Quote Originally Posted by Veloran View Post
I would have liked to have given that answer, except Stormblood's worldbuilding was very lackluster. Neither Ala Mhigo nor even Doma had the level of exploration that Ishgard got. Doma generally had more lore, better characters and better self-contained plotlines, but it also felt quite tacked on to the main plot of the expansion. Ala Mhigo was more involved, but it lacked in every other area. Both of them got like half the focus they deserved, and even now I maintain that Doma should have been reserved for a full Othard expansion down the line.
I agree with this. On the one hand I can see why they would want to put both 'free province from the empire' stories in one expansion but the region split ultimately diluted and hurt BOTH halves IMO.

If it had just been Gyr Abania, we could have explored different factions of the resistance, with different goals and methods, and finding ways to unite them to work together. We could have had Lyse actually taking on more responsibility over time and having a better character arc instead of her becoming leader feeling unearned. We could have explored concepts like the Skulls in much greater depth. Gotten Ala Mhigo as an actual city maybe.

Hell they even made the main city of the expansion Kugane HAVE NOTHING TO DO WITH EITHER. They haven't even really made use of Kugane as a neutral place yet, it could have made a good place for say the negotiations between Doma and the Empire in 4.2. But nope. It's basically just remained a pit stop on our way to Othard as far as the MSQ was concerned, which is disappointing because the city itself is pretty cool.