I hate those power ranger like spark effects

[SirOleas]

Its entirely fair because no other MMO currently compares graphically to this one.
Art style also has a lot to do with it. Such as Tauren (Cow Humanoids from WoW) are incredibly ugly creatures no matter how well the graphics are done.
As for your issues with characters doing thumbs up and such...that's a cultural difference. Japanese games/anime/etc tend to have things that seem odd to western audiences. In other words, just because it seems odd to you does not make it cartoony.

If you want a more current comparison we can use GW2: A stunning game visually because of art direction but still less realistic than FFXIV.

[ArnoMorley]

Its entirely fair because no other MMO currently compares graphically to this one.
Art style also has a lot to do with it. Such as Tauren (Cow Humanoids from WoW) are incredibly ugly creatures no matter how well the graphics are done.
As for your issues with characters doing thumbs up and such...that's a cultural difference. Japanese games/anime/etc tend to have things that seem odd to western audiences. In other words, just because it seems odd to you does not make it cartoony.

Well you threw anime in there, that kind of adds to the argument. That's what anime is, a type of cartoon. I visited a military base in Okinawa once and normal Japanese people didn't act odd like that which makes it unrealistic/cartoony.

And it's like I said my point wasn't that the graphics weren't as good, or it was more cartoony than other games (Although it can look more cartoony but act less cartoony). I just said that it did have cartoony elements.

[Coldfire]

GW2 bodies are definately more cartoon-style than FFXIV. Mostly since the designers didn't want to make the characters too different from GW1. The graphics of the armor can definately be compared to ffxiv though and is probably a bit better-looking. That being said... IS THAT COLORFUL CONFETTI THERE??? @devs /implement!