Gamescom 2019 Q&A (rough transcript)

[ExKage]

A. My eyes are still recovering from the amount of tears I've shed from how emotional Shadowbringers has hit me and now I'm in need of those aloe-laced tissues for Tales of/from for Shadowbringers.

B. I MUST DIVE INTO STORMBLOOD FOR THESE HINTS

C. Thank you! I was hoping to see someone post a transcript or something somewhere and this post is the first I've seen.

[Alleluia]

B. I MUST DIVE INTO STORMBLOOD FOR THESE HINTS

Bet they were talking about the Mol Khan and her visions/foresight kind of thing she talks about with us. Her dialogue does change between the Stormblood main scenario and the Stormblood patches to kind of hint at what's coming with Shadowbringers for us. Now I'll have to go check to see if she's changed her dialogue again post-ShB, now that I think about it.

Thanks so much for posting this translation, Benjo!

[Benjo]

You're welcome. Going to work on some parts here and there to make things more clear after some hours of sleep.

[polyphonica]

Bet they were talking about the Mol Khan and her visions/foresight kind of thing she talks about with us. Her dialogue does change between the Stormblood main scenario and the Stormblood patches to kind of hint at what's coming with Shadowbringers for us. Now I'll have to go check to see if she's changed her dialogue again post-ShB, now that I think about it.

Another hint in Stormblood is the lore of the Dotharl -- there's a big scene where Gosetsu insults their religious belief and finds it unfathomable that their newborns would inherit the spirits of those who passed away. Well, as it turns out...

The wider Xaela belief in Azim and Nhamaa is also a strong allusion to Zodiark and Hydaelyn; as Oda suggested in the answer about the names past down from the First Astral Era, most likely these beliefs were also formed based on vague memories of what happened in Amaurot, so it's not literally one-to-one (the people from the First Astral Era couldn't remember the fine details due to the sundering, plus it's been passed down through countless generations now), but some key concepts probably carried over from those memories.

Other stuff going on with the echo and Zenos were hints of a sort too (and experiments like the Resonatorium), but it sort of continues our understanding of what the echo is that has been a plot thread all along.

Of course, as they pointed out, some of it is less "hints" but a strong effort by the writers to tie future developments back to past reveals and make sure everything had continuity. So it isn't necessarily like they purposefully left us all these hints/allusions/suggestions because they intentionally knew what was going to happen later, but when they wrote whatever happened later they made sure it connected back to all the hints that came before. As Yoshida suggested, doing that seamlessly is a sign of a skilled writer.