Off Topic Discussion Megathread

[Theodric]

I think people are free to like and dislike whichever characters and expansions they so wish. This is a game with a global audience, after all - so that makes for pretty broad tastes. Personally I'm pretty indifferent to Lyse and Ala Mhigo in general. I don't believe that Gyr Abania required three zones. Four, technically, if we count Rhalgr's Reach. Othard and Hingashi appealed to me far more and ended up having a lot more nuance, too.

I didn't hate Stormblood, though the Gyr Abania portion didn't captivate me to any major degree.

As for Lyse?

She had an inherently less interesting 'learning to lead' storyline than Hien did, as far as I'm concerned. For starters, she had no direct connection to the region she sought to liberate. Much of her life had been spent outside of Gyr Abania. Despite lying to the Warrior of Light, there's no meaningful option to express a dislike of her behaviour.

Characters that would logically step up and take the reins of leadership are conveniently side-lined or written out of the story and then there's that awkward moment when she complains that...unarmed peasants aren't rising up to fight trained soldiers.

She became more tolerable to me when I treated her as unintentional comic relief.

[TheMightyMollusk]

I don't believe that Gyr Abania required three zones. Four, technically, if we count Rhalgr's Reach.

I wouldn't really consider the Reach a full zone, any more than any other hub like Ishgard or Kugane or the Crystarium.

Semi-related, but I'd barely count the Lochs, considering that 90% of the story content in the zone is instanced. Aside from traveling between solo duties and two dungeons, we do very little there. (It's also one of the more obnoxious zones to collect aether currents, but that's a whole other problem.)