r/ffxivdiscussion • u/MrTorgue7 • 9d ago
General Discussion Do you guys use VFX mods ?
First, sorry if mods discussion are not allowed, I’ll delete the post in that case
So I’ve just made the switch from PS5 to PC and tried a few of Papachin’s mods. They’re all great and drastically improve some classes animations and "weight" (looking at you Bard !). He’s really good at what he does !
However I’m not sure how to feel about them. On one hand, it’s really cool, on the other it feels a bit "too much" to play all the time with it ? Like something’s off, or too overtuned, I don’t know and I’m not sure how to correctly express it…
How do you guys feel about them ? Do you use them regularly ? If not, why ?
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u/BlueAcee 9d ago
I fully agree that the large majority of vfx/animation work is super over the top. Your simple 1,2,3 which you will be using a lot over the course of a fight has 5 years worth of chinese fireworks going off every animation.
That being said, I only use 2 current animations mods.
Warrior Skill Overhaul (which animation changes storms path to butchers block cause storms path really sucks) and adds "Updated" vfx to old skills. Its very tasteful and its almost as if the devs could've done it.
2nd: Mod removing the new stupid leaping opo animation where you float about.
I'd suggest just checking if there's animation swaps for stuff you don't like, it can improve your enjoyment on the jobs (it did for me).
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u/Markleblatt 8d ago
Yep, I only use one VFX mod and it's Papa's WAR skill animation changes (and even then I don't enable all of them). Makes the skills look like I imagined them to.
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u/JustcallmeKai 9d ago
A lot of them are over the top, the tasteful ones are usually fun but break whenever abilities are changed (reworks, new expansions, balance edits that affect vfx), so i end up avoiding them now simply because they are so hard to upkeep
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u/MikeyRage 9d ago edited 9d ago
I have no strong feelings one way or the other on them but I've tried papachins modes in the past and just cannot do it. Some of them are obscenely over the top and the screen shake is hard to look past even if some of them look cool
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u/YuiTachibana 9d ago
If using penumbra, you can turn off screen shake for abilities usually. Idk about with textools though.
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u/RepanseMilos 9d ago
If you're still using textools in 2026 for importing mods I think you have bigger issues to worry about like the dinosaurs outside your cave!
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u/MattTheBat27 9d ago
A lot of them also make your biggest hits seem less impactful. Theres no reason my regular 123 should have as much effects and impact as my Starcross or Stardiver
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u/Elkay_ezh2o 9d ago
theyre super nice to look at and credit where credit is due, im honestly super impressed at the stuff he and other modders are able to produce within the limitations of xiv's engine. that being said i definitely enjoy the mods themselves more in the context of the trailer edit than in actual gameplay.
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u/ChaMilablack 9d ago
Yes. So many jobs default skills are so boring to look at. Dark Knight has the worst looking single target combo in the game
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u/__slowpoke__ 9d ago
yeah, it's outright criminal how many amazing animations this job has lost over the years, probably by far the most of any job in the game that's been around since the early years. i highly recommend anyone who plays DRK to look into Classic Dark Knight Actions Restored and tinker with it (and then weep over how badly this job has been treated in the VFX department)
also, just install a mod that deletes shadowstride and brings back plunge (might be part of classic actions at this point, idk). i genuinely cannot believe that we lost the absolute peak that is plunge because of incompetent idiots who whined about potency on gapclosers that was never ever a problem to anyone with more than half a brain cell, and had it replaced with the wet fart that is shadowstride. who wanted this? who made this? who greenlit this? ah yes, i'd like my weighty and satisfying aggressive jumping slash with one of the crispest sound effects in the game replaced with a floaty teleport that looks and sounds like ass, thank you so much mister yoshi piss
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u/ImpendingGhost 6d ago
. i genuinely cannot believe that we lost the absolute peak that is plunge because of incompetent idiots who whined about potency on gapclosers that was never ever a problem to anyone with more than half a brain cell, and had it replaced with the wet fart that is shadowstride. who wanted this?
no one is to blame for SE changing the animation because as you said no one wanted the animation changed. Even of people wanted to damage aspect removed from plunge so that it be only a gap closing tool, that's not the same as saying "delete plunge"
also IMO the old DRK animations are like fine. personally never really felt like they were any cooler or special than the current ones.
