Come to the dark side.... @.@

Im a lil dejected at how much "Evil" they made the Garlean empire to looks like.... as pure depravated evildoers, in XI we had a more realistic foes at the side of the beastmen, they had somewhat valid reasons for their doings, not just be evil for the hell of it without any reason, they had.... personality...

For other hand in FFXIV at Eorzea... i feels like our villains the garleans as just a bunch of kids making all sort of evil things just for the heck of it. i really think they need to put some reasons to their doings behind the scenes, or at least if they all really all psycho make it looks like really like it... as how Garleans are right now is almost as if our hero would stand in front of a garlean captain and ask them "why you doing things?", then the garlean captain answer "hmmmm i dont really know but i have to do it!".

I'm i the only one feeling this way about our foes?

Also, if they add a valid reason of doing for our foes (not have to be only garlean, maybe other new villains from near future too) , make it possible to join their ranks instead those of the 3 main city states.... i meant in all wars there not always a "good side and bad side" it tends to be grey, a fight in betwen ideals , behind that reasoning, maybe we adventurers could take the decicion to join the ranks of the so called "villains" that could possible not be villains but some foes who fight for their ideals or needs against the 3 main city states, it would be neat.

No cookies, no dark side.

If you look at Final Fantasy the main evil presence has always been that way, basically evil just because they can, some were insane to begin with, most went insane at some point.

For all we know Garleans could be poisoned by the Aether driving them insane, we still don't know enough to determine if they are just evil for evil sake.

We know they dispise Primals and they want to destroy them.
We know they are trying to destroy the aetheryte.
We know they are bringing Dalamud on us for some reason.

It would be something as simple as religion, the time for the umbral age is upon us, the world must be cleansed so we can start anew in the 8th Astral age. lol

No thanks, I want to join the Garlean Empire with the way it is right now. I like just being evil for the sake of being and furthering evil.

While in FFXI, the enemy looked like a bunch of crybabies, which made them ridiculous. Either be something for the sake of it, or don't, IMO.

"We lost our lollands so we're gonna take them from you.... QQ!"

To me it seems like the what the Garleans are doing isn't evil to them. They seem to be "Cleansing" the land of something they feel threatened by, while we on the receiving end of the stick vilify them (For good reason) because they don't seem to even care that we there we are meerly "In the way" of their goals.

Does one feel bad when they step on a ant? That seems to be the mind-set of the Garleans they don't even seem to have any malice against us, other than the fact we are probably enabeling what they are trying to stop.

It always varied FF wise. In FFXI the main villains and motives were:

Shadow Lord reigned supreme, wanted to wipe the planet clean of altana's childrens. (Crystal War Era)
Shadow Lord was revived and wanted to continue his plan (Where you come in)
Zilartian Brothers wanted to open the gate of paradise, which would be a bad thing. (Each brother had their own motives though, plus Kam was the one who even brought the nations together in the first place.)
Promathia was just..well, evil.
The Empire wanted to harness a specific power from Alexander's ruins, Alexander is reborn and Odin vs Alexander happens.
Lady Lilith wanted to make sure Atomos devoured your reality, which was a false reality to begin with and make her reality the only one that is known in history.
Promathia succeeds and kills you and absorbs Sel which also means he absorbed Phoenix and became Shinryu in an alternate timeline and brings absolute hell to the planet so much so he almost succeeds in causing the moon to crash into it ontop of shattering the mothercrystals. (Abyssea)
You enter a planar rift in Walk of Echos and stumble onto the very start of all things, as in where Vanadiel was created and will be destroyed. In defense the Mothercrystal sends her avatar after you. So not evil perse, but it's the "big boss" of Voidwatch.

That's all of XI's storylines. FFIX for example, Kuja was eventually hungry for more power to the point he'd willingly destroy all life just because hell, he was going to die anyway so why not take everyone with you?

If the empire is "black", I don't see who is supposed to be "white" : Eorzea is nothing but conflicting interests.

Exactly. I have never gotten the impression they were "evil for evil's sake." They're fanatics. If anything, they see themselves as the good guys, and our characters as blind fools.

I don't think Garleans are "just evil" for the heck of it.
They even proposed to be all nice and friendly to Eorzean city states as long as they are fine with Garleans hunting down and killing every Beast tribe as well as people who are able and willing to communicate or trade with them.
It obviously has someting to do with their beliefs that Eikons are bad.
Their nation seems to be very military based, so economy would probably collapse if they stopped going to war.
We don't really know enough about them yet though.
About being evil looking to us..well, we adventurers who are able to communicate with beastmen are basically exactly what they want to kill. And it doesn't help that the current boss of the "operation Eorzea" is Nael van Darnus, a total lunatic who tends to kill friends and foes alike if he feels like it.

About joining the "dark side" though..
I know some MMOs have this, but it's nothing native to the FF franchise.
Final Fantasy games never allowed us to be on the dark side.
Sure, sometimes we started off with evil actions or as part of an invading empire (for example in FFIV), but we ALWAYS regretted our actions later and became the heroes, fighting off the evil from the land...in some way.
It just feels wrong to let players be part of the Garlean empire.

I agree, I don't think the Garleans are evil per say... after all even one of the great NPCs who helps you later on in the GC quests is Garlean.

But Van Darnus is evil, has evil intentions, and I kinda reckon that if their mysterious emperor has given him that much power, then he could be evil as well. Dunno where Ishgard fits into all this but I also suspect that there is something not quite right about how the Garleans (ignore?) Ishgard yet maintain excursions into DH.

Anyway, I don't think players should join them at the moment but what could make for an interesting storyline is if Van Darnus now tries to hire you to turn against his emperor or Van Baelsar. He's that insane.