We Really Need To Talk About The State And Path Of FFXIV

[Ameela]

Well, to be fair, we do have a whole desert area where there's not much in it either near Forgotten Springs, that does make sense that there's more monsters than actual intelligent life. I do agree with everything you've posted afterwards, but we do have a desert zone and it is pretty bland yet somehow we don't have nearly as many complaints about it as we with the Ruby Sea.

Because the Sagolii Desert only takes up half of Southern Thanalan and a portion of the overall Thanalan area. Plus it's mostly used as a landmark to distinguish it from the other areas in the region: Central Thanalan has the station, Western Thanalan has slight vegetation and borders the ocean, Eastern Thanalan has the canyon and Burning Wall and Southern Thanalan has the desert.
The Ruby Sea has the volcanic area and then... water... lots and lots of water for the whole zone. And even if you argue the desert was still boring at least it had enemies to fight and a fairly unique look and feel to it with the heat waves and stuff like that.

It's also probably not helped by the fact that we already had a water centric zone before Ruby Sea, it's called La Noscea.

[Sigma-Astra]

Because the Sagolii Desert only takes up half of Southern Thanalan and a portion of the overall Thanalan area. Plus it's mostly used as a landmark to distinguish it from the other areas in the region: Central Thanalan has the station, Western Thanalan has slight vegetation and borders the ocean, Eastern Thanalan has the canyon and Burning Wall and Southern Thanalan has the desert.
The Ruby Sea has the volcanic area and then... water... lots and lots of water for the whole zone. And even if you argue the desert was still boring at least it had enemies to fight and a fairly unique look and feel to it with the heat waves and stuff like that.

It's also probably not helped by the fact that we already had a water centric zone before Ruby Sea, it's called La Noscea.

The Ruby Sea itself is suppose to be a landmark though considering it's where the Red Kojin are, the Confederacy, and the fishing village that Yotsuyu terrorizes, plus the volcanic area as you said which leads into the little auspice creatures. Actually, Hell's Lid plays a significant tie towards the Japanese folklore and superstition of "Oni Island".

I can also argue that the Ruby Sea does have enemies in it.....they're just above the water instead of under the water like they originally should have been, so comparing Sagoli to the Ruby Sea on that notion alone is kind of silly. Both areas have enemies, just not enough to give the areas a sense of danger or life towards them honestly. As for the weather notions of Sagoli, there's thunderstorms in the Ruby Sea which is normal for sea-worthy areas. There's really nothing unique about either one since by default, a desert is a desert and an ocean is an ocean. They have weather patterns expected of such climates respectively, if they didn't...well, I'd say SE would be slightly cheapening the feel of the areas compared to everywhere else.

I feel like hyping up Sagoli on a pedestal because people hate the Ruby Sea more is just not a good argument. Both areas are representing what they're suppose to: a desert should be full of rolling dunes of sand just like a sea should be full of water, however, the devs are creatively bankrupt on how to make areas that are suppose to be vast and seemingly endless still retain a sense of danger and liveliness.

As I said beforehand, the Ruby Sea could have been more unique if the underwater aspect was more focused on than what was above because that's what should have been done the first time. We should be spending more time underwater in an area that is capable of it, not above like La Noscea.

Sure, La Noscea is very sea-themed, but I wouldn't really call it a water centric zone since you can still practically get towards everything that you need on foot where the Ruby Sea basically demands flying or you're swimming the whole way there. There's very little means to get from point A to point B in the Ruby Sea by ground alone. You can't get to Hell's Lid with a ground mount from the Ruby Tinthe port for example. La Noscea is water themed in spirit and appearance sake, but really...you're spending majority of your time on dry land.