I agree that this game would've of been really interesting if we had a Garlean route. I mean, what if instead of Cid running away he discovers the WoL in the empire and decides to try to change their country from the inside out with their help? What if we were able to gain enough trust to earn front row seats to the emperor and realized how much control Ascians had over the empire? Would we see everyone as savages but then later proven wrong? I do love the tech, vs the weird combination of historical and non-historical thing that's happening in Eorzea lol. (One minute you're talking to someone who only knows how to feed a chocobo and then next we're riding around in a decked-out machine to our raiding spot that only a handful of people understand how it even exists).

If they ever decide to create a new mmo, I would want the option to choose between the Empire or regular WoL. I'm not a huge FF fan but the few Final Fantasy games I played, always had an empire in it. And if the Empire thing has been around as long as I have seen it, you would think by now they would create a story from the Empire's side that we can play through.