Is this entire expansion a bait-and-switch?

[Laerune]

I hope Yugiri will survive 4.x

Me too, but if she goes, we know she will take them down with her.

[Gumbercules]

Look, this game is great. We all agree or we wouldn't be here. These community based worries and fears cropped up before and everytime Yoshi takes care of us. This is a good game with a great story. How about this once instead of "worrying" about it why don't we trust the man to entertain us like he always does.

Honestly its a little self absorbed to think that just because we can think of how it could be done that it can't. If we had all the answers we would have jobs as DEVs. Let's just wait for all the info before we do like this community loves so much to do and jumps to the wrong conclusions because a videogame made us panic.

Some discussion is fine and so far this thread is prety civil hehe. To add to my previous comment, Ala Migho has been occupied like 20-30 ish years now and Doma is considerably more recent? That could lead to an interesting look into how any ppl would react to being occupied =D Man the more I think about it the more this "split" is starting to get my attention =D

[Vexander]

Hrmn... I just remembered something...

Garleans conscript soldiers from places they conquer, and send them to other territories, so they are forced to cooperate or else their homeland would be endangered by their defection or disloyalty. Maybe the majority of Conscripts in Ala Mhigo are from Doma, and the majority of those in Othard are from Ala Mhigo? So, that would be a good reason to go after both at once...

[Gumbercules]

or those in ala migho are fully "emulated" =D in 1.0 they talk about how they start the soldier's training from a young age hehe so alot of ala mighan born garlean forces are prolly lifers.

[Enur]

I too was a bit miffed that Ala Mhigo was in the shadow this fanfest. I had my hopes up for a big scenario revolving around the city.

But then a thought struck me. The devs clearly wanted Stormblood to come before Heavensward, or even skip HW completely. HW was "dry" in a sense. It felt thinned. That much is evident with bad inclusion of the Au Ra, ending of ARR and so on. I think they waited a turn in order to double the budget to make their dream expac so much better and bigger- i hope.

Even HW with its clear Ishgardian theme ended up being just as much about dravania and Sharlayan, a choice i personally like.

I dont fear for the future. I trust Yoshi wont mess it up. Although at the same time i do wish he would take some risks in order to make more creative content. But we will see in due time

[Gumbercules]

Yeah if anything I am starting to think this xpac is gonna be very Garlean centric in a really good way. As we will get to see the contrast of a "recent" acquisition vs an older one and how the empire deals with it all at different stages. Will also be interesting to see if a single "legion" is sometimes attacking/conquering on two fronts or if we are going to face off against a different legion per area. Maybe even the degree of importance a newly conquered area has vs an old one in regards to garlean officer postings.

[Naria]

Some discussion is fine and so far this thread is prety civil hehe. To add to my previous comment, Ala Migho has been occupied like 20-30 ish years now and Doma is considerably more recent? That could lead to an interesting look into how any ppl would react to being occupied =D Man the more I think about it the more this "split" is starting to get my attention =D

Actually, according to the Encyclopedia Eorzea Doma was annexed by Garlemald in 1553 Sixth Astral. Ala Mhigo was annexed in 1557. The Calamity happened in 1572. So Doma has been occupied for approximately half quarter of a century, Ala Mhigo a bit less. There was a recent uprising in Doma during ARR, however, which was brutally put down and that is the reason that Yugiri and her group fled to Eorzea. Supposedly Doma was "destroyed" as a result but the city looks intact to me so /shrug.

EDIT:
Up late watching the keynote, can no longer count.

[Gumbercules]

Actually, according to the Encyclopedia Eorzea Doma was annexed by Garlemald in 1553 Sixth Astral. Ala Mhigo was annexed in 1557. The Calamity happened in 1572. So Doma has been occupied for approximately half a century, Ala Mhigo a bit less. There was a recent uprising in Doma during ARR, however, which was brutally put down and it the reason that Yugiri and her group fled to Eorzea.

Ahh kk nice! So much for some of my takes on it hehe guess the situations on both fronts are probably similar then :P Ahh yeah I just seen stills but I guess the structures on one of the zones is supposed to be Doma? Yeah guessing Doma is the name of the city state, so the destroyed Doma thing is weird XD ...or not this has the city state to liberate as Yanxia XD.....

[Aerish]

Well maybe doma is getting rebuild since, under garlean rule.
I might be wrong, but i don't think they have the politic to leave ppl dying in streets or at citys gates like Uldah

[Nixxe]

Also, for people who are worried Ala Mhigo will be in the background, I'd point out that Heavensward only spent about half of the story focused on Coerthas and Dravania before moving back to Eorzea and I don't think it suffered for it. FFXIV's story is pretty busy in general and jumps around a lot, rather than stubbornly sticking to the newest area, which I think helps it out a lot. Personally, my biggest concern would be that they try to introduce the entire continent of Orthard, but only give it as many zones as were added in Heavensward, and in doing so don't give it enough zones to be as fleshed out as Eorzea.