So the devs said that the Dragonsong War...

[Belhi]

Didn't say it was.. Matter of fact, that's not at all what I was suggesting I said that the opening arc of 3.0 was darker than the entire 2.xx plotline.
It is very possible that things are really close to going very wrong extreemly fast. And there may not be anything we can do this time
We've, in the span of a few weeks, compleatly eradicated a thousand year old status quo and now the rising of the peasents may end with a bloody reaconing that even The WoL won't be able to stop.

I don't actually think the WoL will though they will help. I think the ones to make the difference will be likes of Hilda, those guys in the Scholisticate quests and very much Aymeric. Even as authority figure, Aymeric is enough of a self made man that he will be respected for his own talents, distinguished enough that the nobility will respect him and charismatic enough to convince people to trust him. I'd add to that we just had Aymeric, only just recovering from an attempted assassination, fight his way through the Vault himself to save refugees from the Brume.

While we have deep seated grudges between the commoners and the nobles we also see quite a few cases of groups from both sides reaching across the divide.

Honestly I don't think we will have a tragedy ending to this patch cycle. I don't think everything will just be ok but I think we will walk away from Ishgard with at least it set on a road that can lead to a better future. 2.55 was, regardless of who it turned out, a tragedy ending and I don't think they will repeat it. I think this time we will see Ishgard's story rap up as we build to a larger confrontation with Garlemald that has been brewing since 2.2.

But no we won't wipe out the Brood who even without Nidhogg are so brainwashed with his hatred that I don't see them changing their minds even if they start to be driven back. We won't wipe out all class imbalance in ishgard or all its social issues. Honestly I don't think that's the WoL's job.

[Nalien]

Honestly I don't think we will have a tragedy ending to this patch cycle.

We wont. At least, not as far as Ishgard goes. That simply wouldn't move the plot on, and unless 4.0 is going to be more Ishgard, they kind of need to... I would imagine we'll simply get a bittersweet conclusion to Ishgards story, where they sacrifice a bit more, have an unstable peace, but nevertheless are ready to move on. I suspect most of the remaining drama in Ishgard will revolve around saving Estinien, or attempting to.

2.0 gave us Alphinaud and Alisaie, the former being mature, while the later was emotional and still torn up over their grandfather. 3.0 on the other hand, has gone to great lengths to break down Alphinaud, and frequently display is immaturity. To the point now, where the many sacrifices along the way have clearly taken their toll on him, and we "have to save Estinien". I almost wonder if we'll have a reversal of their introduction, seeing as Alisaie seems to be coming back into the plot, in which Alphinaud is emotional and unwilling to let Estinien go, while Alisaie will remind him that it would be for the greater good, and that Estinien would likely gladly sacrifice himself to end Nidhogg.

If we do get a major tragedy at the end of 3.0, similar to how we did at the end of 2.0, I find it much more likely that it would be related to something other than Ishgard. Either the Scions (again), or something related to Garlemald. I'm half-expecting Minfilia to kick the bucket though, Hydaelyn told her something shocking, and it certainly wasn't everyone else dying, given absolutely nobody died in Ul'dah (except Raubahns girlfriend! zing!), "You're going to die" would be quite shocking, and it would be thematically appropriate to have her struggle to come to terms with that, but ultimately accept it, when pretty much every major villain has been unable to do just that. Xandes didn't, Nidhogg failed and game back from the grave twice, and the Ascians are pretty much the text book example of people clinging to life and failing to accept their death. Could even throw Bahamut into that lot, I suppose, though that was more Tiamat not accepting his death. Either way, most of the threats in this game stem from someone failing to accept their time was up and bitterly fighting back. I suspect the big bad truth Elidibus alluded to is somehow related to the nature of life and death, and if he starts tempting us over with his "solution", it would be interesting to have Minfilia sacrifice herself to convince us not to fall for it (and if the Dragonsong trailer really is meant to explain what happened and hint at what might happen, "Sacrifice, a final plea to her kin", which is obviously relating to Saint Shiva, is sung while Minfilia shows up on screen...), more so given his apparent interest in her (based on what Nabriales said).

