I missed the memo on where or when SE expressed concern over their art style not being western enough and wanting to appeal to western mentality? First of all western mentality is a lot more diverse then you will get the impression from reading any forum, second FF style of graphics has been popular here for years anyway. Those who really don't like anime just have to deal with it or haven't even tried the game past open beta.

I've seen a lot of criticism on these boards on the environment and honestly I just don't see it. To me the world is beautiful and will only get more diverse as time goes on, Adding more shrubs in Limsa and Uldah I could see but I can understand why they went light on the clutter considering how demanding this game can be on some systems. They could have went with lighter graphics and more flowers and detail but that's not the decision they took.

As far as detail goes this is still one of the most carefully crafted MMO I have ever seen along with FFXI. You can literally look at the merchant stalls, libraries and so forth, and take note of all the little objects there with all their detail, in other games that kind of clutter usually looks like a pixelated mess because 90% of people don't care about it. Not so with SE's design philosophy, if it's there it's meticulously done. That's why I love, love their style.

Because this is an MMO designers have to balance aesthetics vs playability, so far I am pleased with FFXIV and I know that with time and people's machines getting better they will add even better detail to the extra content, like FFXI progressively got prettier.