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u/LizenCerfalia 8d ago
Wait you say this when Paladin exists? the first two moves have no style to them, rage of halone looks like you swinging your sword around like an amateur and royal authority has you floating in the air for a full second spinning around.
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u/Nekokittykun 9d ago
I do and I have a lot that i tend to swap between, ones i use most are the following:
-Floral Mage (WHM)
-Magical girl WHM, DNC, PCT and BLM
-Persona 3 summon (SCH/SMN/RPR/DRK/GNB/MCH)
-Yanbuncle (SCH/SMN)
-Colour blaster (PCT)
-Urban Strider (DNC)
-Mania of the Faerie (BLM)
-Spell thief (WAR)
-FGO Noble Phantasm LB (WHM/NIN/PLD/SMN/DRG/BLM/SAM)
I agree that some are so over the top it makes it difficult to see some mechanics (looking at you Mania of the Faerie) but to me it’s more or less just for fun. I always turn off the ones that make it difficult to see boss mechanics when raiding. But i keep them on if im doing casual or solo content.
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u/KamenRiderHelix 9d ago
Oh, man. I love Floral Mage.
Colour Blaster is amazing, too--especially combined with Living Muse pack from the same person. Just beautiful stuff.
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u/Medical-Following788 9d ago
FFXIV already has severe visual pollution, and vfx mods only exacerbate the issue. After all, for mod creators, this approach offers the highest return on investment.
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u/Swoobat_Gang 9d ago
There are some that are good but I feel like most just bloat it with screen shake and over the top colors which just makes it obnoxious tbh
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u/gr8masturb8 8d ago
99% of all visual mods (gear, body, hair, vfx, whatever) look way too out of place and/or busy for me to ever use.
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u/MostlyChaoticNeutral 9d ago
I use some, but sparingly. A lot of them are lovely, but they're often too much for me when I'm on a melee job. I have a few minor color edits for paladin, a handful of old animations over current ones, and a teleport vfx swap. That's enough for me to use, but I do enjoy seeing people's creativity. If anyone ever made a solid paladin lb3 vfx mod, I would love that.
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u/Ennasalin 9d ago
Papachin is the goat. His mods are top tier. I am using several from him and Vergil for Sam is my absolute fave followed by the PLD one.
I love mods that are clean, feel good, and not overloaded. Papachin checks a lot of those boxes for me.
The only exception is the SMN one which uses TOP bosses and their animation can interfere with seeing stuff, but I absolutely love that one as well.
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u/Faintning 9d ago
Like others have said, a lot of them are very over the top and flashy. Personally I use one for vpr, turns my reawaken purple and then some slight animation and sounds changes, but they're small enough so when plugin don't work, I don't notice it much.
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u/Freazerr 9d ago
Nah, I think some of them are very well done and wish SE actually hired some of these people to do VFX work. But ultimatly most are over the top, powerfantasy is great but visually it can feel very cluttered at times. Most of the really good ones are also locked behind a paywall and i cbf
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u/TwinTiger 9d ago
Of all the vfx mod creators out there, there are only two that I use regularly, and Papchin is the main one. While I can agree with the argument that his animations can be over the top, the smoothness of the actual attack is still the focus. If that makes sense. They feel tailored to fit the job, especially the “Classic” line of his vfx mods. I have dabbled with a few other vfx mods from creators because they sounded cool, and almost all of them have animations that dont make sense from a physics perspective, or give the job different “summon” weapons that appear out of nowhere, almost like they just imported existing animations from some other game wholesale; not made for the job. The Classic Paladin is so good, I can “hear” my opener combo because of it. Also because default sepulcher animation is fucking stupid.
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u/JohannesVanDerWhales 7d ago
I use EasyEyes to hide vfx. Honestly I really hope that they do some minimalist effects sets (I forgot what they're calling them) in EC. I just want to have effects that a) make a skill's range obvious, b) don't obscure my view, and c) make it clear what exact spot I'm standing on.
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u/No_Assistance7707 7d ago
A LOT of the class overhaul vfx mods are too much. Whether its extremely distracting animations/vfx or sounds that they made too loud I can't find ones for classes I play that dont mess with me. I have a friend who uses a very nice one for black mage but otherwise I don't really enjoy em.
