Question regarding 9 new areas

[OMEGA_HACK]

Why is everyone assuming Floating Continent is an open-world area? It has not been said that it was, in fact it appeared to be more implied that it was an instanced based thing, what part of the world has constant "ominous twilight" weather, as the only images we've seen of the Floating Continent (video included) has had it with this kind of special weather not to mention it is built similar to the previous Crystal Tower stuff (looking to have "clear" zones or battlefields where individual battles happen). Unless they decide to go the FFXI Sky route which was a big open world area with an interior and exterior filled with conditional bosses we have to kill to collect items from to use to spawn bigger instanced bosses for certain gear...but I doubt that unless there has been a change in how they want to give us stuff as I could have sworn they said they didn't open world competition like XI had with Notorious Monsters.

Also, if Ishgard is only being considered as one zone that means

1) Ishgard (north of current coerthas zone)
2) Coerthas Western Highlands (West of current coerthas zone)
3) Sea of Clouds (above coerthas/ishgard)
4) Dravanian Forelands (West-west north of Coerthas Western Highlands)
5) Dravanian Hinterlands (North of Dravanian Forelands, also could contain the Farreach and Agalathia's(spelling?) Spine--basically the big mountain)
6) The Churning Mists (area directly north of Ishgard? Or after watching the exploring heavensward video another time, Churning mists looks like it could be the remains of Sharlayan, and they might be pulling an effect similar to Riverne Site A and B where some super weapon has altered the gravitational pull of the area, sending it into the sky in fragments--as the location looks like a bunch of destroyed building bits and there is even a massive ominous storm cloud thing in the distance, which could be where the Floating Continent is in)


That leaves us with three undisclosed zones, because I honestly cannot believe that FC is an open-world zone as much as it wreaks of dungeon/raid design.

So big places completely new and uncharted would be:

Xelphatol (area directly north of Black Shroud)
Gyn Abania (Region in which houses Ala Mhigo, North East of Black Shroud and also has lots of Garlean's residing in...so I doubt we will go here in this expansion)
West Shroud (1.0's West Shroud portion)
Eastern Coerthas Highlands (1.0's upper eastern portion)
Eastern Coerthas Lowlands (1.0's lower eastern portion)
Central Coerthas Lowlands (1.0's southern portion)
Paglth'an (area west of Thanalan and South of Black Shroud, rumored to be an area infested with Am'ja, and looks to be volcanic based on the original world map)
O'Ghomoro Proper (Volcanic areas north of La Noscea and would complete the exploration of this island)
Rothlyt Oyster (The area just Southeast of Gridania comprised of some islands)
Mor Dhona's second half (the portion which connected to West Shroud)

[SongJoohee]

Why is everyone assuming Floating Continent is an open-world area? It has not been said that it was, in fact it appeared to be more implied that it was an instanced based thing

Yoshida stated 9 new zones including Ishgard and The Floating Continent. Implying it's a public zone rather than an instance.

Many people jumped to conclusions saying it was the new 24-player raid since the previous one was based on FF3, and following that a 24-player FF6 "Floating Continent" 24-player raid would make sense.

For marketing purposes (thats what this is, after all) Ishgard would be "2 zones" with The Pillars and Foundation zones just like Old Gridania, New Gridania, Limsa Lower, Limsa Upper, Steps of Thal, Steps of Nald.

Meaning we have 8 out of 9 new zones. I wouldn't be surprised if Floating Continent is split in 2, like mentioned previously, or if the final zone is spoiler heavy, such as a very Dragon occupied area or something.

[Zohar_Lahar]

Also, if Ishgard is only being considered as one zone that means

1) Ishgard (north of current coerthas zone)
2) Coerthas Western Highlands (West of current coerthas zone)
3) Sea of Clouds (above coerthas/ishgard)
4) Dravanian Forelands (West-west north of Coerthas Western Highlands)
5) Dravanian Hinterlands (North of Dravanian Forelands, also could contain the Farreach and Agalathia's(spelling?) Spine--basically the big mountain)
6) The Churning Mists (area directly north of Ishgard? Or after watching the exploring heavensward video another time, Churning mists looks like it could be the remains of Sharlayan, and they might be pulling an effect similar to Riverne Site A and B where some super weapon has altered the gravitational pull of the area, sending it into the sky in fragments--as the location looks like a bunch of destroyed building bits and there is even a massive ominous storm cloud thing in the distance, which could be where the Floating Continent is in)

Abalthia's Spine is the name of the entire mountain range, not just that weird mountain with a floating peak. As for Churning Mists though, going by your theory, could it be the remains of the Isle of Val?