Yoshida's latest interview, Comic Exhibition Taiwan 2025

[Villa101]

People are acting like Garlemald would have sucked and been all about a bunch of moustache-twirling idiot villains who were just gung-ho for genocide. Ignoring the fact that the Populares existed. Ignoring Gaius' change of heart. Ignoring the fact that anything written with thought and care would have been a lot more nuanced than "hurr hurr we all Nazis". People and societies are more nuanced than "we are all the same". Not every German soldier in the Wehrmacht was all about Nazi ideology, not every Union soldier in the Civil War was all about freeing slaves, and not every Confederate soldier was an evil racist who wanted to enslave "black people" forever.

Beyond that, though, I think people are forgetting that , prior to Shadowbringers, the Ascians themselves were just moustache-twirling villains who were just gung-ho for genocide and chaos.

Remember that. Shadowbringers has so thoroughly retconned the Ascians/Ancients that I think people forget that the Ascians initially were just crappy Organization XIII knockoffs with seemingly no plot in mind for them. They were literally just cartoon villains til some thought and care was put into them. I'm sure the same could have been done with Garlemald, too.

Doing that with a place and doing that with characters are two very different things. And the former requires being interested in that place full of people enough to expand on it. And its clear they have not been interested garlemald since zenos was created.

The Garlean Empire got the ending it deserved. It would be nice if some side content kept following the survivors and their rebuilding / moving on. Nero on the moon? Hello?

Also this, the fascist crumbled under the weight of the bed it made. Exactly what it deserves. There was nothing you were going to get out of a garlemald expansion

[ovIm]

snip

There is one more aspect to that: The entire nation was propaganda'd into believing their actions were necessary, all constructed by Ascians who pulled the strings from behind the curtain. Garleans did not wake up one morning and said "yeah, lets go conquer everything", their leadership all told them that Eorzean faith would have been the end to everything (which granted, summoning a primal does have that risk, but that too has been orchestrated by the Ascians). Having a Garlemald focussed expansion would have been interesting to help uncover the truth of what is happening to the masses of the land (similar to how Heavensward pulled back the curtain on the 1000 year war), and it would have been interesting to be undercover and act as someone we are not (considering the Garleans think of us as an absolute monster for killing so many of them). It could have shown how the regime handled those opposing their political views, too. So really, I think the "killing it offscript" approach the devs went with was a lot of wasted potential.

[BunnyBrat]

I would have hated an entire expansion on Garlemald. And I felt what they did with Garlemald was perfect. I'm also not a fan of garlemald, so I don't understand what more people wanted from the area.

[TaleraRistain]

As Hallarem said, there has been plenty of people saying over the years, "NUH UH THEY DIDN'T HAVE A GARLEMALD EXPANSION PLANNED YOU'RE JUST A FASCIST WHO WANTED THEM GLORIFIED". Especially since I could never quite find the interview where it was previously mentioned that this was true. It was always dismissed as a fanwank "rumor". Now here it is, in print and indisputable.

In the interview you're referring to, they spoke about how a Garlemald expansion came up when they were on their story retreat but they ultimately decided against that path. So we do know from their own words that it never got out of the story concept stage.

[BunnyBrat]

Honestly idk what the issue was with him being the Exarch. Why did he have to become this uwu anime boy when we brought him back, as if he didn't lead the entire world through its destruction and towards a place where it had a future. The man who sacrificed everything he had, degrading his body for a century until he crystalized completely, unsure if he would ever be revived, all for a world that he wasn't native to, all so he could prevent a calamity on his home world that scorned him, and one he (at the time) could never return to. Knowing the grief he put his adoptive daughter through, the uncertainty that it would throw the world into, just to stop a threat that was beyond the understanding of almost everyone he was trying to save. All of that development and character potential thrown in the trashcan so he could be shy anime catboy coomerbait. If he retained his dignity and all that stuff and was still mature, and had a "borgar cat" moment, that would be fine. All of the silly shit would be fine, why not. But erasing his identity has always sat poorly w/ me

He's not the same person. He's the 20 something guy we met back in crystal tower now with all of exarch's memories. What happened with him is similar to the minfilias fusing or us fusing with ardbert. Exarch is there but not as he was on the first. Also, there was a bunch of talk of exarch regressing mentally or seeming mentally unstable before the fight with Elidibus. So it could be the bubbly fanboy was his true self. And the Exarch was a mask or role he took on so that the people of the crystarium could feel safe.

[Auro_Seldaris]

He's not the same person. He's the 20 something guy we met back in crystal tower now with all of exarch's memories. What happened with him is similar to the minfilias fusing or us fusing with ardbert. Exarch is there but not as he was on the first. Also, there was a bunch of talk of exarch regressing mentally or seeming mentally unstable before the fight with Elidibus. So it could be the bubbly fanboy was his true self. And the Exarch was a mask or role he took on so that the people of the crystarium could feel safe.

No he's like The Doctor, from Doctor Who. All his previous incarnations are still in there. Everything he ever knew or has felt is still there. You can see it in moments where he acts silly, then in another moment he has a thoughtful speech. You see it in the moment the Blasphemies are running wild in Radz-at-han and the Satrap dies, and G'raha immediately assumes temporary authority to prevent more terror from spreading. He's supposed to be an amalgamation of the two, it's just... with these writers, it comes off more as multiple personality disorder.

[Aneshda]

After DawnTrail, I can imagine an expansion with Garlemald, a look into the past, and also Meracydia with its dark secrets.
Maybe even a rebuilding of Garlemald. What if Ryne and the WoL create another crystal, similar to the one from the first shard in the Empty, that changes the weather in Garlemald so the Garleans can rebuild? Surely that can be incorporated into the story somehow. Yes, I know the crystal in the Empty was created with the help of Eden. In Garlemald, it could perhaps be done with the Tower of Babil... Anima may be gone, but what's in all those cocoons? Plenty of material to write a truly dark story like that.

[JMadFour]

The only feasible realistic place they could go with Garlemald as of right now, is a War of Succession where we back the side that isn't full of Nazis, then a rebuilding.

the Players would revolt.

ya'll are already extra dramatic about Dawntrail with its Succession Contest, to go with another one would make you all lose your minds even more than you already have about Dawntrail.

my assumption is that Garlemald will just be forgotten and left to rot.

[Aneshda]

The only feasible realistic place they could go with Garlemald as of right now, is a War of Succession where we back the side that isn't full of Nazis, then a rebuilding.

the Players would revolt.

ya'll are already extra dramatic about Dawntrail with its Succession Contest, to go with another one would make you all lose your minds even more than you already have about Dawntrail.

my assumption is that Garlemald will just be forgotten and left to rot.

Because Dawntrail was the most boring expansion yet.
Being a puppet for Wuk Lamat was neither a vacation nor an adventure.
There wasn't a single place that called for vacation, summer, sun, fun, swimming, or lying on the beach.
All we had was Wuk Lamat, a bunch of childish nonsense, and a boring tour of Dawntrail with a lot of boring people.
The older players among us want excitement, fun, drama, adventure ... we're too old for kindergarten.

[MartinFreeman]

Even the post patch is boring. Same boring characters and premise.