Ishgard the most messed up area?

[Ramesses]

Hello

i would like to speak about Ishgard aréa, storyline and role in the main story.

Many thing doesnt fit with this "kingdom"

first i find the landscap too much different about the geographical logic, look like a people choose to live in the mountain in tiny place only.

Then i find very weird to take most of the code of middle age in france, with christian systeme fanatisme and crusade stuff, and trying to do a poor copy of "game of throne like" with "house"
The plot there are very predictable and not very interesting at all, also it is very cliché about middle age in europe, for me the dev just build a kind of criticism of what they dislike from europe, many christian zelote created problem in japan in the past.

The kingdom is quiet poor, only snow and some mountain, not much personnality to compare with uldah for exemple. And they didnt work to make this place cool place to journey on, which is pity. beside in the main story they are just missing, like if those ppl are in their "world" with their "crusade" against dragon and "muslim", i mean "fanatic" as they are too. It sounds a "skyrim like" but very messy.

So tell me, what is the use of this kingdom in the main story and in the world of eorzea? It is like they dont fit at all with the rest, like a mistake in the matrice. And i m not astonish that they are just minor in the rest of the story. I d say it was just a kingdom to fufill a part of the story, where they didnt work very seriously on it.

Here are my feel, whats yours about? i m wondering if i m alone to find this "kingdom" as a mistake in éorzea who could be skipped.

I have to say, it looks like you didn't experience being locked out of Ishgard for five years... only allowed to stare at it in the distance.

Thus, you will understand when I state that when we could finally access the place and found it to be very well made, it became an instant favourite amoung many. I still consider it one of the excellent benchmarks of the Heavensward expansion.

And the attention to detail on the interiors exhibits solid high fantasy...

[Zohar_Lahar]

Ishgard is pretty much the game's token medieval high fantasy area. Naoki Yoshida even centered the first expansion around it because it was unfinished for 1.0 and saw it as an essential missing element for this fantasy MMO.

If you are concerned about Coerthas becoming glaciated, keep in mind this setting is a lot more ecologically flexible than the real world so it's still possible to live there.

[Endeleon]

Basically every thing you said is explained with lore. You obviously don't read quest dialogue...

[Transient_Shadow]

Basically every thing you said is explained with lore. You obviously don't read quest dialogue...

This is basically why I encourage people not to skip cut scenes. They even have scenes where characters review the fantasy science behind stuff that goes on. I may be one of the few who likes SB better than HW but that's just personal preference. HW was well written for the most part. I only took issue for a few things here and there but they weren't really major points.

[Gwenorai]

Also, the house isn't game of thrones only - George RR took this from Medieval Europe, they had houses. Heck, the whole infighting 'War' is based on the battle of the Roses. Two royal houses that each had a claim to the throne in England.

Yeah, Ishgard actually worked really well for a Tudor UK/France. Ivalice is more of a Medieval Europe.

[Iscah]

Ishgard seems like a pretty awful place from what you hear of it in ARR, but once you get in there, there are a lot of good people as well.

And if you're judging the "lack of personality" in the architecture just based on central Coerthas, those are mostly practical military outposts and it's not a representation of the city proper. It has much more of a "medieval town" design to it once you finally get in there. Rather drab colour scheme, but it fits the mood, and it does look gorgeous overall.

for me the dev just build a kind of criticism of what they dislike from europe, many christian zelote created problem in japan in the past.

those ppl are in their "world" with their "crusade" against dragon and "muslim", i mean "fanatic" as they are too.

I honestly never connected the Dravanian war with the Crusades. (Yeah, they're kind of on a crusade, but it's not the Crusades and they're not trying to take back some kind of holy site in the dragons' territory. Ishgard is their holy "chosen land".)

The ARR Coerthas plotline seems to align them more with medieval "witch hunts", and once you get into Heavenward, it's more of a classic fantasy quest storyline.

And this is far from the first or last game to take a negative stance on Christianity or a blatant fantasy analogue. (I remember back when I played FFX, Tales of Symphonia and Grandia II all at around the same time and was feeling like oh my goodness can we ever have a story with a church that simply exists and isn't secretly the source of all evil?)

Honestly, this turned out as a relatively pleasant alternative to those games because at least it's just the people of the church, and not the goddess they worship, that are portrayed negatively. At one point, one of our primary "good people in Ishgard" even directly talks about taking a more moderate interpretation of the faith.

trying to do a poor copy of "game of throne like" with "house"

I'm pretty sure noble houses and political schemes didn't originate from Game of Thrones.

