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It only took a decade, but Final Fantasy 14 finally added an extra dye channel to a multitude of armour when Dawntrail released last year. It’s, unfortunately, been rather hit-or-miss, with that second dye channel ranging from changing actual important things like overcoats or stitching, to ridiculous details like a tiny belt buckle.
Older gear seems to have bore the brunt when it comes to ridiculous secondary dye channel choices, a trend that’s continued after Square Enix gave double dyes to a handful more gear with this week’s Patch 7.2.
The victims? Well, taking a peek at the Final Fantasy 14 subreddit, we can see some particularly atrocious crimes against fashion: There’s the Gryphoskin Breastguard—a particular favourite of mine, but one I’ve always wished could have its its leather bra dyed differently from the ruffly bandeau underneath.
Instead, Square Enix seems to have breezed right past that and instead asked, “Wouldn’t you like to change the colour of the tiny eyelets you probably haven’t even noticed until now?” Er, not really, but that’s what we ended up with.
Now this is an unfortunate consequence of how dyeing armour works in Final Fantasy 14, it seems. A very handy Reddit comment from Dawntrail’s launch explains that gear works in layers, ones that seemingly have very little rhyme or reason to them. The first layer could be the main, bulky, dyeable piece, while the second layer could be a tiny ring or jewel detail.
If Square Enix has simply flipped the “dyebale” switch on the second layer for everything—which seems to be the case—this is how we end up with some particularly goofy choices. Like the Coeurl Tanga, whose second dye channel has been banished to its anklet rather than letting folks jazz up the print a little bit.
Or the Taffeta Loincloth—an item that has long frustrated me about the fact its little hip cape changes to a gross colour as soon as you try and pop a dye on—which has instead opted for the little metal clips on the thighs instead. Granted, I am quite excited to be able to change those, but my hip cape!
Some folk aren’t too happy about the choices, with one Redditor lamenting the Gryphoskin Breastguard’s choices: “WHAT THE HELL? I’ve been looking forward to a second dye channel for this top… seriously why even bother at this point?” Another commenter called it “embarrassingly bad,” and another quipped “I feel like you could legitimately make a party game out of ‘Spot the second dye channel’ in a lot of gear.”
Thankfully it’s not all tragedy over here: For one, I really like being able to dye the inner ear fur on the Tamamo Headband now, and I am absolutely stoked that my favourite weapon—the Dancer relic from Shadowbringers—finally gets a dye channel that isn’t the small jewels inserted into the chakrams.
I do wish a little more care and attention was put into what stuff was getting dyed, and I understand Square Enix’s hesitance to dramatically overhaul any dye channels already in place. Glamour is the endgame, after all, and I could imagine some folk being upset if stuff ended up looking different to what they’ve become used to. But surely, there’s a middle ground between “entire overhaul” and “miniscule hardware detailing.” Surely.
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Kurt Indovina
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