Traditionally they didn't have any flashy techniques and Yoshi said a while back he wanted to stick to traditional swordplay. It's just flashy enough to fit in a game. I think it's perfect.I get they didn't really showcase much of the class rotation. I guess what bothers me is it taking the ninja ninjutsu approach to pulling off the special moves. Like Ka with Getsu did what looked like a frontal cone aoe. It's the same in how ninja does mudras except same weaves them in while in combat instead as signs done separately. My guess is SAM is not flashy because I imagine the animations were probably conceptualized back when SAM was gonna be a tank and when they changed their mind they just added more DPS like mechanics.
Super let down seeing the Samurai skills, all so lackluster and similar. I'll hold off on the final verdict till i play Sam myself. The fact those skills are call Iaijutsu killed me heart a little bit. FFXIV Gil Looks awesome, but one question. The Job Gauges thing. Please tell me we can hide that, because I myself don't like it. Im utterly salty about cleric stance dance being erased. I know you casual's love this, but whm was the only thing I loved about this game. Guess I'll finally get a chance to play all these other games I've missed out on over the years. I'm just asking a question, or trying to start a fight. As a healer I'm not fond of having an additional area i gotta keep my eye on...
Good thing FFXIV has an easily manipulated UI so you can put that gage right in your face. The job gauges are gonna be possibly the most important change tbh will affect a lot of things like dealing more damage etc. It functions the same as any other hot bar so my guess is that you can hide it, but I don't think you should unless your THAT good at your job, also some new abilities can be linked through it and you can't tell when to use without it. They mentioned that at a later date, a mini version of the gauge will be introduced. You can hide it. Watch the live letter when it's available to rewatch, very informative with lots of changes.