The sixth zone in 5.0

We are less than 3 weeks away from early access and probably two weeks before the launch trailer. Yet a very important piece is still missing from all the info about Shadowbringers. The last zone. The very fact that it is hidden suggests it is a major spoiler.

I listed a few possibilities here:
https://www.futurerhapsody.com/shado...ixth-zone_a149

I'm most inclined to believe that the last zone will NOT be on the First. What do you all think? What could it be? Where could it be? Is it possible that the absence of a sixth zone is simply a math problem?

I'm of that opinion as well. The example I used as to why this is a possibility, is our job quests. Unless ShB has us bouncing back and forth, why would we "check in" with our job quest givers, unless we were back on the source. The expectation is to do your final job quest before doing the last dungeon/trial. That really only flows well if our final confrontation is on the source.

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Originally Posted by Eloah

I'm of that opinion as well. The example I used as to why this is a possibility, is our job quests. Unless ShB has us bouncing back and forth, why would we "check in" with our job quest givers, unless we were back on the source. The expectation is to do your final job quest before doing the last dungeon/trial. That really only flows well if our final confrontation is on the source.

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A good point. It is a level 80 quest likely set on a level 80 zone. Granted, solo duties can be set anywhere, but it would be just plain weird if the 5.0 job story didn't even touch 5.0 zones. And they wouldn't send you to the First.

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Originally Posted by Eloah

I'm of that opinion as well. The example I used as to why this is a possibility, is our job quests. Unless ShB has us bouncing back and forth, why would we "check in" with our job quest givers, unless we were back on the source. The expectation is to do your final job quest before doing the last dungeon/trial. That really only flows well if our final confrontation is on the source.

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I thought they said that the Lv80 job quest wouldn't be available until after you cleared the main MSQ. Would be much better for story pacing, and doesn't force you to detour from the main story to do something completely disconnected to it.

So if that's the case, you're simply checking in with the job quest people after the end of your MSQ trip to the First.

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Originally Posted by Iscah

I thought they said that the Lv80 job quest wouldn't be available until after you cleared the main MSQ. Would be much better for story pacing, and doesn't force you to detour from the main story to do something completely disconnected to it.

So if that's the case, you're simply checking in with the job quest people after the end of your MSQ trip to the First.

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This was my impression of yoshi p's answers during his jp interviews as well.

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Originally Posted by Iscah

I thought they said that the Lv80 job quest wouldn't be available until after you cleared the main MSQ. Would be much better for story pacing, and doesn't force you to detour from the main story to do something completely disconnected to it.

So if that's the case, you're simply checking in with the job quest people after the end of your MSQ trip to the First.

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That's not outside the realm of possibility. I do recall something about the shift from job quests to the role quest but this bit of information eludes me. At the same time though, you kinda want your final skill and job gear before you confront the final hurdle. That could be connected to the role quest, but I see a bit of a possible issue, similar to the Ultimates and their weapon coffer drops. People will have their moments of forgetfulness.

im sure in live letter it was said there would only be 1 job quest and it would be at level 80 im pretty sure i remember yoshi p saying that right?

I'm looking towards the rest of Mor Dhona but we'll have to wait and see.

If I remember correctly, there is only going to be one Job Quest at Lv80 (though it'll be longer than usual); the rest will be filled by "Role Quests." One reason for this was because bouncing back and forth between the Source and the First every few levels would feel incredibly disjointed and break up the pace of the story. (The other ostensibly being to reduce the load on the writing team.)

Me? Well, I'd like a really eldritch place as the sixth zone; something like IX's Memoria, the innards of Sin from X, or XI's Al'Taieu or Promyvion areas. Given how little we actually know or understand about the central conflict between Zodiark and Hydaelyn I'd very much like a Memoria-type dungeon / area over the others, as not only would it be really cool but it could be used to neatly explain a lot of those missing details.

... assuming there even is a sixth zone.

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Originally Posted by Cilia

If I remember correctly, there is only going to be one Job Quest at Lv80 (though it'll be longer than usual); the rest will be filled by "Role Quests." One reason for this was because bouncing back and forth between the Source and the First every few levels would feel incredibly disjointed and break up the pace of the story. (The other ostensibly being to reduce the load on the writing team.)

Me? Well, I'd like a really eldritch place as the sixth zone; something like IX's Memoria, the innards of Sin from X, or XI's Al'Taieu or Promyvion areas. Given how little we actually know or understand about the central conflict between Zodiark and Hydaelyn I'd very much like a Memoria-type dungeon / area over the others, as not only would it be really cool but it could be used to neatly explain a lot of those missing details.

... assuming there even is a sixth zone.

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I think datamining confirmed that there are six. They generally start editing the internal tables at some point during the X.5 patch, which is how we found about out the Hrothgar in advance.

I'm definitely expecting something that feels like a Rise of the Zilart or Chains of Promathia zone just because Rak'tika and Il Mheg feel so similar to Zi'Tah and Al'Taieu respectively, but I also wouldn't be surprised if it's somewhere out in The Empty(if only because it's mentioned in Eden's description), something like Ultimecia's Castle, or even something based on Nova Chrysalia. There are elements of a lot of other FF games in what they've shown, and with the story being as much of an enigma as it is, it could end up going in any number of different directions.

The only thing I want from the final zone is something akin to what we got in azys lla - No aethercurrent hunting.

More realistically, I hope its a zone that brings us to the front door of Garlimald(Aldinard?) Goodbye Eorzia, were gonna be invading Magitek ,Facilities! Total throwback to FF6 pre Warring Triad Kefka shenanigans, And in 6.0 - World of Ruin, When Garlimald gets fried by their own Doomsday Device. Well I can dream anyway.

