3.5/4.0 Speculation & Discussion (Spoilers)

[Cilia]

It's going to be revealed that the Griffin is Ilberd, and he's going to use Nidhogg's eyes to power Omega and rampage into Ala Mhigo with it. Or something.

For the shades of conflict we're going to get Zenos as a dickbag but #NotAllGarleans, while the Resistance (esp. the Masks) are going to show us they're not really any better. We're going to take down both Zenos' regime and stop the Masks from doing something incredibly stupid. Cut to 4.1.

Too hyped for Pokémon tomorrow... I've avoided spoilers as best I can but I sure hope someone picks up that phone when Lusamine turns out to be a G-rated Ragyo Kiryuin...

[FJerome]

It's going to be revealed that the Griffin is Ilberd, and he's going to use Nidhogg's eyes to power Omega and rampage into Ala Mhigo with it. Or something.

For the shades of conflict we're going to get Zenos as a dickbag but #NotAllGarleans, while the Resistance (esp. the Masks) are going to show us they're not really any better. We're going to take down both Zenos' regime and stop the Masks from doing something incredibly stupid. Cut to 4.1.

Yeah p. likely, but what's interesting to me is which of them are going to survive and stick around? A situation where Ala Mhigo ends up restoring the royal family as figureheads but the sympathetic Garleans continue to actually run things because they are good at that, that could lead to some really fascinating stuff. How would the other nations react to seeing Garleans wanting to join the Eorzean Alliance? What are the Domans going to think if asked to help the Garleans in their own rebellion against their Emperor? Stuff like that.

[Yamimarik]

It's interesting to me that so many people want more sympathetic Garleans, that two we already have in our repertoire are being a bit over looked. We have both Cid and Lucia on our side, and for Eorzea.

Cid wanting to bring the same level of Garlean tech to all of Eorzea and possibly all of Hydaelyn, as well as Lucia who is definitely devoted to Ishgard and now the Eorzean Alliance. I have a feeling these two could possibly be two very important key factors in our attempt at peace and even infiltration towards Garlemald and the Garleans as a whole.

Who knows, we might already have our Garlean Larsa?

Speaking of Larsa's and Vayne's (what Moose said earlier) I think we might have those already for Ala Mihgo though. I keep thinking about it more and more and if... "if" Ilberd turns out to be the actual Griffin that might be our Vayne for Ala Mihgo, while Yda or anyone connected to her could most likely turn out to be our Larsa for Ala Mihgo... just my 2 gil. :3

[Hinoto-no-Ryuji]

I was most surprised at the Widargelt stuff. Considering he's the FORMER PRINCE OF ALA MHIGO, surely he must play some role in the expansion centered around re-taking his homeland...? Maybe Yoshida's just playing dumb.

It's interesting to me that so many people want more sympathetic Garleans, that two we already have in our repertoire are being a bit over looked. We have both Cid and Lucia on our side, and for Eorzea.

Well, I'm sure he'll elaborate himself, but for those like Theo, Cid and Lucia don't count - they've betrayed their homeland completely, and thus are missing the "Garlean" aspect of "sympathetic Garlean". The kind they want is somebody who is loyal to Garlemald but still sympathetic/likable (along the lines of Gaius), and/or something or somebody to blur the lines of their Evil Empire schtick.

While I don't personally take any offense at Lucia and Cid for leaving their conquest-hungry homeland, I definitely wouldn't be opposed to this either. Shades of gray are always nice. That said, I think it's much more likely that we'll get sympathetic characters than see the Empire as a whole become more sympathetic.

[Anonymoose]

I'd like to splice in an addendum to an earlier thought. The "timeline" bit.

It's possible that Yoshida-san just means that because the "present day" of the game is Version 3.45, and we're seeing a scene from Version 4.00, in a manner of speaking, we're seeing the future. By comparing what we know is happening "now" to what it looks like is happening "then", we can start to narrow down our speculation of what we think might happen in the future. For people who've been playing since the very beginning, something about this future should stand out, so get to speculating.

[Theodric]

I'm not fond of Lucia or Cid because they don't 'feel' Garlean to me. They rarely speak of their homeland, people or culture and when they do it's almost always negative. It doesn't feel very realistic to me at all. The 'defector' trope is often just used as a cheap cop out to put something that the 'big bad' has on the side of the 'good guys' and then somehow eventually have it work out as superior in the end. Which, to me, is just boring. I want Garlemald to be morally complex with a mixed bag of characters that we either fight against or work alongside.

The story can't really afford to push too far in one direction, making things as simple as 'most of Garlemald is evil' and 'almost every protagonist is justified and pure'. I think it's fair to say that there's a considerable number of people who would prefer Garlemald to not just be a generic big bad. I've seen quite a lot of people stating that they find the Scions to be stereotypical and 'simple' - and no doubt there's others who feel the same way about Garlemald.

[Alisa180]

This was the most interesting part of the interview for me:

F: I heard you are about to start recording voice acting.

Y: Voice acting recording will start soon. Please wait for future announcements to find out which characters will appear. Estinien won’t disappear just like that. He’s also a Dragoon, which we don’t have in the Scions. Personally, I would like for him to join the Scions, but considering his personality, even if he were invited by Alphinaud, he wouldn’t join just like that.