That said, they could always just repeat 2.55 and give us a dire situation in Ishgard that has pretty much no impact on the rest of the story going forward, and gets concluded in a fairly lackluster manner...

[Kallera]

I find the overarching theme of "knowing when to accept your time has come" to be a little odd, and suggests something is off with our characters, who always succeed, or from the player's perspective die until we succeed. We succeed by defying this lesson as much as the monsters and bad guys we face.

Its not a problem,(certainly not asking for a hardcore mode of this game), so much as a broken aesop so far, unless my suspicions are confirmed and there is something fundamentally "wrong" with us.

[Nalien]

Well, it's a fairly difficult thing for the player character to do, since it is fairly difficult to kill our character while allowing us to play... As such it seems like more of a message for our NPC allies to drill home; Louisoix, Moenbryda, Ysayle, and potentially any future characters, such as Estinien or Minfilia. As far as lore goes I imagine we breeze through each encounter, rather than Dark Souling them, we always succeed because we've got the backing of Hydaelyn. We don't really defy the lesson because there has never really been a point where we bitterly fight against our death, because our death has yet to come, and simply cannot come as far as lore/gameplay goes, because this is a game. Xandes, Nidhogg and the Ascians, however, have all died, all come back, and all cause plenty of grief because of it. Meanwhile, of our allies who have died, all have done so quite willingly, and done so with good cause. Haurchefant didn't go "Nope, I don't want to die, I have a vendetta to settle and I'll burn the world before I see it unfinished", he was just glad to have helped save us. Same for Ysayle, same for Moen, same for Lou. Quite the contrast to most of the villains. Pretty much the only "good" character who had an "ugly" death would be Nanamo, but well... Yeah...

Even had Nanamos death stuck, I can't imagine the story would be endorsing Raubahns rampage all that much... Much more likely we'd have him coming to terms with it and moving on to forge a better Ul'dah, than having him let Ul'dah burn in a quest for vengeance... Kind of a shame they didn't really kill off Nanamo, now that I think on it more... It would have gone so perfectly with Ishgards story; Raubahn effectively learning from Nidhoggs mistakes... What (could have) happened in Ul'dah actually mirrors Dravanian history fairly well... I almost wonder if they made a last minute change to the plot now... It just seems to perfect to have had Raubahn going down the same path Nidhogg walks... No idea how you'd fit that alongside Ishgards story (probably why it didn't happen), but damn would that have been more interesting than the conclusion to 2.55 that we got...

[Kaiser-Ace]

I think The Eorzean Allience, The Citizen's Republic of Idlyshire, and The Neo-Dravanian Hord (Led by Tiamat and Hraysvelgr this time) joining into a single collective to kick Garlemauld out of Eorzea would be an excellent way to end 3.xx and build up for 4.0 - 5.0's inevitable move from the Eorzean Contenent.

[Kallera]

I think The Eorzean Allience, The Citizen's Republic of Idlyshire, and The Neo-Dravanian Hord (Led by Tiamat and Hraysvelgr this time) joining into a single collective to kick Garlemauld out of Eorzea would be an excellent way to end 3.xx and build up for 4.0 - 5.0's inevitable move from the Eorzean Contenent.

I wish i didnt read that. It feels almost spoilery knowing we know exactly how this story and game will go.

[CyrilLucifer]

I think The Eorzean Allience, The Citizen's Republic of Idlyshire, and The Neo-Dravanian Hord (Led by Tiamat and Hraysvelgr this time) joining into a single collective to kick Garlemauld out of Eorzea would be an excellent way to end 3.xx and build up for 4.0 - 5.0's inevitable move from the Eorzean Contenent.

