Revelations from Patch 5.5 (Part 2)

[Vyrerus]

You're really going to complain about how similar looking Pagos and Pyros are but not about the fact that HW had five HM dungeons (six if you count Fractal as an Aetherochemical reskin) compared to SB's two? You could at least try to make even comparisons.

Meh. At least those HM dungeons had associated sidequests and story, with new bosses aplenty, top to bottom, side to side. New trash monsters completely in some of them, too.

The only point of the comparison is that rather than all be snowy mountains like in Pagos, they changed their paste tool to lava caves for half of Pyros. The Eureka zone design was lazy (though I enjoyed it). HM dungeons seem like that, but they incorporated new things in them, usually. There's also usually a drastic aesthetic change that makes it feel like a new place, with the alternate path.

ARR had 9 HM dungeons, and I won't complain about those, either. Some of the most memorable content in the game comes from HM dungeons, and they've used said content to leap frog into other stories and side quests too.

[Raikai]

Meh. At least those HM dungeons had associated sidequests and story, with new bosses aplenty, top to bottom, side to side. New trash monsters completely in some of them, too.

The only point of the comparison is that rather than all be snowy mountains like in Pagos, they changed their paste tool to lava caves for half of Pyros. The Eureka zone design was lazy (though I enjoyed it). HM dungeons seem like that, but they incorporated new things in them, usually. There's also usually a drastic aesthetic change that makes it feel like a new place, with the alternate path.

ARR had 9 HM dungeons, and I won't complain about those, either. Some of the most memorable content in the game comes from HM dungeons, and they've used said content to leap frog into other stories and side quests too.

There is also one comparison in which SB was a letdown, and it's about the zones.

6 new zones... but in practice it feels like 4, because all of the Gyr Abanian zones look exactly the same.

Ideally, if that's the case, Gyr Abania could be easily just the Fringes and the Lochs, and having an extra zone in the Far East.