Character Creation: FFXIV vs Aion

Character Creation: FFXIV vs Aion By Daniel Owens To better my writing skills and establish a presence in the MMO gaming community are the passions that bring me here, I enjoy writing about new and upcoming MMO's. My goal is to bring to the reader as many promising MMO's as I can find. Offering insight and advice on what's worth playing.

With the days slowly counting down until Final Fantasy XIV hits retail stores all over the world, a lot of gamers attention is being focused on the current Beta. All over the internet you will discover article upon article featuring details about the upcoming MMO from Square Enix. We've all been scouring pages of videos and reviews to find new details about the game, but lets take a look at this new MMO in comparison to other current titles. Today we will be mainly focusing on Aion in particular, a comparison of the character creation system existent in both titles.

I can't help but say that when writing this article I am already to begin with a little biased. I am a huge Square Enix fanboy, and own nearly every Square Enix title released in English, even the older titles from when they were Square Soft (including the original FF games on Super Nintendo). So my opinion is a little tainted, but also lets face it; Aion is terrible.

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Aion Character Creation

Lets begin with Aion, the game uses CryEngine 1 (FarCry 1's engine) and was a very promising upcoming title, until everyone played it. I personally did like the character creation system within the game, it allowed for great customization and left you with a relatively unique character.

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The character creation system allowed for a huge array of customization options, with over 20 different faces for each sex on either side, a whole deal of different hair styles and even the ability to change your characters voice; you were left with a lot of options.

The nice touch that any character creation system should have these days is the colour wheel, preset colour tones (such as in WoW for example) are just not enough to get that perfect tone of skin or hair and is one step closer to everyone looking like clones.

The true icing on the cake, and where the game engines capabilities really shine though, lie within the true customization capabilities of Aion's Character Creation System. You are able to customize your entire face and body frame to your exact liking, truly defining you from the rest of the players. I remember making a midget scout that stood at most, up to everyone's knee-caps. She was my little pocket rocket rogue, harder to spot and dealt a great punch. This aspect was about the only thing that brought me joy from my time in Aion. Anyways, now on to what everyone REALLY cares about.

Related Aion Character Creation News:

Aion Character Individuation System Released

Details on Aion: Tower of Eternity's Character Classes

Final Fantasy XIV Character Creation

It's kind of hard to make a comparison between a final release version of a game that has had a substantial amount of time on the market to a game that has only just launched its CBT. Obviously there is going to be a lot more options available to players when Final Fantasy XIV receives a full retail release, so in this comparison we are going to look at mechanics of the character creation and not the quantity of options available (eg. Not how many different hairstyles, or faces to pick from but how you can choose them).

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