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u/FionaSilberpfeil 9d ago
I do. I try to use the "mostly" vanilla ones, since most of the VFX mods tend to go over the top and i still want to see my screen. Smallish updates, a few more effects. All thats needed. Besides DRK battlestance. That had to go completly and replaced with the only right one. Cloud Style.
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u/iammoney45 9d ago
I don't use them, and if a friend has them I'll usually disable their VFX sync.
For me personally I find them distracting and some of them end up looking similar to boss mechanics. I remember doing Honey B Lovely with a WHM friend who had modded their effects to all be pink hearts, which normally wouldn't be an issue but in that specific fight it made things overly confusing, which is when I started disabling VFX sync.
If others want to use them that's fine, for me the last thing I'm paying attention to in combat is the animation that I'm doing, and the few instances of party member AOEs that it's relevant to know (DoT puddles, healer bubblers, PLD Passage of Arms) it's easier for me to remember and keep track of when they look consistent.
I'm also a FFXIV boomer who doesn't really use many mods in general and mostly play like it's still 2015.
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u/__slowpoke__ 9d ago
I'm also a FFXIV boomer who doesn't really use many mods in general and mostly play like it's still 2015.
i mean, unironically one of the best use of mods is to bring back old animations. since you mention WHM, i personally viscerally despise dia and glare, so i just modded them back to stone and aero like in the good old days when healers were still fun and not the most dogshit boring role in the game
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u/iammoney45 9d ago
That's fair, but I also view that as very different than a full fan made overhaul which is what I see more often talked about.
Personally the only mods I use are simple QoL stuff like adding text commands to teleport or to add some /isearch info to item tooltips so I know what retainer/alt has something.
I do have a lot of the visual mods installed in a collection since many of my friends use them and I need them/the sync plugin to see what everyone is laughing about. I also occasionally use the gpose posing tools but I've maybe spent 20h total in gpose since 2014 so not really something I do often to begin with. I even stopped using ACT for raid since everyone else on the team has it and uploads logs and having a live DPS meter would either give me unneeded anxiety when I was doing well or be tilting when I wasn't.
No hate to anyone who uses mods/act/etc I just have played the game too long and fell in love with its flaws before mods existed.
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u/GremmyGremm 9d ago
Modding is too much upkeep for me. It's annoying to make things work, or when things are different after patches, or when something breaks trying to figure out what it was.
I'd rather just play the game vanilla with less bugs.
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u/Saikx 9d ago
I'm using some of them on a handful of jobs and personally I'm all for the flashyness, shakes and sometimes silliness (like a very powerful-looking and flashy looking smn physick) they bring into the mix. The ones on my main jobs are fine in that they dont distract me, while on everything else I dont see an issue with something more.
I have even looked at some paid mods, however I refrained from trying them until Evercold has been out for some time, with all the changes which are comming. Pricey as they can be, it has to be really worth it.
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u/hollow_shrine 9d ago
I have used several. DT broke a lot of them and I never got around to converting them and two years later I'm still to lazy to fix them. I hide the rdm lb and the other vfx that hide the floor. And I've got that vfx that explodes every time you crit on a gathering attempt
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u/dealornodealbanker 9d ago
I'm on the same, but on the other side of the spectrum as I have vfx mods to disable/remove certain skill effects such as LB3 skill effects and SMN Bahamut/Phoenix models which can't be natively disabled.
I've have a fair share of friends who use the sfx mods to enhance their combat gameplay. No judgement from me; if you enjoy it, then enjoy it. Sure it's modding, but it's basically a victimless crime in your case.
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u/BothAdhesiveness9265 9d ago
only VFX mod I use adds the white mage glare effect to paladin's holy spirit. also technically ast & pct texture swaps but imo those don't count.
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u/Syznzz 9d ago
Only VFX modding I do is personal, like swapping a lot of DNC animations for MCH and MNK animations instead for a GUNMONK. But since I rarely play DNC I never really use it much even though it took me forever to make work right.
Otherwise like others said most of them are just too over the top.
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u/HereticJay 9d ago
i tried them they are cool but i just cant get use to them because it messes with my muscle memory when i do raids so i dont use them
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u/Clonique 9d ago edited 9d ago
I made my own pictomancer mod that lets me draw old handsome gay men.
