2.5 - Before the Fall

[AdamuKun322]

"Revenge of Gilgamesh" kind of heavily implies we're going to fight him, so he's definitely not going to be the Mystery Trial.

And Gilgamesh is part of the Hildabrand story. So, the mystery trial is probably going to be a primal that kind of just showed up. It can't be Zodiark because I think that is going into somewhere in 3.0.

[Balipu]

And Gilgamesh is part of the Hildabrand story. So, the mystery trial is probably going to be a primal that kind of just showed up. It can't be Zodiark because I think that is going into somewhere in 3.0.

Zodiark? Nah, probably 7.0 at the earliest. I mean where would you go after a dark god?

[CGMidlander]

Zodiark? Nah, probably 7.0 at the earliest. I mean where would you go after a dark god?

The same place they went after coil; other powerful monsters/evil stuff/ancient stuff

[Balipu]

The same place they went after coil; other powerful monsters/evil stuff/ancient stuff

True, but Zodiark is pretty much the Dark Hydaelyn. To create a credible threat after him would require us to leave the planet.


"As I mentioned during my 19th LIVE letter, we’re planning to break up the spectacular conclusion of the current story into three updates."

This could be interpreted several way. Either a three part patch, or a two part patch and an expansion launch event.

[Nalien]

It can't be Zodiark because I think that is going into somewhere in 3.0.

Zodiark is technically just another Primal, 2.0 is meant to conclude the Primal threat storyline, so it's likely the Ascians/Zodiark will be dealt with by the end. They could always return though, I kind of get the feeling that Lahabrea is making his own plans...

That said, I doubt the Mystery Trial will be anything significant to the story, considering it is in 2.5 not 2.51+ where the story concludes... I find it far more likely it will be another Ultima Ballad style fight, perhaps with Gaius van Baelsar and his team of utter weaklings.

I mean where would you go after a dark god?

East, then to the past, then west, if Final Fantasy XI is anything to go off. Who's to say Zodiark is even the only dark god? They've got plenty they can do given XIVs fanservice nature.

[WellFooled]

Zodiark is technically just another Primal, 2.0 is meant to conclude the Primal threat

I don't think we should be so sure of this, seeing as how two new Primals have already been announced for Heavensward. Maybe there will be less of a focus on them than before, but I don't think the concept is going away any time soon.

[Nalien]

Maybe there will be less of a focus on them than before, but I don't think the concept is going away any time soon.

I believe that's exactly what Yoshida said; they wont be the focus anymore, though Alexander is a thing now, so as usual I'm getting mixed messages from the guy...

I could actually see the Mystery Trial being Zodiark, since all the pieces for us defeating the Ascians are already in place save one, and I'm thinking the 2.51 story content is marking the return of Nidhogg, with "The Battle for Ishgard" being the dragons first assault, which we help repel resulting in Ishgard welcoming us in come 3.0. So 2.5 could resolve the Ascians storyline with 2.51 setting up the expansion. I'd still put my money on Ultima Ballad 2.0, though.

The mystery trial is Odin, I believe.

There is a decent chance that this "Mystery Trial" will be Gilgamesh Extreme.

I was under the impression "Urth's Fount" and "Revenge of Gilgamesh" were self explanatory.

[DarkStar]

I was under the impression "Urth's Fount" and "Revenge of Gilgamesh" were self explanatory.

To be fair, I had skimmed over most of the stuff from the last Live Letter, since I was really only interested in information on the new jobs. Still, good to see that Gilgamesh is definitely getting an Extreme Mode.

...Still hoping that he drops joke weapons. >w>

[Balipu]

I don't think we should be so sure of this, seeing as how two new Primals have already been announced for Heavensward. Maybe there will be less of a focus on them than before, but I don't think the concept is going away any time soon.

Not to mention anyone who still uses the 'just another Primal' argument wasn't paying much attention to the story. Moogle Mog and Shiva muddied the defintion of Primals quite a bit. First, we need to clear up what Primals are. Then we can end their threat.

By the by, three Primals have been announced, not two.

[Nalien]

Moogle Mog and Shiva muddied the defintion of Primals quite a bit.

How so? Primals are still just manifest belief through large quantities of Aether/Crystals.

Moogle Mog was effectively just an explanation on the origin of Primals (further explained in Final Coil with a bit of Bahamuts backstory), they worshiped a legend enough and managed to manifest it, turning Moogle Mog from a simple legend into an actual Primal. The Scions were confused because they're slow. Shiva was basically the same, only difference being everyone shat themselves because Iceheart was a person rather than a beast tribe... Apparently all the Scions forgot that time their Grandpa explained to them how they could summon the Twelve and how that actually did happen...

The only thing left to figure out is how we go about summoning them ourselves, which is no doubt what 2.5s main quests are going to revolve around given the Keeper of the Lakes involvement (Iceheart did tell us to go there to learn the truth). Once we can summon Primals they're not much of a threat anymore. In fact they become the weapon we use to defeat the Ascians, though again, the Scions are slow... While they were sitting there wondering how they could get a blade of concentrated Aether to kill Ascians with, I was shouting at my screen trying to tell them that Primals are concentrated Aether... "Come on you idiots! You even watched Leviathan end an immortal only to comment that it wouldn't work on Ascians because they can escape with their Dark Crystals... That's why you brought in this Auracite stuff to trap them!", seriously, it's like one step forward, two steps back with them... "We can probably kill Ascians if we can trap them!", "Now that we can trap Ascians... How do we kill them?" Sigh...