We Really Need To Talk About The State And Path Of FFXIV

[Magic-Mal]

Is that bad?

I don't know, I feel like the we have a reason to oppose Garleans at this point given what we've seen and with the power we have there is also a responsibility to make sure we're putting it to use. Hydalen didn't choose us for us to live a quaint life out in a cottage.

There was no dire situation or world at risk, it really was pretty much just Lyse asking us to help liberate Ala Mhigo because she wanted to do it, and we accepted. It was entirely personal for her. Otherwise, we the WoL, had no real reason to be there. And then "Maybe we should liberate Doma too!" happened and here we are.

[Dualgunner]

There was no dire situation or world at risk, it really was pretty much just Lyse asking us to help liberate Ala Mhigo because she wanted to do it, and we accepted. It was entirely personal for her. Otherwise, we the WoL, had no real reason to be there. And then "Maybe we should liberate Doma too!" happened and here we are.

Are you forgetting Ilberd's framing the Alliance for attacking Baelsar's wall? If Eorzea didn't push on from there, they would have gotten retaliation from Garlemald for a dead man's actions of summoning a nearly Bahamut-tier primal on their doorstep.

[Zojha]

If Eorzea didn't push on from there, they would have gotten retaliation from Garlemald for a dead man's actions of summoning a nearly Bahamut-tier primal on their doorstep.

They got retaliation anyway. Successful, too. Then, after a contrived saturday morning plot point that put the situation on the mainland in stasis, we spent a couple ingame months overseas and only "then" made any real push anywhere, while the baddies were doing nothing because reasons.

The whole thing was painfully forced to the point that Zenos dramatically challenging the champion of Eorzea to a Blitzball tournament to decide the fate of the world and us going to Doma to recruit kickers would've made just as much sense. I don't see why I shouldn't have just gone fishing, they'd just have had to make up some random other random reason why we aren't overrun.

[Dualgunner]

The months long boat ride does hurt a lot of the pace of the story, I'll agree. But fine, screw Eorzea and its silly alliance: Omega Weapon, a weapon we released to combat Shinryu, was across Baelsar's Wall. Our direct responsibility. Not to mention the actual Shinryu was still missing in action.
Maybe the story could (and should) have focused more on that aspect but as we learned,

the Garleans had Shinryu in a cage anyway. So we'd have gone to war with them anyway.

[Kazgrel]

OP argument automatically invalidated by suggesting removal of flight. There’s no flight in Eureka and yet that’s not even a discussion point in why that place (Pagos in particular) sucks ass.

[Edax]

Are you forgetting Ilberd's framing the Alliance for attacking Baelsar's wall? If Eorzea didn't push on from there, they would have gotten retaliation from Garlemald for a dead man's actions of summoning a nearly Bahamut-tier primal on their doorstep.

The Empire is just the worst part of the FFXIV story. Generic evil bad guys with super tech. They conquer Ala Mhigo, but why? They killed so many people and ground the local economy into nothing. The salt mines and quarries remain unworked and the Empire has depopulated the place to the point it can't even meet basic resources quotas as the locals are starving. And they only respond to this by beating their own workforce out of commission. It's the exact same thing with Doma. Their chief exports seem to be rice and fish. But they've killed and conscripted so many farmers that they the locals can barely feed themselves and the Viceroy they love so much just goes off the purge the citizens of a fishing village for no reason. What is the Empire getting out of Doma? Why would they even want to keep the Viceroy that ran that country into the ground? Why did they even conquer it in the first place if it's just going to drain a ton of materials, manpower and resources to hold it for absolutely no benefit? (While the British Empire has invaded most of the countries of the world, they did so over rational reasons like money and resources, the Garleans don't even basic motivations like that). Doma also exported paper but the Empire destroyed the paper mills and also took all of Doma's good tools so that it can't efficiently harvest or build. What's the point of that? Are Doma tools really that much better than Garlean tools? Do the Garleans not understand how Empires work?

