Final Fantasy 16 players celebrate glow-up of blocky grapes from Final Fantasy 14

Final Fantasy 16, Square Enix’s latest series installment, is finally here and it has improved upon its predecessors in more ways than one. Aside from the obvious graphical upgrades, combat improvements, and gripping Game of Thrones-esque plot, there’s one other specific enhancement that has caught the eye of fans everywhere: the glow-up of the blocky grapes from Final Fantasy 14.

If you aren’t quite familiar with this notable cultural phenomenon, then allow us to give you a refresher. Final Fantasy 14, which was first released in 2010, was largely panned at launch due to several interface and performance issues, grind-heavy gameplay, and a large number of graphical miscues. The latter problem, of course, eventually led to players finding the infamous blocky grapes in question on trellises scattered throughout the land of Eorzea.

Once Naoki Yoshida came on to take over the directorial reins, however, FF14 would soon see drastic improvements on several aspects, which naturally included visual upgrades to the low-polygon abominations. So since Yoshi-P has once again spearheaded the efforts to make Final Fantasy 16 into a mainstream hit, it seems that he has made improving the in-game grapes a point of emphasis once again in order to avoid the criticism and infamy that the online MMO suffered.

Fans have even taken to Reddit to celebrate the blocky fruit glow-up as one user named Sugar_Symicla created a post with a side-by-side comparison of FF14 and 16’s grapes and the graphical enhancement from the former to the latter is striking. The grapes found in the latest series installment now look like something you’d be able to find at your local supermarket whereas those from its predecessor looked like it came straight out of a PS1 game.

Now, the design found in Final Fantasy 16 will likely remain the standard moving forward as Square Enix will undoubtedly be trying their best to avoid another fruit-related controversy in the future. If it does somehow end up happening again, though, then the community will surely be there to poke fun at it until it eventually gets removed.

Before jumping back into the continent of Valisthea, check out our guides on how to get a Chocobo, how to get Stained Loincloth, and how to get Electrum in Final Fantasy 16 so you won’t have trouble finding finding them in-game.

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