'This town certainly has changed, and not at all for the better'

[Anonymoose]

I really thought I'd have more to offer after milling it over for a couple weeks, but i really don't. I find it suspicious that the concept art released so far is from a place Yoshida isn't ready to talk about and contains one desert place, one forest place, and one seaside place. Hmmmmmm. But do I really want to make the logical leap to dimensional shift yet? I can make sense of it, but the assumptions start on the ground floor of the house of cards. Why wouldn't it just be Ilsabard? But if it was Ilsabard why wouldn't Yoshida talk about it? And I can make sense of Thancred saying "this place sure has changed" of a place he's been in another dimension or within Imperial territory, but nowhere else. Unless it's our Wings of the Goddess expansion.

[Alien_Gamer]

But if it was Ilsabard why wouldn't Yoshida talk about it?

I think this is simply just a marketing decision. They've still got a few live letters to do, 2 fan fests and who knows how many interviews planned to tease us with pieces of information here and there. They want to build things up to the final full reveal at the last fan fest. I may be misremembering but I don't think the reveal about hitting Doma and Gyr Abania hit until the second fanfest before StB.

[Anonymoose]

I may be misremembering but I don't think the reveal about hitting Doma and Gyr Abania hit until the second fanfest before StB.

This is correct. We knew we were going to Ala Mhigo but not the Far East until the extended trailer. We never seem to go in just one direction. However, that's also the source of what I said. If we're taking on the Garlean Empire, we're going to Ilsabard. Period. So when Yoshida says he can't talk about the three new areas we've seen (two by name), and he says...

Warriors of Light will become the Warriors of Darkness, but the timing is not right yet to disclose where we are going. So it was intentional. Still have 4.5 coming up and there is a lot to experience in that patch. So they didn’t want to expose that until 4.5 is revealed.

that's a hint that there's another factor in play. What separates this place from the Ilsabard we know? Pre-and-post a specific event? Dimensional? Chronological?