Did solution 9 reveal like a jump the shark moment yesterday?

Potentially, imo. It's hard to say without any context or story.

But my faith in the writing team has been almost non-existent lately, so I'm leaning towards probably.

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Originally Posted by midnitdragoon

The presentation last night went allright up to the moment when yoshi p presented solution 9...it just felt so awkward and out of place. I don't know. It just felt like a jumping the shark moment for me. The beastmaster reveal saved the presentation for me though, I'm excited for that job, even though it's a limited one!

How did you all feel about solution 9...? Was it exciting for you, did it feel odd and out of place?

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dont agree, solution nine looks gorgeous and the music is funky https://images-ext-1.discordapp.net/...716&height=403

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Originally Posted by sindriiisgaming

dont agree, solution nine looks gorgeous and the music is funky https://images-ext-1.discordapp.net/...716&height=403

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Thats clearly a new york/singapore/beijing/tokyo style futuristic city though, and while I agree it's beautiful, I just don't see a bunch of armor weilding sword and axe users fitting in. It does invalidate a lot of the old school armor and weapons in the game because it makes the players look like a bunch of renaissance faire attendees.

I mean it is what it is, its not like they're going to undo it but yeah its just a jarring transition. It's not that there aren't other places like that in game already, I'll concede that, but yeah I'm just =/ about it..

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Originally Posted by Ath192

Thats clearly a new york/singapore/beijing/tokyo style futuristic city though, and while I agree it's beautiful, I just don't see a bunch of armor weilding sword and axe users fitting in. It does invalidate a lot of the old school armor and weapons in the game because it makes the players look like a bunch of renaissance faire attendees.

I mean it is what it is, its not like they're going to undo it but yeah its just a jarring transition. It's not that there aren't other places like that in game already, I'll concede that, but yeah I'm just =/ about it..

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https://fashionninjutsu.files.wordpr...175.png?w=1200
https://i.ytimg.com/vi/ei8ObgPhmko/maxresdefault.jpg
https://encrypted-tbn0.gstatic.com/i...qcc2o&usqp=CAU
like how they fit in here yea?
not even getting into the glam of ffxiv-

also- this is more along the lines of how tokyo looks. and its nothing like solution nine
https://images-ext-2.discordapp.net/...716&height=403

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Originally Posted by OdinelStarrei

Time to take off my DRK hat and put on my lore hat.

In Encyclopedia Eorzea Volume 1, on Page 92, there's a section about the tribes of Aura Xaela that mentions the Haragin tribe.

To quote:


As the Xaela tribes hail from the Othardian Steppes, what an "eastern sea" means to Othard loops back around the planet to the New World, if we take a look at our own world. Based on the footage and artwork we've seen so far, grey monoliths checks out. So not only is this a real thing on Etheirys, it must have been here for long enough for legends to be made and passed down about it from an entirely separate civilization. Conjecture until proven otherwise, but it's compelling, I'd like to think.

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Personally I dislike when games force players to go outside of the game to get information lore about the game. WoW did it to an extreme but at least every player had the option to purchase the books.

Much worse if that information is contained in a limited edition book that not everyone can get.

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Originally Posted by MikkoAkure

Solution Nine is on Etheirys. It's also on the opposite side of the entire world, which had been completely uncontacted until Merlwyb knocked on their door 20 years ago. The Allagans didn't even go to the Western Continent based on what we know. Not only is it in a place unexplored by Eorzeans, it's in the middle of the desert there and we don't know how much people in Tural are aware of it. It could be a whole Wakanda situation for all we know.

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Making contact goes both ways.

Why would what appears to be a very technologically advanced society not have been exploring and making contact with other societies around the globe? Even if Eorzea was skipped for whatever reason, places like Radz-at-Han have trade partners from all over the globe for rumors to have circulated.

Easy to compare it to another fictional country but Wakanda being hidden from the rest of the world didn't make sense either.

If SE is setting it up as another Wakanda, color me extremely disappointed in them. That sounds like jumping the shark to me.

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Originally Posted by sindriiisgaming

also- this is more along the lines of how tokyo looks. and its nothing like solution nine

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It was giving me Blade Runner vibes. Someone else in my FC mentioned Shadowrun and something else (can't remember what) as possible inspirations.

