Crystal Tower: idle speculation on the future

[ruskie]

Well they have already said that the expansion will feature an original raid. But I could see CT and ST becoming a riddle type questline around it or something to figure stuff out about the Allags and such. This reminds me the other day when I was in keeper friend goes... what's that light over there... and I look and go hmm... ahh that's the tower! So technically the tower is already part of the main story in that way. I guess it's one of those hints that it exists and that you can do it.

[Baithin]

I don't think it'd be too far beyond the realm of possibility that they'd make the CT questline required for future story developments. I mean, most people do it anyway. Not so much for G'raha, but because Cid and the rest of Garlond Ironworks are major players in the main storyline (and will most likely continue to be) and it'd be weird to see them again without referencing anything that happened in CT. The CT quests mention things about the main story (such as you felling primals and being the Warrior of Light), so why can't it be done the other way around?

Though it is interesting to note that the main storyline does mention Frontlines even if you have never participated or even unlocked it. Frontlines are even pretty important to the plot, what with the Carteneau Flats being the location of Omega... This leads me to believe that participating in Frontlines at least once will be a requirement for story progression. They made us to a bunch of guildhests and the story has us revisiting old dungeons (Qarn) so why not Frontlines and CT?

I loved the post above about Eureka being an underground storehouse for Allagan Weapons... As in the Diamond, Ruby, etc weapons. Though I can't imagine us fighting all of them one-on-one (or 8-on-one) in duties. Considering how they roam around in FF7, though, I can see them being FATE bosses or just being eliminated in the storyline.

[Fenral]

For all we know, Eureka could be the resting place for Omega Weapon, and while he is somewhere underneath Cartenau, they're simply looking for the entrance in the wrong place.

[Eltaire]

I was going to say, I'm curious about the final sequence after Nero walks away. Does it portend the existence of Eureka still buried underneath the Crystal Tower? Or is there something else down there in the abyss?

You mean the fact that his device started beeping after he threw it and walked away? I wondered about that, myself.

[RickiFake02]

You mean the fact that his device started beeping after he threw it and walked away? I wondered about that, myself.

Yep. Dying to know that that was about!

[Fenral]

We all are! Though some of us admittedly more than most. XP

Going by Yoshi-P's Famitsu interview on 2.5, he reiterates that Eureka still remains, and maybe unintentionally hints that this is only the ending "for the time being." I'd like to believe that that beeping, combined with the abrupt nature of the current ending, is a sign that they've decided to go through with Eureka after all, in some form or another. Hopefully as part of Cid's storyline in the expansion, and maybe with Nero returning just in time to return the favor.

[Naria]

You can edit your first post Fenral to bypass the character limit.

The impression I got was that CT and any plots connected to it were basically done. We undoubtedly will see Cid again, and possibly the other free members of NOAH, but the events of the storyline have any impact on other storylines I think it will only be referenced obliquely like how Coil is in the MSQ. I hope they don't gate any post game in Heavenward behind ARR as I feel the gates are becoming silly. At most there might be something like the Lunar Transmitter check for 1.0 players, where if you completed it you get slightly different dialogue in quests if they do anything definitively post CT.

[Fenral]

Figured that first part out afterwards, not sure if there's much point in merging them weeks later. Guess I will, though, since you brought it up.

As I mentioned in my first post, I'm fully aware of the possibility of it being "done." I'm also not suggesting they "gate" later content, or even MS, through the Crystal Tower, since it will be obsolete well before the end of the 3.x cycle, and eventually even scaled down or patched out. This thread isn't about either of those topics, but thank you for your input.

This is more of a wild-mass-guessing sort of thread. They clearly wanted us to think there's more, but what?

[Fenral]

That, came out ruder than I expected. The whole thing is still kind of a touchy subject for me. Sorry 'bout that.

My issue with the current ending is that, by it's nature as "optional content," it is ultimately self-defeating in it's message. It tries to set up possibilities (reopening the tower in only a few short years, Nero crossing paths with Cid again as a changed man, etc.), all of which can be left up to the imagination in a story that "ends," or even given a reunion scene after the credits.

None of that can happen in a persistent world, with at least 10 years of story according to Yoshi-P, if the entire rest of the story must account for completion and non-completion at the same time (and Syrcus Tower has a pretty sticky cliffhanger). They could, of course, decide simply never to address it directly again, in which case we return to: then what was the point?

There are only a few ways they can get around that. They could "gate" it like they did with Qarn in 2.1, which considering the length of the storyline would take a ton of momentum out of the story they were sticking the gate on. That would only really affect new players, but it would help them get better gear. Still seems pretty unlikely.

The other way would be to declare it "old" content: a story that explicitly happens before the expansion. Simply giving it a different quest icon would clear that up for most players, I think, and would allow them to bring back Nero, like they seem to want to, without that moment of "didn't we leave you in the Void?" There could, of course, be expanded dialogue if you've completed CT, but it would already have happened for Nero either way.

They should do something, maybe and probably won't, but I see no problem with hoping they do.

[Pterois]

I think it is pretty obvious that Eureka will come around because of how that last Nero CS went... and because of how much the dev's love FFIII.

Will it house ultimate weapons? I don't see why not... could be the end of the Zodiac weapon quest. Which gives them a great time line to build up the weapons through lv60 and on to whatever the final cap will end up at (lv99?)