Revelations from Fan Festival 2017 Frankfurt

[SaitoHikari]

The more I think on the storyline my prediction is:

Ala Mihgo! Help the resistance gain a foothold but... oh no! The empire has ninjas and we need reinforcements! But then Yugiri pops up and will make the enemy say "oh no ninjas are here!" Then she says "come help free Doma and we will join your fight against the empire!" Then primals show up! Then you and the Domans go back to Ala Mihgo! Then fight the empire and kill the Legatus! Or something.

I'm personally leaning more on the theory that we try to take Ala Mihgo first, but it fails spectacularly because surprise, Ilberd's dumb stunt brought much of the Garlean forces to the border wondering WHAT THE HELL JUST HA- NO WAIT, WHAT IN BLAZES THAT THING IN THE SKY IS. And in the middle of it all, the Warrior of Light gets captured in the retreat by Garlean forces (likely deciding to cover for the Alliance's escape, because he/she at this point is tired of standing by and watching bad crap happen to their friends).

As Regula mentioned towards the conclusion of the Warring Triad, the Empire is far more likely to be practical rather than vengeful, and would probably try to convert the WoL rather than execute them. The WoL presumably explains exactly what the hell happened at Baelsar's Wall, along with bonus dialogue regarding what the returning soldiers from the end of the Warring Triad had to say about the WoL and Regula (I imagine devs will make Warring Triad arc required to be completed before moving onto this phase, like how HM Ifrit/Garuda/Titan had to be cleared before 2.55 quests).

The Garleans decide they're simply happy with having the WoL in their possession, and that they won't mount a full scale invasion into Eorzea in retaliation, also knowing that such a thing would immediately destroy any chances of the WoL joining their side willingly. So the Garleans decide to ship them off to Othard to see how their occupation has actually improved the lives of the citizens there (and maybe kill a Primal for them), which also has the added benefit of sending the WoL far out of reach of the Eorzean Alliance's rescue attempts. Or so they think - Yugiri, stealthy as she is, would catch wind of the WoL being sent there, and notifies her fellow rebels in Othard to rescue them upon arrival (via the presumably messenger eagle seen in the cinematic).

Or at least, that's how I imagine this playing out.

[Hinoto-no-Ryuji]

With the journey to Othard revealed, it feels almost like Ala Mhigo is an afterthought now. I do hope they split it evenly across the two regions

I think it only feels that way because it's the newest thing revealed, and came so unexpectedly; all told, it gets equal time in the trailer and equal keynote time (although we do have a slightly better sense of Othard's new zone). The press conference held after the Keynote asked about Ala Mhigo directly, and Yoshida said that 50% was still Ala Mhigo. So no worries there.

and from what I heard Ala Mhigo's liberation is going to come first - though I don't think we'll be able to visit Ala Mhigo proper yet, we will free Gyr Abania from Garlean control before heading to Othard.

Just curious - where did you hear this? I mentioned this already, but surely going to the already-Garlean-independent Main City State of the Expansion will come before The Big Liberation, no?

[Alleo]

@SaitoHikari: After reading your post I am going to be so disappointed if it does not happen that way. It sound just really cool and would explain why we would leave Eorzea behind for another continent. I mean if the Eorzean alliance dont want to help with Ala Mhigo thus we need another army and thats the reason why we go to Doma..well thats at least something I could take as a reason to travel two months on the sea (even with teleportation we first have to go the stone to attune to it before we can use it). If we go to Doma just because and leave behind unfinished business in Eorzea...welp..(at least they said that it will be 50/50 with the story so at least that is less fear in that part but still feel nervous if they can handle two liberations right without feeling way to haste)

[I do fear that your story could not function because its a MMO and being captured would kinda stop us from doing anything else ingame and kinda forces us to only do story..but still I love the idea]

[dalta]

stupid question here but.

didant the dev's say the 4.0 story would be separate from the HW and 2.1+ storys and you wouldent need HW to continue to 4.0 content?

[KageTokage]

stupid question here but.

didant the dev's say the 4.0 story would be separate from the HW and 2.1+ storys and you wouldent need HW to continue to 4.0 content?

I only recall them saying that HW comes bundled with Stormblood for those who don't have it yet.

[Remus]

I wonder what metaphor they will use to explain us getting stronger upon reaching 70 :^) First they did losing the crystals now what lol

[SaitoHikari]

[I do fear that your story could not function because its a MMO and being captured would kinda stop us from doing anything else ingame and kinda forces us to only do story..but still I love the idea]

I like to think people had a really positive response to the longer duty in which we went and rescued Raubahn, so I imagine such a scenario would pretty much require us to devote an hour to go through a mix of cutscenes and instanced duties to reach Othard.

[dalta]

I wonder what metaphor they will use to explain us getting stronger upon reaching 70 :^) First they did losing the crystals now what lol

the crystals turn into clusters :P

[Zojha]

I like to think people had a really positive response to the longer duty in which we went and rescued Raubahn[...]

That's making a pretty broad statement there. I'm sure "some" people had a really positive response, but I'm also sure some people groaned about it and hated it, just like some people will have enjoyed the long cutscenes at the end of the 2.X series and some will have been happy to be able to skip it.

That said: We already do have a precedent for capture in the MSQ back at the first encounter with Ifrit and another (voluntary) one at Ravana. In both cases, it's done in cutscenes and you're dropped off in a "cell" area free to do anything you like and leave anytime as well. I think it's safe to say the same would hold true for any other incarnation of the idea.

[Cilia]

I think it only feels that way because it's the newest thing revealed, and came so unexpectedly; all told, it gets equal time in the trailer and equal keynote time (although we do have a slightly better sense of Othard's new zone). The press conference held after the Keynote asked about Ala Mhigo directly, and Yoshida said that 50% was still Ala Mhigo. So no worries there.

It's just one of those worrisome things. We've seen little of Ala Mhigo / Gyr Abania besides Rhalgr's Reach - and even that only in FMV. On the other hand, we have in-game screenshots of things in Othard.

Just curious - where did you hear this? I mentioned this already, but surely going to the already-Garlean-independent Main City State of the Expansion will come before The Big Liberation, no?

I may have misremembered - it was from the press conference. When asked why we've not seen Ala Mhigo, Yoshi-P replied that it's because it's under Garlean control and has to be liberated before we go there. I jumped the gun and assumed that meant we were going to liberate Ala Mhigo first... for some reason. (Not the first time my stupidity has gotten the better of me in the last few days.)

Going by how we've seen in-game footage of Othard, the inverse seems true. They usually show early stuff in press releases, not the endgame content - they'll show the first dungeon (for 3.0 we only knew about Dusk Vigil, f'ex) and tell us what the new primals are (Bismarck and Ravana, Lakshmi and Susano'o) but not spoil late-story content. So after further thought, given what we've seen... Doma's liberation seems likely to happen before Ala Mhigo's.