Actual lore regarding the current civilizations on Meracydia (potential spoilers)

[aveyond-dreams]

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"We want Heavensward again" has been the single most repeated feedback in terms of what people want to see in the story moving forward. This is objective reality. The setting and makeup of Heavensward was widely beloved and palatable to huge swathes of people. Final Fantasy Austrailia, simply isn't. They want their Camelot, with or without the Allagan ruins we visited for a span of 20 minutes and then promptly forgot about for the longest time afterwards in the msq.

Final Fantasy fans historically have never gravitated strongly to African or pre-colonial America. It would be impossible to sell me that sort of game with or without the FF title attached to it. I can already predict the plot being some uninteresting colonists vs tribes conflict that I simply lack the patience to sit through, these morals have already been repeated to no end already.

Thankfully as you said, New World has already latched on to that aesthetic and consequently failed spectacularly, souring it in the eyes of the general public.

In any case FFX being heavily inspired by Asia worked because it was a cohesive world designed largely around a specific look and vibe, along with the fact that settings in Asia seem to click with a lot of people generally. It was a colorful, vibrant world that was largely unconcerned with putting things in just for the sake of it, and all of Spira's locations fit together with each other nicely.

Locations like Spira or the far east however should not be the starting point of the next major story arc. It would be like opening season 1 in the middle of Kugane, which while it was a very well-received location isn't the sort of place a story generally starts, unless it is heavily based in an Asian setting overall. I'd like to see Bukyo someday, but not 7.0. A return to a high-tech setting can also come later on in the future, though certainly not so close to the start of a new story arc.

The next expansion should give us a place that serves as a new "home" similar to how many people are attached to Ishgard and its surrounding area, or how so many claimed they preferred the locations of the First as opposed to how drab and dull their Source counterparts were. All it takes is a read of the room to know what's going to work and what isn't. Almost like giving them the faerie kingdom, the elven forest kingdom and accompanying palace, along with the other high fantasy elements was exactly what people wanted.