Yoshi P admits they're reducing the amount of content even more

[RedLolly]

Because "Venat is whimsical like that and the passengers on their doomsday ship would feel more at ease because they are goofballs" I believe is the explanation. And they are an insert from another FF, and if the writers run out of creative use there is someone in the world who can still use creation magic. THat being the loporrits. Instant solution.

That is absolutely the reason the Lopporits are cute. And considering the society she came feol apart quite literally from not having the ability to handle stress and fear, her designing the creatures meant to carry people away and care for them in the meantime be tiny and adorable is actually a smart move.

And genuinely the sudden sci-fi turn for now doesn't shock me because plenty of FF titles are sci-fi. EW had a bunch based on FFIV, but it's not the only one.

FFVII's big bad is an invading alien.

FFVIII has a region you enter late on the game that feels centuries more advanced and also has working space travel.

FFXIII's plot revolves around a long running war between the people on their moon and the main planet.

[Hallarem]

That is absolutely the reason the Lopporits are cute. And considering the society she came feol apart quite literally from not having the ability to handle stress and fear, her designing the creatures meant to carry people away and care for them in the meantime be tiny and adorable is actually a smart move.

And genuinely the sudden sci-fi turn for now doesn't shock me because plenty of FF titles are sci-fi. EW had a bunch based on FFIV, but it's not the only one.

FFVII's big bad is an invading alien.

FFVIII has a region you enter late on the game that feels centuries more advanced and also has working space travel.

FFXIII's plot revolves around a long running war between the people on their moon and the main planet.

FFVII already had a industrial vibe to it
FFVIII had a modern vibe to it with tech all over, cars etc
I have no idea about FFXIII because I never played it

Scifi is not the point, it's the implementation to the already existing world. A lot of FFXIV seems forced because of the themepark mentality and the writers just WANTING to insert stuff forcefully in to make the plot work around it.
We have barely even explored the whole map of Hydaelyn and we are going to space? Just no. Not even the other shards first?

[Daralii]

I have no idea about FFXIII because I never played it

XIII's level of sci-fi is closest to something like Transformers. It's hard to come up with a better point of comparison.

[DPZ2]

Scifi is not the point, it's the implementation to the already existing world. A lot of FFXIV seems forced because of the themepark mentality and the writers just WANTING to insert stuff forcefully in to make the plot work around it.

Consider the fact that there have been a number of civilizations with sci-fi undertones over the span of the last 10,000 years. and the sci-fi aspect of the game no longer appears "forced".

[Raikai]

FFVII already had a industrial vibe to it
FFVIII had a modern vibe to it with tech all over, cars etc
I have no idea about FFXIII because I never played it

Scifi is not the point, it's the implementation to the already existing world. A lot of FFXIV seems forced because of the themepark mentality and the writers just WANTING to insert stuff forcefully in to make the plot work around it.
We have barely even explored the whole map of Hydaelyn and we are going to space? Just no. Not even the other shards first?

Well, I wouldn't be surprised to find any level of high tech elements in FF14 when even the 1.0 opening cinematic contains aerial combat with highly advanced aircrafts. Going from there to something even more advanced like Loporrits' tech is a much shorter step than going from medieval fantasy to that Garlean technology.