F: That is true.

Y: He would answer with “I hate being in crowds”. Therefore, we plan on developing him into a character that can accept an invitation like that. Whatever the case is, there will be instances where you will interact with him.

It seems Yoshida is confirming that Eistinien will join the Scions eventually, but he first needs to go through another character development arc to lose the 'lone wolf' attitude he has.

On 'popping the time bubble': Derplander doesn't really look that much older to me??? He looks more rugged, but that's kind of to be expected if he's spent time with a ragtag resistance in the wilderness?

Yoshida said that the teaser trailer was only showing the future in 'some sense.' He also mentioned the story timeline is still in the '3.x' series. I think what he means by future is not literally 'forward in time', but future as in 'further into the story.' We're glimpsing Derplander some time after 4.0 starts, when he's been fighting with the Ala Mihgan resistance for a bit, and is having friendly sparring match with whoever that woman in red is.

I don't think the time bubble will pop. And if there's any kind of timeskip, it can't be any more then a few weeks/months. As we saw at the end of 3.4, things are being set in motion. I don't think it will take even a month in-game time for any of those plots to develop. Yoshida confirmed the Ascians are still working behind the scenes, and so long as they are consistently active like they have been, we can't have much of a timeskip without potentially skipping over bits of plot. And that's without getting into all the other potential complications...

I think the biggest argument against a timeskip, though, is that if more then a couple of years pass, they would likely have to change the character model of the twins since they will inevitable grow a bit. And Alisaie literally *just* got a new model thanks to her clothing change. I'd like to think we're going to spend at least one expansion with her like that.

EDIT: And I was ninja'd by Moose on the story timeline thing...

[Yamimarik]

/snip

I wasn't actually directing my reply to him specifically, but to the thread and the forums as a whole. Most people were actually looking forward to Zeno being our "Larsa" (I love that being a thing now! FFXII FOR LIFE! <3) of sorts, and now with this description of us not being able to sympathize with him at all straight from Yoshi's mouth. I can see why most people would be up in arms about it, but like I said we already have two very nice sympathetic Garleans on our side (for Eorzea), and I feel we shouldn't count them out of the loop just yet.

[Theodric]

-snip-

I'm a huge fan of FFXII (tied with IX as being my favourite out of the main titles and Vagrant Story/FF Tactics for the sake of more wonderful Ivalice intrigue). I'm reluctant to consider Lucia or Cid as anything near to Larsa in terms of attitude or depth. A lot of Larsa's charm, in my opinion, was down to him not defecting and turning against his homeland or his people. He merely turned against the bad apples (which happened to be his own brother along with the more ruthless Judges/soldiers).

He worked alongside the game's protagonists but he also worked alongside the game's antagonists (some of whom were actually protagonists as well - such as Drace and Gabranth) for the betterment of not only Archades but Dalmasca and the surrounding regions too.

Neither Cid or Lucia boast any of that depth as far as I'm concerned. They no longer have any stakes in Garlemald - they've turned their backs upon it and their people.

In addition to the Garlean stuff, though, let's not forget that 3.5 will be the closing chapter in the Mhach storyline. I've loved the first two raids in the series so I'm looking forward to the finale which should be equally as eerily beautiful. I think it's a fair bet to suggest that Ferdiad and Diabolos are going to be dealt with there. I do wonder where the next chapter will be set though.

On Estinien...I like that they recognise his need for further development before he can join the Scions. At the same time I think a lot of his core charm is in his current attitude. Some characters are just loners - and a diverse, varied cast that may cause conflict for one another when certain combinations of characters are around strikes me as more fun than them all getting along happily and adoring each other's presence.

[Yamimarik]

/snip

I'm not entirely sure I can agree with you. We have yet to see Cid at least, make any proclamations towards denouncing ALL of Garlemald as a whole. (Unless there is something more about it in the Lore book, which I don't have, and have been actively doing my best not to spoil myself on a lot of it till I can get one.) Personally he's my best bet at being our "Larsa" or just ambassador into the gates of Garlemald as it stands right now.

Naturally I'm sure we'll get a much more appropriate character most likely that would fill this spot easier, depending on what the Devs have in store for us for when that time comes.

I only mention Lucia cause, as far as in game goes (again no Lore book yet, idk if I'm wrong.) She seems to have some kind off ties to Garlemald obviously, and aside from LuciaxAymeric shippers and her actual devotion to him and Ishgard we don't know too much about her stance of her home or how she feels about it in a political or personal sense. We got nice back story between her, her sister Livia, and of course their childhood somewhat. Honestly I feel if they wanted to go further with her character development she would be the best candidate to date for that.

I only really single out Cid because he's been with us the longest (1.XX as well), and I could see a clamoring for him to be our ambassador. But I could potentially see it being Lucia IF more progression is made towards the restructure of Ishgard being closer to what the system wants by the time it comes for us to make a move into Garlemald itself.

Of course most of this is just off the top of my mind, and if I am missing something, I'm sorry. I have a bad memory at times, and I try my best to remember everything clearly, but as usually the case I forget something.