Revelations from Patch 3.56

[Hinoto-no-Ryuji]

Regarding Garlemald...

No attempt at diplomacy was made. Nobody brought up Regula's sacrifice even though his storyline really should be considered to be an extension of the MSQ's given how relevant it is to the game's story moving forward. I just don't get it - the lore book took the time to flesh out Garlemald as more than just a generic 'evil empire' and one can even argue that the Garleans were dealt a very poor hand, being unable to wield aether in most cases and being driven out of fertile lands in favour of living in a dangerous wasteland. They sought to survive, eventually becoming defiant and embracing magitek and military might out of necessity.

All of this is completely irrelevant right now. None of us know any of these things about their lands or their past, in-game; we just know that war with Garlemald is looming, and they haven't been especially open to bilateral negotiation in the past. Does the Eorzean Alliance even have communication channels with Ala Mhigo?

(I do agree that the Garlean Roe was more than a little bit cartoonish, and as much as I love me a good solo instance, I wish that sequence had been used to better effect. Maybe even as a way to introduce Zenos. I dunno. It's definitely my least favorite thing about the patch.

As for that checklist...well, Cilia covered most of what I wanted to say, but a couple other points:

- WHY did everyone blindly accept Nero? Did we forget about Crystal Tower and trying to kill us?

-Absolutely nobody accepted Nero. Half the people at the meeting didn't know who he was, and the other half didn't trust him as far as they could throw him.

Plus, Crystal Tower was where he showed that he could be relied on in spite of himself, given the right circumstances. It's the only reason we "trust" him at all, to the point where I'm kinda curious how that scene plays out if the player hasn't done CT. Hell, we're even given the chance to Not Trust him ourselves, in those opinion options you disliked so much. Also...

To be fair, Nero wasn't even wearing a helmet or headband. He literally walked into what should be one of the most secure locations in Gridania with his 'third eye' fully exposed. I was under the impression, as a Garlean role-player, that they would need to disguise themselves whilst roaming Eorzea's cities.

I mean, he's a pretty sneaky dude. That, and the average Gridanian likely hasn't seen a Garlean outside their fully-armored conscripts and soldiers - the eye may not register at a quick glance, if they even got that. I could see nobody paying him too much mind until he ended up somewhere he wasn't supposed to be.

- WHY do we not even care about going to Doma? Why was it so forced for us to leave this area?

-We don't even know we're going to Doma yet. All eyes are on the Wall and all thoughts are on what to do after the Alliance definitively holds it.

In addition, we haven't been given the narrative thrust to do so, for the time being. This game has played with storytelling in an MMO environment since the start; this time, it would seem that they decided to provide us with a reason to move East once we could actually do so, rather than end with an explosion of urgency and then expect us to lollygag around our old stomping grounds for three months. Clearly, it's gotten mixed reception, but I can see why they did it. We'll get our reason for going to Othard in 4.0.

[Theodric]

All of this is completely irrelevant right now. None of us know any of these things about their lands or their past, in-game; we just know that war with Garlemald is looming, and they haven't been especially open to bilateral negotiation in the past. Does the Eorzean Alliance even have communication channels with Ala Mhigo?

Is it really irrelevant, though? You don't go to war lightly - you research and pursue every available option at one's disposal before doing so. The Scions also have access to vast swathes of historical knowledge and are well aware of Eorzea's own history being rather unclean in both the past and the present. We've also had Cid, Lucia and Nero given a fair bit of screen-time yet none of them have really spoken of what drives them. They're just there, opposing Garlemald and ignoring the moral complexities of their aid resulting in their former people being killed or put at risk. Even if they've completely turned their backs upon their former homeland you'd think their eagerness to aid Eorzea would be reflected in acknowledging that not everybody in Garlemald is rotten.

Now, I don't want to spoil anything for other games but I recently played Tales of Berseria and Nier: Automata. Both solid RPG's in their own right and very enjoyable. They did an excellent job at making the antagonists very fleshed out and nuanced, driven by their own reasons and motives that weren't entirely difficult to sympathise or understand even if one does not agree with the methods used. FFXIV seems to be doing the same thing to Garlemald in the lore book yet that hasn't really been the case in the actual game yet...other than with Regula who has now been swept under the rug as if he didn't exist.

I just want some consistency. A lot of plot points were dropped abruptly or never referenced again after they were resolved. You're right in that we don't know what is in store for us in Stormblood but it's hard not to be wary given how things have been handled thus far.