Guess the Expansion: After Shadowbringers Contest

Guess the Expansion Contest
Jobs, Bosses, 24-Player Raids, 8-Player Raids, Location, and much more

Yoshi P said he loves seeing people's guesses. Like every year, <TAINT> on Gilgamesh submitted a contest to GUESS THE EXPANSION.

See it here:
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets...cpo/edit#gid=0

There's guesses EVERYWHERE.

• Memoria from FF9
• Elemental Archfiends from FF4
• Kingdom of Zeal from Chrono Trigger
• Amaterasu from FF Dimensions II
• Magus Sisters from FF10
• Mimic from FF5
• Geomancer, Time Mage, Beastmaster, Chemist, Berserker, Puppetmaster, etc.
• Way way way way way more guesses

Check the link to see EVERYONE'S guesses!
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets...cpo/edit#gid=0

Who do you think will win? What answers weren't included?

My guess:

Expansion title: Bonds of the Burning Souls (Nenkon Kihan)
Zones: Illsabard and center of the world
Level cap will be 90
Job: Ascian of Light
Cutscene job: Paladin, Summoner, or Ascian of Light.
Release date: late June 2021

Story will revolve around trying to fix the Sound. Final zone will be the center of the earth. Zodiark will NOT be the final boss. Urianger or Thancred will die. As the WoL enters the Lifestream to fix the Sound, he will see the souls/ghosts of the dead, who may or may not help at the end.

My guesses:

Expansion title: Apocalypse
Zones: Sharlayan (with this as the hub city), Ilsabard, Garlemald, and The Moon
Level cap: 90
Jobs: Chemist, and a magical DPS class (Time Mage?)
Cutscene job: Summoner
Release date: September 2021

Story guesses:
- We'll need to ask the assistance/seek the knowledge of Old Sharlayan to combat the threat of the towers.
- The twins' father will be a major character, and the conflict between him and the twins will be a central plot arc.
- We will work to convince Sharlayan out of its isolationism for the good of the wider world.
- Ryne will return, possibly as a young adult due to the First's time shenanigans.
- None of the Scions will die.

Merlwyb's two guns, Death Penalty and Annihilator

were both featured prominently in the MSQ. Easy bet that one of the jobs that's coming will be a dual gunner.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Rongway

Merlwyb's two guns, Death Penalty and Annihilator

were both featured prominently in the MSQ. Easy bet that one of the jobs that's coming will be a dual gunner.

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Not an easy bet, as it's not even a possibility - Merlwyb is and has always been a Musketeer (MSK), a class that was meant to be added even way back in 1.0 but never was (it still has an unused Guild hall with class logo in Limsa, it's the Coral Tower, which the MRD's Guild moved into after the Calamity and now shares it), and whatever SE had done for MSK was gutted and recycled for MCH (you learn Limsan musketery skills from the MSK Rostnsthal after all). Given SE seems to have all but abandoned MSK itself as a seperate class in favour of MCH, it's pretty clear MSK will now never be implemented and will remain a NPC only class.

Also NPCs always thumb their noses at the Armoury System and do things players have and never will be able to do (Raubahn being mechanically a GLA but dual-wielding GLA swords is another example.. well, until he lost his arm at the end of ARR that is). Hence NPCs are not a good example of potential future classes and Jobs being added.

Either way, MCH is the gun-using class for better or for worse, and dual-wielding guns is something that will be NPC only I'm afraid.

Merlwyb never even dual wields. She uses Annihilator as her personal arm and Death Penalty for ceremonial (for want of a better word) purposes.

As for moving forward... ehh, I dunno. 5.4 spent so much time working out the cure for tempering and politics there wasn't much forward movement in the overarching story. There's a leaked art asset supposedly showing a Garlean aetheryte, the New Years' hint suggesting both a subterranean and extraterrestrial location, and Fandaniel's "Lunar Bahamut"... not really enough to reach a definite conclusion, all of it being a bit circumstantial. The best advice I have is "Wait for Friday." (Fried egg! Fried egg!)

Just for fun but...

Title: 'Forespoken' (means to enchant, put under a spell) in JP 'Bonds of a Burning Soul' (a bonded soul, basically the same thing as under a spell, both allude to Tempering)
Colour theme: Gold/Silver
Locations: Sharlayan and Ilsabard
Jobs: Chemist/Apothecary Healer, Geomancer Caster DPS, Beastmaster LTD, Machinist for cutscene.
MSQ Trials: Asura (primal), Venat (technically a primal like Elidibus), finale against Zenos-Zodiark combined
Trial series: Elemental Archfields
Raid: Sin. incl. various Sinspawn, Valefore, Magus Sisters and Anima
Alliance Raid: Anyone's guess. Maybe a Star Ocean cross over set on the Moon?
Level: 90
Story: We'll end up rejecting Hydaelyn's blessing. We'll meet the Twins father. One of the Twins will die.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Enkidoh

Not an easy bet, as it's not even a possibility... [...]


