I've been reading this thread for a while. And I've been hesitant to throw my voice in. I've thought about this a lot, and I finally feel like I should say something.
When I hear "Final Fantasy" certain images come to mind. For me, I think of Final Fantasy Tactics and FFVI. FFXI also comes to mind. These three are the games I spent the most time in.
Excluding FFVI, both FFT and FFXI still look very good for their age. The animations in FFT still surprise me a little when I replay it. This is something I've come to expect from an FF title. beautiful animations and brilliant gameplay.
Many of the gamers i interact with now are younger than me. and many are fanatical about FF7. and FF7 is really a big keystone for Square and the FF franchise. It was the first real breach into 3d. and it helped define the genre of RPG for that era. I would go as far to say it was the industry standard for the J-RPG for a long time. I've seen official statements answering the fans question of 'When are we getting a remake?' and that has been "When we can surpass it."
But looking at recent FF titles, I get the feeling that some of the development teams are lacking the ambition to 'shoot for the stars.' And i'm sure there are several reasons for that. The merger with Enix. weakened economy in Japan. The ever increasing pressure/demand on the industry as a whole. Internal Politics etc.
But the way I see it is if Square, or any other game company for that matter, wants to really turn some heads they need to push their limits. Why can't we have both good gameplay and brilliant animations? Square has repeatedly said they'd love to recreate those days and feelings of FF7. but i'm just not seeing the effort being put forth. Why not start here? you're always going to have the excuse of 'oh, we can try harder on the next game.' so at some point someone's going to have to say 'Ok. Buckle up boys, we're going to do it. Now. Today.'
FFXIV is in a very precarious situation. the game failed. no doubt about that. It took a year of hard work to get the game playable. and now the game is relaunching. there is a lot of media hype. so a lot of eyes are on it. this has everything it needs to be a real 'Cinderella story' I can't help but think "Everyone's watching. So lets do something amazing"
If it takes another 8 weeks to bring the animations up to par so we can have our cake and eat it too, I think a lot of us are willing to wait, even those that say they aren't. We're all excited to play ARR. and I'm sure SE is just as eager to get it to us. but with as much media attention it's getting, the controversy behind the game, and the opportunity available, I would expect it is in SE's best interest to try to get both down pat before release.