Do we really need a new hyper advanced civilization in every expansion now?

[Granyala]

but this explanation doesn't really work for the shards (unless the Alexandrian soldiers were juicing up on souls like Zoral Ja showed

It works perfectly for Alexandrians:
The authors of Electrope technology were Lalafell, fled from the source via the Azem Mc-Guffin. Other Alexandrians openly admit that no one understands Dimensional Fusion (and by Proxy, Electrope) like they do.

So: couple Source refugees with a unique resource, constant war over Electrope and absurd desperation and you get the modern Alexandrian tech.

As for Garlemald: lets just agree to disagree here. I do not consider anything Sci-Fi that would be doable with current earth technology.
The only Sci-Fi elements that Garlemald has is stolen & adapted knowledge from the Allagans... wo, if we want to be technical about it: got large parts of their knowledge from the unsundered Ascians / Ancients.

[Galvuu]

The only Sci-Fi elements that Garlemald has is stolen & adapted knowledge from the Allagans... wo, if we want to be technical about it: got large parts of their knowledge from the unsundered Ascians / Ancients.

This also applies to Allag, which was built with heavy use of Ascian assistance, and even Sharlayan. And I don't think modern Earth tech can make flying vessels that large or laser robots, but well... this comparison is silly, because our physical laws and that of XIV aren't comparable. But sure, we can leave it at that.
(The Source migrants died within a generation- it's nebulous if their offspring would be Source-like or Reflection-like, although we have indication of the latter, given Emet's mortal children. That said, that point does ameliorate the issue indeed)

[Colt47]

The direction with the super advanced civilization was fine but it would help if they could slow down on jumping into Act 3 on the story. Just try imagining how the original Star Wars trilogy or the Lord of the Rings trilogy would look like if it were written like this expansion or the last one.

[GTK0HLK]

Oh yeah, I completely forgot about Garlemald too! And Alexandria being compared to Allag and Sphene basically being an Ascian. Why didn't they just make it another Allagan city or tied to the Ancients and made Sphene an Ancient when they're basically almost identical already? Just feels pointless adding all these new concepts with souls being harvested and all this AI nonsense when they're basically just the Ascians again but with a different name.

I'm one of people who didn't want to see any ancient ties for awhile. we just finished with the most prominent ones.

While I wished for Alexandria to be a Recluse Protected City of the Source.
(Which it kinda was, cause the Milala/Dwarfs/Lalafels are from the Source in some shape or form)

It sadly makes it higher chance that XI will get Sharded. Which I hoped not, as I'd rather it be a star.

Outside that, who knows where they will go, as the last reflection we saw was inferior or near-same technology wise to our current in Endwalker or or Shadowbringers.

If you mean the 13th, weren't they the First Shard attempted to be Rejoined by the Ascians. and they Royally Fckd it up.

Or do you mean some other shard.

Hence the only tech they "could of" made was akin to Mhach, if they didn't fall apart into voidsent.

Plz correct if I got the wrong shard you meant.

[Undeadfire]

In lore

Allagans reversed Engineered Omega (Omnicrons).
Garlean Magitek is reversed engineered Allagan tech using Ceruleum as a power source.

Omnicrons wiping out civilizations copying their technology forced to a draw against the Dragons. Omega was created by the Omnicrons to hunt Migardsormr and chased for lightyears to arrive at Etherys, and Omega pretty much powering down and crashing into Etherys and Allagans discovering it.

Let's be honest any civilization would copy technology far advanced than their own.

[Burmecia]

How else we will explain the presence of various modern-ish/futuristic-ish glamours taking over, then?

[Sheriyana]

Dear OP, Is this your first final fantasy?

Dear all of you spouting this nonsense at me. No, it is not. Maybe try to actually read my post instead of just the title. I'm saying this trope is very overdone in XIV and they keep inventing new civilizations that fill the same role as the ones they already had. If you think just repeating the same thing over and over is somehow brilliant then good for you I guess. I'd rather we get a new city for the Ancients or Allag and expand on them for each expansion than coming up with new civilizations that are thrown out as quick as they're introduced. Especially if they turn out to be a sad joke like Alexandria. They're so high tech and overpowered that the Turali cave people beat them to a pulp with ease, like what kind of a threat is that.

Also do tell me which previous FF game had like 8 different hyper advanced civilizations? That's right, not a single one.

[CuteBucket]

I came here ready to argue but I actually agree with OP now that I understand what they're saying. While I love the mix of sci-fi and high fantasy that FFXIV is known for, I would rather we learn about and explore more of the unique technologically advanced cultures that we already have vs finding any more new ones. There's still so much I'd love to know about Allag, especially in regards to its war with Meracydia, a whole continent that has been talked about since the beginning of the game that we still have never seen or heard much of anything about. What has become of all the nations in Ilsabard that the Empire had colonized now that the Garlean Empire has fallen? That would have HUGE political ramifications in the region, and we haven't heard about any of it. What of aliens on the other planets we learned about through Omega and Meteion? She saw all of those planets before the Sundering. How many thousands of years have passed since then? Are they truly as dead as she believed?

Every previous expansion has taken the time in its patch quests to address some of these lingering questions EXCEPT Endwalker: Heavensward showed the political turmoil and upheaval caused by ending the Dragonsong War, Stormblood had us helping Ala Mhigo form a new government and restore the Doman Enclave, Shadowbringers had us helping Eulmore become a functioning city again and ally of the Crystarium. While simplified vs real politics, I love these patches for their world-building and how they show that our actions in the game had consequences and these nations and things didn't just magically fix themselves off screen. But instead of wrapping up these loose ends in Endwalker, they shoehorned in FFIV for our patch MSQ. There was a little bit about Garlemald making formal trade agreements with Thavnair, but that's hardly anything. What of their people, what of their capital, what of all of their colonies that likely relied on supplies from the Empire whether they liked it or not? Never addressed, don't think about it too much, go fight Golbez!

I hope that the Dawntrail patches will actually address some of the broader implications of having a place like Alexandria planted in the middle of Xak Tural and what that means for both the Alexandrians and Turali people, let alone the people of Etheirys as a whole, but at this point the writing team has lost all of my trust and I expect Alexandria will just continue on with its horribly unethical soul system in perpetuity while pretending the rest of the planet doesn't exist, but maybe that's for the better in a way, because I would rather pretend the story of this expansion doesn't exist anyway.

[Darkrai4014]

I personally thought that the reveal that the El dorado "City of Gold and Riches" idea that we had going into the expansion instead turning out to being a radiant highly advanced technological haven was actually a rather interesting twist for the trope.

[Boa-Noah]

adapted knowledge from the Allagans... wo, if we want to be technical about it: got large parts of their knowledge from the unsundered Ascians / Ancients.

It's also important to remember the Allagans were one of the longest lasting civilizations on the planet, they had PLENTY of time to develop as they did, even without Ascian intervention they had mastered space faring vessels and complete aetheric mastery that enabled them to just swap body parts for the fun of it, not to mention Alexandria has (as far as I'm aware) existed and developed electrope technology for longer than the Ascian's were around, their shard had a super advanced flow of time compared to the source.