Even the Empire managed to tarnish Heavensward. They have almost no reason to be involved in the story, and Ysayle, whose story is deeply tied into the fabric of the Dragonsong War story, gets randomly ganked by an Imperial Battleship that shows up out of nowhere. What a terrible end to her story. The Empire is just terribly written bad guys that just kill for no reason. I can only hope these idiots destroy themselves before the next Expansion starts via a Chernobyl-like event so they can stop bring down the story with their terrible writing and motivations.

[Theodric]

Garlemald is more in-depth than many credit. The issue isn't that they're 'generic bad guys' - because they aren't. Neither Gaius or Regula were shown to be completely irredeemable. The issue with Garlemald from a story perspective is that the developers are taking far too long to get to the rather predictable point where we put aside our differences and team up with them to deal with the greater threat that is the Ascians. The story is slowly heading in that direction. We just need more focus to be put on the simple fact that Pureblood Garleans are acting the way that they do because they have been persecuted throughout history right up until they decided enough was enough and put themselves first. Furthermore, Garlemald never had the luxury of a 'Warrior of Light' to conveniently solve all its issues. Eorzea does, thus Eorzea never has to ever be at risk of truly dirtying its hands.

With that said, Zenos did feel like he was creating purely to justify reclaiming Doma and Ala Mhigo with no real backlash. It never felt like a war. Personally, I find the likes of Hingashi and Garlemald far more engaging than Eorzea because the bulk of the Eorzea story has revolved around plot points that led to no real payoff. Ul'dah was given the lion's share of attention...only for everything to wrap up neatly with no lasting consequences. Nanamo didn't die. Raubahn lost an arm...but it doesn't affect his fighting ability in the slightest. Teledji was the only real loss and that was of great benefit to the protagonists.

Ideally, Garlemald's story will go in a similar direction to how things played out with the Archadian Empire back in FFXII. Or, perhaps, the Shinra Corporation from FF7. In both games, they served the purpose of major antagonists but as we learned more about each we realised things weren't so black or white. By the end of each game's story both aren't eradicated - they undergo some reforms, but don't lose their 'bite' or influence. I believe things are heading in that direction, though. My predictions regarding Garlemald have been spot on so far. When many people were convinced that Regula was going to be 'Kefka' I called him being an honourable figure instead...and that is what happened. When Yotsuyu and Fordola were considered as having no redeeming qualities I stated that we'd see things from their perspective...and we did. I also said we'd spent time working alongside more and more Garleans...which is what happened with the crew of the Prima Vista as well as Maxima.

[Edax]

Garlemald is more in-depth than many credit. The issue isn't that they're 'generic bad guys' - because they aren't. Neither Gaius or Regula were shown to be completely irredeemable. The issue with Garlemald from a story perspective is that the developers are taking far too long to get to the rather predictable point where we put aside our differences and team up with them to deal with the greater threat that is the Ascians. The story is slowly heading in that direction. We just need more focus to be put on the simple fact that Pureblood Garleans are acting the way that they do because they have been persecuted throughout history right up until they decided enough was enough and put themselves first. Furthermore, Garlemald never had the luxury of a 'Warrior of Light' to conveniently solve all its issues. Eorzea does, thus Eorzea never has to ever be at risk of truly dirtying its hands.

It also defies logic that a small nation that was mistreated by everybody somehow control most of the world while being obsessed with "purity". The Spartans were obsessed with "purity" and they never went very far in history. Yes, the I can see parallels between the Roman Empire and Garland but the Romans were in it for the money. I can also see parallels between the Japanese Empire and the Third Reich, but they were in it for the resources. If the Garleans only care about revenge and purity, they would never have built an Empire (they would have just razed their enemies to the ground and then left wastelands in their wake, they would not have stayed behind to occupy lands they don't care about) and they especially would not conscript those of all races into their military. They also hate primals but they also do everything they can to drive people into summoning them. It's bad writing.

[Kusanagi7]

i actually dont like regula for 2 reasons first is the fact its cuz of him we lost ysale n second he called non garleans savages yeah not honorable to me atleast.

[Dragoon4life]

I thought Zenos was such a awesome baddie. The fact that the Ascians might be possessing his corpse, gave me goosebumps. We know they worship Zodiark but mentioned Eden at the end of the ARRs first arc. I’d love to fight a city sized primal.