Doma/Yanxia is still my favorite area

[Vyrerus]

A lot of the buildings are still there, they just need to divert the water. It's weird that they haven't already.

It's not just a matter of diverting the water. The entire keep collapsed on the inside, from the center out. It has to be rebuilt completely.

[Vahlnir]

It's not just a matter of diverting the water. The entire keep collapsed on the inside, from the center out. It has to be rebuilt completely.

It'd be good for future Restoration content, though I doubt they'd tie housing to it.

[Jeeqbit]

Stormblood is only rushed if you skip the sidequests, because that causes you not to spend enough time in either region learning the lore and problems of each individual. The lore isn't rushed because it was built up in main and sidequests for years prior to Stormblood, so we already knew a lot about Gyr Abania and the far east.

We do plenty of things in the ruby sea, yanxia, the azim steppe and kugane. Where we don't do quite as much would be the fringes and the peaks, but sidequests, class quests and beast tribe quests do give them a lot more depth.

[Vickii]

That is where the expansion fell flat, in my opinion. Too little focus on either region resulted in a rushed story with little time for actual plot and development within. They should have done an expansion for each region, not 2 in 1.

I could actually have done without the whole Ala Mhigo. That could have just been a raid or a single zone for me.

Everything they did in the Far East was fantastic.

But peaks, lochs etc... should have just been one zone.

[MikkoAkure]

I could actually have done without the whole Ala Mhigo. That could have just been a raid or a single zone for me.

Everything they did in the Far East was fantastic.

But peaks, lochs etc... should have just been one zone.

The problem I have with that way of thinking and with Stormblood as a whole, is that Ala Mhigo has always been right on our doorstep and we've known about it and wanted to liberate it from the beginning in 1.0. We've always been able to play Ala Mhigan characters (highlanders), who are all exclusively from Ala Mhigo and the story has always focused more on them than with Doma.

Then when Stormblood came out, we get booted to the other side of the world for a large, uninterrupted chunk of the expansion which split the narrative and ended up making the whole thing feel like it was paced very weird. The Ala Mhigan zones don't look very good compared to the Far Eastern ones, and it didn't feel like we spent as much time in them and we just rushed right through to the end after Doma Castle was finished. The whole thing ended up feeling like the writers care more about Doma and Hingashi than Ala Mhigo, despite Ala Mhigo being in the spotlight for longer.

And then with Doma, we have a Chinese-inspired city-state inside of a region with a Chinese name, with Chinese architecture, and a theme that uses the erhu, which is an exclusively Chinese instrument. But everyone and everything has Japanese names, and they have samurai and shinobi. That part felt a little weird to me, especially after coming out of Azim Steppe where the writers did a very impressive job with the Xaela and portraying them as Mongolian. After all that, I was hoping that we would have some Vietnamese culture infusion with Nagxia since we've been getting Vietnamese clothing and food associated with that region. But the only Nagxian character in the entire game is a hyur with blond hair and blue eyes so I don't think it's going to quite happen.

[Vickii]

The problem I have with that way of thinking and with Stormblood as a whole, is that Ala Mhigo has always been right on our doorstep and we've known about it and wanted to liberate it from the beginning in 1.0. We've always been able to play Ala Mhigan characters (highlanders), who are all exclusively from Ala Mhigo and the story has always focused more on them than with Doma.

Oh I don’t disagree with needing to go there. But a city in a desert just isn’t that interesting. Perhaps lore wise it’s more important than Doma but gameplay wise it’s not as good a setting.

They made half an expansion about it, obviously didn’t feel they could do a whole one. But it could easily have been condensed into the final raid, and it would serve its purpose.

The whole liberate ala mhigo > get re-routed to the Far East > come back to face Zenos with the Far East army wasn’t a bad story. It just involved too much time in Ala Mhigo for me.

[DamianFatale]

The problem I have with that way of thinking and with Stormblood as a whole, is that Ala Mhigo has always been right on our doorstep and we've known about it and wanted to liberate it from the beginning in 1.0. We've always been able to play Ala Mhigan characters (highlanders), who are all exclusively from Ala Mhigo and the story has always focused more on them than with Doma.

Then when Stormblood came out, we get booted to the other side of the world for a large, uninterrupted chunk of the expansion which split the narrative and ended up making the whole thing feel like it was paced very weird. The Ala Mhigan zones don't look very good compared to the Far Eastern ones, and it didn't feel like we spent as much time in them and we just rushed right through to the end after Doma Castle was finished. The whole thing ended up feeling like the writers care more about Doma and Hingashi than Ala Mhigo, despite Ala Mhigo being in the spotlight for longer.

And then with Doma, we have a Chinese-inspired city-state inside of a region with a Chinese name, with Chinese architecture, and a theme that uses the erhu, which is an exclusively Chinese instrument. But everyone and everything has Japanese names, and they have samurai and shinobi. That part felt a little weird to me, especially after coming out of Azim Steppe where the writers did a very impressive job with the Xaela and portraying them as Mongolian. After all that, I was hoping that we would have some Vietnamese culture infusion with Nagxia since we've been getting Vietnamese clothing and food associated with that region. But the only Nagxian character in the entire game is a hyur with blond hair and blue eyes so I don't think it's going to quite happen.

In JRPGs hair and eye color rarely has to do with place of origin. It happens, but bright colors are usually common place in a variety of colors.

Yeah there are games with more realistic hair color pallets, but they are rarely appealing.

[Theodric]

I never found the Ala Mhigans to be particularly sympathetic. Othard and Hingashi were far more intriguing to me and it's a real shame we only received three zones in Othard. I don't think Gyr Abania needed more than one, or perhaps two zones to reflect it.

[MikkoAkure]

In JRPGs hair and eye color rarely has to do with place of origin. It happens, but bright colors are usually common place in a variety of colors.

Yeah there are games with more realistic hair color pallets, but they are rarely appealing.

If that were the case, then all of Kugane and Doma wouldn’t be filled with hyur with brown eyes and black hair. Every single far-eastern hyur has dark hair and eyes without exception.

[Theodric]

If that were the case, then all of Kugane and Doma wouldn’t be filled with hyur with brown eyes and black hair. Every single far-eastern hyur has dark hair and eyes without exception.

There's Far Eastern NPC's who don't have dark hair, such as this guy in Kugane - and given his use of the word 'Ijin' he's definitely Hingan:



Hien's eyes are also green, not brown and Yotsuyu's eyes are a shade of blue.