You run up to a Behemoth after strafing his strike and launch a couple of basic attacks.
Your TP meter builds up and you activate your WS launching the enemy back 10 yalms creating a tremor when he lands.
The enemy is staggered, and a mage casts Aero II launching him into the air.
You jump and attack 4-5 times requiring perfectly timed strikes followed by a WS meteor spike.
Then you wake up from a daze and realize you’re attacking a Dodo using the same attack and a bland WS that resembles 4 others – all with animations that cut off abruptly.

I had some idle periods where I would imagine what FFXIV would be like being a next-gen MMO. Final Fantasy XII had excellent combat that resembled a future MMO, and Final Fantasy XIII proved how powerful the Crystal Tools Engine was with its amazing visuals and flashy animations. I am just too disillusioned when playing FFXIV and seeing battle mechanics and animations outshined by FFXI.

Character stagger from hits, characters being knocked over, class-combination attacks (archer-mage FFXIV trailer), extreme agility and changing levels in combat (Elezen FFXIV trailer), and spells that have visually pleasing after-effects (searing, freezing limbs, or at the very least texture a character grey if he’s petrified…) – where are these? It is too late in development to address huge, game-altering mechanics such as these, but this is the FFXIV that I dreamed of having over a million subscribers and making me a loyal customer for 5 years.