Season 2 Storyline (another 10 years) [discussion]

[aveyond-dreams]

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.

The First:

Lakeland - Elven castle ruins
Il Mheg - Faerieland castle ruins
Amh Araeng - desert castle ruins (which a significant amount of people originally thought was Dalmasca)
Eulmore - Limsa with more fantasy elements
Amaurot - fantasy urban - it is not at all equivalent to Garlemald in terms of its take on urbanism.

The Source -
Originally so devoid of fantasy elements during 1.0 when it was just the 3 city states that Yoship made it the focus to build up to Ishgard so we would finally have some of that in the game.

Population explosion in Heavensward followed afterwards, etc.

Stormblood - each area is forgettable except Kugane. By far the most criticized zone design besides 1.0/ARR's original lack of fantasy settings besides Gridania, at best.

As for Thancred his role as a gunbreaker is hardly significant. He could have remained a rogue or taken up literally any other tank weapon and it would not have impacted the story much. I'm not saying it's a bad class, I'm saying it wouldn't fit in a high fantasy setting if its going to be used by one of your main cast members. I would much rather have Aymeric or G'raha the Paladins over Thancred at this point.

(Also, they started realizing how tired people were getting of modernism and switched back to fantasy themes for our crafted glamour sets after an entire expansion of nothing but leather jackets. Thank goodness.)

[GoldStarz]

The First:

Lakeland - Elven castle ruins
Il Mheg - Faerieland castle ruins
Amh Araeng - desert castle ruins (which a significant amount of people originally thought was Dalmasca)
Eulmore - Limsa with more fantasy elements
Amaurot - fantasy urban - it is not at all equivalent to Garlemald in terms of its take on urbanism.

The Source -
Originally so devoid of fantasy elements during 1.0 when it was just the 3 city states that Yoship made it the focus to build up to Ishgard so we would finally have some of that in the game.

Population explosion in Heavensward followed afterwards, etc.

Stormblood - each area is forgettable except Kugane. By far the most criticized zone design besides 1.0/ARR's original lack of fantasy settings besides Gridania, at best.

As for Thancred his role as a gunbreaker is hardly significant. He could have remained a rogue or taken up literally any other tank weapon and it would not have impacted the story much. I'm not saying it's a bad class, I'm saying it wouldn't fit in a high fantasy setting if its going to be used by one of your main cast members. I would much rather have Aymeric or G'raha the Paladins over Thancred at this point.

Lakeland is hardly the "Elven castle ruins" area, they're certainly a landmark but the defining points of Lakeland are the purple vegetation, Crystal Tower, and (obviously) the lake. Similarly, calling Amh Araeng "desert castle ruins" is doubly ingenuous because firstly they're not the European inspired that would be in most high fantasy stories and secondly it's ignoring that it makes up barely a third of the region which is mostly split between a sand desert and a series of out-of-operation mining facilities. Eulmore, you'll have to point to how exactly that area is more fantastical because I really don't see how adding some carpeting and a literal night club makes an area more fantastic.

As for Amaurot, its design directly pulls from the art deco movement as I said before, a movement that started around World War 1. Call it "fantasy urban" if it makes you feel more comfortable, but it's still a modern style for a modern area and is a pretty shining example of how the FF series (and FF14 specifically) benefits from using influences outside of just high fantasy.

My main point here, though, is that if you're expecting FF14 to suddenly pivot into a high fantasy story and only involve castles and kingdom, you're setting yourself up for big disappointment. We'll definitely go to places like that in the future without a doubt, but we'll also go to places like Azys La that are almost ripped out of a sci-fi novel. Remember that even Heavensward was not something pull exclusively from high fantasy, that is the expac that introduced Machinist and that ended in a scientific facility full of weird chemicals and glowing circuitry.

[YianKutku]

The Source -
Originally so devoid of fantasy elements during 1.0 when it was just the 3 city states that Yoship made it the focus to build up to Ishgard so we would finally have some of that in the game.

I've always been of the impression that Gridania and the Shroud are very Tolkien-esque, ie the progenitor for a vast majority of what we consider the "fantasy" genre.