6.0 Story Speculations

[WhiteArchmage]

While I AM still on the Sharlayan train, I DO hold a little doubt for it being the next hub (again, we were SO SURE that 5.0 was going to be the Garlean expansion... until it wasn't).

At this point, the main hub could be a completely unknown city in Ilsabard to serve as a mid-point between Eorzea and Garlemald. Especially since Kugane, for all its beauty, wasn't AS pervasive in Stormblood's plot as Ishgard and the Crystarium were in 3.0 and 5.0, respectively.

Granted, Sharlayan HAS been teased a lot, and I really don't think even their isolationist tendencies would hold against a threat like the End of Days, even IF there's some Ascian influence afoot (one of my pet theories as to what caused Sharlayan to be so isolationist in the first place. Not that it couldn't JUST be Spoken hubris).

[KizuyaKatogami]

Edit: More worrying as they want to wrap up everything in 6.0, so in addition to Thavnair, Garlemald, The Moon, Fighting off the end days in Erozea, deal with Fandaniel, fight Zenos, put to rest the story of Hydaelyn and Zodiark we also need to go to/get into Sharlayan.

This has been my worry ever since they announced all of this. They’re introducing a looooot of things and areas and i’m really hoping it doesn’t turn into split expansion stormblood 2.0. Or i at least hope the Hydy Zodi arc is given enough time(if we go to sharlayan i can’t even imagine what kind of family squabbles we’d have to waste time with).

[BlitzAceRush]

This has been my worry ever since they announced all of this. They’re introducing a looooot of things and areas and i’m really hoping it doesn’t turn into split expansion stormblood 2.0. Or i at least hope the Hydy Zodi arc is given enough time(if we go to sharlayan i can’t even imagine what kind of family squabbles we’d have to waste time with).

Which is why I was hoping it was more of a misdirect in 5.5 and a thread to be picked up in 6.1 as opposed to being the city hub. I can see them getting away with Garlemald being a passing visit on the first time through with us helping rebuild it later but for Sharlayan to not only help us, but also let us then just chill in their city feels like too big of a story thread to resolve in the middle of the climax of another story.

[Theodric]

I think it'd make at least some sense to visit Sharlayan given the plot points we've been exploring lately as well as the hints that have been dropped in regards to Sharlayan itself as a possible destination. The only thing giving me pause is that it wasn't announced outright as a destination during the first Fan Fest. After all, would it really be such a huge secret/surprise if we did end up going there? Unless it's deliberately being saved as a big reveal for the second Fan Fest, of course...

I'll admit, part of me is hoping that we visit a cool city on the Moon similar in style to Esthar from FFVIII.

I do want to go to Sharlayan at some point, I just worry it might not get the attention that it deserves given how much territory we're already set to explore in 6.0 so far.

[BlitzAceRush]

I think it'd make at least some sense to visit Sharlayan given the plot points we've been exploring lately as well as the hints that have been dropped in regards to Sharlayan itself as a possible destination. The only thing giving me pause is that it wasn't announced outright as a destination during the first Fan Fest. After all, would it really be such a huge secret/surprise if we did end up going there? Unless it's deliberately being saved as a big reveal for the second Fan Fest, of course...

I'll admit, part of me is hoping that we visit a cool city on the Moon similar in style to Esthar from FFVIII.

I do want to go to Sharlayan at some point, I just worry it might not get the attention that it deserves given how much territory we're already set to explore in 6.0 so far.

Which is my worry as well, even with all the ground they want to cover, I'd be less worried if this was our standard expansion, but with all of this having to fit in just 6.0...

[Theodric]

Which is my worry as well, even with all the ground they want to cover, I'd be less worried if this was our standard expansion, but with all of this having to fit in just 6.0...

Mm. Especially with the Hydaelyn and Zodiark portion of the story ending with 6.0 itself. I'm hoping for the 6.0 MSQ's to be longer than usual for an expansion so that each region gets its fair share of attention. I do think the pacing in 5.0 was much better than the pacing in 4.0, so that alleviates my concern somewhat...but I'm also hoping that between breaks in the action we'll be learning a lot about the areas we visit and the people who inhabit them. I think they can get away with pushing some of it into 6.1 and beyond, though.

[BlitzAceRush]

Mm. Especially with the Hydaelyn and Zodiark portion of the story ending with 6.0 itself. I'm hoping for the 6.0 MSQ's to be longer than usual for an expansion so that each region gets its fair share of attention. I do think the pacing in 5.0 was much better than the pacing in 4.0, so that alleviates my concern somewhat...but I'm also hoping that between breaks in the action we'll be learning a lot about the areas we visit and the people who inhabit them. I think they can get away with pushing some of it into 6.1 and beyond, though.

They can kind of get away with some of it with us being in a "hurry" so we're passing through a lot of places, only to double back once the fate of the world isn't at stake, that might be their plan for things, like I could see us rushing into the remains of Garlemald to try and stop Zenos and going back after to help them, same with Thavnair, it's a means to an end during 6.0 but then we get to go back and build on the connections we make there during 6.0, even the moon, if it's not some crazy "city on the moon" affair and just the final zone it won't take up too much space. Sharlayan though... still just seems too big for them to just let us in, in any capacity without us first resolving what's going on there. They could give it the Kugane treatment where we're not really allowed in, but "You're going to a tiny little port city in Sharlayan" doesn't scream "selling point worth saving for May" and if we're getting into Sharlayan proper in 6.0, I'm just not sure how they'll swing it without it feeling rushed, will they have simply changed their tune over night? Have they been changing their tune over time just without anyone, given how many characters we know from there knowing? Is us telling them it's the end days really enough? While the Garlean's were very much an "us" problem at the time, they had to realize they'd come for them eventually. Either they were too proud to think they could be beat by them, or they have some kind of assurance they couldn't lose or they wouldn't even try, even just talking about it, it feels too interesting a narrative to be relegated to being a side plot.