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Originally Posted by Eloah

At the same time though, you kinda want your final skill and job gear before you confront the final hurdle.

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In the current system, yes. But it's not a terrible thing if they take away the requirement by making it that nobody can be expected to have done the job quest before clearing the game - especially if they either give us a different way of acquiring "initial Lv80" armour, so all that we're missing is the skill, and have the boss difficulty be set with that expectation.

Having just gotten an alt through Stormblood, I didn't like having to stop what I was doing in the Lochs with the buildup to the assault on Ala Mhigo to play an unrelated storyline, just so I could have slightly stronger armour and not be "that person who couldn't be bothered doing their job quest before they queued for the Lv70 dungeon".

Doing it in your "free time" after the credits, and not right as the main story heads to its climax, would be much better for story pacing.

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Originally Posted by Iscah

Doing [the Lv80 Job Quest] in your "free time" after the credits, and not right as the main story heads to its climax, would be much better for story pacing.

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Yes and no. They can make going back to the Source for a quest before heading to the final battle work; as I recall it was said the Job Quests would be "check-ins" to see how things are going back on the Source, and it's not like there isn't precedent for something like that.

There's also the possibility of the sixth zone being on the Source, which would make that a pretty natural thing... assuming it's not elsewhere entirely (say, the Astral Sea).

My guess is that "The Empty" isn't as empty as all that; and that there's enough there to count as the final zone. Which is traditionally (Azys Lla, the Lochs) pretty empty anyway.
My other guess would be the First's version of Sharlayan; which is close enough to Norvandt to possibly still be there. And probably none of it sank into the ocean to somehow become Eureka too.

We already know that the sixth zone is going to be in the same region as the first five zones due to datamining. Which means that it will be in Norvrant. The ID "names" of all the zones include what region of the game they are in as part of the name. So all the Othard zones have one letter in their ID name, all the Gyr Abania zones have a different letter in their ID name, etc.

The datamining community has known for a while (since 4.5 at least) that there was going to be six ShB zones, and two town zones and that all them were going to be in the same region. Which just so happened to be indicated by "N" in the ID name. At the time, the datamining community didn't know what "N" was a reference to, but now we do.

If I had to take a guess... the first five zones and the two towns we do know of all correspond to regions in 2.0. And we also know that those are the regions that have yet to be overtaken by the Flood of Light. I would not be surprised if the 6th zone was another region we have already visited that had been overtaken by the Flood of Light. IE: the 6th zone will be filled with nothing but the white landscape and crawling with Sin Eaters.

That's pretty interesting, Obsidian. So it IS definitely on Norvrandt. Then again, Azys Lla is technically part of the Abalathia region, but in truth floating above Twelve knows where. We could potentially visit the moon of the First. I mean when we saw Arbert and Elidibus on the Moon it wasn't explicitly stated that it was our moon. If the moon is also split that is. We aren't really sure how this split works. The cosmology is a bit messy.

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Originally Posted by Balipu

That's pretty interesting, Obsidian. So it IS definitely on Norvrandt. Then again, Azys Lla is technically part of the Abalathia region, but in truth floating above Twelve knows where. We could potentially visit the moon of the First. I mean when we saw Arbert and Elidibus on the Moon it wasn't explicitly stated that it was our moon. If the moon is also split that is. We aren't really sure how this split works. The cosmology is a bit messy.

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if it is we better get there by way of lunar whale or ill be sad

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Originally Posted by Jennah

My other guess would be the First's version of Sharlayan; which is close enough to Norvandt to possibly still be there. And probably none of it sank into the ocean to somehow become Eureka too.

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Don’t think this would mean anything.
There aren’t really ‘versions’ of things on the First beyond geographical and coincidences of development.
Eulmore isn’t a version of Limsa, beyond the fact that it’s just a city in the same location.
There’s no Sharlayan on the first, Sharlayan never existed there. There may not even be a settlement in the region that reflects it.

I think the sixth area would either be something completely new, something Azyz Lla-esque, or it could be the lower half of "Mor Dhona" that we haven't seen since 1.0, the southern half of 'Lakeland'. Seeing as ShB seems to be taking us back to 1.0 in many ways.

I'm not ruling out the possibility that there are only five zones. But assuming we get a sixth, I'm guessing it may be some sort of light overrun area. Almost like the world of darkness but light themed, where we ultimately confront the final boss of 5.0 to restore balance to the First. That said i wouldn't be too disappointed if we did only get five zones if they make full use of each of the zones.

In Stormblood by the time we got to the Lochs it really felt like the msq was in a rush to get to the end, and not a lot of interest happened in 3.0 in Azys Lla either until we got to the dungeon/trial at the end.

I'm gonna go with the last zone being "Allagan Arsennel - Eureka".

The ACTUAL original Eureka underneath the CT where all the Allagans ultimate calamity weapons are hidden. Remember the Eureka we visited before was just an aetherically unstable Island of Val, named after the true Eureka.

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Originally Posted by Jonnycbad

I'm gonna go with the last zone being "Allagan Arsennel - Eureka".

The ACTUAL original Eureka underneath the CT where all the Allagans ultimate calamity weapons are hidden. Remember the Eureka we visited before was just an aetherically unstable Island of Val, named after the true Eureka.

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That sounds like it could be a dungeon, but not really a field zone. At least not without being a total repeat of Azys Lla with nothing but Allagan nodes to give us arbitrary maintenance tasks as sidequests.

I was thinking it might be the equivalent to Gyr Abania.

I'm honestly expecting the Empty, or whatever they said the light-scorched wastes are called.