Please no. Is it so wrong that I hope we're going to step away from these tropes?

Am I asking too much? Yes?

Surprising absolutely no one, I want to go to the moon.

[Theodric]

I'd rather work alongside Garlemald than constantly oppose it. I've said this before but Garlemald deserves much, much more than to be treated like a generic evil empire. The likes of Rufus Shinra and Gabranth proved to be exceptionally popular characters in earlier titles. We really, really need more characters like them that are fiercely loyal to their homeland/cause but we don't end up killing them off.

I'll probably take my leave of the game if we just get another expansion where the Warrior of Light conveniently overcomes every obstacle put in their path. Especially if they have another 'Nanamo' bait and switch.

I love the game, I really do - but plot armour and questionable story decisions turned me away from WoW and I do not want to see that happen in FFXIV as well.

[CyrilLucifer]

I'll probably take my leave of the game if we just get another expansion where the Warrior of Light conveniently overcomes every obstacle put in their path. Especially if they have another 'Nanamo' bait and switch.

The plot armor is really the most annoying part for me. I understand that this game is Japanese and targeted towards a younger crowd than the one I fall into, and SE adores its mascot characters, so we're to expect some armor, but I feel XIV overdoes it. A lot.

I actually feel like it's a symptom of the storytelling method rather than the story, though. It tries to be a bit overly dramatic, badass, and tragic, without being willing to fully commit to any one of them. It goes in half-measures, basically. For example, much of the team that works on XIV worked on TO in the past, but TO is an absolutely brutal game. Definitely very few half-measures there (besides Chapter 4 clearly lacking the funding 1-3 had, I'm mostly talking about the storytelling method), so they're capable of telling a richly complex story with grey areas and rather unpleasant actions perpetuated by the MC, they just choose not to. Yoshi has even said he's spoken with Matsuno in order to work on a questline!

HW will really make or break the lore for me, because I don't find the Dragonsong War particularly interesting, so how they handle it determines my future interest.

All my opinions being said, I don't see how the WoL can come out of this unscathed. We're basically walking Gods at this point, and walking Gods aren't very appealing to have a story centered around. They seem to want to have your character involved, so I do believe that, plot-wise you will somehow end up more permanently weakened, or there's going to be some interesting revelation that changes your status, either of which would be the far more interesting outcome than being hailed as the purest of pure purity savior.

[Belhi]

I'd rather work alongside Garlemald than constantly oppose it. I've said this before but Garlemald deserves much, much more than to be treated like a generic evil empire. The likes of Rufus Shinra and Gabranth proved to be exceptionally popular characters in earlier titles. We really, really need more characters like them that are fiercely loyal to their homeland/cause but we don't end up killing them off.

I'll probably take my leave of the game if we just get another expansion where the Warrior of Light conveniently overcomes every obstacle put in their path. Especially if they have another 'Nanamo' bait and switch.

I love the game, I really do - but plot armour and questionable story decisions turned me away from WoW and I do not want to see that happen in FFXIV as well.

Honestly, it seems to me almost like you want Garlemald to be something it was never shown to be. Garlemald, from the very start, has been a nation focused on the conquest and subjection of all other nations. They have never really had any benevolent qualities and while they bring order, its order born from tyranny. Garlemald itself might not be intrinsically evil but its actions are. Its not conquering the world because it needs to but because it feels it has a right to rule over the world.

On the second point you mention Rufus Shinra. Its true that Rufus was a developing character who wasn't generic evil. He, like Garlemald, did what he did because he believed in his course of action. However he was still an antagonist right through FF7. The one time he works with the main characters he turns on them to use them as scapegoats for a mess that in many ways was Shinra's fault in the first place.

We might work with Garlemald eventually but I don't think it will before Garlemald takes a fall or has something blow up in their faces in a big way.

Personally one of the issues I had with WoW was its consistency with its lore. While you might not like Garlemald's treatment, at least it has been consistent.