Quote Originally Posted by aveyond-dreams View Post
I really, really do not want to go straight to another planet after 6.0. The reason why it feels so good that we're going to the moon/aetherial sea now is because we've built up to it over the past 8 years. Throwing us into another world so quickly would remove that buildup and logical story progression, leaving us with an expansion devoid of any real depth, regardless if it was the Dragonstar or Omega's homeworld.

We need to go back to basics for a bit, especially with how long we've been away from the Source. If Shadowbringers proved one thing at least is that people want and resonate with the high fantasy locations/themes it introduced and as cool as Endwalker is, its theme is more cosmic dealing with the literal end of a world and a battle between gods as opposed to saving and exploring fantasy locations. There is no new "kingdom" for lack of a better word on the scale of what we received when Ishgard was opened up to us and there hasn't been for quite some time.
While I also don't want to immediately be whisked off to another planet while there's a gaping hole in the world map where Ilsabard is, there's nothing in Shadowbringers that proves high fantasy locations resonate any more or less than others. The Source only has slightly more of the European fantasy you describe with the remnants of the Elves' kingdom in Lakeland and of the pixie's coopting of Voerburt's castles and town, all other locations really don't have that same vibe and the final area is the recreation of urban environment which takes stylistic inspiration from art deco. I also snipped it off, but your loathing of gunbreaker also runs pretty counter to what you're saying considering it was introduced in Shadowbringers as well. Final Fantasy has never been a purely sword and sorcery affair, its diversity in stylistic inspirations has always been its strength and shouldn't be cast as a weakness.