Quote Originally Posted by Kirith View Post
Aesthetics isn't something you can make an exact quantification of. It's all a matter of artistic sensibility and cultural focus. The only way to evaluate it is to ask many people how much they feel touched by a certain piece of art or, in this case, by the game's environments and overall design. Evidently, many FFXIV users are criticizing exactly the world's environments and their design, meaning the game has poor aesthetics. There's really not much that can be added. A few good looking armor sets and items won't affect the game's aesthetics, like adding two pretty flowers to a boring green field won't make a painting interesting. It's a much more general matter and i can't see a clear way to solve it.
Good news, i found a way to solve it.

Stop making boring ultra-realistic "fantasy" worlds and make a game that looks like the the grand companies of eorzea page artwork.

Its the best looking visuals associated with this game. SE has always had a fantastic 2d art team. Always underutilized and ignored. Anyone play SF2? best looking game they ever released.