Realm Reborn = downgrade?

[Rjain]

Since the announcement for ARR I've been excited about virtually every single thing about it. All of the new features and gameplay sounds like a complete godsend. It felt like it was the best possible thing that could of happened to the game.

Unfortunately, these recent gameplay videos got me very worried. The animation is absolutely atrocious. Of course gameplay is more important, but personally the main thing that has kept me in XIV over the last couple of years (and away from other MMOs) is how beautiful the animations were and how lively my own character felt and the other NPCs felt. I find it strange that as much as I was (and still am for the most part) looking forward to all these gameplay changes, I feel as though the cut down on the animation will make ARR a miserable experience. I can't even play other MMOs now even ones I used to like because of how hooked I am to how the current version of XIV feels... not sure how I'm gonna play this one.

To sum up the gravity of how gamebreaking this is for me, I'd wait another 8+ months to play ARR if it meant redoing the entire animation system.