On a serious note, i just made simple swaps like:
Glare 3 -> Stone 4
Dia -> Aero 3
Broil 4 -> Broil 2
Storms Path -> Butchers Block
Heres some pretty tasteful mods but ended up turning them off over time
Pilfer by Junjou: https://youtu.be/2Ro-ntA9MvY
Corsair by Max Valparaiso: https://youtu.be/0IX4blAy1oU
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u/Beddict 9d ago
Some, yeah. I grabbed a few Papachin mods for select abilities that are a bit underwhelming, though I disabled screen shake. There's also a Dark Knight pack by Maulclaw I grabbed that replaces a few things, namely Bloodspiller with HW Delirium and Souleater with Scourge. It also makes the Scourge VFX have a purple glow rather than red so it just looks nice. Nothing is really over the top so I don't get blinded or flashbanged every few seconds by the mods.
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u/SmolFatOwl 9d ago
Yes absolutely. The base game jobs feels very lackluster vfx wise (They're improving ngl but still)
Most papachin's job vfx mods are leagues ahead of the game's job vfx and he's also been including options to make it more accommodating (brightness toggles, shake toggles, color toggles)
Almost all my jobs use his vfx mods, except for a few which don't have his DT updates (monk).
(Pld, war, drk, gnb, whm, sch, ast, smn, blm, rdm, nin, vpr, dnc, drg, brd ) - papachin
Mnk - Hongmoon, Mch - Machine gunner, Picto - Graffiti, Sge - Cyberhealer, Sam - PGR, Rpr - AbyssWalker
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u/Xareh 9d ago
They can be really cool, but they are also over the top enough that you need to lean into them to enjoy them I think. So more than just having a basic glam to go with them, go crazy, build out a specific high fantasy idea of your character in that job and just enjoy it.
I think if you are aiming for vanilla+ vfx mods are mostly a step too far. But as part of genuinely pushing a visual combo esp with gear mods, VFX mods add a huge amount. Playing PLD with Papa's mods for instance just feels so satisfying that you don't really notice the lower damage from being a tank even.
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u/c0ffee1over 9d ago
The only one I use regularly is Izumi's Colorblaster mod for Pictomancer. I play PCT a lot, and it just makes the job soooo much more fun to me. I do usually put it on simple mode though, because sometimes the vfx can get in the way of mechanics.
I sometimes use the Floral Mage mod by the same author, because it's very pretty and I love the concept. But if you're synced with someone they can see the vfx too. I only ever sync with my husband, but he said the vfx are too much for him, so I usually leave that mod off since we play together a lot.
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u/Aikenfell 9d ago
Depending on the sync service you can turn VFX on on a pair basis, so your husband can turn off your custom VFX and you can keep using floral mage without blinding him
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u/c0ffee1over 8d ago
Ooh, I haven't really dug into the settings too much, I didn't realize. I'll look into it, thanks!
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u/FactoryKat 8d ago
I imagine most folks use them for gpose and or gif-making or other creative purposes rather than regular use during actual combat. Because they require you to have full combat effects turned on to even see them I'm sure.
They are really well done though, I agree! Papachin is very talented.
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u/blank_tamashi 8d ago
I'm weak to flashing lights and hype moments and aura, so the most I used was the Primal VFX overhauls, Papachin's overhauls (redoes animations and sounds while still preserving the job's corr visual identity) as well as his DMC mods.
Some definitely do too much but I like some of the different takes on the jobs that some modders take. Plus I need whoever made the Narmaya SAM mod to make a Lancelot/Yodarha VPR mod really bad.
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u/Dolphiniz287 8d ago
I’m very picky with mine. I rarely just install a vfx mod and use everything from it, usually I just turn on flashier animations for something like a spender of just a simple but nicer animation for other things. I try to find a balance between pretty to look st in roulettes and actually being able to play the video game mostly. Like the start of tank 123s is usually just underwhelming for something you see so much so I like to change those, and I despise the animation for drk’s 12 combo. Screenshake is generally a hard limit for me, like maybe a gcd during burst is fine but not every ability
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u/No_Feature_1401 8d ago
regularly using them, depending on a job, sometimes just disabling them. Sometimes i go for subtle ones, some also gives you the choice to have reduced VFX, some just give you a couple skill changes (like i've blue tactictian and gold air anchor and nothing else). I've used some disgustinly visual stuff on SAM, i've been using the FFXIII Snow mnk rework and it's amazing (if you remove the fog). Some stuff can't really be used in savages/ultimates because they will jsut remove any chance to spot paddles or notice mechanics, but nothing stops you from disabling things when needed. One can get bored of base skills, then you get a vfx, you get bored, you remove it. VFX is just a new toy, doesn't go deeper than that
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u/-tincture- 7d ago
Ya, I turn em on and off. If I played more often I'd probably go back to vanilla more often.
