Bit of a selfish ask, Do you think 6.0 zones will return to the high fantasy of HW's?

[Addy]

One thing I do not like about current overworld design is the amount of floating finial style decorations. Sure it might have something to do with the calamity leaving behind weird scars and such but to me it just seems like someone designed landscape and had the personal opinion it looked too boring or something and decided we need to see floating chunks of rocks flying around or spinning in place real slow like to "spice" it up. A few places wouldn't bother me so much but stormblood areas bugged me the absolute most with this as well as a few hw maps. Places like Azys Lla I could understand but churning mists was kind if overboard. Just my "personal" knit pick.

Yeah that kinda bugged me about WoW's Cataclysm too, Westfall with that weird chasm with the floating rocks, like they had to show the Cataclysm EVERYWHERE so they did random things like that and say "This is fine." Don't get me wrong I like the churning mists and diadem they both look beautiful, however it's rather strange how they are still floating.

[Mimilu]

Are ShB's zones not high fantasy? :-o
I mean, the two weakest for me were Amh Araeng and Kholusia but the rest felt very high fantasy to me.

I am kind of worried about 6.0's zones and aesthetic though...
It's been heavily implied we're going into Garlean territory and seeing their aesthetic and how they leave most areas they've taken over, I don't know what to think... >x>

[Endeleon]

I'm confused by this as the First is like as high fantasy as you can get.

[kaynide]

I'm all for anything, as long as it's done well. I liked the idea of Churning mists and Sea of clouds, but they felt very very...what's the word? Amateur level design? Like I used to do with Skyrim pasting in objects and jamming them together. It did not feel nearly as sculpted. Maybe that simply couldn't be helped due to it being the first big expansion, plus flying?

I much prefer tight, highly landscaped zones over huge zones with lots of empty space.

[Wind-Krysvein]

I much prefer tight, highly landscaped zones over huge zones with lots of empty space.

This. This a thousand times. It doesn't help that flying homogenizes all maps into just empty air space and that all the expansions have been very formulaic with their zones up until this point.

Perhaps seeing the ARR maps' capabilities for utilizing flying could finally serve as the catalyst for the devs giving us 12 smaller but more personal zones per expansion, instead of 6 huge but inevitably very empty zones. Though I do get that it's probably much cheaper to make a huge zone with not much in it, than it is to make something more along the lines of Eastern La Noscea, South Shroud, Eastern Thanalan, etc.

[FrightfulNight]

All things considered and despite the interview it looks like we are going to be going to Islabard in 6.0, I do not see them doing another misdirect with it since they already did that with ShB. That does not mean we cannot get some beautiful zones if Ternclyft is anything to go by, also we have only seen bits and pieces of the capitol. The Garlean structures we have seen so far are mostly military structures abroad, as the Ivalice questline has shown what some of the civilian structures might look like with the Prima Vista. Since it takes a good deal of inspiration from both Rome, and imperialistic European nations during the age of discovery like Britain or France think of the amount of difference there was between the structures in their homeland proper compared to the outskirts and colonies where there were only some luxurious structures made to try and bring the comforts of home, or more then likely just more of a utilitarian vibe with fortresses. Plus I have long believed that 6.0's final mystery zone will take us to the moon with half the zone on the surface and half beneath it. I also have a strong nagging feeling the primary hub city will be Sharlayan.

[Addy]

This. This a thousand times. It doesn't help that flying homogenizes all maps into just empty air space and that all the expansions have been very formulaic with their zones up until this point.

Perhaps seeing the ARR maps' capabilities for utilizing flying could finally serve as the catalyst for the devs giving us 12 smaller but more personal zones per expansion, instead of 6 huge but inevitably very empty zones. Though I do get that it's probably much cheaper to make a huge zone with not much in it, than it is to make something more along the lines of Eastern La Noscea, South Shroud, Eastern Thanalan, etc.

I agree with this. Some smaller zones that feel more alive and like maybe one or two big zones, give us a variety.

[linayar]

Perhaps seeing the ARR maps' capabilities for utilizing flying could finally serve as the catalyst for the devs giving us 12 smaller but more personal zones per expansion, instead of 6 huge but inevitably very empty zones. Though I do get that it's probably much cheaper to make a huge zone with not much in it, than it is to make something more along the lines of Eastern La Noscea, South Shroud, Eastern Thanalan, etc.

ARR had 50 levels to go through and 3 different starting experiences while a new expansion only has 10 levels and one leveling experience.

[Violet_Galaxy]

I could definitely go for another Camp Cloudtop-like area as that was the one area that really stood out to me in HW. Just don't make the zones brown. One of the reasons I really appreciated ShB's zones is because they were vivid with imagination and colorful as opposed to all the brown desert like areas that were in SB.

[Morningstar1337]

I could definitely go for another Camp Cloudtop-like area as that was the one area that really stood out to me in HW. Just don't make the zones brown. One of the reasons I really appreciated ShB's zones is because they were vivid with imagination and colorful as opposed to all the brown desert like areas that were in SB.

I agree, but I do Like Yanxia (mostly because Prism Lake) and am of the opinion hat only the Fringes were Deserty.

But then again I also like the Sea of Clouds and Mists, which as someone described as amateurish, so what do I know? /shrug

However I agree with the assessment that the First is more closer to High fanatsy compared to previous zones. Due to it being mostly devoid of the Sci-fi elements. (only Time Travel was there by necessity and the Tower and such weren't native to the First. Likewise Auamrot was also a "foreign" element introduced from someone who isn't of the First). Meanwhile the Dragonsong War and Garlemald had some sci-fi elements such as Alexander, the Alien dragons and everything Allagan in origin (don't get me wrong, I like both genres, just staritng my opinion on whcih world is closer to High Fanatsy) and you could argue that ARR and HW seem more thematically low fantasy despite botht he magic and tech running around.