7.0 and Beyond: Vana'diel?

[Enkidoh]

I forget is the Eleventh shard still around? Cause that would be the only way to really link the two games naturally.

Not really at all. The 'Shards are the previous thirteen FF game worlds' theory was debunked long ago (and ShB disproved the theory once and for beyond all doubt), the Shards are just alternate/parallel world versions of Hydaelyn where things turned out slightly differently but with the exact same races and even basic geography as the Source Hydaelyn (if the First's world map of Norvrandt and Kohlusia closely resembling Aldernard and La Noscea on the Eorzean map is anything to go by as representative of all the Shards). Sure there is some thematic similatities between Shards (or more accurately, the circumstances of Calamities which destroyed them) to respective numbered FF games, but they're not those literal FF worlds.

The First is not FFI's 'World A'. The Seventh is (or was) not FFVII's Planet. The Ninth is not Gaia/Terra. The Thirteenth was not Coccoon/Pulse before the Flood of Darkness turned it into the World of Darkness/the Void (which, ironically, are from past FF games, but not the game whose numeral that Shard was! ) etc. So hence the Eleventh is not Vana'diel.

[Dyvid]

XI's story has already been wrapped up, though. That was the whole thing with Rhapsodies of Vana'diel.

I also cannot see Vana'diel being one of XIV's shards simply because XI is clearly its own world without Ascians (and Au Ra, Hrothgar, Viera and Roegadyn. Yes, Roegadyn are similar to Galka, but Galka have a tail and have a lore reason for being male only). XI has its own Gods (Altana and Promathia) who created the five playable races + Beastmen, two "ancient" races (Zilart and Kuluu) and even has its own version of the Void/Cloud of Darkness. Don't even get me started on the multiple alternate timelines. For XI to be a part of XIV, there would need to be some retcon action with XI in general just so it makes sense in XIV and I doubt people who grew up loving XI's world, lore and story would be a fan of that.

The argument can still be made though. The Ascians could simple not focused on it yet for rejoining. As for Vana'diels own gods, as pray gives rise to Primals so does our so too does our dread manifest our deepest fears. The source and in turn the shards turn imagination into reality. We still don't know what actually happened to the Ascians after the source split; did they simple die or maybe they were split up between the shards? Did the "playable races" and beastmen exist before the sundering or was that after? Flip the script and Eorzea could simple be another star in the universe of Vana'diel. Either way really.

As for an FFXIV expanse being FFXI, possible but doubtful. It feels like we are going to head towards the 13th at some point to "fix" it. Then you have to consider that SE might already be working on FFXIV successor.

[OranKells]

A lot of assumptions were made to get to this point, most of them are faulty.

1) the FFXI plot has been wrapped up with RoV which was the the cross over event was about in XIV.
2) Vana'diel is NOT a shard. The devs have even been pretty explicit on this point. XI is its own game and just like every other FF title its heavily influenced and reuses tropes and characters from previous games. But even by this logic Gran Pulse and Eos would be shards; lest we forget the crossover events for XIII and XV. and by extension so are Yo-kai, Monster Hunter, Dragon Quest, Neir Automata and FFXII which wouldn't even be a shard.
3) There already was an attempt to migrate people in 1.0 if you ever notice the legacy characters that have last names of XI servers. There was a promotional thing for that.
4) There is not some massive amount of resources dedicated to maintaining a 20 year old game. A game which has been wrapped up some time ago. Its a handful of people keeping the lights on fixing minor bugs on a couple servers that could probably be run on a the space of personal AWS account these days.
5) Discontinuing a game's service on its 20th anniversary doesn't feel especially celebratory.


The only time XI holds back XIV is when the player base gets nostalgia pangs for the way something was in XI that won't translate to the format of this game RE: blue mage.
While obviously related and inspired by each other, the games are pretty different animals and at very different point in their lifecycle. I don't get the need for synergy here.

[RitsukoSonoda]

FFXI has most of the core RPG mechanics missing from FFXIV that make it feel more like a traditional RPG than this game does. Essentially it's more complex than FFXIV which seems to repeatedly be dumbed down to appease those who would rather make excuses and blame other people for failure when they don't accomplish a basic in game goal or complete a quest or duty. This lack of complexity in FFXIV is likely one of the major reasons a number of people still play FFXI instead of FFXIV.

[Vahlnir]

Not really at all. The 'Shards are the previous thirteen FF game worlds' theory was debunked long ago (and ShB disproved the theory once and for beyond all doubt), the Shards are just alternate/parallel world versions of Hydaelyn where things turned out slightly differently but with the exact same races and even basic geography as the Source Hydaelyn (if the First's world map of Norvrandt and Kohlusia closely resembling Aldernard and La Noscea on the Eorzean map is anything to go by as representative of all the Shards). Sure there is some thematic similatities between Shards (or more accurately, the circumstances of Calamities which destroyed them) to respective numbered FF games, but they're not those literal FF worlds.

The First is not FFI's 'World A'. The Seventh is (or was) not FFVII's Planet. The Ninth is not Gaia/Terra. The Thirteenth was not Coccoon/Pulse before the Flood of Darkness turned it into the World of Darkness/the Void (which, ironically, are from past FF games, but not the game whose numeral that Shard was! ) etc. So hence the Eleventh is not Vana'diel.

I mean, we haven't heard anything about the 11th. We can't say it ISN'T Vana'diel, but it is unlikely for sure. If they were to attach Vana'diel to the game somehow they would probably use the 11th though. Unless they go for an alternate universe thing which I'd rather they not do.

[Enkidoh]

I mean, we haven't heard anything about the 11th. We can't say it ISN'T Vana'diel, but it is unlikely for sure. If they were to attach Vana'diel to the game somehow they would probably use the 11th though. Unless they go for an alternate universe thing which I'd rather they not do.

But they wont do that because it's already been stated in the past that Vana'diel is an entirelly seperate world in an entirelly different dimension with no actual connection to Hydaelyn at all (both in game during the crossover events and straight from Yoshi himself), so I do not see them contradicting that.

[MsQi]

Create a connection to the story of XI and then cut off access to it? Does not compute.

[Fawkes]

FFXI already had a pretty conclusive ending with Rhapsodies.

Yeah but now they're having a Voracious Resurgence. I mean it doesn't look that deep but it is new story content.

[Jennah]

Look at FF14's world map.

I am still adamant that Earth - like, the place where you're reading this - is one of the Shards.

Also Dragon Quest 3.

[Dyvid]

I do find it funny how it's okay for Nier Automaton to be canon in FFXIV but draw a line in the sand with FFXI even though Vana'diel and Eorzea have a lot more in common. Bottom line is if Yoshi-P changes his mind and decides to make Vana'diel apart of FFXIV, they are going to do it regardless of lore, they have already done it.



P.S. What is the world of FFXIV actually called anyway? Hydaelyn is really a Primal, not a planet and Eorzea is a continent.