Older FFXIV trailer location? (Spoilers maybe?)

[kaynide]

Hi! Sorry for the derp question if it is well known...

The trailer for 1.0 starts in a tavern containing an aetheryte crystal, then transitions to an area with waterfalls and a Marlboro. The characters we see are eventually recycled into being the Warriors of Darkness (Shadowbringers storyline).

Were these locations ever put in game? Is this supposed to be southern Mor Dhona?

Follow up, the 2.0 launch trailer showing the party teleport into a forest, grab chocobos and dash towards what I assume is supposed to be the burning wall? (Thanalan; yellow crystals).

Is this the case? If anyone knows

If not, I wonder if they will eventually add them (they did this for the launch trailer if FF11, with locales in said trailer eventually appearing in an expansion)

Anyway, thanks! Just a question!

[Enkidoh]

From what I understand the tavern shown in the 1.0 opening is actually a very early design concept for the Drowning Wench in Limsa Lominsa with lots of fancy stonework and the aetheryte in the middle of the Adventurer's Guild (the evidence that it's meant to be Limsa is when Derplander holds up the Resolve leveplate, it clearly has 'Limsa Lominsa' stencilled on it). As 1.0's development continued FFXIV's original producer Hiromichi Tanaka realized that having the aetheryte in such a busy location was going to cause too many problems, and so shifted it to another location, and in time the Adventurer's Guild itself was changed wildly into what we see today.

The tavern in the Crystarium in Shadowbringers incidentally is meant to evoke the feeling of this 'proto-Drowning Wench' with similar decor and even the wait staff wearing the same red and black doublet outfits! But it's clearly a different place (no aetheryte in the centre of the tavern for one).

As for the area where Derplander takes his Echo trip to, that was indeed Mor Dhona, specifically, Mor Dhona around Silvertear Falls, an area that players have never had access to (even in 1.0). And further more, as that scene was within the Echo, it was actually depicting Mor Dhona ten years in the past at the time of 1.0's story (specifically, the year 1562 of the Sixth Astral Era), which is when the Battle of Silvertear Skies occured and changed Mor Dhona forever, turning it into the crystallized, aether poisoned wasteland it is today, hence why it has more vegetation and looks more 'natural' - that's how things used to be there before the Garleans came and wrecked everything.

As for the 'New Beginning' trailer, it is indeed the Burning Wall that Derplander and his friends are riding down towards; they reappeared at Snakemolt in the South Shroud, near the entrance to Amdapor Keep, which makes sense as this is the location of the Althyk deity stone; at the climax to the Seventh Calamity Louisoix used the powers of Althyk to send the original Warriors of Light (1.0 player characters who had satisfied a certain 1.0 story requirement) - represented in the trailer by Derplander and his friends - five years into the future, so it's fitting that the spell makes them materialize at the very place that member of the Twelve's power is focused on.

Either way, 1.0's opening movie took place in the Drowning Wench in Limsa Lominsa and at Silvertear Falls in Mor Dhona.

[kaynide]

Thank you for that!

Awesome and informative

[SpiritualOcean]

I thought it was the Crystarium. It looks like the Crystarium.

[thrashette]

I think the waterfall area might actually be O'Ghomoro? https://finalfantasy.fandom.com/wiki/O%27Ghomoro

I think it's likely that we'll go there next expansion in some regard, since the camera zooms in on it during the Endwalker trailer. Also, it's the homeland of the kobolds. We know we're going to Paglth'an, the Amalj'aa homeland, in the next patch. Since the city-states are attempting to make peace with the beast tribes, it's very likely that we'll finally see O'Ghomoro, too.

[MikkoAkure]

I thought it was the Crystarium. It looks like the Crystarium.

It's more like "the Crystarium looks like it". Along with what Enkidoh said about them deliberately making the tavern at the Crystarium look similar to the 1.0 trailer as a call back, including the same roegadyn at the bar, the rest of the Crystarium is modeled after a tech demo that even pre-dated 1.0. Look up "Project Rapture" on YouTube.

[Enkidoh]

I think the waterfall area might actually be O'Ghomoro? https://finalfantasy.fandom.com/wiki/O%27Ghomoro

I think it's likely that we'll go there next expansion in some regard, since the camera zooms in on it during the Endwalker trailer. Also, it's the homeland of the kobolds. We know we're going to Paglth'an, the Amalj'aa homeland, in the next patch. Since the city-states are attempting to make peace with the beast tribes, it's very likely that we'll finally see O'Ghomoro, too.

It's not, the 1.0 trailer takes place literally in Mor Dhona (connected pieces of promotional CG renderings showing Silvertear Falls was released around the same time, including one with Derplander and his friends alongside a chocobo - the mountains you see are actually towards Dravania and Abalathia's Spine, given Mor Dhona and Lake Silvertear is geographically in the centre of Aldernard and thus Mor Dhona geographically borders Coerthas among other regions).

O'ghomoro is not just a mountain but a volcano, and you can easily see that whenever you're in La Noscea, complete with smoke billowing from it (the kobold stronghold is literally built into the foot of this volcano) - the EW trailer is clearly in the Floating City of Nym, not O'ghomoro, although the significance of this location choice is unclear at this stage, given we know so little of the circumstances surrounding the next expansion (I could speculate, but I won't).

As for Paglth'an, back in 1.0 a brief bit of dialogue mentioned that the amal'jaa stronghold of Zaha'rak was there (including the Bowl of Embers):

Female miqo'te Path Companion: "Truth be told, a cell in the depths of deepest darkest Paglth'an barely entered my thoughts."

However, I think that has since been retconned, so that line should be taken with a grain of salt now.

[Shougun]

Enkidoh already answerd the question so just going off on the concepts of tavern and that old area:


The crystal in the tavern design could be really neat, I think they could handle it now (see Eulmore), but I'd really want those teleporting sounds to be softened then lol.

Also random aside but when I think Tavern I think WoW (and the like settings, gwent card games music, etc), anyone else miss boisterous drinking game (jig/dancing) music, glasses clinking, tankards hitting the tables, etc.. ? I always felt like FFXIV's taverns felt too refined for what I was expecting lol. Like Limsa's nice restaurant XD. Could be just whatever came first is what you expect, maybe people like them refined but I think like WoW, Witcher, Skryim- more loud and primal / 'olden-days'-like. Maybe it's a western vs eastern thing, western taverns (stereotypical RPG setting) are chaos? Like a cowboy tavern with all the music, dancing, fights, and booze lol.

It's more like "the Crystarium looks like it". Along with what Enkidoh said about them deliberately making the tavern at the Crystarium look similar to the 1.0 trailer as a call back, including the same roegadyn at the bar, the rest of the Crystarium is modeled after a tech demo that even pre-dated 1.0. Look up "Project Rapture" on YouTube.

Yeah when I saw Crystarium my brain went to their tech demo first, I was 'it looks like finished version of the tech demo!' lol. I suppose it does have vibes of the first trailer too, but just wanted to say my brain went straight to that demo when we first saw Crystarium.