Consoles are holding this game back (graphically)

[Iris_BP]

Consoles are not the reason for the graphical change

Oh, it is tho. It broadens the audience. Granted, 1.0 was a mess with copypasta locations (especially noticeable in the Black Shroud due to it's tunnel type landscapes), they never optimized (or had the time to optimize, because they were rushed hard) triangle counts, the UI was terribad to the point that if you didn't have a controller you'd have pretty hard time playing (in a game that didn't have a console version!!). But the handling of shaders in the first version of FFXIV crystal engine was amazingly good, to the point PS3 just couldn't handle it, lol. What I also blame on consoles (namely PS3 of course) is the lack of varying animations in cutscenes (although it might be the lack of time in developing ARR). 1.0 had very good animations overall.