I wonder if there are any fans of Phantasy Star in the FFXIV dev team and storyboard writers. If so, I wonder if they'll do an homage to Mother Brain and Dark Force/Zio. Endwalkers would be the perfect time for it, and it would be so subtle given that those games were on the beginning portion of when stories could really be fleshed out in games, so they only cover broad strokes.

Somewhat doubtful, but Fandaniel is, in some regards, similar to Zio from Phantasy Star IV. Hades's battle form was kinda similar to Dark Force, heh.

Just thinking this randomly. It's not really a serious speculation. I was just listening to a metal cover/remix of Laughter from Phantasy Star IV, and my brain was like, "Hey Zio is kind of like an Ascian isn't he?" and I was like, "Explain." So my brain had me start doing comparisons to pictures of Dark Force and Hades and Zio and Ascians and Mother Brain and Hydaelyn.

Obviously, it's only the wider tropes that really connect these things and this idea, but it was just a fun little thing to do while a nearly guestless night drags on at the hotel.