Can the devs please give Ala Mhigo some love?

[Midareyukki]

Doesnt look that way to me. Face it, people are just stupidly bias with Ala Mhigo's aesthetic.

I love the mix of North African and Middle Eastern aesthetics they went for. Some structures really just reminded me of Petra in Jordan, specifically Porta Praetoria and the temple below the striking dummies in the Fringes. And it's normal to have a sprawling desert, because that's what you'd expect: major cities were concentrations of buildings, with nothing but sand and rock in-between for miles. That's how Persians laid out their stuff, that's how the Egyptians did too. Sure, there were buildings here and there, usually temples or funerary grounds, but still rather detached and still rather separated by "vast brown". And this is even further compounded upon when you remember that this is A WARZONE. It doesn't matter how pretty Ala Mhigo or Bozja or Othard used to be. Garleans tend to suck at site and heritage preservation. And it's not like they care, given appropriating their conquered territories' cultures to humiliate them is a commonly-employed tactic.

There's virtually almost no difference to the "normal" citystates we experience otherwise. Replace all the vegetation and forest in La Noscea or the Shroud, or replace all the snow and ice in Coerthas, with nothing but brown and you basically get the same effect. However, the most comparable area to it is Thanalan, which does seem to have a lot more structures in-between and around the place than just "vast and unending amount of BROWN". South Thanalan non-withstanding, that is. But again: WARZONE. Don't expect stuff to be standing up or look pretty and glittery when a nuke is dropped over you.

And I feel like people forgot that that's kind of what happens when places are torn apart by war. Literally just turn on the TV, there's one going on at the moment being very broadcasted, with a lot of people doing "before and after" collages online.

The issue was mostly relegating their biggest hub, Ala Mhigo-proper, to an instanced area and the only bit you visit is just a specific neighbourhood. While everything else was just "uninteresting".

But hey, it could be worse.
Could have been Amh Araeng.

[RyuDragnier]

But hey, it could be worse.
Could have been Amh Araeng.

Amh Araeng was a better design though.

[Atelier-Bagur]

Amh Araeng was a better design though.

Amh Araeng literally is just one color.

[Midareyukki]

Amh Araeng was a better design though.

No. It really wasn't.

Fringes: Forested area to the west, weird purple cave to the south, large canyon with a big metal bridge in the middle, river, Ananta bling, Miqo'te hideout, The Yawn, Temple up north.
Rhalgr's Reach: Pretty much all of it, though I'm especially fond of the Rhalgr altar with the lake. I think it's a nice touch.
Peaks: The entrance ruins, the Ziggurat, Ala Gannha, the waterfall thing with pretty decorations, ACTUAL FLOWERS, weird coloseum thing (I didn't read the sightseeing log for SB, sorry), Ala Ghiri and its blue crystal sombrero, and all the weird purple spires and Garlean structures littered around. Also Nyunkrepf's Hope.
Lochs: Porta Praetoria, Ala Mhigo, the bridge thing leading up to Ala Mhigo, the entrance to Skalla, the north cavern system, THE LITERAL BEACON OF AMON-DÎN OR SOMETHING, and a bunch of smaller structures like temples, palaces, turrets and such around the border.

Amh Araeng: Twine, the abandoned village near Malikah's Well, Railroads, Garik, Tesleen's grotto thing, the red structure that you enter from, and the palace of Ahm Malik.

Literally one of the spaces is named after an important Ronso and it's legit just the base of a building. I tried taking pictures in Amh Araeng, I really did. But I always return to the same 3 spots because I just can't make any of the structures work. It doesn't help that half the cool spots in the Pristine Palace of Amh Malik are just inaccessible anyway. I think Bozja has better aesthetics, and that place is literally "Ground Zero but as a total dump". Gyr Abania on the other hand does have a fair bit more to it to work with, even if it's also nothing but brown.

