Which location(s) are we likely to travel to in the next expansion? *SPOILERS*

[Shurrikhan]

I'm guessing we're going to Garlemald with where things in the story are going.

I really hope that we don't go to two regions like in Stormblood.

On one hand, I can understand why SE wanted to do both 'rebel against the Empire' stories at once.

But dividing the focus I feel did more harm than good. The liberation of Ala Mhigo and Doma both felt rushed, too easy, too quick. Having Kugane as the main city makes me scratch my head because it's not tied to Doma OR Ala Mhigo. Why? The only role in the story it serves is as a pit stop on our way to Doma. So neither Doma nor Ala Mhigo get a proper city. Well maybe the Enclave when it's fully built up. Ala Mhigo is a dungeon with one corner of it in the outdoor world with nothing of note there except an aetheryte. I would have much rather focused on just Ala Mhigo, fleshed out the area more, flesh out different factions of the Resistance, explore the Skulls and other ala mhigans that support the empire more, etc. Instead we got two rushed stories. And I hope SE doesn't repeat this mistake in 5.0 by dividing the focus too much.

Agreed. I like that we got them together, but not so much as I'm disappointed in how little was in each. Ultimately, the take on each would have to be far different if each made into their own expansion, but I'm not so attached to the Stormblood iterations to think that a bad thing.

[Bright-Flower]

Agreed. I like that we got them together, but not so much as I'm disappointed in how little was in each. Ultimately, the take on each would have to be far different if each made into their own expansion, but I'm not so attached to the Stormblood iterations to think that a bad thing.

On one hand, I don't think you could do both expansions separately, not if the Doma expansion was also 'overthrow the empire.' Having two expansions of that, especially in a row, may get repetitive. I would have honestly preferred just an Ala Mhigo expansion myself though and then deal with Doma some time down the line. Or if they had at least given us Ala Mhigo as an actual city in game. Kugane's pretty but it's not even important in the story. They didn't even use the garlean embassy there for the 4.2 and 4/3 story despite the fact Kugane would have made for a good neutral ground for meeting with the Empire.

Part of me hopes there will be something more ala mhigo related in 4.4 and 4.5, but I have a feeling the next couple patches will instead have us setting up the plot of the next expansion, doesn't seem like they have much to do left in gyr abania besides maybe figure out what to do with Fordola.

[RenewalXVII]

Part of me hopes there will be something more ala mhigo related in 4.4 and 4.5, but I have a feeling the next couple patches will instead have us setting up the plot of the next expansion, doesn't seem like they have much to do left in gyr abania besides maybe figure out what to do with Fordola.

The apparent Zenos!Elezen is still in Gyr Abania, having just flown off from Castrum Abania, so it's likely that 4.4 will be dealing with him and Fordola. One possible lead-in to 5.0 is that the Zenos!Elezen might enlighten us more fully on what's going on with the Zenos in Garlemald, which might naturally lead to us finally moving into the Empire, combined perhaps with Alphinaud's further adventures with Maxima and Shadowhunter.

[ObsidianFire]

Technically, we do get to see part of the inside of Ala Mhigo in-game. An entire district of it is on The Lochs map; it's just that it's basically the Ala Mhigan slum area where all the non-Garlean citizens lived. Ala Mhigo, the dungeon, is primarily the palace and the garden districts and some of the areas surrounding them.

I'm actually okay with how Ala Mhigo was done, as it feels like it's the largest city in the game since we can't go to all of it at once. The other cities we go to feel "scaled down" and none of them have an "impressive" feel to them. Ala Mhigo doesn't feel scaled down at all...

[Shurrikhan]

On one hand, I don't think you could do both expansions separately, not if the Doma expansion was also 'overthrow the empire.' Having two expansions of that, especially in a row, may get repetitive. I would have honestly preferred just an Ala Mhigo expansion myself though and then deal with Doma some time down the line. Or if they had at least given us Ala Mhigo as an actual city in game. Kugane's pretty but it's not even important in the story. They didn't even use the garlean embassy there for the 4.2 and 4/3 story despite the fact Kugane would have made for a good neutral ground for meeting with the Empire.