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Originally Posted by sindriiisgaming

https://fashionninjutsu.files.wordpr...175.png?w=1200
https://i.ytimg.com/vi/ei8ObgPhmko/maxresdefault.jpg
https://encrypted-tbn0.gstatic.com/i...qcc2o&usqp=CAU
like how they fit in here yea?
not even getting into the glam of ffxiv-

also- this is more along the lines of how tokyo looks. and its nothing like solution nine
https://images-ext-2.discordapp.net/...716&height=403

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I'm talking about the big skyscraper vibe and silhoutte. What you are showing there is a picture of shibuya crossing. And yes, just like all those pictures you posted, it makes the game feel like the original aesthetics and looks of the game don't really fit that well with all the modern stuff they've been adding over time. So I do feel for the OP, its not my cup of tea.

In essence, there's other stuff like it in game in terms of futuristic looks, and all of it make for a jarring change when the ARR setting was much more set in the imperial age and early industrialization. Like, Limsa lominsa is still sailing wooden pirate ships around.

It would be difficult to argue the game feels super cohesive at this point.

It just got me all the more excited for DT cause I KNEW it would have some technological bits from the other previews but for it to be the second hub city has the wheels in my head turning.

I acutally really appreciate that they are creating such place for Dawntrail.

Because for me, Final Fantasy had plenty of momentis with that transition between, you know, medieval style fantasy with swords, bows, wooden staffs, magic, etc. and downright futuristic combat with lasers, plasma guns, neon, supercomputers, SPACE and so on and so forth. Somehow they made it to work. The sheer juxtaposition between those Wild West looking towns and literal Cyberpank city was good. Solution Nine looks amazing so far. Also, the 8 men raids are gonna be tied to it.

I am so looking forward to it. This place looks very promising and I really hope they will come up with an interesting suiting story. And I will be sorely disappointed if it will end as just a pretty place after the raid concludes with no follow-up story for Post-Dawntrail patches and maybe further.

Gonna wait til the game actually comes out before going straight to THIS GAME IS DOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOMED. As someone else pointed out, this game has had just as outlandish places pop up, and they've always made it work. Look, I can do it. *AHEM*

"Solution 9 is the "Fabled City of Gold". You find it by finding a portal that randomly appears in Tural every so often, maybe even in random locations when it does appear. The portal is actually a planer fissure to the...oh, dunno...Fourth. The time difference between shards is supposed to be typically wibbly-wobbly. This one happens to be way further along in the timeline then the Source, maybe slowing down in recent (recent in a "considering the age of the world" sense) years. Emet did say that some of the civilizations in the reflections would surprise us. It'd also give a reason why we've been beaten over the head with the idea of interdimensional travel between shards lately."

Quite the opposite. Solution Nine immediately made me interested in the zones more than anything else they've shown because it's so different. A lot of the zone reveals from JP fanfest piqued my interest since it's not simply "beach vacation" anymore.

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Originally Posted by Ath192

It's not that there aren't other places like that in game already, I'll concede that, but yeah I'm just =/ about it..

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No i dont think there are neon commie blocks anywhere else in the game.

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Originally Posted by Jojoya

Personally I dislike when games force players to go outside of the game to get information lore about the game. WoW did it to an extreme but at least every player had the option to purchase the books.

Much worse if that information is contained in a limited edition book that not everyone can get.

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It's also in the lore forum race name page for Xaela:
https://forum.square-enix.com/ffxiv/...ng-Conventions

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Originally Posted by Jojoya

Making contact goes both ways.

Why would what appears to be a very technologically advanced society not have been exploring and making contact with other societies around the globe? Even if Eorzea was skipped for whatever reason, places like Radz-at-Han have trade partners from all over the globe for rumors to have circulated.

Easy to compare it to another fictional country but Wakanda being hidden from the rest of the world didn't make sense either.

If SE is setting it up as another Wakanda, color me extremely disappointed in them. That sounds like jumping the shark to me.

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No one knew about the highly advanced airship, research facility, and museum for the thousands of years it was hanging over the mountains in Northern Aldenard.

No one had contact with the New World until this century. That includes Thavnair. Thavnair is only a trading hub for the Three Great Continents unless it's later retconned to include Tural, which is not included in that. It's likely Sharlayan may know but they don't tell anyone anything. And then the lore book goes on to say that "distance prevents much modern-day interaction between the New world and Eorzea" and Thavnair is even further away. Limsa is the main hub for western travel anyway and that's where the Mamool Ja mercenaries went.