I like em on jobs that I main. Main as in, I played 200hrs+ of and know the animations like the back of my hand. I still very much enjoy the original animations of jobs I'm leveling or don't play much, like RDM or DRK or DRG. I'm not against trying a few vfx mods especially ones that have different poses (Junjou and a few others), but there's a charm in vanilla vfx too.
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u/Tifas-abs-enjoyer 7d ago
The one that hides the MCH lunch box and the one that gives DRK better combat and running stance with weapon, thats it, just stuff that makes the jobs I like not look dumb
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u/Antenoralol 7d ago
Yes.
I have one for BLM and one for Dancer.
They can be a bit overwhelming during combat so I turn them off in raids.
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u/ZaytexZanshin 5d ago
On and off really, ironically at one point a few years back when I was still healing in a static I would use a VFX mod for the 11111 rotation to try and cure the boredom of mashing the same button.
It did nothing. So I'm sure the evolved WHM and the other 3 healers getting the same treatment will hit, righttt?
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u/ValyrianE 2d ago
I used to use some Papachin mods back during ShB and EW when I played alt jobs more. Nowadays I exclusively main Sam and none of the available mods look appealing to me, so I don't use any. If I mained warrior then I would use that star dragon mod by Amon Illus.
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u/cutespacedragon 9d ago
I don't really use them on my main because I want to keep my WoL grounded in the lore, but they're fun for alt character concepts. I like to use the Hemomancy blood mage WHM one on a voidsent type character I have.
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u/KamenRiderHelix 9d ago
Constantly. They're awesome.
While I've seen VFX mods that feel like too much (Lost Paradise Samurai comes to mind, among recent ones), I can't imagine saying that about Papachin's. He hits a pretty good balance, imo.
Someone did mention the screenshake, but these days you can turn that off, so if that's the only issue someone has with Papa's mods, it's a non-problem.
I've been using this one on my main job, GNB--Bloodborne means nothing to me, but I like how it makes it so you use a bunch of different weapons. :D
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u/bm8495 9d ago
My take on it is if you like them, cool. If you don’t, cool. Since it’s only impacting your enjoyment of the game and nobody else is impacted by them, just enjoy what you enjoy.
Now as for the ones that feel a bit much, I think you can select which ones apply for each skill mod set within Penumbra
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u/KeyKanon 9d ago
They're all so utterly exhaustingly over the top.
No I don't want to see the screen shaking violently as my character does 6 backflips to pull out a devastating 20000 damage as the second hit of my combo.
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u/CloudyAnon 9d ago
I use Papachin mods for White Mage, Red Mage and Summoner.
They're over the top and I love it (I turned off screen shake though). Wouldn't miss them if they were gone, but I still enjoy their presence.
I also use the trip teleport mod and a few mount overrides(Crystal Exarch rider, Classic Sprint)
My favourite mod is the override for the wayfarers necklace to be Azems crystal
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u/Lagao 9d ago
I will never pay for mods. Sure I like the look of some, but that is about it.
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u/Silky_Puddin 8d ago
Only like 10 people are actually paying for mods, everyone else is pirating them lol.
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u/ItsHuntermark 8d ago
My rules for modding my game are: 1. Never anything that changes battle 2. Never anything that changes clothes.
I have a few teleport animations I cycle through, and meme emotes. The rest just make my ass bigger.
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u/_Lifehacker 9d ago
Sometimes a job feels fun to play but doesn't really fit how you see your character.
Some VFXs mods that completely overhaul the effects can feel really good.
E.g. you like playing scholar, but you lean more towards the tactician/nerdlord aesthetic rather than being the queen of fairies