Just seen the Legacy Chocobo model on youtube, very sweet looking! Almost makes me wish I'd played 1.0 (if I had a pc that could I would lol)

Seems like a nice thing for the 1.0 veterans to let them keep their original mounts, as for the difference in appearence between 1.0 and 2.0 that could rationalised with the change in enviromental factors in Coerthas and nature (chocobo species) adapting - it did go from a lush green land to ice/snow bound wasteland from what I gather lore-wise.