*SPOILERS* So, what's next in 6.1 and beyond?

With the Scion's disbanded to the public yet not privately and everyone on their own adventures, as well as no world-ending threat on the horizon. I have to wonder what's next? Usually, SE gives a pretty strong tease at the end of an expansion but with 6.1 starting a fresh new arc it is excited we know very little.

I feel they placed hints in Emet's speech at the end, from the New World to the sunken ruins to the southern continent of Meracydia. One thing I do hope for is that we might get more self-contained stories of conflict and real human villains that don't go the way of overly powerful and supernatural. Maybe the 6.1-6.5 patches could be their own self-contained stories of local conflict that lead up to the next big 7.0 expansion?

Should be interesting to see where it goes but I am excited just the same. I do have to wonder how many big expansions FFXIV has left in it? FFXI eventually converted to smaller content updates like the .1-.2 patches that still added story but no major new stuff. Should be interesting to say the least. 7.0 will get us to Level 100, so I don't see anymore level caps beyond that.

Personally I feel like 6.1-6.5 will be tying up some hanging story threads (i.e. what's next for Garlemald, the current state of the Eorzean city states/Thavnair/Eastern Alliance, etc) along with setting up the next story thread.

My money is on either Mercydia or New World. Both have been teased for a while and both came up in Emet's to-do list. On that note, they may turn one of the smaller items on that list (the sunken city or treasure islands perhaps?) into a mini-arc for 6.1-6.5.

Edit: On another hanging thread note - Azdaja's silence may become its own plot point.

Historically, Final Fantasy games cap out at level 99, not 100.

I don't think we're going to be getting Mericydia or New World until 7.0 so whatever set up is going to have to be something that ties those two continents together.

Some other things that we might be doing:

* Post war Garlemald cleanup (I guess Lucia is in charge now, unless we get more Gaius)
* More explorations of Dynamis
* The search for new life and new civilizations - as we found, not every civilization was completely dead; many of them simply had reached such a point of stagnation that they wished to die. Was Omega really the last of the Omicrons? Space colonization in general, too.

My guess is Merycidia and the "state of affairs" over there. If I had to wager a guess, I would say some faction from there is most likely going to be the new outside threat Eorzea faces. Think about it. Ages ago they got curb stomped by Allag, they have resentment over what Allag did to their continent. Allag was centered in Eorzea with primarily an Elezen population. Merycidia is mostly Hyur, Miqo, and various beast tribes we've never seen, along with some dragons of Baha/Tia's brood who could still also be showing affects of tempering. LOTS of opportunity to explore the racism that exists in the FF lore that only slightly gets touched upon, usually, or worked out very quickly.

I'd love to see a political and social expac, much like Heavensward again, but centered around this people and culture who basically have stewed in their anger at Eorzea for thousands of years. Maybe they send agents to try and politically destabilize our alliances here, and then 7.0 we go there to repay the favor.

14 for a long time has made this huge emphasis on togetherness and working out differences, I'd love to see a situation where we CAN'T do that. Where it's an actual aggressor that can't be reasoned with by the 'Power of Anime'(TM). Merycidia could be all that and more. A foe that no matter how hard we try and what we do over there, they are going to be determined to be a threat to us and ours, to Eorzea.

Plus so much room for lore expansion there!

The plan is to continue having full expansions for the next 10 years. We are essentially starting fresh with a "Season 2" in 7.0, that will be setup throughout 6.1-6.5. Yoship as far as I'm aware previously said that he didn't like capping off levelling at 100, so it is likely to go beyond that unless they plan to do a level squish later on.

I agree that for the time being they should steer clear of too many nebulous supernatural elements and instead focus on laying the groundwork in a Heavensward-like expansion where our new main cast and villains are introduced. 7.0 is not the time to go planet hopping again or to have a "void" expansion. Stuff like that should mark the end of a story arc, not the beginning of one.

6.1 - 6.5 is Post ARR Season 2. The immediate concerns are going to be dealing with the power vaccumn caused by the implosion of Garlemald, likely helping to rebuild it, dealing with the mysteries around the 12 in the alliance raid and pandemonium. In the longer run I could see them exploring the rest of Ilsabard including Corvos as well as Meracydia and the new world of course. Longer term there could be something in works about the void and there's also consequences to be dealt with now that both Hydaelyn and Zodiark have been taken out of the picture. We also have 4 more shards that are still an unknown right now.
One other thing is that at some point there's going to need to be a time skip of some sorts in the works because otherwise the narrative is going to run into the "simpsons" effect otherwise.

I want Zenos to be our traveling companion and be our personal Vegeta, while also destroying civilizations and gods to train and cause inconveniences to our adventure.

Edit: Also Emet Selch already gave a list of potential areas for future content. I think that was a hint of where all we are going.

Edit Edit: Can we get a prestige system or a dynamis level vs going past level 100.

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Originally Posted by Catwho

Historically, Final Fantasy games cap out at level 99, not 100.

I don't think we're going to be getting Mericydia or New World until 7.0 so whatever set up is going to have to be something that ties those two continents together.

Some other things that we might be doing:

* Post war Garlemald cleanup (I guess Lucia is in charge now, unless we get more Gaius)
* More explorations of Dynamis
* The search for new life and new civilizations - as we found, not every civilization was completely dead; many of them simply had reached such a point of stagnation that they wished to die. Was Omega really the last of the Omicrons? Space colonization in general, too.

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Final Fantasy XI capped at 100 though I could see them doing another stat squish in the future and we could get to 110 or 120. I know FFXV went up to 120. Yes, single player but it has been done before.

