Agreed, Animations are very poor in this game, both magic and weapon skills. Expected much more for something new-gen like FFXIV, almost all old console rpg's beat these animations by far. FF7-FF13, and other series. Huge improvement can be done in this department.

Alot of them are duplicates in many ways, need some unique cool visuals and sounds for each ability.
Weapon-skills are really an eyesore.
Also AoE magic would look much nicer if it bursted out as one big spell covering it's area of effect instead of a single spell on each mob.