Areas in the game that we can see, but can't explore.

[Nalien]

Oh, that door at the end of Copperbell could do with some explaining.

Copperbell really was a terribly written dungeons. Sastasha? Here there be pirates. Also the pirates are working for a fish. Copperbell? OK, it's a mine. Oh giants, why are they here? OK, they were slaves or something? It really isn't until the final Guildhest that you get any insight into this... Then there is that door at the end... What's behind it? Who built it? Why is it there if Copperbell (Hard) is going to stop at the exact same point?

[Magis]

Oh, that door at the end of Copperbell could do with some explaining.

Copperbell really was a terribly written dungeons. Sastasha? Here there be pirates. Also the pirates are working for a fish. Copperbell? OK, it's a mine. Oh giants, why are they here? OK, they were slaves or something? It really isn't until the final Guildhest that you get any insight into this... Then there is that door at the end... What's behind it? Who built it? Why is it there if Copperbell (Hard) is going to stop at the exact same point?

What? Copperbell was explained:

“Abandoned once purged of ore, the Copperbell Mines laid abandoned for nigh on three centuries until Amajina and Sons Mineral Concern reclaimed the shafts - the guild's sights set on expanding the mines downward in an attempt to tap yet undiscovered veins of valuable metal. Unfortunately, it was not riches the powder kegs uncovered, but sheer terror, for when the smoke cleared, out poured an army of raging giants from the darkest recesses of the mines. The hecatonchires - thralls of the lost Throne dynasty - were, at last, free from their lightless prison; three hundred years of hate fueling their madness.”

It was a normal mine, but an older dynasty (the ancestor of Ul'dah probably) used hecatonchires as slaves to do the mining. They were later sealed to die. In the present day they broke free and are having their revenge.

[Nalien]

What? Copperbell was explained:

It was a normal mine, but an older dynasty (the ancestor of Ul'dah probably) used hecatonchires as slaves to do the mining. They were later sealed to die. In the present day they broke free and are having their revenge.

Ugh, this is exactly why I hate this kind of "storytelling". I find it very easy to read through quest dialogue and pick up information there, but throw information in a menu? I'm almost certainly going to miss it (although I obviously didn't with the Guildhest... Odd...). Almost exactly why I ended up hating FFXIII, it's a complete break of immersion. Stuff like this really could do with being integrated better, even if they take the laziest option and just dump scraps of what would be in the menu around the dungeon (see: Tam-Tara Hard). They could have thrown a NPC in at the first boss of Copperbell who explains about the hecatonchires after you clear the waves right before the hecatonchires boss actually drops down, and I'd have loved that.

Anyway, thank you. Guess I need to go through the Duty Finder menu for a bit now...

[Bixby]

I find it very easy to read through quest dialogue and pick up information there, but throw information in a menu?

The dialog for the quest to go to Copperbell explains all that, too.

#11 Papashan To be plain, giants have seized control of the place.
#12 Papashan These giants are of the clan known as the hecatoncheires─fearsome creatures who were sealed within the deepest depths of the mines during the bygone Thorne Dynasty.
#13 Papashan Alas, it seems they have managed to break through the layer of rock which served to imprison them, and now prowl the tunnels where the miners ply their trade. The creatures are justifiably angry about their treatment at the hands of our ancestors, and their presence has forced the suspension of all mining activities on the site.