Final Fantasy 14 Upgraded! The NEW 7.0 Graphics Update Tested on Consoles and PC



Final Fantasy’s latest Dawntrail expansion has arrived – and we have some content on that for you – but the big news is that Square has revamped the visuals to better take advantage of current-gen consoles. Guest reviewer Marc ‘Try4ce’ Duddleson knows this game inside and out and has been tracking its progress for years, so who better than to tackle Final Fantasy 14’s latest chapter?

Xbox review here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qGArhmOaea0
Our BIG game retrospective/PS5 review here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=trIiUXdEyo0

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00:00 – Intro
02:01 – Ambient Occlusion
06:42 – Soft Shadows
10:31 – Lighting Upgrades
11:46 – Grass and Flowers
13:43 – Textures and Shaders
21:40 – Character Rendering
24:18 – Clothes and Equipment
26:43 – Anti-Aliasing
31:45 – DLSS and FSR
35:37 – 120Hz on Consoles
38:55 – 30fps Limiter on Consoles
40:46 – Conclusion

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26 thoughts on “Final Fantasy 14 Upgraded! The NEW 7.0 Graphics Update Tested on Consoles and PC”

  1. As an Au Ra player I am saddened by the limbal rings not always having the same intensity of their glowing effect at all times like they did prior to 7.0. That being said though, their glow effect in darker areas and at night after 7.0 is much more noticeable and I do quite like that. There is also some unintended subsurface scattering on their horns that the dev team have addressed and will be fixing in the future, so no more oddly glowing horns when viewed in sunlight at least for raen as I don't think xaela have this issue.

    An odd thing I noticed that was briefly touched upon in the anti-aliasing segment, I've noticed some odd image ghosting on PS5 when moving the camera quickly. Most noticeable when zoomed close to your character and moving the camera you'll see a ghosted image of your character. I'm not sure if it's the anti-aliasing causing this, but I don't recall seeing this prior to 7.0

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  2. I love deep dives and this was great, but if I could provide some feedback, I definitely think there is too much back and forth between topics, and paragraphs that are longer than they need to be, I think a shorter and more concise video if possible would be better. Sticking to main talking points and structure it less mixed up

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  3. I don't really play the game anymore, but I must say the differences, at least to me, are massive. Everything from shadows and lighting to material quality and reflections look significantly enhanced, and even on PS5 and XSX the difference is very different now. It looks fantastic on PC, but I still want to give credit to the developers for making it look so good on PS5 and XSX. I guess I'd be in the minority since it seems a lot of players think the graphical update wasn't very good but from what I'm seeing in the side-by-side shots, it looks much better AFTER the update. The metal is now more metallic and reflective looking, which I think is great. You can see the shine/reflection on random pieces of furniture like a dresser, also the updated grass/flowers look WAY better now as well. 7:40 is a good side-by-side shot, you can see the rocks more clearly, the grass looks better, obviously the shadows are much more detailed with the sunlight/lighting looking more natural. 14:21 and onward was also a great side-by-side comparison as well. I think all the new textures in general look great, but that sharp grass, stone/rock, and dirt texture look amazing compared to the original.

    In a way it makes me want to get back into the game just to run around and experience the new graphical overhaul if anything.

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  4. "I've covered the dialogue over the cutscenes to avoid spoilers"
    Me who just finished ARR for the first time having neuron activation upon seeing Minfilia, Thancred, and upgraded Alphinaud
    Wait, they lived?

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  5. Thanks Marc!

    For those complaining about DLSS there are reddit threads with several fixes

    I just use the JitterFix add-on in combination with the lastest DLSS .dll file from Nvidia

    Blurriness almost gone and im satisfied with image quality now.

    OBS: I just use DLSS for DLAA in this game , not for upscaling.
    DLAA seems to be the best AA solution by some margin

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