Quote Originally Posted by SaitoHikari View Post
Arguably Ivalice doesn't need to be mandatory either. Almost everything important that happens in that quest line concerns the very distant history of Dalmasca, which would have no bearing on the present day.
Bits of Dalmasca show up in the Bozja storyline as Valnain is the IVth legion’s capital and it appears in cutscenes. The city is infamously liberated off-screen in the Field Records.

Considering the ruined state of Rabanastre and Valnain being a Garlean stronghold in another side story, if both Ivalice and Bozja are skipped, there wouldn’t really anywhere for us to go in a potential expansion there and the state of the 2 biggest cities in the country would have to be danced around if you haven’t done them yet.