Wont need anything else once we get a farm!

considering how unlikely it is to get a new zone mid expansion, msq would be about garlemald, while the raid seires would be about elpis.
if we get any kind of eureka zone, id say corvos, given how often its namedropped. with graha joining the students of baldesion, it would tie in nicely.

we are gonna get our beach episode filler OVA then build up to Mercydia expansion.

For the 6.X series I suspect we might be tying up a little of the plot surrounding the remaining Ascians. Their order is also disbanded so they act like a great mirror while we deal with what the nations of the world will do next. We'll also probably visit Corvos in some way since it was mentioned so much.

God, hopefully it'll be some good godsdamn moonkeeper and duskwight lore.

(The nerve of them having a thavnarian moonkeeper be the mentor for dnc, having us go to thavnair during THE MOON EXPANSION and then it being all au ra... >:C )

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Originally Posted by Roda

God, hopefully it'll be some good godsdamn moonkeeper and duskwight lore.

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Preach, sister!


I haven't gone through all of the side or role quests, but what little I have indicates that 6.X content will likely be about restoration of Garlemald and stabilization of the nations of Eorzea. Raids concerning more the metaphysical threats of Pandaemonium and the Twelve will tie up current story threads, fill in missing story, and set things up for the future. I'm very much hoping they keep the scope of future expansions to something like Heavensward or Stormblood. With so many undiscovered lands on Etheryis, we've got plenty to keep us busy. The last thing we need is a continuing increase in existential threats as that never goes well.

I was really hoping to see the end of Scion characters as significant story actors, but it seems that won't be the case.

Aren't we getting a farm in 6.1?

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Originally Posted by Dragoforge

Personally I feel like 6.1-6.5 will be tying up some hanging story threads (i.e. what's next for Garlemald, the current state of the Eorzean city states/Thavnair/Eastern Alliance, etc) along with setting up the next story thread.

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Going off what Yoshida has said, I'm not sure I would expect this. They made Endwalker an extra 20-30 quests longer than its counterparts (Heavensward/Stormblood/Shadowbringers) so that they would wrap everything up. He's stated that 6.1-6.3 wouldn't follow the usual method of concluding all the story with then 6.4 and 6.5 being the setup for the next expansion, but that Endwalker concludes the entire thing, and starting in 6.1 though to 7.0 we will be seeing the setup for the next major, multi-expansion story arc.

Sure there might be references to Garlemald, but I would expect that to be a minor part of one quest as opposed to something like 5.1 being almost wholly devoted to settling the political situation in Eulemore post Vauthry.

Emmet gave us a lot of options, though, so any of them are on the table. But I think for now, The New World or Mericydia seem the most likely candidates, though not till the later expansion. The next 50 or so quests could involve things such as helping Krile rebuilding the Students of Baldesion, then the students hearing word of troubles in one of those lands, and then working out our method of getting there, maybe making contact with someone involved in whatever situation is playing out (which could have a callback to the blue mage quests if it ends up being the New World) and then actually traveling there in 7.0

More Garlemald for a while, figuring out it's future similarly to Ala Mhigo back in the day with Jullus taking up a bigger role. As for beyond, I think Endwalker more or less charted out the plan so Mercydia is my guess as to where the next expansion will go.

Traditionally, almost nothing at all happens in the x.1 patches. We'll probably mostly just see people recovering from the Final Days, with just a few hints of the big things to come. A good chance we'll check in with all the scattered ex-Scions.

I'd guess the 24-man raid is going to be much more relevant to the main plot of 6.1-6.5, and we'll be finding out much about the Twelve. Considering Azem (well, Azemya) is one of them, I'm expecting a wild ride.

There haven't been any major clues on the 6.x trials yet, have there? I almost HAVE to think it's the Elemental Fiends, given the heavy FF4 influence... with one relegated to a dungeon boss or solo instance. Again.

At some point, we're definitely doing something about the Void / the Thirteenth; and Y'shtola is busy trying to work out how to travel to other shards. I can't see this being handled solely through cutscenes and dungeons, so it'll probably have to wait until 7.0 at least.

If you do all the crafter quests, there's some long-term hints beyond what was in Emet's speech. Sharlayan really wants to explore the stars. And there's a weird prophecy about the Lifestream - a snake eating its own tail, shedding its skin, causing all sorts of calamities, and sealed by 7 brands.

I would actually be surprised if any of what Emet says comes into play. I think it's going to be more like, here's a list of places we could take you, but here are robots from outer space instead!

I'd love it if each new expansion starting with 7.0 was a non-linear tangent, so that if a players starts at say 9.0, they can play ARR through to EW, then choose whether to start at 7.0, 8.0 or 9.0
Maybe with a different MSQ logo, so the meteor symbol for just be the ARR-EW arc, and you could run them all in tandem if you wanted to.

Each one would come with level 91-99 content, plus prestige levels (or Dynamis levels) on top of that.

6.1 will probably focus on the world after the Final Days and mainly garlemald[maybe 6.2 too] while also hinting towards where we go next in 7.0~
Oh and we will probably be introduced to our new travelling companion[s].

Whatever it is will be a pivotal moment for the game. Some franchises find wrapping up a years-long story and beginning a brand new one can turn off a lot of their fans. Mass Effect tried this with Andromeda. The Marvel Cinematic Universe is trying it now with various different series and movies. But have yet to reveal their next big saga.

It could be that the next arc in this game won’t be one arc but several smaller, self-contained arcs that see the WoL involved in various regional adventures that don’t have world-ending repercussions.