[Kesey]

I think it'd make at least some sense to visit Sharlayan given the plot points we've been exploring lately as well as the hints that have been dropped in regards to Sharlayan itself as a possible destination. The only thing giving me pause is that it wasn't announced outright as a destination during the first Fan Fest. After all, would it really be such a huge secret/surprise if we did end up going there? Unless it's deliberately being saved as a big reveal for the second Fan Fest, of course...

I'll admit, part of me is hoping that we visit a cool city on the Moon similar in style to Esthar from FFVIII.

I do want to go to Sharlayan at some point, I just worry it might not get the attention that it deserves given how much territory we're already set to explore in 6.0 so far.

I feel like Sharlayan is in a different position regarding the rest of the world as most of the Scions are either from Sharlayan or were educated there. I think since we know the cast well enough at this point, the only outsiders to Sharlayan would be the WOL and Estinien, the Scions can offer the information needed to ease in and not let us get bogged down in world building. Plus they've been building Sharlayan lore since ARR and has continually popped up every expansion. Sharlayan is the place we know the most about without having divulged it's secrets. And they stand as the best potential ally stop the Ascian threat.

[Mansion]

Which is my worry as well, even with all the ground they want to cover, I'd be less worried if this was our standard expansion, but with all of this having to fit in just 6.0...

I don't see it as a problem in itself (this quote and your other posts about the probable rush accross regions). While the 6.0 narrative is a thing, it doesn't mean that everything we see there will be considered as dealt with. The next story will have to take its ground on these zones anyway (I don't see them adding zones during patches). So if Sharlayan is just the Cristarium / Kugane where we go to address the tempering / towers problem in in 6.0, we can still go back there for character back story and a whole new plot even. Could be the same if it is the endgame hub too.
Also now that zones tend to get bigger and bigger, I wouldn't be surprised if we have one Thavnair zone (which seems to be the case) that covers the whole island, one Sharlayan zone (island) and one city zone.
So far we know about Thavnair and Garlemald as zones, and Radz at Han as a hub. We believe the Moon to be the final zone. There is still room for 3 zones to expand on each of these parts (although I believe Thavnair could be self contained to one zone and one hub). Anyway, we will know more in 3 weeks now!

I still have some kind of concern about a Stormblood 2.0, while the zones were equally partes in 3 Gyr Abania and 3 Othard, Othard was much more focused which made Gyr Abania feel a bit hollow. I hope they avoid this, if we do have more of a "wandering" expansion path.

[BlitzAceRush]

I don't see it as a problem in itself (this quote and your other posts about the probable rush accross regions). While the 6.0 narrative is a thing, it doesn't mean that everything we see there will be considered as dealt with. The next story will have to take its ground on these zones anyway (I don't see them adding zones during patches). So if Sharlayan is just the Cristarium / Kugane where we go to address the tempering / towers problem in in 6.0, we can still go back there for character back story and a whole new plot even. Could be the same if it is the endgame hub too.
Also now that zones tend to get bigger and bigger, I wouldn't be surprised if we have one Thavnair zone (which seems to be the case) that covers the whole island, one Sharlayan zone (island) and one city zone.
So far we know about Thavnair and Garlemald as zones, and Radz at Han as a hub. We believe the Moon to be the final zone. There is still room for 3 zones to expand on each of these parts (although I believe Thavnair could be self contained to one zone and one hub). Anyway, we will know more in 3 weeks now!

I still have some kind of concern about a Stormblood 2.0, while the zones were equally partes in 3 Gyr Abania and 3 Othard, Othard was much more focused which made Gyr Abania feel a bit hollow. I hope they avoid this, if we do have more of a "wandering" expansion path.

I agree and mentioned that in a prior post, it just feels like getting inside Sharlayan in of itself would be a large enough undertaking, a lot of the other places we have means or justifications for getting in or passing through to come back later, Sharlayan on the other hand would need a lot of story to get us in the front door, much less letting us stay there as the city hub. I guess I'd have felt more comfortable if they'd had Krile leave at the end of 5.3/beginning or 5.4 and had her making headway all the while so by 6.0 there was some foundation for us getting in.
I could see a misdirect where it's not the city state but it is a zone, perhaps we find out there's a bigger divide than anyone realized and when Krile's flat out refused but tried to research anyway things go wrong and we have to mount a rescue and we meet those willing to help or Sharlayan being saved for 7.0 and instead we get some of them coming to us, Yoshi said we'd be surprised where Alisaie got her outfit, perhaps it's the twins parents who defect and bring with them the info we need, setting up us returning with them to Sharlayan in 7.0 to get to the bottom of what's happening there.
Who knows, at the end of the day it could be the second city hub and work fine, I actually had little problems with Stormblood and enjoyed it a lot, but I could see how thin they had to spread things and how one side ended up feeling favoured, and that was over the whole expansion 4.0-55 vs 6.0.