Finally we begin to leave Stormblood behind and the story's messy and failed attempts at geopolitics. The most interesting part comes at the end, when we discover the origins of the Garlean empire.

Having the whole nation being an Ascian operation is sort of an elegant solution that allows the writers to move back to territory more fitting for a Final Fantasy game—the Empire is bad not because people can be cruel and genocidal, but because of supernaturally mean creatures. As weak as that premise is, it allows the story to focus on the fantasy elements, from which FFXIV seems to be able to derive better characters.