Apparently a Limsan mapped Tural 80 years ago and Merlwyb 20 years ago restablished contact but if we don't know about Solution Nine from back then, then I guess he never saw it. We have no context for any of the situation there though.

But there's no reason they HAVE to make contact with the rest of the world. If they want to remain secret for whatever reason, they have the capacity and they're in the middle of nowhere on a continent on the other side of the world.

My WoL helped build up a cafe with a bunny and a robot at the edge of the universe... If it's possible to jump the shark in this game, we've done so a long time ago.

I'm another one of the people who grew excited about the expansion for the first time after seeing Solution 9.

Solution 9 was the best part for me.

Im waaay past to be excited about more trees and sand im bored of them.
I was meh about the entire expansion since the 1st annuncement UNTIL i saw Solution 9 NOW im excited.

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Originally Posted by Jojoya

Personally I dislike when games force players to go outside of the game to get information lore about the game. WoW did it to an extreme but at least every player had the option to purchase the books.

Much worse if that information is contained in a limited edition book that not everyone can get.

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While I agree that lore books should basically just cover information that was available in game and essentially be just a way to have it all in one convenient place, they are no longer limited edition. Anyone can go out and buy them now, anytime they wish to. Still agree that all the info in them should be in game somewhere, though.

This is the kind of thing I would've preferred to stumble across organically in-game and the sort of the thing they'd normally keep under wraps, so I feel like it was a rather forced attempt to kindle interest in the plot/expansion to disclose information about it this early on.

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Originally Posted by KageTokage

This is the kind of thing I would've preferred to stumble across organically in-game and the sort of the thing they'd normally keep under wraps, so I feel like it was a rather forced attempt to kindle interest in the plot/expansion to disclose information about it this early on.

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Sounds like it's the second hub and not the AWE zone. So it'd be more like mentioning Eulmore or Thavnair than Amaurot or Ultima Thule.

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Originally Posted by Jojoya

Personally I dislike when games force players to go outside of the game to get information lore about the game. WoW did it to an extreme but at least every player had the option to purchase the books.

Much worse if that information is contained in a limited edition book that not everyone can get.

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It has already been covered that the text is also available outside of the book and that the book is not actually limited edition, but an even more important thing to note is that it is highly unlikely to have been important information at the time it was written, simply a throwaway joke to pad out the long list of trivia about each non-story-important tribe.

I was always half-expecting it to turn out to be a subversion if it ever came up, written so we'd interpret it as a primitive description of a modern city but they actually found something more like Stonehenge inhabited by metallic-scaled dragons.

The Ascians turning out to be an ancient race of godlike beings who created everything was a jump the shark moment. Meteion was a jump the shark moment. Building a spaceship was a jump the shark moment.

This is a normal Tuesday in comparison.

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Originally Posted by Jojoya

Much worse if that information is contained in a limited edition book that not everyone can get.

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Encyclopaedia Eorzea volumes I, II, and III are all available on Amazon, at around USD$30 each. I'm sure you could get your local bookstore to order one for you if you'd like.

It's more readily available than one might think.

My first thought on seeing Solution Nine was "oh, New Tokyo".

My second thought was "oh, that brings back memories from the No.6 manga".

As for "it's the Ascians!" .. Our world was, indeed, split. Why would anyone assume that the Ancients' script was totally eliminated after the split?

My first thought was that, in some of the armor/robes they can wear, our characters are going to look like time-travellers when they're on that map!

It's a little shocking! Personally I would prefer that they didn't use it during the fanfest as a kind of "shock" moment and better explained its place in the story and world or just left it out entirely until they can give us that context.

I don't think it's a jump the shark moment though, and truthfully there is a lot of precedent for this kind of sci-fi elements within the Final Fantasy series.

I'm waiting to see how they can make it work in the story. I think it's great that they are continuing to build a universe that can contain this kind of variety of settings.

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Originally Posted by Carin-Eri

My first thought was that, in some of the armor/robes they can wear, our characters are going to look like time-travellers when they're on that map!

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Would be hilarious if they pulled a Star Ocean on us. In a oh lord why sort of funny, not suggesting to do that lol.

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Originally Posted by Carin-Eri

My first thought was that, in some of the armor/robes they can wear, our characters are going to look like time-travellers when they're on that map!

