1.0 instanced dungeons in ARR, no hard modes = suspicious...

[Antonius2004]

I've been wondering about this since before patch 2.3 with Stone Vigil and Tam Tara having been announced as having hard modes, when I learn't that none of the 1.0 dungeons that are in game had hard mode versions announced... Then came 2.4, still none and now 2.5 will have Amdapor Keep and Wanderers Palace receiving hard modes... Is it just me or does this seem suspicious to others?

Recap:
Here is a list of all 4 player instanced dungeons which were introduced co0me ARR...

1) Sastasha
2) Tam-Tara Deepcroft
3) Copperbell Mines
4) Halatali
5) Haukke Manor
6) Brayflox's Longstop
7) Sunken Temple of Qarn
8) Stone Vigil
9) The Wanderer's Palace
10) Amdapor Keep
11) Pharos Sirius
12) The Lost City of Amdapor
13) Hullbreaker Isle
14) Snowcloak
15) The Keeper of The Lake

Now for the list of Dungeons from 1.0
1) The Thousand Maws of Toto-rak
2) Dzemael Darkhold
3) Cutters Cry
4) Aurum Vale

Let's have a look at the hard mode version list...

1) Copperbell Mines
2) Haukke Manor
3) Brayflox's Longstop
4) Halatali
5) Stone Vigil
6) Tam-Tara Deepcroft
7) Sastasha
8) Sunken Temple of Qarn
9) The Wanderer's Palace
10) Amdapor Keep

Wait a sec... All ten hard mode dungeons have new-for-ARR normal counterparts which were released on launch... This leaves us with four leftovers (And the five new ones, which we'll leave out for now)... Which happen to be all four of the original 1.0 dungeons.

I could be reading too much into this and it could just be a design choice to have little to do with the old or such but it has been something which has been eating at me for a while now.

[Anonymoose]

I don't even think you need to leave the five new ones off the list to keep the conspiracy theory going.

Pharos Sirius, The Lost City of Amdapor, and Snowcloak each feature a being known to Final Fantasy as a summon, but not one chosen to be a primal in FFXIV. A "lesser summon," if you will. In FFXI, the six elemental primals we've been introduced to were also known as the sleeping gods and were contained in their own group. Outside of this group were the rest - just like in FFXIV. So far, we've got Diabolos, Fenrir, and Siren. My guess is that these dungeons served as introductions to figures we'll see again. Or, in the words of Koji Fox: "Did you really defeat them? Did youuu?"

That's 3/5 explained away right there. Hullbreaker concludes a series of namedrops about Mistbeard's legacy reaching all the way back to 1.0, and I'm guessing the Keeper of the Lake will do something very similar - maybe it'll even contain yet another "lesser summon," the same way Snowcloak did despite being primarily framed around Shiva. And that's 5/5, leaving you only with the four 1.0 dungeons left out.

BUUUUUUT....

Maybe they don't get hard modes because they already did. Those dungeons were no joke in their day. No sense giving them a third incarnation when you can give the others some airtime? Especially considering the new dungeons' resources were all built specifically for this version of the game and may be more versatile on the back-end (I have no idea). Also, there's just not much more you can do with them, unless you try to shoehorn it in there. A lot of their lore came and went with 1.0, and Eorzea hasn't really made any designs or progress on them since then.

The Thousand Maws of Toto-Rak has been returned to the forest and should have remained sealed. It still festers with negativity and rage. We only went in there because had to, once because the Garleans were mucking with the aether (1.0), and once to save Frixio, who got trapped inside. Gridania doesn't even have enough interest in it to clear out the magitek Darnus' men left behind five years ago. I doubt they'll ever even think about the place again (unless they send a Hearer out to re-re-return it to the forest and seal it back up, proper).

Ditto the Dzemael Darkhold, on the magitek point. Ever since we chased the Garleans out of there, Ishgard's been too busy to do anything with it. I wouldn't be surprised if this infestation thing happens again, either, but that'd still be the same story - preoccupied House Dzemael lets unfinished keep with thin realm-membranes fill with Voidsent, again.

