"Star"?

In several cutscenes and quest text strings, the NPCs refer to the planet as a star. Midgardsormr says he "came to this star", and so on.

The issue is that the Japanese word "hoshi" refers to both "star" and "planet". I'm fairly sure the text should read "planet" in all of those cases, as the players certainly aren't adventuring on a superheated ball of hydrogen plasma (yet).

Star as in solar system as in the sun that our planet is in going around.

Most stars will only have 1 or so planet in the habitable zone. Thus, when referring to a planet with life, you might as well reference the star it orbits so you can spot it in the night sky.

While these are both excellent points, the fact remains that unless they were going for some kind of fancy embellishment, Eorzea lies on the surface of a planet (with its very own natural satellite aside from its former not-so-natural satellite), and not a star.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by EinherjarLucian

While these are both excellent points, the fact remains that unless they were going for some kind of fancy embellishment, Eorzea lies on the surface of a planet (with its very own natural satellite aside from its former not-so-natural satellite), and not a star.

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There's your answer.

It's a metaphor. Star means something important or shining. It can also mean there's something special about Eorzea, that it's "alive" or more succinctly it's a world of "light" aka Hydalyn.

Odin in FFXI called the planet of Vana'diel "an emerald isle". Obviously the planet isn't an island, but it's a poetic way to describe a planet as such...as a green island of land, adrift the sea of space.

Poetry man.

Early press materials said most on Hydaelyn don't possess knowledge of other planets, and thus lack intimate knowledge of what planets are.
Yes, some scholars have a vague idea that it's all spheres floating in space, but cosmology isn't really anyone's forte.

From the surface of one planet, other planets look much like stars, but they move throughout the night sky over time whereas others don't. A very old way of referring to the classical planets is wandering star, and this name is reflected in the modern term itself - planet is rooted in the Greek word for wanderer.

Calling the planet a star is a fancy, archaic way of expressing the sentiment with some but not all relevant knowledge.