Casting and spell animations...lackluster?

[Menchi]

Definitely one of the low points of the battle system. Everything just looks and feels so weak and under-powered.

[MRBJ1978]

I totally agree with what you all have said about the spell animations... I know how bad the battle system itself needs to be fixed and how there are bigger issues than this, but for me the sights and sounds of the game I am playing are just as important. Especially what I have come to love and expect from my Final Fantasy games!

Other than living, eating, sleeping, and breathing for the Summoner job (lol), one of the main things I look forward to in all Final Fantasy games is playing as the spell casting jobs. I cant wait to see the spell animation and hear the sound FX and see how they get bigger and badder as they go up in level. I could not wait for FF XIV to come out because I knew that the spells were going to look awesome but boy did I have a shock in store!

I cannot believe how this is supposed to be the UPGRADE to FF XI and be so superior as far as graphics go, yet the spell animation and sound FX in FF XI blow FF XIV out of the water! The elemental spells are bad enough, like a tiny pebble hitting the monster for a Stone spell, but when I saw the animation for Dia, Bio, and others like Rasp and Shock... I was horrified! What the hell, you need a magnifying glass to even see it... I want stuff that looks and sounds like Blizzard IV and Thunder IV from FF XI not stuff that looks and sounds like it came from FF IV. Heck, what am I saying, even those animation and sound FX look and sound better...

And please don't even get me started on how lame and disappointing the casting animation is... you hold your hand up in front of you, it glows, you hear a faint hissing noise, and the only difference between THM and CON are the colors? Really? Do we really need to say yet again that this is supposed to be a UPGRADE from FF XI? When you were casting a BLM spell it looked and sounded as if you were really calling forth something powerful, I don't even know what to compare it to in FF XIV. I love love love the Mage jobs but this really makes me want to stay away from them or just go back to FF XI full time because every time I play as one on FF XIV I just get pissed off because of how awesome it could have looked and sounded yet how crappy it is!