What happened to SB (story)?

[Exiled_Tonberry]

Well, basically, SB wasn't an expansion about a war, or a fight for freedom between two nations.

It was, literally, a huge excuse to go to Doma. This is just FFXIV gone eastern style. All the detail is out into making FFXIV as eastern themed as possible, and to hell with how lackluster the story is. Ala Mhigo felt like an afterthought rather than our reason for everything. Heck, a lot of the time in the story, I asked myself why no one didn't do this before if it was as simple as taking over a couple Castrums and killing Zenos. Heck, it would have been even easier before Shinryu came into the picture.

HW felt like we were up against actually dangerous people. Gods. Dragons.
SB we're up against a guy who's for whatever reason the strongest thing ever. And we needed the entirety of Doma for that?

[Dark-Saviour]

It was, literally, a huge excuse to go to Doma. This is just FFXIV gone eastern style.

I could excuse this if

1) They hadn't forced Ala Mhigo to be the bookends. Honestly, I'd say stay away from it entirely unless you're going to pay off the idea that the full weight of Garlemald will soon be storming into our domain, but either way... If they had to start us off there, just give us the Fringes and Rhalgr's Reach, then end that story after the resistance is crushed for now.
2) Doma felt like more than a small city. If the rest of it was just superfluous and Doma was to be the star, make Doma actually feel like a grand, interesting place. Have a large city (Garlean-held, ruins, or whatever) like Kugane, small fishing villages, a zone full of small farms and trade-routes, some mountain towns, and a hidden Shinobi community. Give us something more than a few ruinous buildings, a castle/dungeon, and a village with a dozen NPCs.

Doma was someplace I wanted to visit ever since Yugiri and the refugees were introduced, but now I'd honestly prefer it just remained untapped potential...

:-/