Quote Originally Posted by MikkoAkure View Post
After the original countries introduced in 1.0, SE has leaned heavily into cultural tropes for everything else, for better or for worse. Limsa Lominsa, Sharlayan, Ishgard, Ul'dah, Gridania, and Ala Mhigo all seem to have elements of real-world cultures, but don't depend on them and can stand alone. Thavnair, Hingashi, Azim Steppe, and Nagxia are ripped right out of our world and pasted into FFXIV with a fantasy coat of paint.

Thavnair is very heavily influenced by the Indian subcontinent. Nagxia is Vietnam, complete with their food, clothing, and a guerilla war against a larger, more technologically advanced empire in their jungles. Azim Steppe are Mongols on yol-back, complete with Nadaam and morin khuur. And the laziest copy/paste to me is Hingashi: a xenophobic, closed-off island nation with a single port allowed for foreigners on their western-most island and would be a 1-for-1 copy of Edo-era Japan if it weren't for the Tengu and Au Ra.

Then Doma is awkwardly "Japanese" despite having Chinese music, geography, and architecture.

I wouldn't get my hopes up too high for something that doesn't lean heavy into trope territory based on what we've seen since ARR.
The copy and pasting from the real world after 1.0/2.0 has bugged me a lot. Hingashi could have been so much more interesting if it was a more Japanese inspired nation and less ... well, just Japan.