were also modeled after KOTR. I think the push for FF7 visuals lately is not just because of the remake but because - frankly - it's the most universally known / loved / whored out of all the Final Fantasys.

I just hope it doesn't take so long to summon them this time around, and I hope we can skip the animation if we want to like in Crisis Core.

X-SOLDIER:76 said:

The KotR are in Heavensward, and I figured that'd be a decent thing to mention here, especially since this along with Diamond Weapon's appearance in Kingsglaive is giving us a look at some of what these things may appear like with updated visuals in the Remake, since they've both been done in close proximity to the Remake being worked on (even if those things are both very late game with it being a multi-part installment).

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What does this exactly mean?

Yeah, I did the KOTR fight today and every time I do it I'm blown away by the job the art team did with it. That feeling when the screen cracks... yeah... I can't wait to see the remake version of it.

Lulcielid said:

X-SOLDIER:76 said:

The KotR are in Heavensward, and I figured that'd be a decent thing to mention here, especially since this along with Diamond Weapon's appearance in Kingsglaive is giving us a look at some of what these things may appear like with updated visuals in the Remake, since they've both been done in close proximity to the Remake being worked on (even if those things are both very late game with it being a multi-part installment).

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What does this exactly mean?

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• FFVII: Remake was announced June 15th, 2015 (where it's confirmed that some work on it's been happening already). Heavensward was released a week later.
• Kingsglaive was released on August 17th, 2016 (while the Remake is actively being worked on).

They're both developed by SE at very close to the same time the Remake is being worked on. For Kingsglaive, they provided the initial concept art for the Diamond Weapon Demon that was rendered for the film, so it's not unreasonable to assume that some of that work might be coming from things that are also going into designs for the Remake for both KotR in Heavensward and Diamond Weapon in Kingsglaive.




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X-SOLDIER:76 said:

• FFVII: Remake was announced June 15th, 2015 (where it's confirmed that some work on it's been happening already). Heavensward was released a week later.
• Kingsglaive was released on August 17th, 2016 (while the Remake is actively being worked on).

They're both developed by SE at very close to the same time the Remake is being worked on. For Kingsglaive, they provided the initial concept art for the Diamond Weapon Demon that was rendered for the film, so it's not unreasonable to assume that some of that work might be coming from things that are also going into designs for the Remake for both KotR in Heavensward and Diamond Weapon in Kingsglaive.

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Kingsglaive and the Remake have different development teams, I don´t see how the product of one team will be use in the other since Square has never done that, Just like how despite FF8 & FF9 being developed closely at the same time the stuff made from the former didn´t end up in the later (the same applies to FF10 & FF11 which started development on the same year)

Heavensward being released a week after the trailer for FF7R seems like a stretch, since the expansion had been in development for quiet some time prior to that as well.

(plus different teams, etc)

I am aware that there are different teams working on them (because SE is a sizeable company there's got to be an allocation of resources and compartmentalion to ever get things done). Also, unlike a lack of crossover between FFX&XI or VIII&IX, there IS FFVII-based content in Heavensward & Kingsglaive, which is why I bring it up at all.

My comment is that those may have come about through synergy amongst the teams, since FFVII:R is a big project, and concept art of designs for iconic FFVII things like KotR and Diamond Weapon would start being made well in advance of developing those things within the yet-to-be-released-later-parts-of-the-Remake. So, another team putting those early concept designs into use elsewhere (because Final Fantasy lets that happen) as Heavensward and Demons makes sense.




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Seems a bit specious to me.

Regardless of connections or not between FFVIIR and projects that use FFVII material, it is always cool to see the original game's contents updated to modern graphics. Just the fact that these modern designs of Knights of the Round and Diamond Weapon exist means that the FFVIIR team has more inspiration to draw from. I wouldn't be mad if the designs of KotR and Diamond Weapon end up almost identical in FFVIIR to what we've seen in FFXIV and FFXV.

Pretty much the only part of Kingsglaive that I was really, REALLY pleased with was the Knights showing up to duke it out with Diamond, kaiju style.

squeals of glee

On a note only slightly related to the topic of this thread, when I saw those dudes being referred to as the Heavens' Ward in the video X posted, I wondered if I was going to have to eat crow for ribbing Lex and Jason last May over how they were pronouncing the name of the expansion. I hoped not, so I also looked at a video of this scene in the Japanese version ( ) and saw that they're referred to there as "the Heaven Knights" (蒼天騎&#22763 -- or, if one so preferred, "the Heavens' Ward." Apparently the official English designation on the OST for the track that plays here, 蒼天騎士団 ("The Chivalric Order of Heaven"), is also "The Heavens' Ward."

Ironically, it seems that the English subtitle is actually "more official" than the Japanese subtitle (the full Japanese title being ファイナルファンタジーXIV: 蒼天のイシュガルド -- "Final Fantasy XIV: Heavens of Ishgard") given its prominence over the Japanese rendering in the official logo, and since Naoki Yoshida refers to the expansion by the English subtitle. That being the case, it's almost certain that "The Heavens' Ward" is actually the preferred official name for these knights.

That being said, based on these comments from Yoshida at the FFXIV Fan Festival in Las Vegas in 2014, the title of the expansion is apparently still intended to indicate a direction (i.e. toward the heavens) while also serving as a pun (to be realized while playing) with the order of knights, so it's probably still intended to be said in the directional sense:

新しいタイトルに注目してください。HEAVENWARDという単語には“天に至る”という意味がありますが、皆さんご存知のとおり、エオルゼアにはたくさんの神がいます。さらにエオルゼアの場合には天に至る道がたくさんあるため、タイトルの“HEAVENSWARD”も複数形になっています。このことはとても重要なので、ぜひ覚えておいてください。タイトルロゴは一新され、天野喜孝さんに描き起こしてもらいました。背後にはドラゴンやそびえるイシュガルド、そして手前に竜騎士と何人ものナイトたちが描かれています。こちらも深い意味を持つものなので、ぜひ覚えておいてください。

"Please pay attention to the new title. The word HEAVENWARD has the sense of 'toward Heaven,' but as we all know, there are many gods in Eorzea. Furthermore, as there are many paths to the heavens in Eorzea's case, the title has been rendered in the plural form as 'HEAVENSWARD.' This is very important, so please remember. The title logo has been redesigned, and I had Yoshitaka Amano-san draw it. In the background is a dragon and Ishgard towering above while in the foreground is a Dragon Knight and a number of other knights. As this also has a deeper meaning, please remember it as well."

I think I got that right anyway.

So, basically, Yoshida specified the "toward the heavens" meaning and pronunciation, but he also liked the second meaning that could be found with The Heavens' Ward, and therefore had Amano include them in the logo.



On a note more related to the topic of this thread, here's a cool comparison video of the original Knights of the Round summon animation from FFVII alongside the rendering of Ultimate End seen in Heavensward (you may need a nicovideo account to watch it):

http://www.nicovideo.jp/watch/sm26615865

The Twilight Mexican said:

On a note more related to the topic of this thread, here's a cool comparison video of the original Knights of the Round summon animation from FFVII alongside the rendering of Ultimate End seen in Heavensward (you may need a nicovideo account to watch it):

http://www.nicovideo.jp/watch/sm26615865

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That niconico video was FANTASTIC.




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