"Time Skip" for 4.5 or 5.0?

I'll admit to being a tad wary as time related shenanigans can be a rather mixed bag. With that said, I'm going to be cautiously optimistic. I find the amnesia trope to often be tiresome, though the way it played out in FFXIV with Yotsuyu was satisfying and alleviated the concerns I immediately had upon the reveal that she had lost her memory. I wonder if others here feel the same way?

Time travel can be weird at times but as far as I know FF has a good track record with it, if only because it usually isn't getting really complicated. The original game was one big time loop that was broken by the intervention of the player essentially, VIII was also a time loop that didn't interfere too much with the plot. I'm...not sure how well XIII's went.

XI, to my understanding, also did time travel pretty well, so from everything I know of SE and their time travel/loop stuff I could see being optimistic. That said I don't think we'll be getting anything ver big related to time travel, at most the use of the Echo to force us to see into the (an?) immediate future. Personally still going with the twin dooms being a Calamity in general and the Flood of Light on the 1st shard.

I'd also say that Arya in the Red Mage story was pretty good with the amnesia storyline, in that even by the end of it she doesn't get her memory back and that isn't treated as being a bad thing.

The other time travel instance we have already in FFXIV is the Alexander storyline - which wrapped up as a neat stable time loop, so I hope any other time travel will do the same. Both for internal consistency of time shenanigans, and because it's my favourite kind of time travel plot. It tends to be clever, and with less paradoxes.

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Originally Posted by Mieck

What's the trailer voice over like in the other languages?

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In French, I would say that 4.4 MSQ voice and ShB teaser are the same voice actor.
But Arbert, I'm not sure at all. It is similar, but the tones are so different it is hard to tell. I've never been that convinced in English either actually.

The only major difference is that in English he says "the one thay called the WoL" and in French he says "the one they call the WoL"-present tense.

I'm pretty sure that particular voice is meant to be our favourite XIIth Legion Legatus-turned-undead-Ascian-host, it sounds a lot like him (remember, he ended up with a nasty throat injury so his voice is liable to have been changed somewhat), and the whole line is very in keeping with Zenos's obssession with the WoL. Plus is plays over Derplander's Echo scene of himself as SAM fighting Zenos on a ruined battlefield where neither the Alliance nor the Empire seem to be the victor, it's just total devestation with no apparent survivors on either side other than Derplander and Zenos (well, there was that hapless Centurion and a nameless Alliance soldier, but both ended up being taken out by Derplander and Zenos respectively).

So the line is probably just Derplander recalling Zenos's obsessive desire to fight the WoL over and over, and what it ultimately leads/led to - an apparent final showdown between the Alliance and the Empire...

Why would Derplander experience the Echo about himself, though? There's one person who looks exactly like him: Arbert. I think this vision is perhaps one experiencing memories of the other. Initially, my first thought was Arbert experiencing it about us, but maybe it's really us fighting and Arbert's memories.

In Arbert's world, things developed similarly but not exactly. We didn't stand alone in the storm: we stood alongside others as we fought. But what if their equivalent of Stormblood didn't end so smoothly? What if they couldn't defeat Zenos, leading to the stalemate we see?

Or, if it's our memories, what if this last scene with Zenos is something that's yet to come, but will be considered the past when 5.0 begins?

This also might explain Thancred saying that a town has changed, but not for the better. It looks like Ul'dah, but why is the Winged Lion present? This might be because it isn't the Ul'dah we know, but rather the equivalent on the First. The Scions could have been summoned there to aid them.

If this is the case, then it's likely that the player will serve as the tipping point to decide the outcome of both worlds, and will travel between worlds.

I'm gonna echo Scoot here (no pun intended), I'm pretty sure that the Archer who fights Kuribu WoL is actually our WoD Arbert. I don't want to get too detailed/specific but essentially.....

I think his "flashback" is at least part echo potentially. Maybe some of the same things happened to him in the first, maybe they didn't. Maybe its all echo of our WoL's struggles in the source.

That fight with Zenos that's featured is to come I'm fairly certain, and its going to come in the new dungeon for 4.5.

Thancred is younger yes, but I'm pretty sure that scene takes place in the first. The young girl might be Minfilia?

I don't think we're time skipping, I think we might be world skipping. I'm pretty sure Arbert is reaching out to us so we don't repeat the same mistakes that put his world in ruins.

I feel like having Arbert in the cinematic is 'cheating' for sowing confusion at this trailer stage, and not really helpful long-term. We've been through three rounds of opening FMVs now; anything involving Mr Generic Midlander is an "insert your character here" sign, and it gets messy if this time instead SOME of it is him and some of it is the other identical guy who does not represent your character and does not change appearance to match yours.

I don't think Thancred is necessarily younger either. If you're thinking it's because he's not missing an eye, remember that we see one cutscene where he isn't wearing his eyepatch - his left eye is intact but it's changed colour. (We still need an explanation on that.) I'm not sure if it's still the case in the trailer, but I wonder - if his ordeal in the Lifestream is what changed it, is there any chance that a second trip would restore it? Somehow reunite or unscramble some aether along the way?

I'm also still dubious about Arbert being involved in future content at all. It was strongly implied that the Warriors' return to their shard would mean their permanent deaths. Which of course is never a guarantee, but that's what we were told at the time.

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Originally Posted by Iscah

I don't think Thancred is necessarily younger either. If you're thinking it's because he's not missing an eye, remember that we see one cutscene where he isn't wearing his eyepatch - his left eye is intact but it's changed colour. (We still need an explanation on that.) I'm not sure if it's still the case in the trailer, but I wonder - if his ordeal in the Lifestream is what changed it, is there any chance that a second trip would restore it? Somehow reunite or unscramble some aether along the way?

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That's because he never lost his eye to begin with. It only got injured when he appeared in the Dravanian Forelands, and has already healed by now. He even explains that he only kept wearing the eye patch to impress the ladies (think he does so when infiltrating the ruins of the Praetorium).

Remember as well that Arbert's shard is already having a Flood of Light threatening it. The events of SB probably haven't happened on that shard depending on how much it has already overtaken. We don't exactly have a concrete answer on how fast a Flood, or Void, take over a shard.