Please finish exploring the Three Great Continents before anywhere else on the Source

[FrightfulNight]

Considering that people were so sure we were going to Garlemald in 5.0 with everything pointed in that direction and then we ended up getting shunted off to the First, I don't think I myself would be able to accurately guess where we're going for 7.0. Especially since Yoshi-P said that we currently would have no idea from the current content.

Logic would say Ilsabard, Meracydia, or the New World, but who knows? We've been sent to an alternate dimension twice, time traveled to the time of the Ancients, gone to the Moon followed by outer space via spaceship, and walked into the Realm of the Gods. Nothing is off the table now and since we've been told to expect the unexpected, it wouldn't be outside the realm of possibility to suggest the Dragonstar, Vana'diel, a continent on the back of a giant, or that Hildibrand becomes required content and we get sent to the world Gilgamesh came to before this one, or even a screen that asks us to insert disc 1 of FFXVI.


While it would be nice to clear Ilsabard of its clouds, I'm personally sick of anything having to do with Garleans, Ascians/Ancients, and Allagans and I would like a clean break and for us to do something for a couple of years that has nothing to do with them. It would be a nice vacation and a stepping stone for new players to jump into the game without having to deal with the baggage of 12 years of plot and all the expansions ahead of time.

Subverting Expectations did not work out so well in Endwalker hence why there are nearly 800 pages on that post and they said they are still in the process of deciding where the story goes so it may be walked back to fit more in line to fit with player expectations to play it safe. After spending 2 years on a shard and half of this expansion away from the modern day source I just want to explore more of the source especially as a role-player and right now Ilsabard is in a precarious situation that can lead to lots of great world building what with both the fall of the empire and suffering the most damage from the final days. Also as for the Garleans maybe they do something different with them instead of just lazily sweep them under the rug like maybe have us work with more moderate factions that maybe formed their own nation, you know have us work with them instead of making more mobs and dungeons out of them, that is where most people got sick of the aesthetic and wanted new villians or at least that is where I stood. Maybe start off the new storyline by having the Ilsabard contingency help set up an adventurers guild to deal with the numerous problems and that is where new players can start similar to 2.0. quite frankly i find the prospect of exploring Ilsabard and Orthard with its various nations much more interesting then modern day Meracydia which is stated as being a wasteland (it did sound interesting in ancient times though) and i have no interest to really explore anywhere else before the clouds are uncovered over Ilsabard and we explore there.

[FrightfulNight]

I suspect anything more with Ilsabard will likely be side story stuff. Meaning raids, trials, etc. If the devs are wanting a fresh start, Meracydia would be the best place for us to end the whole Allagan story stuff at and cap us at level 100, before starting us at level 1 (a new leveling system just for new content from this point on) with the New World in 8.0.

Alternatively Islabard can deal with lingering plot threads such as the Remnants of the legions, new nations regaining their freedom, the aftermath of the final days since Ilsabard got hit the hardest in 7.0 before taking us to new continents like Meracydia in 8.0 since if the WoL is truly a selfless hero like them they should help the people there rebuild before going off on their big adventure.

[Lyth]

I wouldn't be surprised if southern Ilsabard features soon, given the story hooks dropped at the end of the MSQ. It's likely going to happen naturally on its own following the flow of things, player feedback or not.

I'd also take feedback post/page counts with a grain of salt. You can see the breakdown of any thread by poster simply by clicking on the 'Replies' section, and that one in particular is skewed in a particularly amusing way (50% from 10 accounts, not to mention all the forced bumps). I'm sure someone at SE's market research has had a quiet chuckle in observing all the forced attempts at 'course correction', especially given that none of it is anonymous.

Meracydia and the New World are probably on separate story arcs (which makes sense, because they're in completely different directions). If you consider the 14-hour broadcast's talk of a 10 year plan (and 10 years after that), then you might expect to get to each one of these landmasses and have explored it in the span of four or five expansions or so.