Like, I get that Gyr Abania gets a lot of crap on it. It's nothing but brown, the structures feel niche and the rest is just blasted off. The MSQ definitely also doesn't help endearing the place whatsoever. In comparison to other media that also use Middle Eastern aesthetics with a heavy emphasis on Persian stuff, Gyr Abania is bland. And I know it's not Middle Eastern, but FF12's main action takes part in a desert area with hindu aesthetics (the Tomb of Raithwall is literally the Kailashanatha of Ellora). Most of 12's areas are just as, if not more barren and brown. Yet their structures are rather ornate and tasteful, whereas FF14's structures aren't. And this shouldn't be so; parts of Gyr Abania are also Hindu-related, specifically whenever the Ananta are involved. So there isn't much around that doesn't feel "same-y" or "bland because it's broken". But alas, that's the story we're told and we have to roll with it, which is why it's good when you stumble upon something useable in the periphery of the map. Particularly in the Lochs, as the Saltery itself is just as unaesthetic as the Empty.
But Amh Araeng has very little, most of it is submerged, everything in there is just brown (at least Amh Araeng had purples and glittery decorations here and there!), stuff is either abandoned, littered or inaccessible... It's just awful! And I like Amh Araeng. I just unfortunately happen to only like Twine, the railway bridge, the house where the Kobold family lives, Garik and virtually nothing else. Very minute things that greatly limit creativity. All the rest is either something I cannot properly interact with because collision is weird, or just uninspired. Half the submerged structures make me wonder what the hell they even were to begin with.

And while I understand, because it is meant to be the place closest to where all the murder-hobo angels come from, there's just nothing good there. Gyr Abania, for all its flaws, does at least happen to have small areas that I've since grown to appreciate.

[Atelier-Bagur]

Also because Ala Mhigo has been just as much implemented into the base lore as Ishgard, so by proxy that region and people deserves much better attention than the skewed representation that we got with it vs the Far East.

[Blindheart]

Can we just have an airship dock please?

[Arzalis]

Ala Mhigo really got screwed when they decided they wanted to combine it with the Far East and clearly spent all of their dev time/resources there instead. The solo duty you get early on in the Lochs is very very rough and feels downright unfinished.

I really like the Far East stuff, but it definitely should've been it's own expansion.

[SassyAssassin]

Yes but Lyse is not invited right?

[Atelier-Bagur]

Ala Mhigo really got screwed when they decided they wanted to combine it with the Far East and clearly spent all of their dev time/resources there instead. The solo duty you get early on in the Lochs is very very rough and feels downright unfinished.

I really like the Far East stuff, but it definitely should've been it's own expansion.

You really feel this when literally the only "optional" dungeon released for the Gyr Abania region was Temple of the Fist. And that I dont think even counts because that dungeon was just the usual 2 endgame dungeons after you complete the main scenario of the expansion, with the other being Kugane Castle. Literally the Far East has 3 complete optional dungeons with Shisui of the Violet Tides (with interesting side-lore to boot), Hell's Lid and Swallow's Compass. Oh and cant forget the trial series was based on the Far East as well.

This is seriously all that they gave us in terms of side content for Ala Mhigo and it really is telling that the dev team favored heavily on fantasy Asia. Prolly since that culture is extremely easy to make interesting and has mass appeal rather than the more grounded middle eastern/north african aesthetic of Gyr Abania. It just in general sucks since even after all this I still place my heart in Ala Mhigo for what it was and is.

People been shouting Garlemald Restoration, yeah SCREW THAT! HOW ABOUT ALA MHIGO RESTORATION HUH!? We gonna just skimp out at the people whom gotten it the worst for a good portion of the decade in the star!?

[kaynide]

Doesnt look that way to me. Face it, people are just stupidly bias with Ala Mhigo's aesthetic.

It isn’t so much the dislike of Middle East/North Africa as it was the overwhelming drabness.
They could have done a lot more contrasting colors; not the crazy vividness of 5.0/6.0, but just more beautiful verdant greens against the more desert cliffs. Or add more color to the salt springs rather than everything being white.

Supposedly Ala Mhigo is on/near the coast…there could have been a beach/port area with bright mosaic tile etc.

Basically what they did with tiny Werylt oozed more atmosphere than the Ala Mhigo zones.



Keeping the zones as is mostly, they could have done so much more, even mirroring real world settings:


Turkey Pamukkale salt springs:


Morocco Rose Valley: