I don't care about graphics I really don't.
What does worry me however that all screenshots of this forest look exactly alike and they all have the one big tree copied in the background.

1.0 areas had a big problem of completely mundane uninspired design that featured a lot of copied assets.
Are they really replacing the big copy pasted trees of the forest with another set of copy pasted trees?

The concept art of XIV in famitsu feature for example has all kinds of unique landmarks like bridges and odd looking epic cliffs. You know stuff with imagination that SE is so good at. Please SE put some fantasy in this fantasy.

If we want to look at a realistic desert there's literally dozens of games that do it already and frankly a bit better too.
Play to your strenghts SE to make this game stand out.

(if you think this means wow glowsticks then you have missed the point completely)