I actually fill out the report....
I really just don't like Egi's. I mean, I get their design reasoning, but it just make FFXIV's version of summoner feel like a cheap imitation of Summoner. Every other SMN i can think of in the final fantasy series summoned actual.. summons. I mean, even XI managed to downsize and allow us to use the actual models of the full summons without it looking silly. At least it made them feel like Summoners.
FFXIV even allows you to zoom out way further than XI, there should have been a way to make them visually appealing without being too flashy, even if it meant changing the lore a bit.
I can understand their design choice with the spirits, but I don't like it... They could even change lore with the new job quests, its an opportunity to allow us more "Complete" summons. Making them look more like their originals (like an inbetween of the Primals and the Egis, a next stage of summoning). It could coincide with a job trait that increases our pets powers. They could easily add to the lore without just retconning it by making the summoner themself grow in power through the job quests.
Kinda off-topic, but I like ff10's method of summoning where Yuna picks one and the summon just replaces her in battle. That way you can keep a reasonable size summon (player size) but have a whole new skill set for each summon. Doing mini hell-fires or dashes as ifrit; doing garudas wind storm or titans stomp. But now this is starting to sound like a druid from WoW or pokemon. I just feel like if you're controlling a pet, it should do more than 1/5 of your total damage, otherwise it seems like a waste of time.
Originally the egi were supposed to be bigger, they were supposed to be the size of the things we fight in the job quests, they changed this last minute for... Reasons... Honestly if they'd been the size of the job quest summons and maybe had skin textures closer to the colour of the original primal I'd have been happy with them aesthetically.
Their gameplay is still an issue for me but that's another topic. And if they were at least aesthetically pleasing I'd probably not avoid playing SMN like I do.
Guys I want your sources about SE stating that they don't change Egi models because it's a technical issue.
if we threw a bunch of money at SE they would definitely reconsider.
Honestly, I'm fine with the size/graphics of pets. Too big/too many SCH/SMN and soon MCH? in the party will = lots of additional pets/things on the screen. We just don't need all that clutter. And you're summoning the 'essence' of the primal, not the actual primal so I'm fine with their looks as is.
As a note about the size - I don't think anyone is really bothered by the size. No one complains about the look of the SCH fairy. I think people are just generally asking for SMN egis that look as interesting as the SCH fairy. Personally, I think that the existing designs make total sense. As an above poster pointed out, they are a merger of the look of the primal and an elemental of that element. Moving forward though, I think we can expect to see future egis that are more detailed and more like the quality of the SCH fairy. But, changing existing looks is a bad thing because it risks upsetting the silent majority who do not post on these forums. People make decisions based on existing information. Adding new things that are different is fine, but changing things that exist that are not broken is unfair to those who like it as is and made decisions based on what existed.
I'm looking forward to seeing what they do with the egis in 3.0. I'm hoping that in addition to having Shiva/Levi/Ramuh egis, they offer optional cosmetic changes to Garuda/Ifrit/Titan. But, I don't really expect that to happen, it'd just be really nice.
People in this forum have posted the original dev response. I do not think they will change their stance but may add more detail to future egis. They will never be like XIs summons.