I kind of checked out of this discussion. This all comes down to fanboyism. If Nomura announced tomorrow that Lightning would be a guest character in Final Fantasy XV you would all say that he's a hack. If they reused the exact Magitek design from Final Fantasy VI in Final Fantasy XV you would almost certainly call it distasteful.
But in this instance you're exhibiting an extreme case of post-purchase rationalization. You've spent so much time and money on this game by now. It's been 3 years. Combine the subscription fees together, consider the money you could have made elsewhere instead of playing or defending Final Fantasy XIV on message boards, and we're talking about huge losses. You've become a soldier and Final Fantasy XIV is your castle to protect.
In other words, I'm saying that Thayos has Stockholm syndrome and Naoki Yoshida is his captor.
I think adding a Gold Saucer replica is tacky, lazy, and pretty desperate, but our Dragoons and Monks are already using Cloud's Buster Sword for their Limit Breaks. We don't know why, but they just do. So, moving beyond that, the really desperate thing is the repeated mentions of upcoming Final Fantasy VII replica content without even so much as a screenshot or some concept art.
I have no idea how the topic managed to go back to things like graphic comparisons. Yeah, you can say that version 1.xx had better lighting than 2.xx, "but it's not that bad". I can argue that chopping up the world into instanced zones ruined my sense of immersion, "but it's not that bad". I can also shoot you in the face and, if for some reason you're still able to speak, you could say "it's not that bad". It doesn't really mean anything and you're not even making a real argument.
Maybe it's time we stopped the applause for Naoki Yoshida. Yes, he competently repackaged Final Fantasy XIV and the game is much more fun and playable than it was before. However, we need to begin thinking about raising our standards in terms of what he's doing beyond that. I think so, anyway.
Edited, Mar 12th 2014 6:12pm by LucasNox