Discrepancy in lore (spoilers)

[Ath192]

So after Delubrum Reginae we got to see one of the empire’s “star destroyers” arrive and I couldn’t help but feel a bit disconnected.

Not that I mind that sort of weaponry but supposedly Eorzea has been resisting invasion and fending off the empires advances for some time now and... well we have Gridania’s spears and archers, some mercenaries in uldah, and wooden ships with cannons in Limsa?

There’s even a grounded airship in the sea of clouds that they can barely keep moving...

I know we have magic on our side but that’s not enough. I mean given the scope of our spells in game the empire should have destroyed us long long ago. And it doesn’t make sense to me how a civilization in the space age is having trouble with colonial era (at best) weaponry...

And with the arrival of the ruby/emerald weapons and the G-warrior there’s even less of a case to have jobs with swords and shields or axes... GNB and MCH fit a bit better but I liked the fact that we were in the imperial age and not in cyberpunk 2077.

I’m sure there’s a way to reason out all of these issues but to me the game is falling apart in terms of cohesiveness. I wonder if people share the same thoughts.

I find it less jarring that the WoL is on the moon than the fact he is wearing medieval armor in the trailer when obviously there’s space ships zooming around and even scrappy resistance movements like Bozja look like world war 1 outfits.

[Kuroka]

The weapons are new, like, they literally only now reverse engineered the ultima tech, the are testing it as we fight them. The airships though, yes, but they are huge and slow, i guess? And dont forget, while our spell might be weak, several dozen of mages combined blow ships from the sky...

Also after middy put out their former flagship they got scared and then the infights happened and all, only recently they got THIS strong but the infights and other stuff prevented from wide spread use.

And dont forget, for the weapons you need a primal to fuel em.

[Wyssahtyn]

The Empire's written to be dumb and hilariously incompetent. Further, they're burdened by the destiny of losing to the good guys. Accept but this and you will find peace in antipathy to the Empire.

[Cilia]

Eorzea is (barely) able to fend of Imperial assaults only because they only ever send one legion at a time, and even then it's a very close shave. The VIIth had all but routed the Alliance at Cartenau before the Calamity, and without the PC's intervention (and Hydaelyn's assistance in the endeavor) the XIVth would have won. The only reason the XIIth didn't overrun the Ala Mhigan Resistance was because Zenos wasn't interested in actually winning, and after our escapades in Othard liberating Doma (which took the assistance of both the Confederate pirates and most if not all of the Azim Steppe's Xaela tribes) couldn't call on reinforcements.

(Then again the Bad Future Crystal Exarch G'raha hails from suggested the Alliance could not just hold its own, but actually beat back the Empire.)

Superweapons like the... Weapons are one-of-a-kind prototypes that demand a massive amount of resources for R&D; they can't just throw the things around like mass production units, and even if they could the materials for making one probably cost a fortune. Likewise the G-Warrior is only refurbished Allagan tech; the Ironworks didn't make it, probably don't have the resources to make another, and are just using the captured Imperial maintenance facility in Terncliff to house and repair it since Eorzea more than likely doesn't have somewhere suitable. (Maybe Castrum Marinum, now that it's been cleared out.)

The Empire's got advanced tech, but it's best stuff is one-off superpowered prototypes they can't regularly deploy. It's day to day units, such as Magitek Reapers and Predators, can be defeated with the right strategies (Raubahn mentions having to learn how to deal with them late in Stormblood) or enough firepower (see the Legacy ending / ARR opening cinematic where a BLM blasts a Reaper with a fireball and destroys it).

As advanced as the Empire's tech is, it's a bit tough to fully overcome people who can pull meteors out of thin air. Plus, everyone other than Garleans (and poor Thancred) are capable of subconsciously using magic to reinforce and empower their bodies, which is implied to be how non-Garleans pushed them to inhospitable territory and why they need magitek power armor to help close the gap. An axe in the real world can cut through wood; an axe in XIV's world can cut through stone, used properly.

P.S. The IVth having an Agrius sized vessel when it's supposed to be sorely strapped for resources irked me too; but it's XII fanservice, so they'll do it anyway.

[Veloran]

Keep in mind that since the integration of Ishgard into the Alliance, they've been fielding weaponry designed to take down dragons.

[WhiteArchmage]

Bear in mind that the Empire is consciously designed to promote and extend conflict, not smash everything in one strike. It's why Zenos was made regent of Ala Mhigo AND Doma, why they had in-fighting amongst the Legions when Nael/Eula planned to drop Dalamud on Eorzea, why Solus himself promoted said in-fighting and <kupo> waving contests between Legati and his own Imperial Family. Hell, when Varis ascended the Ascians went into overdrive because he MIGHT have actually crushed everyone without causing a Calamity, which was against the plan. Basically, the Empire wasn't MEANT to completely own civilizations, just to give their populace the IDEA that they could because of "Garlean Superiority" and breed conflict.

Plus, there's the issue of Primals. One Primal on the scene and suddenly half the Garlean troops turn on their fellows for the Glory of Garuda. This was also by design, thanks to Solus (again) making propaganda tactics against the "Beast Tribes" while the other Ascians work with them to push them to summon their Primals. The garleans poke them, the kobolds summon, chaos ensues, rinse and repeat. Even the Ultima Weapon was Lahabrea playing Gaius like a fiddle to rush the next Calamity.

