I'd like more variety as well..I've always been a fan of big environments, but these environments just seem *too* big. Even if sections of lets say Thanalan were different, like had more trees, make a pretty oasis somewhere, etc. Then that'd break up the copy/pasted terrain a bit. It'd be cool to see more trees on the way to Black Shroud, would make more sense...

I also saw a thread that has an interview from the devs explaining why the environment is copy/pasted, I might have to go find it..

As for what made the other FF games feel like FF games, basically the creatures, music, bazillions of areas, (all the stuff that everyone has mentioned basically) and characters, but I don't expect memorable characters from an MMO to be honest. and OMG MORE CREATURE DIVERSITY!! O.O I'm sick of seeing goats and dodos in several different areas. Makes me feel like I'm never truly in a different region.