Uldah ... based on Osman empire

and as city starting i found most of the tales around good and usefull for the rest of the narrative.

Ottoman Empire is the usual way of referring to it in English. But I see from the Wikipedia article that both are correct. And yes, I agree with that being the primary inspiration for Ul'dah.

I also agree it's the best of the unique early-game storylines. It seems to deliver more important plot information than the other cities' quests, and sets up Raubahn and Nanamo. The other two city leaders are "obvious personality at a glance" but Raubahn has more depth to him.

Also, a minor-character thing, but I like Fufulupa and he seriously loses out if you haven't played the Ul'dah storyline, because if you miss his character development then the leftover sidequests make him look like an idiot. But he has a few lines - and position of responsibility - in post-ARR that clearly carry on from the Ul'dahn plot whether you played it or not.

Also also, Ul'dah gives the nicest glamour reward for the Lv14 quest. Lv1 amethyst earrings (the only fancy earrings before Lv28) versus ugly 'dress shoes' or a wooden mask.

Central and Western Coerthas and Ishgard proper are all snow but since you haven't gotten to the rest of the areas you'll see it's not just snow and there's a reason why they have their war and why there's people who speak out at the church's teachings.

Are you thinking of all of Heavensward's zones when you say "the rest of the areas"? The non-snowy areas aren't counted as part of Coerthas - they're either Dravania or Abalathia's Spine. (Or more accurately the Sea of Clouds floating above Abalathia's Spine. I think the only ground-based region we've visited there is Xelphatol.)

Coerthas had more regions shown in 1.0 - from memory, as I didn't play it: eastern highlands (still accessible as a PVP map) and a vanished lowlands area that's supposed to be between the central highlands and Mor Dhona.

[Ceridwenae]

I remember being in Coerthas for the first time, and I loved it. I have a thing for snowy places like that - I kinda live in one as it is, although snow is not so much fun after the first day or so. I'm looking outside now and asking why does it have to snow more? It's really not necessary. Although, I will be able to see my garden again, I suspect in May, maybe, April if I'm super lucky. That doesn't happen in Coerthas. I appreciate how annoying that would be.

I remember looking up at Ishgard, and asking Hubby, "Will I get to go there?" - he's been playing a lot longer than me - and I was so happy when he said yes. When I did finally get into the place, I fell very hard for it. I didn't want to leave. I resented Stormblood and everything in it as it took me away from Ishgard (and I still dislike Ala Mhigo). I'm so happy Shadowbringers is going to have Ishgard's restoration available, and just for that reason alone, if I didn't have others, I'd be buying it. It's my most favourite place in the entire game thus far (this is unlikely to change), and so OP, I urge you to reserve that judgement until you've played through HW.

Conversely, I'm not particularly into Ul'Dah, but Nanamo is awesome.

EDIT: I'm deliberately not referring to anything in particular as to what floats my boat. Knowing me, I'd probably spoil plots or something.

[Iscah]

One of my favourite things about Ishgard is that it feels like a lot of characters know each other and have history with each other. You're dealing with various family members from the High Houses across a few different questlines, and can start to draw connections even if you don't directly see them interact.

[Lusavari]

Coerthas wasn't always cold. Also, it has ALWAYS been the Holy See of Ishgard, Not a Kingdom. It is based around a church focusing on Halone, one of the 12. Also the Houses were around back in 1.0 and have nothing to do with GoT... Dzmael being the most notable, but I think Durienare was also around.

[kikix12]

If you are concerned about Coerthas becoming glaciated, keep in mind this setting is a lot more ecologically flexible than the real world so it's still possible to live there.

Eh...Humans in the real world live just about anywhere short of the centers of the North and South Poles. Rainforests, ice deserts, scorching hot deserts, mountains, valleys, endless plains...Name an environment and you can be sure there's at least a village or two made in it.

Coerthas and Ishgard are actually a pretty decent place to live. It's a lot more hospitable than some of the places in real world that people do live in. The town itself is in a very strong defensive position. Building castles on top of mountain peaks is historically correct. If it was possible to do, it was done, because defending such strongholds was extremely easy in medieval times. And if there's enough space around a castle, a town would grow around it as well. Another historically correct fact.


To the original poster...you don't know a single thing about Ishgard. As someone said before, you didn't even reach it. Ishgard and its locations (sans one) are Heavensward-bound and they are explained over the course of the entire expansion. Complaining about it being bland when you don't even know a single thing about it is just...improper, to say the least.