What's the point with that quite lackluster story in Endwalker?

[CrownySuccubus]

The locations you've just described remind me of Plague Tale: Innocence, a very beloved game that I would highly recommend to most. I would gladly accept medieval, plague-ridden France as a future expansion location than the New World or Meracydia.

Ah yes. "A good game once took place in a similar setting."

By this logic, since medieval Europe so cliched a setting, combined with Sturgeon's Law, we can also claim that there are far more bad games within that setting than even serviceably decent ones.

[Sicno]

Ah - okay - I only recently finished Endwalker. Must've missed this - which role quest was it?

Healer. The starter npc is the one from Ul'dah.

[aveyond-dreams]

Ah yes. "A good game once took place in a similar setting."

By this logic, since medieval Europe so cliched a setting, combined with Sturgeon's Law, we can also claim that there are far more bad games within that setting than even serviceably decent ones.

Why you still feel the need to press for discussion on this subject is a mystery. In any case, there are hardly any games that take place in Australia or Africa at all. Possibly because there isn't much interest in visiting those regions, regardless of whatever the twitter crowd is pushing for these days. Even players from Australia and Africa likely have more interest in playing games set in Europe and Asia than the other continents. You want to play a game without gods and the blandest cast in the entire franchise set in a region as niche as the Australian savannah? Go ahead.

The high fantasy/magitek elements that got me and many others interested enough to stick with this game are done and resolved for the most part. You cannot hope to carry me at least with the current writing direction combined with another repeat of Gyr Abania, a slog through a set of zones I cannot fall in love with the same way I did for the far east and Ishgard.

You say you don't care what I'm interested in buying, nor am I interested in sticking through an expansion that is catered around virtually nothing that catches my interest. Whether you choose to deny it or not, Ishgard is responsible for giving players like me a home, Garlemald is responsible for giving players like me an antagonistic force to be interested in, and the Final Fantasy Australia game you seem to champion is in no way equivalent to a world as rich as Spira, it simply cannot be with the current way of handling such locales.

[CrownySuccubus]

Why you still feel the need to press for discussion on this subject is a mystery.

I'm not the one who brought it up. You did.

As long as you say things I don't agree with, or demonstrably false on a public forum, I will continue to debunk it. You yourself may feel free to stop at any time.

In any case, there are hardly any games that take place in Australia or Africa at all. Possibly because there isn't much interest in visiting those regions, regardless of whatever the twitter crowd is pushing for these days.

Yes, let's totally pretend that lack of a subject matter is entirely due to the invisible hand of the market, with no other sociopolitical causes. By the same token, let's also pretend that subject saturation in media is due entirely to viability or success, and not the laziness of publishers; I'm sure the mass saturation of schlock slasher films in the 80s, the abundance of generic WW2 shooters in the early 2000s, and the continued rise of tedious open world sandboxes is completely due to consumer demand and no other reasons.

Whether you choose to deny it or not, Ishgard is responsible for giving players like me a home, Garlemald is responsible for giving players like me an antagonistic force to be interested in

That's all fine. Just to let you know, adding more varied locales into the game isn't going to make Ishgard or Garlemald, or whatever other settings you currently like, go away.

and the Final Fantasy Australia game you seem to champion is in no way equivalent to a world as rich as Spira, it simply cannot be with the current way of handling such locales.

This sounds like a completely nonsensical and arbitrary argument which easily falls apart -- not the least of which because Spira is a place that, while inspired by a specific culture, was still completely created by human imagination. There is zero reasonable argument that the human imagination which was responsible for Spira, or any other locale that you seem to love, could not do the same for a place set in Australia or the surrounding environment of South-East Asia/Polynesia, or any other location on Earth. As has been stated numerous times, you have this ridiculous argument that Australia, which is part of the larger Oceanic region, is a monolithic geography and culture while failing to afford Europe the same oversimplified dismissal.

[Sicno]

Well... watching the trailer it seems we'll stick with our favorite army of plot armor monsters. Color me unimpressed.

[Theodric]

I just want a proper conclusion to Garlemald's story. Knowing we were meant to get an entire expansion devoted to it - which would have likely put it well on the path of recovery - simply makes it all the more jarring to see it go from showing up in almost every teaser cutscene to becoming completely irrelevant.

[aveyond-dreams]

words

Seriously this is going nowhere and all you are giving me are less reasons to be interested in whatever cause you're pushing, drop it. I would rather hand over the reigns of Summoner back to the warlocks I argued against for the past several months in exchange for an expansion set in the high fantasy zones of Heavensward or magitek zones of Garlemald than try my chances with Final Fantasy Safari Edition. I'll gladly put up with the era of 2015-style gameplay all over again if it means I actually get zones I want to go to and spend time in.