Part of me hopes there will be something more ala mhigo related in 4.4 and 4.5, but I have a feeling the next couple patches will instead have us setting up the plot of the next expansion, doesn't seem like they have much to do left in gyr abania besides maybe figure out what to do with Fordola.

I imagine they'd have to be thematically distinct, despite that both have Garlean-held lands.

Ala Mhigo (let's call it Stormblood, still) could be about the two sides of loyalty or identity, old and new, wherein you have rival factions, cooperating publically but at tension beneath the surface, among both the Garleans, or Garlean supporters, and the insurgents. Have a genuinely good imperial commander -- though nonetheless ruthless when viewed by any specific event -- and also a far more vindictive and sacrificing commander among the insurgents. Magictek and Attunement for post-cap progression, sprawling VII-esque urban landscapes with something that feels a bit like a particularly gritty version of faction or nearly FFA world-PvP alongside auto-generated forest and mountain environs in which to raid Imperial supply lines, steal walkers or gunships, or even raid Imperial bases with said vehicles. Frighteningly intelligent human combatants alongside mechs of devestating firepower provide intense fights even when the enemy hasn't much more stats than anyone in your party or even without continuous uptime (as you dive, duck, and dodge, build countermeasures, set up traps, etc, dive enemy casters or healers for their magitek fast enough to get in and out before being blown to bits... King's Road for elements of FFXness (a subtler version of the Feyth), for your more high fantasy lore, and maybe even some sort of HoH-like autogenerative content but with real gear (and further attunement upgrades) that's only boss fights as you progress upwards in the chapel/cathedral/conservatorium/whatever, that builds towards a concept of the Farplane which extends beyond 4.x alone. Etc., etc...
Ambiently and in reflection you're likely to feel underpowered, feel perplexed, and feel something sublime and/or overwhelming about the whole ordeal.

Doma (let's call it Bannerfall or Horizons or whatnot), on the other hand, could be more about having all that power, and making use of it appropriately. You're liberating lands, but you're also partaking in conquest of your own. It invites you to feel the hero, to feel somewhat cocky, moving from a 11 Assassins sort of makeshift troop ordeal towards ranks of horseman in impressive traditional garb or resplendent armor, etc. Conspiracies, pirates, merchant confederacies, treasures, relics, fortifications, tithes, warlords, and resolute moral leaders. Zenos enters in full force, taking some of the themes from the "good guy" Imperial leader killed in the last expansion, and turning each on its head in a world order of (bored) hunter or (boring) prey, punctuated only by transient rivalries. Alliance features for between FCs, holding onto new territory. Factions having passed (apart from the Xaela tribes, who contest each other, but cannot quite afford open war with the Imperials so near), you support territories of your own choosing, increase your own following, etc. All this alongside the flip-side to "conquest" in the more daoist themes of the highland environments, whereby one glimses more of the likeness of the Farplane, things of potentially greater importance than even the Empire, despite its returning strength. Etc., etc....

1.,x, ARR, HW, SB, and likely our next expansion have all had and likely will have Garleans and, to an extent, liberation (throwing off the shadow of the Garleans if not their shackles outright). There's no reason for that to stop us from differentiating the expansions.

Again, I'm mostly fine with how the content was covered, on paper. I'm just unimpressed by things of scale and pace, whereby a nation that was allegedly little larger than Ulduh at its Zenith has city some thousand Ulduh's size, where so many warring Xaela tribes can apparently be within kilometers of each other, where an entire nation apparently has only about 40 civilians and less than a hundred people in total, and the like...

[Iscah]

They didn't even use the garlean embassy there for the 4.2 and 4/3 story despite the fact Kugane would have made for a good neutral ground for meeting with the Empire.

I don't think it really makes sense for a meeting (let alone large-scale prisoner exchange) between Doma and Garlemald to be held in Hingashi. It also gives a different impression to Asahi turning up in Doma itself with his "we come in peace" act - plus he's actually going there with the ulterior motive of finding Yotsuyu.

I think having the Garlean Embassy there is either setting it up ready for future events, OR what they really want in place is the Thavnairian Consulate, but having multiple nations represented there makes it less conspicuous.

(Also I know we went there at least once for a random delivery sidequest. I can't remember if we were there for anything more important.)