Realm Reborn = downgrade?

[Nemy]

Successful MMO market results would disagree with you. Responsive gameplay is king and was one of the biggest reasons cited for the huge embarrasing failure that was ffxiv 1.0 launch. But you can still have both! The good animations + responsive gameplay

I mean... GW2 does it... It might be not as good as XIV when it comes to movement animation, and sometimes it might look like they float, but they did implemented inertia and leaning without sacrificing anything.

And we're talking about a game that emphasizes gameplay aspects such as dodging enemy attacks in real time here.

[Ludicrous]

I mean... GW2 does it... It might be not as good as XIV when it comes to movement animation, and sometimes it might look like they float, but they did implemented inertia and leaning without sacrificing anything.

And we're talking about a game that emphasizes gameplay aspects such as dodging enemy attacks in real time here.

Yup exactly. There is no excuse for SE to implement these poor animations.

This game will be scrutinized in ways that are unfair for a game launch because of it's bad history.

2.0 has to overdeliver, and so far they aren't doing that.

[bobbygunz]

S.E. have always been fond of minimal effort so don't expect these stupid-looking animations to improve. It's funny when you see korean games pumping out so much content in their games, and S.E. struggles to even add jump, let alone swimming, or a mounting-animation, and now sadly it's come to a point where they're even degrading features already present in version 1.0 out of laziness or ineptitude, I'm not sure which.

Call it like it is.

[Elexia]

S.E. have always been fond of minimal effort

They've always went above and beyond since the Famicom days, so this is un true and yes I do mean both Square and Enix.

It's funny when you see korean games pumping out so much content in their games, and S.E. struggles to even add jump

They didn't struggle to add Jump, they chose not to initially, that's not struggling. Struggling would mean it was hurting their programmers to implement it due to being a complex feature and since Jump isn't complex, there were no struggles.
Korean MMOs are mass produced from the same template, you download one, you've downloaded them all, the only real difference tend to be the "storyline."

and now sadly it's come to a point where they're even degrading features already present in version 1.0 out of laziness or ineptitude,

It's neither, they're doing it to make FFXIV look and feel like a common MMORPG, that's their whole goal with ARR.