I just want a proper conclusion to Garlemald's story. Knowing we were meant to get an entire expansion devoted to it - which would have likely put it well on the path of recovery - simply makes it all the more jarring to see it go from showing up in almost every teaser cutscene to becoming completely irrelevant.

Agreed. A Garlemald expansion would have given so much to this game, far more than throwaway concepts like Dynamis ever could. We could have gotten blueish-green forests like that one scene where Alphinaud and Gaius came upon the camp afflicted by Black Rose. Perhaps even an entire Garlean main city, where we could have met up with surviving members of the royal family. There were so many possibilities and all of it thrown away for the sake of Meteion and Hermes.

Potential plots could have explored ideological differences between the different nobles and generals, with so many different figures from Russian or Roman history they could have been inspired from. We could have also been given characters that took after "imperials" from other games, such as Celes Chere. Imagine being able to witness and participate in her rescue in a 3d environment like FFXIV's, and witness her emotions in scenes like her being accused by a Kefka-like figure of being a spy to scenes based off the Opera, or her famous leap from the cliffs off the solitary island. Other figures could draw from people like Gabranth, whose story I desperately wanted to see through to the end only for Zadnor to leave me with no reason to bother continuing the Bozja storyline.

After watching the trailer it seems like the scions are still around, though I was shocked to see that Y'shtola had already begun trying to find ways to travel between worlds. Perhaps if something interesting comes of it soon then her screentime won't feel as wasted as it usually does. I imagine the dungeon we are visiting is located in the South Sea isles, and I look forward to teaming up with Estinien again for it. Garlemald's scenes appear to be linked to the role quests, which I am unfortunately too far behind in levelling to participate in yet. Still, what I saw seemed interesting even if that region appears to be ignored by the patch MSQ.

In any case, in wake of them wasting the opportunity for such an expansion we can only realistically hope we get to explore the former territories in the future, and that they are prioritized over the more obscure locations championed by other certain posters. Again, there is little entertainment value to be had for people outside hardcore fans of certain characters if we're just sent off to an empireless, godless region of the world that is too far removed from what got people interested in the first place.

[CrownySuccubus]

Seriously this is going nowhere and all you are giving me are less reasons to be interested in whatever cause you're pushing, drop it. I would rather hand over the reigns of Summoner back to the warlocks I argued against for the past several months in exchange for an expansion set in the high fantasy zones of Heavensward or magitek zones of Garlemald than try my chances with Final Fantasy Safari Edition.

Again, I don't care about convincing you, because you can't be convinced. Your entire premise here is based on the nonsensical assumption that all of Australia and other entire continents are a "safari", which is just laughably ignorant.

But as I said, if you want to stop, feel free to stop saying ridiculous things. Such as:

In any case, in wake of them wasting the opportunity for such an expansion we can only realistically hope we get to explore the former territories in the future, and that they are prioritized over the more obscure locations championed by other certain posters. Again, there is little entertainment value to be had for people outside hardcore fans of certain characters if we're just sent off to an empireless, godless region of the world that is too far removed from what got people interested in the first place.

Once again, "My tastes automatically reflect the FF majority and thus must be catered to at all times, without any exception".

[aveyond-dreams]

"My tastes automatically reflect the FF majority and thus must be catered to at all times, without any exception".

I guarantee you that the majority of Final Fantasy players will gravitate more towards a game set in a European or Far Eastern region than they would an Australian, New World, or African one. Defy those tastes and let's see how far the Final Fantasy name brand will carry such a game, because goodness knows they'd never go near it without it.

I understand this may be difficult to understand if the circles you run in revolve around the twitter/tumblr crowd who value checking things off their many lists to include in-game rather than providing entertainment of substance, but it is the truth. What on earth about the wastelands of Australia are going to make people go, "Woah! I want to go there!" Like the skyscrapers of Insomnia or the towers of Ishgard invoked?

Am I seriously supposed to get hyped for a giant rock in the middle of nowhere?

[CrownySuccubus]

I guarantee you that the majority of Final Fantasy players will gravitate more towards a game set in a European or Far Eastern region than they would an Australian, New World, or African one. Defy those tastes and let's see how far the Final Fantasy name brand will carry such a game, because goodness knows they'd never go near it without it.

SOURCE: "Trust me bro".

Am I seriously supposed to get hyped for a giant rock in the middle of nowhere?

Oh, that's the ONLY thing to see in Australia? My mistake. These must be from Narnia, then:





When we expand to the greater Oceania region, we also get: