Let's talk about last boss of FF VIII [spoilery things] and implementation in FF XIV.

[BasicBlake]

Fingers crossed they implement her well!

[kaynide]

I honestly didn’t care much for the main story of 8 either until years later when I saw the fan theory that “Rinoa is in fact Ultimecia”, and that alone made the game so much better in my head.

If that had been the games original intent, it baffles my my mind why they didn’t work that more into the story because like some above posters, I really felt she was just tacked on.

Of course now it’s years later and while I can remember the early FFs almost completely (1-9 really), I kinda surprised myself now drawing a complete blank on the later half of 8. Reading this post I am thinking “wait who tf was Adel? And oh yeah, wasn’t Edea CID’s wife or something? And something something paradox?”

[Berteaux_Braumegain]

I don't understand why people think Ultimecia will be in the Raid, honestly. This is reminding me a lot of people insisting the Omega Raid would end with a battle against Sephiroth because of the first tier being V and the second tier being VI, as if Omega was just not going to be a factor in the story.

Thus far, it's been implied that Gaia is to Zodiark what Ryne is to Hydaelyn. If anything, I expect an introduction to Zodiark to some degree, especially since Raids are getting more tied into the story and Zodiark is kind of important. Introducing a boss from a previous game just because "The Raid has VIII music" would be extremely underwhelming to me. There has been little to no indication that Ultimecia would even exist in this setting, let alone Sorceresses as a whole.

[Stepjam]

I don't understand why people think Ultimecia will be in the Raid, honestly. This is reminding me a lot of people insisting the Omega Raid would end with a battle against Sephiroth because of the first tier being V and the second tier being VI, as if Omega was just not going to be a factor in the story.

Thus far, it's been implied that Gaia is to Zodiark what Ryne is to Hydaelyn. If anything, I expect an introduction to Zodiark to some degree, especially since Raids are getting more tied into the story and Zodiark is kind of important. Introducing a boss from a previous game just because "The Raid has VIII music" would be extremely underwhelming to me. There has been little to no indication that Ultimecia would even exist in this setting, let alone Sorceresses as a whole.

Because it's the Eden raid, would be odd to have it focused around an FF8 related thing then literally have nothing else FF8 related. Also I believe I saw an image that showed some of light form Shiva's outfit resembles Ultimecia's outfit. Obviously the lore behind her would be different, she'd be a voidsent instead of a sorceress. Not saying it's a sure thing, but as we saw, Gaia still has her darkness powers in E8N which has been made explicitly clear isn't her natural powers, they are being drawn from something. So fighting voidsent is likely in the last tier.

And I doubt we are gonna fight anything related to Zodiark, he's been the looming big bad of the story, and as things are getting set up, none of the Scions will even be in the First by the time 5.4 rolls around.

[ErryK]

I don't understand why people think Ultimecia will be in the Raid, honestly. This is reminding me a lot of people insisting the Omega Raid would end with a battle against Sephiroth because of the first tier being V and the second tier being VI, as if Omega was just not going to be a factor in the story.

Thus far, it's been implied that Gaia is to Zodiark what Ryne is to Hydaelyn. If anything, I expect an introduction to Zodiark to some degree, especially since Raids are getting more tied into the story and Zodiark is kind of important. Introducing a boss from a previous game just because "The Raid has VIII music" would be extremely underwhelming to me. There has been little to no indication that Ultimecia would even exist in this setting, let alone Sorceresses as a whole.

I'd expect Zodiark to be relevant to MSQ more than the Eden raids.

[Rosenstrauch]

I don't understand why people think Ultimecia will be in the Raid, honestly.

You're making the wrong jump here. It's not "Gaia is to Zodiark as Ryne is to Hydaelyn", but rather "Gaia is to ??? as Ryne is to Minfilia".
To use an example:
Early in Shadowbringers' story, we're treated to an Echo flashback in which Minfilia possesses Ryne's body to inform Thancred of the current state of her existence and her plans for Ryne. When she released Ryne from her control, the girl had no memory of what transpired during this period of time, and had to infer the events through contextual clues.
When we face Gaia as the Voidwalker (Eden 2/Eden's Gate: Descent), she makes multiple odd declarations about us and demonstrates a mastery of her power far beyond what Gaia later demonstrates. When we later meet Gaia herself, she has no memory of that fight at all and isn't even aware of her own power until she uses it to defend herself.

The question everyone is coming to then is this: If Ryne is the Oracle of Light, and inherited her power from Minfilia, and Gaia is the Oracle of Darkness, who or what is her "Minfilia"?
There is also the matter of how Minfilia's soul continued to persist until she passed her powers on to Ryne, serving as a parallel to the FF8's Sorceresses being unable to pass over until they've relinquished their natural power over magic to a successor.
As an aside, I've done some thinking on this and I believe we've already had our Edea and Adel fights, in a manner of speaking. To wit: the Voidwalker is Gaia, but possessed by ???, paralleling how Edea spent the majority of FF8 under possession from Ultimecia. Shiva, meanwhile, had Ryne trapped inside of her, necessitating defeating Shiva while trying to avoid harming Ryne in the process. Mechanically, this did not play out the same way as the Adel fight, but spiritually it's the same idea as having to defeat Adel while making sure not to hurt Rinoa or otherwise let her die.
That said, I could still see them adding a proper Adel-esque fight, or phase, in the third Eden wing.

[Anatha]

The Extreme is gonna be good