Also NPCs always thumb their noses at the Armoury System and do things players have and never will be able to do (Raubahn being mechanically a GLA but dual-wielding GLA swords is another example.. well, until he lost his arm at the end of ARR that is). Hence NPCs are not a good example of potential future classes and Jobs being added.

Either way, MCH is the gun-using class for better or for worse, and dual-wielding guns is something that will be NPC only I'm afraid.

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I don't see why dual pistols is "not even a possibility" - it's not a guarantee that it's coming, but there's no reason why MCH should have an exclusive claim on a gun weapon when an equivalent argument about PLD would prevent us from having classes that use greatswords, katanas and rapiers.

As for NPCs breaking the rules on classes, did we ever see Raubahn fight with dual swords outside of cutscenes? I don't think we did. I think he was confined to fighting in cutscenes until he was forced to be a one-handed fighter, at which point he could be assigned to use a gladiator AI.

Merlwyb, on the other hand, has conspicuously remained restricted to cutscenes for every fight until now. She doesn't take the field in the Grand Melee, but watches with Nanamo and Kan-E. She is absent at the Ghimlyt Dark where even Kan-E (CNJ) is taking part.

But here, at last, she is taking part in a live battle. So why now, and is there significance to that development?


(PS. The adjective is always Lominsan, despite it not being the first part of the city name.)

Hmm. My guesses.

Expansion Name: Forspoken.
Location: Garlemald.
Cap: 90.
8-Player Raid: Sin.
24-Player Raid: The moon.
Job: Chemist, Garlean Healer.
Job 2: Centurion, Garlean Melee-DPS.
Cutscene Job: Summoner.
Release Date: Q3.

Misc predictions. The trial series and the relic weapon series will both take place on the 13th.

I would like to throw in a wild but not unfounded prediction: X'rhun Tia from the RDM quests making an appearance in the MSQ, possibly in connection with Sharlayan as a destination.

I am thinking this because:

• he seems to know everyone and have contacts everywhere, including Sharlayan

• he specifically knows Alisaie

• he is travelling solo as of the end of both the Lv70 and Lv80 job quests, which would allow him to show up in other plot threads without affecting continuity for the RDM plot

• obscure but specific, one of the pictures for the JP developer blog's White Day 2020 post (fan translation here) has X'rhun in the background next to Sevestre from the AST quest line, and I would be surprised if a minor villain not seen in two expansions (but being one of the two prominent Sharlayans we know of) gets enough fan mail to warrant being in the picture "just because".

Another gun dps job is about as likely as another bow dps job.

The parallel drawn with 'swords' is always a weak one, because that's more or less a quirk of the english language.
Ultimately a katana is not just 'a sword', it's a katana. Even a rapier is not just 'a sword'.
Swords are so varied they have their own classifications, which are typically double-handed, shortswords, thrusting (edge-less) swords, single-edge swords, and then various outliers with different regional classifications such as katana.

They are all bladed weapons, just as a gun and a bow are both projectile weapons. This is where the classification is focused, and why we're not likely to get another gun wielding dps job. You simply wouldn't be able to differentiate weapon models enough to justify it being reused for another job. MCH already claims many different types of gun model, including pistols, shotguns and rifles. Similar to how Paladin has various forms of shortsword; longswords, scimitars, spatha, etc.

Plus, what would this new gun job do that MCH doesn't? Fire more bullets?

The only hope I see for another gun job, is in a different role. Tanks already fill this niche via Gunbreaker, so it would have to be a Healer, Chemist perhaps.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Seraphor

Just for fun but...

Title: 'Forespoken' (means to enchant, put under a spell) in JP 'Bonds of a Burning Soul' (a bonded soul, basically the same thing as under a spell, both allude to Tempering)

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Whatever the title "Bonds of a Burning Soul" is intended to be for, it seems more likely to be linked to the shorter title "A Hero's Bonds". Either it's JP/EN for the same title or they could be a pair for 5.5 and 5.55.

(Did they trademark "Jet Black Villains" alongside Shadowbringers? Do they need to do that?)


