6.0 Story Speculations

[KageTokage]

Trailer safety spoils.

The fact that they opted to show off Zodiark in the trailer is really making me further doubt that he's going to be the climax of the story and it would not surprise me at all if Zenos does succeed in controlling him, but simply serves as the second trial boss of the MSQ.

From reviewing the past expansion trailers, they're not shy about showing off basically every instance/zone other then the final boss, so I'm wondering whether that winding path of crystal or that barren land of death is going serve as the penultimate dungeon before the real final boss.

Though for all we know the latter might actually be the final zone now that they revealed the Scions will actually tag along with you for certain MSQs out in the field as opposed to simply teleporting off to where they're supposed to be.

[Cleretic]

...in fact, I've just now realized some additional fuel to this Fandaniel idea:

Remember in 5.3, when Fandaniel's face and name were revealed (while in the white outfit, as an aside), and he made a whole big thing about how hurt Asahi would be that Zenos didn't even remember the face of his biggest Fan? That bit is mostly just empty theatrics and playing to the audience, because we do recognize Asahi...

Unless Asahi is listening, in which case it becomes a taunt to a captive audience that White Fandaniel hates!

[Veloran]

Not the moon.

[Lauront]

I'll come back to the rest later - it has interesting bits, looks very intriguing, and I would say nothing that fundamentally alters my current thoughts on what is to come...

(particularly with Emet narrating a descent into the Underworld/Aetherial Sea), but in any case...

This seems to be set with a Pandaemonium backdrop. It is clearer here:



Comparison to Pandaemonium from Dissidia (based on 2):



It does resemble the typical pre-raid fight staging area. Still think they're using the instance to give him or a concept vessel-summoned version of him a proper fight that a trial won't suffice for.

[KageTokage]

I'll come back to the rest later - it has interesting bits, looks very intriguing, and I would say nothing that fundamentally alters my current thoughts on what is to come...

(particularly with Emet narrating a descent into the Underworld/Aetherial Sea), but in any case...

This seems to be set with a Pandaemonium backdrop. It is clearer here:



Comparison to Pandaemonium from Dissidia (based on 2):



It does resemble the typical pre-raid fight staging area. Still think they're using the instance to give him or a concept vessel-summoned version of him a proper fight that a trial won't suffice for.

My opinion on the matter.

What's perceived as the backdrop honestly looks like part of the barrier, and you can see the stars everywhere as though Zodiark's been pulled out to the surface of the moon.

He does look very...incomplete still (To the extent of possibly not even being functional even if he was freed), so I'm wondering if Fandaniel intends to rectify that somehow or if Zenos is content to simply absorb/control what portion of him has been gathered.

[Lauront]

Possibly, might be getting ahead of myself! Either way...

It looks like what we're seeing is the concept "template" for the primal. Although Fandaniel does refer to him as dormant and full of rage (FR version), the exact mechanics of what happens to a sundered/shackled Primal are something of a new area, as ordinarily what will happen to them is they will persist in the Aetherial Sea until summoned again. My guess is it might be something like the seal preventing primal summoning in Silvertear Lake, and once that is removed, his energy/existence can be poured back into a physical form for which that red outline is the concept template. How much Zenos will be sated by, or how he will use it exactly, remains to be seen.

[Vflower]

Since the trailer just straight-up shows a summoned Zodiark, I think it's highly unlikely that this event is going to be at the end of the story, maybe more in the middle.
The unnamed Sea of Clouds zone could be part of the beautiful ancient world restored by Zodiark after he was summoned, to give us a taste of the place that we would be bringing back if we were to back him, which is why Emet-Selch tries to convince us not to destroy this beautiful world.
That's if we can assume that his line in the other language trailers refers to destroying the possibility of bringing back the ancient world once and for all, rather than destroying our world Hydaelyn.

[EdwinLi]

Since the trailer just straight-up shows a summoned Zodiark, I think it's highly unlikely that this event is going to be at the end of the story, maybe more in the middle.
The unnamed Sea of Clouds zone could be part of the beautiful ancient world restored by Zodiark after he was summoned, to give us a taste of the place that we would be bringing back if we were to back him, which is why Emet-Selch tries to convince us not to destroy this beautiful world.
That's if we can assume that his line in the other language trailers refers to destroying the possibility of bringing back the ancient world once and for all, rather than destroying our world Hydaelyn.

Ya I suspect Zodiark is only the half way point as well along with what we see in the trailer only being half of the finale. Remember, the Developers (including Yoshi-P) said 6.0 will be the full finale of the Hydaelyn vs Zodiark Storyline (what I call Season 1 Storyline) they have been working from 1.0 to 6.0 with 6.1 being the beginning of the new storyline (Season 2 Storyline). With 6.0 being the full finale instead of waiting for 6.3, the storyline for 6.0 should be expect to be much longer than past expansions since they are fitting in the MSQ that would normally be in X.1 to X.3 as well.

On that note, I wonder where the new Season 2 Storyline will take us from 6.1 and beyond along with how will it begin in 6.1. Along with if the Scions maybe replaced with a new set of companions in Season 2 storyline since with the whole Ascian and Zodiark issue over the Season 1 group may part ways and go on to accomplish their own things until maybe a certain point in Season 2 storyline where they maybe return and become allies again.

[KageTokage]

They are being really secretive about that zone, with it wholly absent from the launch trailer and being presented with extremely generic angles that showed basically nothing interesting in the job action trailer.

I'm assuming Sharlayan is probably well-aware it exists but has been keeping a lid on it for obvious reasons, though the whole Final Days situation might convince them to stop being so secretive.

[StriderShinryu]

They are being really secretive about that zone, with it wholly absent from the launch trailer and being presented with extremely generic angles that showed basically nothing interesting in the job action trailer.

It's also worth noting that YoshiP also said there additional, unidentified zones or maps beyond even what we've seen concepts of. That doesn't necessarily mean full blown open world zones, of course, but it's presumably more than just small instanced solo dungeon spaces.