Patch 5.4 Trailer, Predictions, and Hints

[Rosenstrauch]

MSQ

The void towers and Phoenix Chicken Bahamut are... not at all what I expected. And it seems like the visit to Matoya is somewhat minimized compared to that.

I have to wonder if the reason we go to visit her is because of the towers. I'll be a touch disappointed if that's the case, as I really had my heart set on a heart to "heart" with Hydaelyn, but oh well.

Fancy Dan is still a clown, but from the look of it he's getting right to the point. I like that. Will be interesting to see how we interact with him.

Eden's Promise

I'm glad to see my assumption that the Thirteenth/the Void would continue to play a role in this story. Surprised to see the Cloud of Darkness, though. And the Amano/Dissidia version, at that! I can only wonder at the context of this. Are we taking

The second boss shown, the giant black wolf with a sword, reminds me of Garm from Norse mythos. But one neat thing I should mention: The Shadowkeeper, Cylva, was responsible for the creation of the Wargs that still plague Lakeland to this day. Might be that this boss is a Warg primal, or something to that effect.

Or it could be a memory fight—the beast could be drawn forth from someone's memory. Could be Gaia's, which would carry some serious implications that are... hard to wrap my head around.

What I mean is: She talks about living in Eulmore under Vauthry in Eden's Verse. She thinks about her parents. And her belongings existed to be retrieved. But if Gaia remembers what went down with the Shadowkeeper, that would mean she was alive over a hundred years prior. Time displacement due to Shard hopping would explain that, but how can that be reconciled with her living in Eulmore as recently as Vauthry's reign?

Lastly, given how Ascian-heavy the trailer was, and how both Mitron and Lahabrea seem to be involved with Eden's Promise—the former is seen in the Empty and the latter is seen with what appears to be a female Ascian at their conference room in the Rift—I really hope I was right in calling it that the villain of Eden's Promise is an Ascian. My gut is still saying it's either the still living Altima or the recently deceased Igeyorhm.

Bozja

A Ravana clone wielding four copies of the SAM relic. Neat. And Misija is still around, of course. I do hope we get to point out the hypocrisy of enslaving Gunnhildr's Blades in the pursuit of founding a new state unfettered by the old ruling caste of Bozja. Given how sadistic she started acting once her true colors were revealed, though, I can't imagine it would matter to her.

Speaking of which, I do hope we don't end up killing the Blades. But I'm not confident enough to say we might find a way to save them before cutting down a few of them.

Oh, and Sorrow of Werlyt

Not much to say about this, other than I'm interested in seeing Emerald Weapon in action. I'm still hoping we'll get some further confirmation re: the hunting of primals to empower the Weapons, as I've mentioned in the past that the inclusion of that element is what's kept me from seeing Gaius's kids in a sympathetic light.

[Jirah]

Yay Daddy Nero

[FrightfulNight]

I have a feeling that they'll destroy Garlemald and have Norvrandt merge with the Source in its place as a sort of failed/partial rejoining.

Again that would be so lazy, just all that build up for nothing, for Islabard to be destroyed and replaced with Norvasndt, my disappointment would be immense, that would be even Worse then what they did with Ala Mhigo. I seriously hope that is not the case and they understand a lot of players want to go to Islabard, you cant hype up something like that over the years and then pull the rug out from under us. plus it would completely negate the Eden storyline as well.

[Lium]

Garlemald is getting destroyed.

[FrightfulNight]

Garlemald is getting destroyed.

then if that was the plan to just do that imediatly and move on why did Fanadiel brag about taking over an influential person, and using his families wealth to no doubt influence others in the capitol, this implies using it's forces to do what ever he needs to do and not just destroying it until it has fulfilled his purpose, and hopefully not the lazy storytelling option of off screen, we also never had that full on war storyline that has been hinted at since ARR maybe even before, and him bragging about using his influence further hints at it, also destroyed does not mean we are not going there, the same thing was said about Doma in ARR and guess where we went in SB.

[Lium]

then if that was the plan to just do that imediatly and move on why did Fanadiel brag about taking over an influential person, and using his families wealth to no doubt influence others in the capitol, this implies using it's forces to do what ever he needs to do and not just destroying it until it has fulfilled his purpose, and hopefully not the lazy storytelling option of off screen, we also never had that full on war storyline that has been hinted at since ARR maybe even before, and him bragging about using his influence further hints at it, also destroyed does not mean we are not going there, the same thing was said about Doma in ARR and guess where we went in SB.

I don't disagree with you, but destroying Garlemald, or at least large parts of it - perhaps even most of it - is in keeping with Zenos' characters. Not sure what Fandaniel's plan is, but Zenos wiping out Garlemald to unleash some kind of new horror would totally be something Zenos would do.

[FrightfulNight]

I don't disagree with you, but destroying Garlemald, or at least large parts of it - perhaps even most of it - is in keeping with Zenos' characters. Not sure what Fandaniel's plan is, but Zenos wiping out Garlemald to unleash some kind of new horror would totally be something Zenos would do.

Then once again why did Fanadiel brag about using Asashi's body and his families wealth and influence to well influence people in the capitol, perhaps destroying parts of the capitol is putting down resistance to Zenos's rule so they can use the armies to create more conflict and chaos, perhaps finally giving us that full scale war that has been hinted at for years now. Also note how they say large parts of the capitol are destroyed, not all of it. maybe this is setting up a role as an endgame hub that gets rebuilt over the expansion like Mor Dhona or Idylshire, just with a unlock similar to Eulmore where it is hostile for most of the story until the current leader leaves to initiate the final part of his plan in the final zone (the moon).

[KageTokage]

I feel as though that weird Bahamut-like primal might be an attempt at creating a new Zodiark, (Seeing as the original is still sealed away and liable to remain so for the forseeable future), and that those seemingly Mhachi artifices are responsible for its existence ...though it's not simply going to go away if we destroy them. It almost looks as though the structures are siphoning aether from something/somewhere up above them, and if I had to wager a guess, it's the moon. We already know Mhach has tried to mess with celestial bodies in the past from the level 60-70 quests which have you aborting an ancient spell of catastrophic proportions that was aiming to drag down an actual meteor that was passing by Hydaelyn; as opposed to creating an artificial one through aether manipulation.

I'm also wholly convinced that E12 is going to be at least heavily inspired by Ultimecia after hearing that line about extracting memories (Which she quotes basically 1:1 before summoning Griever in FFVIII). Hopefully this also means my wish of the obligatory new phase in savage having a remix of The Extreme is correct.

[JeanneOrnitier]

I don't have the first idea what the feathery Bahamut thing or those towers could be. I guess the towers look Mhachi but I'm not even sure of that? If so I guess the not-Bahamut is some sort of voidsent.

As for the Garlean capital being wiped out, I'm not upset at all. What we've seen of it in cutscenes just looked like every other Garlean settlement, there'd be nothing new to see there. And the capital being destroyed doesn't mean anything about the rest of Garlemald.

Does anyone recognize that town early in the trailer that's burning with blue flames? I'm guessing it's somewhere totally new but it might just be somewhere we've seen that's slipping my mind.

[EdwinLi]

There is a slight note in the live letter that there will be a new Job Role Quest added in 5.4 which requires the Warring Triad story and all Job Role Quests to be finished to access it.

I am assuming this will be the quest when Cylva and Unukalhai finally meet.