Been waiting for this topic but "So... （Last Dungeon) was just a dungeon after all?"

[Shirolumi]

Spoilers of course!

I've never really cared about it and I actually expected Ala Mhigo to be a dungeon at first. However before Stormblood release people were really speculating over this, and I recall Yoshi-P mentioning something along the lines of that it would be "more than that" or "different".

So I figured that it would be a "secret" zone like Azys Lla, or an instanced area like Idyllshire that we would rebuild. After liberating Doma, we got access to an instanced Area with Hien and his people, so that gave me hope.

But the only area that is part of Ala Mhigo is the Ala Mhigan Quarter, which looks kind of rushed to be honest (compared to the dungeon version). And I actually expected us to be able to unlock some instanced version in the end, and also being able to reach the Royal Menagerie again. But nope.

I'm not disappointed, but I'm wondering what other people's thoughts are on this. Will there be changes to the Ala Mhigan Quarter with patches? What do you think?

[SaitoHikari]

I imagine we'll get access to the city proper in the later patches. Makes no sense for you to literally liberate the city and then never be allowed to go into it during peacetime. I imagine the only reason why we're not going in there yet is because the area may still be considered unsafe, and the liberation efforts are now going to focus on getting rid of Garlean stragglers and whatever the hell else they might have left behind in the city.

It'd also be awkward as hell for the only accessible part of the city to have CONSTANT EPIC MUSIC BLARING 24/7 even long after the liberation just because it's considered to be in the same zone as the Lochs.

[Yasminou]

I would agree with you if the name of the dungeon were not Ala Mhigo itself. For Doma, the dungeon is Doma Castle and there is a zone called Doma that we can expect to see change with patches (though I agree it is smaller than usual cities).

The problem I have with Ala Mhigo is that cities zones names used to be City - Part X/Y, except for Gridania where it is New/Old Gridania. But Kugane's zone name is just Kugane nothing more. So, if Ala Mhigo were to be only one zone instead of two, the logical name would be Ala Mhigo. But it is already used by the dungeon...

I still cross my fingers, though!

[Zohar_Lahar]

I would agree with you if the name of the dungeon were not Ala Mhigo itself. For Doma, the dungeon is Doma Castle and there is a zone called Doma that we can expect to see change with patches (though I agree it is smaller than usual cities).

The problem I have with Ala Mhigo is that cities zones names used to be City - Part X/Y, except for Gridania where it is New/Old Gridania. But Kugane's zone name is just Kugane nothing more. So, if Ala Mhigo were to be only one zone instead of two, the logical name would be Ala Mhigo. But it is already used by the dungeon...

I still cross my fingers, though!

They could easily just rename the dungeon instance to something like "Ala Mhigo (Liberation)" to avoid confusion with the city zone.

[DRKoftheAzure]

They could easily just rename the dungeon instance to something like "Ala Mhigo (Liberation)" to avoid confusion with the city zone.

That's actually a good idea to help with new players who have yet to clear the instance in later patches and we can go into Ala Mhigo after it's Liberation.

[Hinoto-no-Ryuji]

I genuinely think that we'll be getting it as a zone eventually - it seems silly to put it in the game, liberate it, and then not be able to actually enter it.

I'm doing a bit of prophecy here: it's the 5.0 city. There will be a number of instanced areas (like the Doman Quarter) that slowly open up over the course of 4.x, culminating in a fully-accessible city state for us to face down Garlemald in come the next expansion.

[Quor]

I'm calling it now; Ala Mhigo (Hard) will be defending the city from a Garlean counteract, starting at the Throne room where you just happened to be present as a member of the Scions when Garlean assassins come to try and behead the leadership while the main force makes to breach the city gates.

[Lyrai_Celestine]

I sincerely hope we can visit Ala Mhigo as a city in the future. Sure it needs a lot of cleanup after the liberation, but since the city itself seems to be at good condition, I can hope for an Ala Mhigo city hub much like every other cities in the near future.

But... a lot of the contents especially job classes extend themselves to the Far East in Orthard instead, which could simply mean that they put the focus of their efforts and lore over there, instead of Eorzea and Ala Mhigo. Still, one can hope, I guess.

[DamianFatale]

I imagine we'll get access to the city proper in the later patches. Makes no sense for you to literally liberate the city and then never be allowed to go into it during peacetime. I imagine the only reason why we're not going in there yet is because the area may still be considered unsafe, and the liberation efforts are now going to focus on getting rid of Garlean stragglers and whatever the hell else they might have left behind in the city.

It'd also be awkward as hell for the only accessible part of the city to have CONSTANT EPIC MUSIC BLARING 24/7 even long after the liberation just because it's considered to be in the same zone as the Lochs.

This never happened. Gyr Abania feels useless.

[Iscah]

I feel like there are still a few ways it might go:

1. Early-game hub city for 5.0.

2. Something is going to happen to it. As of patch 4.4, it seems that Garlemald is ready to attack it. Either the city gets destroyed and we never get to visit as a proper city, or we'll get in there later but they just don't want to have to build 'before' and 'after' versions.

3. Why not both? Not allowed in yet, but something dramatic happens in 4.5+, and then the city opens up for us.