Speculation on Eden 9-12

[Rosenstrauch]

Given Exdeath and Kefka it wouldn't be impossible, but Ultimecia isn't an especially popular villain so I'm not too positive that would happen.

If Ultimecia shows up in the final wing of the Eden raid, it would not be like Exdeath, Kefka, and Chaos, but rather more like Xande and the Cloud of Darkness in Syrcus Tower and the World of Darkness: Original characters whose names and appearances are references to previous Final Fantasy characters. In Ultimecia's case, I would imagine she would turn out to be a former Warrior of Light from the Thirteenth, like Cyella and Unukalhai.

Or perhaps something considerably more convoluted, like the whole "Rinoa is Ultimecia" fan idea. For an example, here's some weird spitballing:

It could be Minfilia from the Exarch's Timeline, having survived the Eighth Umbral Calamity due to her Ascian-like existence. That would require an unreasonably lengthy explanation to work, I'd imagine, but it's not impossible.

[Mansion]

For me the -no longer- Empty just needs time, which could be achieved thanks to Gaïa's power as suggested in this thread. Otherwise, it can just happen on it's own, I don't think it needs more intervention from our side.

There's Eden though. What do we do with it now? It's a powerful tool that could be a weapon. And I think the only other thing to wrap up here is how Gaïa came to be possessed by that "Fairy" and her being the Darkness equivalent of Minfilia. I do feel some strong Ultimecia vibes there too, not sure about the Griever GF because that's something that concept has been left out of anything FFVIII ported into FFXIV (although it could be interesting, in a fight design way).

We are expecting Nomura designs for some of these bosses, which once again strengthens the possibility of seeing Ultimecia. The other three bosses could be pretty much anything really. It's not easy to guess like Middy and Omega as a WoL were back then. Perhaps we'll locate Ultimecia's Castle and see some of the bosses from there (though none of which were that iconic).

Story-wise, we just have to make sure Ryne and Gaïa can stay best friends on the First, I don't see anything more to it (I do feel that Eden's story is really poor, on that topic). I wonder if Thancred is not going to stay on the First too...

[Vyrerus]

You know, Ultimecia always sorta struck me as genderbent version of The Emperor of Palamecia from FF2. Wanting Time Compression to end existence can even make sense in line with FFXIV's Shadowbringers story beats, given the whole time travel shenanigans. Make the present and the past one. "Time... it will not wait... No matter... how hard you hold on. It escapes you."

[RanSabiura]

I might be selfish in saying this, but I hope that they will just make last 4 Eden fights references to Edea, Adel and Ultimecia. Third can be regular Ultimecia while 4th can be her time-bending version. Honestly, I just want to see Adel.

[MirronTulaxia]

Ultimicia would actually be a better fit and much less random than Kefka and Exdeath. The whole story since Gaia appeared has been littered with hints of Ultimicia, the most notable Gaia's 'possession' and the idol of Darkness. Also, at one point Gaia brings a straight up Ultimicia quote from the last phase of the Final Battle.

Granted, those hints are only noticeable if you played FF VIII.

Trust me, I know Ultimecia pretty well. My hope is it’ll be a reference/nod as opposed to straight expy like those two. Though hoping it won’t be named Ultimecia either.

[MinervaPalazzo]

I think Ultimecia's inclusion is pretty likely, considering the Idol of Darkness resembles her face tattoos. It'd be odd for her to be absent :d I also hope more FF8 stuff shows up. Griever and Pandermona would be awesome, especially with new battle themes from FF8.

[KaerisKlyne]

I feel confident thinking we'll get Griever (probably as either a Voidsent or Sin Eater called forth by Gaia losing control of the darkness possessing her again), and that Ultimecia will at the very least inspire the final fight of the tier if she doesn't outright show up herself as the encounter. I have a pet theory that since Gaia has called the voice in her head a fairy, and that a lot of time manipulating magic was involved when we fought her as Voidwalker, that maybe we'll get a fight inspired by Airy from Bravely Default (which is basically a spiritual successor to the early FF titles anyway).

[Crushnight]

I feel like one fight will have another duo theme going with Light and Darkness showing these aspects need to be balanced to Eden as well.

I think the powers of Gaia are from a voidsent particularly one from the highest rung like Cloud and Schatcth, this highest tier of voidsent atm with the knowledge we have has all be female form leaders, Diabolos ascended to this tier but was not naturally this tier.

Ultimecia particularly her final form can very easily fit the voidsent themes. Gaia's powers have heavy time aspects as shown in E2 and E8. A voidsent sensing a being of power on another world they could manipulate is not out there, and sensing what Eden could do plan a way to use to their advantage, I mean higher tier voidsent are intelligible and can very well the plan could be to take control of Eden to gain complete contol over the void that is the 13th Shard.

I suspect if we get Ultimecia we'll have 2 seperate Ultimecia encounter fights 1 heavily using FFVIII(start off base Ultimecia form, add phase being time compression fighting Sorceress adds, fin all part being final form) and the other being a fusion of Ultimecia and Eden within her section of control of the 13th Shard.

[Kesey]

Would it be wrong to hope Gaia uses time magic to speed up The Empty's recovery only for it to backfire reveal the Ultimacia behind the curtain?

[Recon1o6]

Though I'm not gonna be surprised if in 5.3 we see another FF villain or summon turn up in the msq

2 months to the day I said that and we got the Warrior of Light... Well I was on the right lines at least, from what I know of dissidia all the fighters are summoned.


Something that has been bothering me about Eden- Is it truly alive or not? Ryne could detect power from it like a Sin Eater, but immediately after getting to it we found it was a machine. A partly sentient one admittedly which is why its fought against Ryne's will in addition to taking more than was intended when creating the primals.

We also don't know why it caused the flood of light. It certainly has the potential to cause the flood and is indeed the only plausible cause left. On its own it can change the elements in an area. The ascians would have absolutely loved Eden if they weren't already aware of it- if it can undo a world of light, then it could undo a world of darkness as well- the void. Then it would have just been a matter of moving/recreating Eden to the source and shard of choice and they'd have been able to cause rejoinings at will

Which brings an interesting question- would time become an element that we summon, in an effort to speed up growth of the empty or to try and realign the different aether currents so the land develops evenly instead of just in patches
We absolutely will end up fighting the fairy again. I just hope its not via a daft reason like we did eden shiva.