Gyr Abania - The Poorest Designed Country in XIV

[LineageRazor]

I’m with you in this. Especially the mad king. They hardly even covered that.

The mad king is one of the most thoroughly fleshed-out off-screen characters in the game, if you do the MNK quests. It covers pretty much from start to finish his story of paranoia and insanity, his reliance on the Monks of Rhalgr to achieve military success, and his betrayal of them when he began to suspect they were becoming too powerful a political force. The Stormblood MSQ filled in a few more of the gaps, but altogether we know way more about him than, say, Solus.

It's true, though, that we don't know much about his early reign, before the disaster dominoes began to tip. Most likely because that part of his life was boring and peaceful. XD

[Remedi]

Idd, also the lochs have many little bits that shows his oppression and paranoia. In a way he is shapen on the imagine of King Leoric of Diablo 3 (which is a franchise dear to Yoshida so no surprises)

[Iscah]

Indeed - a lot of the sightseeing log entries have hints of things that were going on during the mad king's reign.

Also the lore around the Drowned City of Skalla in 4.1.

[Simba_Tia]

I think the biggest thing that I don't like about SB is everything happened way too fast. Freeing both cities shouldn't have happened initially. A lot of the stuff that's happened in the patches feels pretty irrelevant if you ask me, just a bunch of filler. I think using the struggle to liberate ala Mihgo would have been a lot better use than a lot of the stuff that's happened since.

[Bright-Flower]

I think the biggest thing that I don't like about SB is everything happened way too fast. Freeing both cities shouldn't have happened initially. A lot of the stuff that's happened in the patches feels pretty irrelevant if you ask me, just a bunch of filler. I think using the struggle to liberate ala Mihgo would have been a lot better use than a lot of the stuff that's happened since.

There's that too.

Splitting the story made both wars feel rushed. And the Doma part was baffling to me.

We go there to INCITE rebellion so that the XIIth legion has to fight on two fronts. But by the time we leave we've LIBERATED it and then when we return to gyr abania for 'act three' it feels like we start to steamroll through the empire, with only a momentary setback by the cannon firing in the peaks.

4.1 in and of itself I liked, but 4.2 and 4.3 took what could have been an itneresting story but for me the story was an utter flop because of how Yotsuyu and Asahi were handled. The good news is I liked 4.4 a bit more even though a certain reveal about a certain ascian has me kind of peeved. So I have hope things may iprove in 4.5 into 5.0, but it's too late to really save 4.0 from feeling rushed. The Lochs especially felt like we rushed through with half the zone still untouched outside of maybe the occsional hunt monster.

[ObsidianFire]

Stormblood as a whole feels like filler. Granted, it's still necessary from a story-telling perspective, but it still feels like filler. Heavensward didn't because 3.0-3.3 felt like one nicely contained story. Then after Ishgard rejoins the Eorzean Alliance, the next problem to tackle is Garlemald.

Only... there's a few contries between Eorzea and Garleamld and they all have to be dealt with. I just wish it wasn't so transparent that the devs want to get to Garlemald ASAP.

[Theodric]

So I have hope things may iprove in 4.5 into 5.0, but it's too late to really save 4.0 from feeling rushed.

Early Stormblood interviews mentioned the potential of a 4.6 and 4.7. We could end up with one or both...but that'd put 5.0 as being towards the later portion of 2019 which doesn't seem right, especially with the first Fan Fest being in a matter of weeks. So I guess 4.5 is going to be a pretty huge narrative dump to set up the stage of 5.0 and then before we know it we'll be leaving Stormblood behind us.

[Remedi]

The doman part was mostly well paced, it's the return to Gyr abania part that was rushed after the capturing the bridge portion.

[Bright-Flower]

Early Stormblood interviews mentioned the potential of a 4.6 and 4.7. We could end up with one or both...but that'd put 5.0 as being towards the later portion of 2019 which doesn't seem right, especially with the first Fan Fest being in a matter of weeks. So I guess 4.5 is going to be a pretty huge narrative dump to set up the stage of 5.0 and then before we know it we'll be leaving Stormblood behind us.

I doubt this is actually going to happen. For one thing they already wrapped up the Omega raid conclusively, so a fourth raid wing seems unlikely and if they were planning on having a fourth wing I doubt they would have made a three part raid and then a standalone instead of planning for four.

The doman part was mostly well paced, it's the return to Gyr abania part that was rushed after the capturing the bridge portion.

The doma part was better pace sure, the worst offender was the Lochs in terms of rushing. But even that came off a bit underwhelming by how quickly and easily we win. If we had stuck to the original goal of sparking rebellion and then left, it would have felt better IMO, then maybe come back in 4.2 and 4.3 to free Doma. But IMO it really undercuts the empire as credible threats when we LIBERATE doma so quickly.

[Remedi]

As I said plently in the past. The lochs victory was thanks to a deus ex machina and nothing more
As fot how we won against the empire in Doma.
They didn't see us coming with us literally drowning their forces with the castle.
They were all holed up in there and it became a death prison. In short it was the most brutal tactic the lore team could've implemented