I didn't comment on it, but what cracked me up about Kagari's interview is how one of the questions sounded like it was actually saying "It's lame/sexist girls have to wear mini-skirts" and Yoshi-P seemed entirely oblivious to that and answered the question straight. So innocently Japanese.
I can relate to people wanting 1.0-like elements, at least I do on a case by case basis. My number one concern with this game is that they so utterly afraid of attempting to properly execute their unique ideas (some of which simply could not be executed well because the fixed base of the game was poorly executed) that they will simply adapt things from other games. If people were drawn to XIV's unusual elements then making it usual is not a solution to them and it is not a proper solution for anyone since making your game more like WoW has failed time and time again.
Yoshi-P seems like a good (effective and efficient) director, but I get the feeling he is extremely uncreative and that's not good news if what I want is a fresh, detailed setting with verisimilitude (i.e. Eorzea as I know it, that is without boob sliders) and something that different from the usual MMO material (which is to say MMOs simply suck universally, but I can still enjoy things about them if they don't suck in a way that kills an interesting social environment with pockets of interesting scenarios). Everything out of his mouth is either "We are going to shoe-horn as many Final Fantasy references like this was Dissidia" and "Look at all these MMO-ass MMO features we are adding".
Every combat system change is concerning, but I should give them the benefit of the doubt because they gave me the great Nael Deus fight right? The thing is I already saw what happened to FFXI. They neutered mission design, solved the broken/dull party mechanics (most evident 60+) by making it more broken/dull (colibri, zerging only becoming stronger and stronger from parties to endgame, level 99 lol), and just completely gave up by the time the game became "Abyssea and Magian Trials: 24/7". With late 1.0 being equivalent to highly abrasive CoP, this is sort of how I see ARR playing out. How they are handling things like trash quests (changing the focus from content done to enjoy content to trashy content meant to give exp and be over with quickly) and solo content (every advantage given to solo content is basically a sign telling players not to cooperate) convinces me of that. I'm pretty pessimistic, but do have faith that even with a downgrade in world-building the artists will provide something marvelous to look at and the game will keep its charming writing.
