Are the new environments living up to your expectations?

We've seen the same screens few times now.
What worries me that my big problem with the first batch of XIV landscapes were that they were so mundane.

Cliffs deserts and forests. Nothing we haven't seen before a thousand times and it's the one area where SE has consistently blown the competition out of the water in every FF game.

Bland forests of grid and beige desert are (if these screens are to be believed) going to look like this:



and this:



Think about the timing of these screens too. Why would you NOT want to show the first batch of screens that address specifically the reasons why most players didn't find the current world interesting?

Wouldn't you want the outsiders to think "whoa now this new 2.0 game looks much better than that first attempt!"


The concept art was promising but we just haven't seen that level of originality in screenshots yet.

Are these new iterations of the same places setting the mood for the rest to come or do you think these are just the boring filler areas and they're holding back the good stuff. And if so why?