As for "Forespoken", there are a few things to pick apart there, starting with the spelling.

The rumoured title is Forspoken, no "e", making it an entirely different prefix.

"Forespoken" would be something akin to "foretold" or prophesied.

Since the title Forspoken was rumoured, people have been passing around the definition that it means to "enchant or put under a spell" but that's a simplified version of what it could mean - and not the right tense.

Wiktionary gives a few different definitions for forspeak:

Quote:

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From Middle English forspeken (“to bewitch”), from Old English forspecan, forsprecan (“to speak in vain; to speak amiss; to denounce; to deny”)

1. (transitive, dialectal, Northern England and Scotland) To injure or cause bad luck through immoderate praise or flattery; to affect with the curse of an evil tongue, which brings ill luck upon all objects of its praise.
2. (transitive, obsolete) To bewitch, to charm.
3. (transitive, obsolete) To forbid, to prohibit; to oppose. [15th–19th c.]
4. (transitive, obsolete) To say bad things about; to slander.

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"To bewitch" is in there, but it seems tangled up in more meanings of to curse or condemn. Combined with the etymology, it conjures up something ominous - to forbid, forbear, forswear, forsake, forget.

Enchantment seems like too airy a word for it.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Seraphor

The parallel drawn with 'swords' is always a weak one, because that's more or less a quirk of the english language.
Ultimately a katana is not just 'a sword', it's a katana. Even a rapier is not just 'a sword'.
Swords are so varied they have their own classifications, which are typically double-handed, shortswords, thrusting (edge-less) swords, single-edge swords, and then various outliers with different regional classifications such as katana.

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So classify paladin's weapon as something more specific than "a sword". They're distinct from the other styles of long bladed weapons that other classes use. "It's not just a sword, it's a longsword." Gladiators got a lot of different types but then they edged away from short swords once ninja was introduced as wielding daggers.

It still means we have multiple classes wielding something that could be called a sword.

Also, MCH has some weapons that are basically gunblades and that hasn't stopped them from making that a separate thing either.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Seraphor

MCH already claims many different types of gun model, including pistols, shotguns and rifles. Similar to how Paladin has various forms of shortsword; longswords, scimitars, spatha, etc.

Plus, what would this new gun job do that MCH doesn't? Fire more bullets?

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The vast majority of MCH guns are long guns and the occasional pistols look awkward perched up on the shoulder. As with PLD phasing out short swords, MCH just wouldn't get those occasional pistols any more because that design idea can go to the other class.

As for distinction, make it dual-wield pistols instead of a single long gun, or go for a pistol/cutlass corsair. Return to the "straight shooting" style we can't get from MCH any more. Give it a different flair.

It's not necessarily likely but it can't be dismissed out of hand.

They often try to give the titles multiple meanings and use them several times in the expansion. The Heavens Ward, and travelling 'heavensward', for example.

So I can easily see all of those definitions applying in some way.
“to speak in vain; to speak amiss; to denounce; to deny” we end up denouncing Hydaelyn.
"to bewitch, charm, cause bad luck, curse" the Telophoroi and their act of tempering the masses to Garlemald.
And "to oppose" is probably too simplistic to even explain.

Yes. Shadowbringers was also trademarked as Jet-black Villains.
As was Stormblood, as Liberators of the Crimson Lotus.
Heavensward was Blue Skies of Ishgard.
So I could see Bond of a Burning Soul fitting in quite well there.
Plus that's where the 'burning' could fit in. The rest all reference a colour, so I would expect whatever the japanese trademarked title is to include an adjective that references a colour in some capacity. Nenshō which means burning, can also mean to glow and could refer to a yellow/gold glow of burning embers, which could just about suffice. Otherwise, none of the trademarked titles fit.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Seraphor

So I can easily see all of those definitions applying in some way.
“to speak in vain; to speak amiss; to denounce; to deny” we end up denouncing Hydaelyn.
"to bewitch, charm, cause bad luck, curse" the Telophoroi and their act of tempering the masses to Garlemald.
And "to oppose" is probably too simplistic to even explain.

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Past tense though - something that has already been condemned, cursed or prohibited.

It could be Zodiark. It could be the Sound.

The bewitched could still be the tempered or it could reach back to the Final Days.


As for colour scheme, I like the "time of day" theme theory so we have had day (blue/Heavensward), sunset (red/Stormblood), night (black/Shadowbringers) and it seems like we're due for dawn.