Now, onto technology levels, while the Empire IS technologically superior, they're not "space age" (especially not by ARR), while Eorzea is pre-Industrial Revolution at worst. The Battle of Carteneau proved that Imperials were also fighting with swords and spears themselves, because that's their grunts. Their heavy Machinery is costly, and mostly relegated to the Castrums (hence why they had to actively lure out a Magiteck Armor out of Castrum Centri). The Agrius was also very important because it was the flagship, and first of its kind... and it got one-shotted by Midgarsormr in a not-quite-suicide attack. While Ysayle forced their second flagship into an emergency docking and probably would have knocked it out of the sky if she hadn't forgotten the Z axis.

The Ifrit in Bozja? Yeah, Idk.

[MikkoAkure]

Have you not played other Final Fantasy games? Completely anachronistic settings is how they roll. Most FF games from VII onwards have swords, modern-looking cars, traditional magic casting, and spaceships.

As far as Eorzea not being steamrolled, Solus didn't need to take over Eorzea to do the 7th calamity. The initial attempt resulted in the flagship of the entire empire being destroyed in its maiden voyage and then they gave up for a time until Nael triggered the calamity years later, which is all Solus needed anyway.

5 years after the calamity, Gaius sends his legion into Eorzea against orders, so it's not like they have the full force of the Empire behind them and Solus' plans work better when there's continuing chaos and primals being summoned anyway. If you pay attention to the story, the whole point of the Empire is to cause as much chaos as possible without actually stopping primal summoning and bringing the world under one peaceful banner like the mission statement is supposed to be. Solus' last act was to cause the Garlean Civil War, so now they're even more splintered and the IVth legion is left to their own devices.

The IVth legion hasn't been showing all their cards yet either. The storyline in Bozja keeps hitting us with the barely subtle fact that the Dalmascan and Nagxian forces won their battles too easily, which tells that the IVth legion is letting them win on purpose and something bad is going to happen.

[MoofiaBossVal]

My understanding is that building up those airship fleets - and those humongous carriers - requires an incredible amount of resources and a lot of time.

When the Empire initially invaded Eorzea during the Battle of Silvertear Skies 15 years ago, they lost pretty much the vast majority of their airship fleet in just that one battle, and it has taken them years to rebuild. Their efforts to rebuild the fleet were probably stymied by constant attacks by the resistance (in the Stormblood short story about Cid and Nero, resistance to the empire is able to assault deep in the imperial capital, so I'd imagine that the resistance is very strong). And then there have been rebellions and such. So the Agrius in Heavensward is quite possibly the only (or one of a couple) of huge carriers that have been built since then.

There is also that carrier seen in the Ghimlyt Dark dungeon, so I'm guessing that was being kept there to hold the line.

The one and only other large carrier-size airship seen is the one Gabranth had at the latest Bozja storyline. It could very well be the one and only other huge ship that Garleans had (or one of among many). But with Garlemald in a full state of collapse, it doesn't really matter if the Empire had more. They aren't going to be invading anyone and their logistics trains are breaking down, so they can't really build more, and are going to struggle just to maintain and fuel their own ships, let alone feed their own armies.

[JeanneOrnitier]

The empire's purpose isn't actually to conquer. Emet said in ShB its true purpose instigated by him is to cause chaos, and they can't do that if all of their opponents are dead. Even if everyone except the imperial family doesn't know that, the way the empire is set up and organized fuels it. Like there was no logical reason at all for Zenos to have been viceroy of two regions clear across a continent from each other (Ala Mhigo and Doma), that was just done to cause chaos.

That aside, Garlemald is absolutely not in the space age. And things like the Weapons are experimental prototypes, not something they can mass-produce. The good guys also aren't only fighting with sword and board, they have magic, airships, and other form of machinery even if not as much as Garlemald does.

[Recon1o6]

Despite all the tech, garlemalds fancy toys aren't actually as op as they would seem. They require a lot of resources and logistics compared to their magical opponents who just need regular supplies. They are also very vulnerable to magic since the magitek gold mount specifically says they had to develop magic resistance coatings to stop them being blasted silly via even basic spells

A lot of them are very glass cannon esque, or they have structural weaknesses that their researchers aren't fixing as garleans focus more on firepower than defence (As any engineer could tell you, all them walking machines would be crippled easily by smacking the joints, given garlemald is in mountainous territory however walkers are useful for terrain traversal. This is why the hexadrones are deadly, but they are incredibly complex and rare- they are a new development and wouldn't fare well in garlean homeland)
Geomancers messed about with the wind aether and grounded garlemalds airships, hence why doma was invaded through nagxia through a tough campaign. The airships require lots of fuel as well which is why they raised the shield in the burn- to force the garleans to use a fuel heavy route.

The weapons are prototypes. Sapphire weapon required oversoul just to stand a chance at defeating the G-warrior. Emerald had to be snuck out to finish development. Ruby was in its field trials like one of the scorpions in ala mhigo. All of them ended up swiftly destroyed.

Finally, when the airships DO get the advantage, they are exactly as OP as advertised, such as when dalmasca got taken over. Air dropped over nalbina and dalmasca and it was conquered.

The good guys magic is very much a powerful and flexible tool. One mage might not be able to do much besides cast fire 1 or 2, but when you got a bunch of them together as artillery, those fire spells will saturate an area as good as any magitek cannon at no fuel cost or metal cost besides the usual small arms resources.
Finally, the good guys have been teching up as well. Machinistry and ironworks things especially if one of the bozja field notes is any indication. The good guys also have an advantage in that they can find weaknesses in the garlean mechs, but the garleans cant stop magic working on eorzea's side.