Guess the gimmick of 5.0

[Enkidoh]

they better not do the time travel thing, I absolutely hate that...

Exactly, I agree. Wings of the Goddess in FFXI showed that only too well - time travel became a convenient go-to plot for uninspired zone and game design by FFXI's old development team, in that they didn't even have to make new zones but just retouched existing zones and called it "<insert zone name here>, but in the past!". The Abyssea mini-expansions only underlined that fact.

Also, and for those specifically hoping for time travel to allow them to see 1.0 Eorzea, that specifically will never happen. ARR's whole concept specifically was to change the design of 1.0's zones which were hated for being large expanses of nothing punctuated by copy-pasted aetheryte camps and the occasional unique landmark.

So even if there was a hypothetical time travel storyline in FFXIV that somehow allowed travel back to the Sixth Astral Era just prior to the Calamity, the zones you would visit would merely be ARR style zones retouched to look "five years in the past", and not 1.0's zones rendered with a new coat of paint. That's just being realistic.

[Tanathya]

Exactly, I agree. Wings of the Goddess in FFXI showed that only too well - time travel became a convenient go-to plot for uninspired zone and game design by FFXI's old development team, in that they didn't even have to make new zones but just retouched existing zones and called it "<insert zone name here>, but in the past!". The Abyssea mini-expansions only underlined that fact.

In my opinion, FFXI pulled that off brilliantly, gave it an amazing story and the zones were different enough despite being the same, for the most part. Also, it made sense there.