Materia adding a glow in combat? ... Meh maybe.. (as long as its subtle)
Materia added a glow to WS's? 000.. Ok, i could go for that..
Materia adding a glow all the time? . OH Hell NO!

It wont bring in players, just cos our weapons look like light sabers...
New effects/animations might help a little but not a huge amount.
But it will just be yet another step towards a middle of the road generic mmo in a market that is already over crowded with middle of the road mmos.

SE need (imo) to yes massively improve some areas and add content that feels like a FF, and make this a FF mmo.
It wont compete with the larger middle of the road mmos.
But a good MMO can do great in a smaller way. (EvE, DaoC (ok it was big ) is still running strong, FFXI)