A Meracydia story arc probably wouldn't directly pop you into the continent proper. You might start out with a Void driven conflict in Southern Ilsabard initiated by the Sect of Germonique and the Church of Locus, taking you to the likes of Corvos and Rabinastre to dig into the lore behind the Lucavi and Ajora. Play blitzball with Lalafell corsairs in the South Sea Isles. Reach an impasse due to rough seas/winds blocking the path to Meracydia and be forced to shard hop to the Fifth to travel to the equivalent down the Serpent Trench. And then spend a couple of expansions on Meracydia proper culminating in a showdown in the Void. Or something to that effect.

(Besides, they did hint that Gaia/Loghrif had a role to play in the (distant) future during the broadcast, so that points towards the Void being more of a long term goal than anything else.)

There's less lore currently on the New World, but I'm sure we'll see plenty of name dropping to build it up prior to us diving into it. At least, that's usually how worldbuilding in this game tends to pan out. It whets the appetite to visit it for yourself.

[ShinyChariot]

I mean, the story doesn't HAVE to be stuck in a few continents or shard for an entire expansion. Getting to go back and forth and having contrasting locations is healthy for story telling and keeping the plot fresh. It's not like we'll never see those places if we absolutely don't do them before. It's quite arbitrary to dictate that we MUST finish the three continents just because you're antsy about seeing some specific location early.

It'd make me sad if we were told the three continents were completely done and we're supposed to go somewhere else now, implying there ever should be a "Done" to the any place in the game to begin with. It's nice to go somewhere new knowing your old home still has places to explore.

[KageTokage]

I...strongly disagree with the notion of having more expansions like Stormblood and Endwalker that are split up between multiple major regions, as I feel like the story pacing suffered because of it.

Heavensward and Shadowbringers didn't need splits like that to stay interesting.

[ShinyChariot]

I...strongly disagree with the notion of having more expansions like Stormblood and Endwalker that are split up between multiple major regions, as I feel like the story pacing suffered because of it.

Heavensward and Shadowbringers didn't need splits like that to stay interesting.

That's not because of a variety of locations, which every expansion had. The writing for those expansions weren't consistent at all. The state of Stormblood and Endwalker writing quality and tone inconsistencies has nothing to do with this and it's a poor reason to come to the conclusion that future expansions shouldn't consider their locations liberally.

As long as the writing holds up, having many diverse locations shouldn't feel unwarranted.

[Anvaire]

Personally i think the Void with wrap up in the patch cycle, possibly with a rejoining/ calamity / world changing event that will lead into 7.0. Whether that is Meracydia, the other half of Islabard or the New World remains to be seen. But I wouldn't be surprised if 7.0 is our formal farewell to Eorzea, it probably wont be, but it does seem Eorzea is mostly wrapped up and visited now.

Its hard to see how Eorzea would remain relevant in The New World or Meracydia without Garlemald being the ol "common foe" glue.

[sidurgu-12]

Personally i think the Void with wrap up in the patch cycle, possibly with a rejoining/ calamity / world changing event that will lead into 7.0. Whether that is Meracydia, the other half of Islabard or the New World remains to be seen. But I wouldn't be surprised if 7.0 is our formal farewell to Eorzea, it probably wont be, but it does seem Eorzea is mostly wrapped up and visited now.

Its hard to see how Eorzea would remain relevant in The New World or Meracydia without Garlemald being the ol "common foe" glue.

I .... Dont see how it could end with a rejoining since the source hasn't been prepped.

[KageTokage]

The void has always been regarded as a strange case because the boundary between it and the Source is already weak enough for voidsent to freely cross over at times, so I don't feel like it's something that can be written off entirely, especially given that the circumstances have somehow changed in recent times to be making Golbez pursue a scheme 10,000+ years in the making.

What the Ascians had once deemed impossible may no longer be such in the wake of all the changes that have come to the Source, though even if a rejoining is his endgame, I doubt it's actually going to fall through thanks to our intervention.