Ditto Cutter's Cry, on the same story point. Ants and a chimera before, and as soon as we clear it out, more ants and even another Chimera, though this new one's kind of a pup. I bet it's already full of ants again. And maybe even another Chimera. Maybe a bunch of them. Thanks, Allagan Bioweapons Lab. The only reason we went there anyway was to keep the bitchin' lore about the Darklight Raiders, though Sibold seems to have forgotten the entire thing, as he offers the exact same quest he used to, down to believing that the old Chimera is still there. That part's always gotten to me. Did we not tell him? Does he have Alzheimers? Obviously we cleared it out and reclaimed his friends' remains. That's how Rowena got their armor to (allegedly) start mass-producing (accurate, quality) forgeries.

Speaking of we-only-went-there-fors and SE-kept-it-becauses, the only reason we went to the Aurum Vale is because Ned thought it was a cool idea. It's been an inhospitable pit of tainted forest creatures and cyclops that nobody wants to visit for like, ever. Even moreso now that a bunch of 'em ran in there to escape the now-frigid Coerthan landscape. We went in once on the hunt for Darnus' men and we went in once for fun, and, yeah, it's gorgeous and totally deserved an ARR incarnation, but nothing's changed about the place in ages, and we're better than that now.

You can make the case for the pattern being suspicious or sensible.

Is it a matter of conspiracy? Or priority? You decide.

inb4, years from now, resource recycling becomes necessary and we're forced to go back to Cutter's Cry and the quest dialogue is mostly just an Ul'dahn noble going, "Because f*ck ants, that's why!" while Sibold tries to recruit you to kill the chimera and avenge his fallen friends, again.

[Grayve]

I read on Reddit (or was it one of the design presentations from London fanfest?) that the old 1.0 dungeons where built without the plans to add Hard Modes, while the 2.0 dungeons where designed from the ground up with future HM's in mind. Assuming that's true (and I seem to recall a quote linked) the reason they don't have HM's is simply because the development resources where never there.

[MaethusXion]

I can see them adding a Darkhold HM in 3.0 as an "introductory" dungeon, cause Dzemael is a Ishgardian House.

[Anonymoose]

I can see them adding a Darkhold HM in 3.0 as an "introductory" dungeon, cause Dzemael is a Ishgardian House.

I've always had this quiet fantasy that, someday, the Darkhold would become an open-world cave zone that was entry-gated to completing certain 3.0 content. Ishgard will have reclaimed and completed chunks of the interior, finally succeeding in linking several areas of the Coerthas region together via the cave system and creating camps within. Adventurers could come in via different zones (Central Highlands, Western Highlands, etc.) and either do content at the inner camps, or help clear the "more cave than keep" areas of mobs that have wandered in (or broken in from the Void). Hell, the FATEs write themselves and you could even build it up over time like Revenant's Toll if you wanted to. There's a depressing, almost nonsensical lack of open-world cave zones in this game and its always made me sad.

[treuhavik]

There's a depressing, almost nonsensical lack of open-world cave zones in this game and its always made me sad.

This. I miss the old sastasha so much... /singletear

[Urtear]

Aurum Vale Hard Mode...the very thought makes most players shiver. All they'd have to do is bring back the original from 1.0 and make it a 4 man. That place was a bleedin NIGHTMARE.

[Chewy2nd]

I've always had this quiet fantasy that, someday, the Darkhold would become an open-world cave zone that was entry-gated to completing certain 3.0 content. Ishgard will have reclaimed and completed chunks of the interior, finally succeeding in linking several areas of the Coerthas region together via the cave system and creating camps within. Adventurers could come in via different zones (Central Highlands, Western Highlands, etc.) and either do content at the inner camps, or help clear the "more cave than keep" areas of mobs that have wandered in (or broken in from the Void). Hell, the FATEs write themselves and you could even build it up over time like Revenant's Toll if you wanted to. There's a depressing, almost nonsensical lack of open-world cave zones in this game and its always made me sad.

Wasn't it said in 2.4 that explorers in the Snowcloak tunnels had found their way through to the other side? I wonder if we'll be able to pass through there in 3.0? I would love to see an open world Darkhold though.

[Myrhn]

I dont know you guys but from a 1.0 player that grid the hell out of them for relic and best gear, I wouldn't care less if they didn't add a HM version of them to grind again. At least thats for Darkhold and Cutter's Cry.

[Antonius2004]

Wasn't it said in 2.4 that explorers in the Snowcloak tunnels had found their way through to the other side? I wonder if we'll be able to pass through there in 3.0? I would love to see an open world Darkhold though.

I remember that! I remember thinking "huh, the perfect suggestion for the re-introduction of the Western Highlands becoming a playable zone."