The problem with a "Dual Gunner" job is there's no reason to add one in and no way to make it distinct from MCH other than taking out the automaton(s). There's already one gun-toting job; why would another be necessary, and how would its playstyle significantly differ? (No, I don't consider the argument that GLA / PLD used to use shortswords / knives before ROG / NIN came along as being particularly strong. Yes, they could do this, but why would they?)

Hem. Assuming the title "Forspoken" is indeed the name of the next expansion, the first meaning is the one that jumps out to me most; Danny Boy is obviously flattering everyone as much as he can, and absolutely nothing good is going to come of it. The secondary meaning I will wager, "to bewitch / charm," may come into play as the Scions are dispatched to investigate and end up getting tempered by Danny Boy's towers, thus giving our impetus to sally forth and oppose Zenos and Danny Boy directly.

"Bonds of a Burning Soul" would vis-a-vis have the double meaning of our bonds with the Scions and Zenos' bond with us, both of which would be focal points of the story in addition to the "saving the world from the End of Days" business Danny Boy's decided to stir up.

... assuming those titles are indeed the EN / JP titles of the next expansion, anyway.

The Japanese title must needs include the expansion's theme color. Heavensward was blue (Ishgard of Blue Skies), Stormblood was red (Crimson Liberator), Shadowbringers was black (Jet-black Villains). So if it doesn't include a color, it's probably not the expansion's Japanese title. My money's on white, to contrast with Shadowbringers' black, but I suppose green and gold are also likely. (Watch it be purple.)

Expansion Name: Forspoken.
Location: Sharlayan and Ilsabard.
Cap: 85
8-Player Raid: Tower of Babil.
24-Player Raid: Lea Monde. Vagrant Story inspired and a continuation of the ongoing Ivalice storyline.
Job: Chemist, Healer that uses a rifle to damage enemies and heal allies.
Job 2: Judge, Melee DPS. Uses twin swords and ceruleum in combat.
Cutscene Job: Red Mage.
Release Date: August 2021.

I think if we ever see the Musketeer job in the game it will feature a gun and blade pair like Rostnsthal has (the pirate invited to teach marksmanship to the new Machinists in Ishgard). In my own theory I would expect a job that is bizarro-Red Mage, using close range blade attacks to build up to spend on gun abilities and would perhaps use scouting gear. The weapon itself would be a paired "blade and gun" much like ninja blades or red mage rapier and focus, so no using the offhand slot (which the devs seem reticent to use, outside of paladins being grandfathered in). That way they could have thematic paired models, like a cutlass and flintlock for the piratical inclined or tomahawk and revolver for something more frontier-ish. That way they can have a "musketeer" that lives up both to the actual name as well as the popularized image of swordsmen featured in The Three Musketeers.

Theorycrafting aside, I do wonder with everyone's guessing of what new jobs expansion will have are missing a certain "wow" factor. I've come to the idea we won't see an expansion without a job that doesn't have a sell-able popular image. For Heavensward, we had the Dark Knight with it's cool dark armor and Cloud Strife-like sword. For Stormblood, it was the katana-wielding Samurai or the active, sharp-dressed swordplay of the Red Mage. Finally, Shadowbringers had the first glimpse of a newly featured job being a man in a cool trench coat slicing up a winged lion with a gunblade (popularized by Squall). So while I think peoples ideas of a Chemist healer or a bell-wielding Geomancer are right at home for a Final Fantasy game, I do wonder if they are seen as "marketable" like a cool actiony blade job.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Seraphor

Another gun dps job is about as likely as another bow dps job.

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If the Ranger class is ever added, I would assume as a physical range, it could just use a crossbow. But I guess it is just as likely to use blow darts or a boomerang.

I'll go with the popular Chemist as a sort of "MCH as a healer" job and go out on a limb with VIKING as a hammer-wielding melee DPS whose niche is inflicting Blunt Resistance Down debuffs as part of their core gameplay.

I mean, if we're headed to butt-cold Northern Ilsabard and we already got a hammer-wielding protagonist in Gaia... eh? Ehhh?

Expansion Name: Forspoken. (Not really convinced but I got nothing better. Any marketing department would look at "A Hero's Bonds" and send it back. But I do think we will get a multi-word title like ARR for this "final chapter" )
Location: Garlemald.
Cap: 90
8-Player Raid: The Moon
24-Player Raid: Castle Pandaemonium
Job: Chemist, Healer that uses a mudra-like system to mix potions
Job 2: Geomancer, Mage dps uses bells and the now forgotten conjurer elemental spells.
Limited job: Beastmaster.
Cutscene Job: Paladin.
Release Date: August 2021.