Predictions for 5.3?

[Mansion]

I am honestly glad the Season 1 storyline is finally ending because it has gotten very old that basically every single bad thing in the plot has been "the Ascians are behind everything" since 2.0 storyline.

Well there are bits of 2.X, 3.X and most of 4.X that had nothing to progress the Ascian storyline. We have been dealing with most of their attemps but the real story about the Ascians really started in 4.5. I'm also having a hard time believing 5.X will be the final end, but rather I see that story trickling into another. We know more about Ascians, what they were and what they do, but it brought in a whole new plot around Hydealin / Zodiark, about creation Magic, about their doomsday etc.
The main unresolved point is what will be going on in Garlemald, which I guess would be a fitting scenery for the 5.4, 5.5 and 6.X cycle.

What comes after, well the game will be around 10 years old after that (even more if we count 1.0). I'm not sure they are ready to plunge into another 10 years long storyline. I can see them doing micro stories. After all, there's still Old Sharlayan, Meracydia, the New World, Thavnair... All these places could have a short focused story to keep us in for an expansion or two.

[EdwinLi]

Well looks like we are going to get part 2 of 5.3 news as a Forum post letter sadly due to cancelling the Live Letter part 2.

Good news is that it will posted first week of next month which is next week so we will get the release date of 5.3 and the other half of what to expect next week or maybe the week after if there is no issues.

PS Yoshi-P said that 5.3 MSQ is expected to be the length of a movie so prepare your popcorns and soda

[Iscah]

PS Yoshi-P said that 5.3 MSQ is expected to be the length of a movie so prepare your popcorns and soda

Never mind the popcorn; I think I'm going to need some tissues...

[Crushnight]

PS Yoshi-P said that 5.3 MSQ is expected to be the length of a movie so prepare your popcorns and soda

That is so vague could be anywhere between 45 mins and 3 hours XD

[EdwinLi]

That is so vague could be anywhere between 45 mins and 3 hours XD

that is long enough to finish the popcorn and soda.

Jokes aside, I am assuming they are implying it will be a very cutscene heavy MSQ this time so we should prepare for very lengthy cutscenes.

Of course the players who constantly skip MSQ will not be affected since they naturally skip everything story related.

[Crushnight]

that is long enough to finish the popcorn and soda.

Jokes aside, I am assuming they are implying it will be a very cutscene heavy MSQ this time so we should prepare for very lengthy cutscenes.

Of course the players who constantly skip MSQ will not be affected since they naturally skip everything story related.

Hope so but we had similar stuff abound for 3.3 and 4.3 and it weren't that much longer than base while watching cutscenes ofc so personally I expect around 1 hour worth of dialogue at most.

[HamiltonCalder]

I don't think they announced that they were canceling the second live letter? Do you have a source on this?

[Astrid_Stormborn]

I don't think they announced that they were canceling the second live letter? Do you have a source on this?

There was a Twitch livestream where Yoshi-P did a walkabout a few days ago.

Video summmary here.

[HamiltonCalder]

Got it. I watched that stream and am quite sure he did not announce that the next Live Letter was cancelled. There is going to be a forum post "Producer Letter" next week to announce the release date, but that's in addition to the usual PLL which will be some time next month. At 00:55:01 in that link he says in Japanese that prior to patch release there will be one more PLL, and at 7:01:39 he signs off by saying that the next broadcast would be the Live Letter. Not sure where the mistranslation came from, but there will definitely be one more Live Letter before 5.3 release in addition to the forum post. Someone oughta let Meoni know he's got it wrong.

[MirronTulaxia]

I am honestly glad the Season 1 storyline is finally ending because it has gotten very old that basically every single bad thing in the plot has been "the Ascians are behind everything" since 2.0 storyline.

The questions I have is more on how will they handle Season 2 storyline now that it is entering unknown territory as it will be a new beginning and how will that story begin because it will certainly depend greatly on how Season 1 ends.

Season 2 can begin as WoL being a legend where people don't recognize WoL but we get mention once in a while by people talking about it since we know from certain Job quests (such as gunbreaker job quest where the our allies don't recognize WoL until the end of 70 Quests) and MSQ that most people have heard about the Legend of WoL but they do not fully recognize him/her due to only having the stories providing them information about WoL which can be greatly exaggerate in both events and appearances.

OR

Season 2 begins on a clean slate due to events of Season 1 ending requiring a certain sacrifice to guarantee our victory but we manage to survive in the end thus leading to the events that will begin our journey in Season 2.

OR

some how a mix of both outcomes.

Kind of a late reply, but “Main villain is behind everything” is pretty common in FF. It’s a way to show how much influence they have, but either way it’s basically an FF trope. Just look at FFI where almost everything is Garland or the Four Fiends and so on.