IMO I dont think we can blame everything to laziness, sometimes you look for some classy, fast, smooth and real FX to match with the enviroment of the game you are creating... I agree the spells and animations are boring and all, but I also think Tanaka believed he was doing a great job when he decided he liked them. Tanaka is an irregular producer. He risks a lot in each of his creations, trying to bring more fun to the players, he has major successful tittles (Secret of Mana; best game ever) and some major failures, people has the right to make mistakes and well this is an MMORPG so they can fix mistakes, in case of an regular rpg it will remain in its case cause you got bored doing weird stone missions on Pulse.