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Well considering we already had 1920's Art Deco New York yet everyone wore black robes and masks.... I think medieval/fantasy armour or wizard robes in a cyberpunk city would be right at home (especially in a theme bar or rave venue specializing to.. exotic tastes ). :P

And besides, it worked in Shadowrun. :D

I really liked the area a lot. Sure its a lot different from normal areas, but players have said XIV has become stale and predictacle. So when they are presented by something that is totally unpredicatable, they dont seem to like it either xD Cant win with some crowds i guess hehe

Looking forward to this Neptunian Looking City. I would not doubt the few Cosplayers will increase in number.

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Originally Posted by Carin-Eri

My first thought was that, in some of the armor/robes they can wear, our characters are going to look like time-travellers when they're on that map!

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We also have plenty of neon-encrusted magitek gear that would fit right in, so honestly, we can go anywhen with the right glam.

If anything, it was the most welcome surprise SE has ever given since the first fanfest for Dawntrail. I was not interested in the boring tropical beach episode vibes of Dawntrail at all, until they showed Solution 9.

I am getting really strong Battle Angle Alita vibes for Plan 9 as the city on the top of the pillar is very similar to Zalem.

I'm half expecting Solution 9 to be this populated city that was insulated from the final days and didn't have to deal with the endsinger's song of nihilism.

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Originally Posted by Chasingstars

I'm half expecting Solution 9 to be this populated city that was insulated from the final days and didn't have to deal with the endsinger's song of nihilism.

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God I hope not. The Final Days had enough plot holes in it already, let's not dig that back up again.

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Originally Posted by Chasingstars

I'm half expecting Solution 9 to be this populated city that was insulated from the final days and didn't have to deal with the endsinger's song of nihilism.

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well the honest truth is while its a plot hole, it didnt exist when the final days happened neither did tural so when it happened they were most likely barely affected by it, we will prolly get some passing glances story wise but other than that it will basically never be mentions in the story for them.

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Originally Posted by Jojoya

Considering the architecture is reminiscent of Allagan and Garlemald, it seems likely that it would be another civilization Emet had his fingers in.

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I noticed it seemed to have vestiges of both, too. My speculation is maybe other refugees from Goug.

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Originally Posted by Iscah

It has already been covered that the text is also available outside of the book and that the book is not actually limited edition, but an even more important thing to note is that it is highly unlikely to have been important information at the time it was written, simply a throwaway joke to pad out the long list of trivia about each non-story-important tribe.

I was always half-expecting it to turn out to be a subversion if it ever came up, written so we'd interpret it as a primitive description of a modern city but they actually found something more like Stonehenge inhabited by metallic-scaled dragons.

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So where do I go in game to find the information?

You mean the Encyclopaedia Eorzea, which I already indicated to you can be purchased through Amazon (there's even a Kindle edition)?

Or are you complaining that there isn't any in-game lore for parts of the game that have yet to be released? That's what buying the expansion and sitting through a few scenes in the MSQ will get you. At a much later date.

to be fair we have had Garlemald around the entire life of the game, a seemingly modern futuristic society that fights with guns plains and tanks versus us with swords and spears.

with that said, it does seem out of place, but its not like we didnt just stumble upon Azys Lla out of no where either, and to be fair again...
the crystal tower is just a giant supercomputer old enough to be viewed as magic by a more primitive race that has no understanding of it till a scion read a book..

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Originally Posted by TheMightyMollusk

God I hope not. The Final Days had enough plot holes in it already, let's not dig that back up again.

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Originally Posted by Musashidon

well the honest truth is while its a plot hole, it didnt exist when the final days happened neither did tural so when it happened they were most likely barely affected by it, we will prolly get some passing glances story wise but other than that it will basically never be mentions in the story for them.

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Both of that is fair, mostly meant it as a jest from my experience with other ongoing narratives from other works.

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Originally Posted by Jojoya

So where do I go in game to find the information?

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Not in game, but right here on the forum from the publicly available character naming conventions and its list of minor trivia about the Xaela tribes. It's not something that people need to be aware of.

It would be nice if the devs could have space for the naming conventions background information to be fully conveyed in game, but they don't seem to rank it as important.

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Originally Posted by Hyperia

I am getting really strong Battle Angle Alita vibes for Plan 9 as the city on the top of the pillar is very similar to Zalem.

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I was thinking that too ! Could be a space elevator. The carousel sees out of place, so it could be a hint in that direction too ?