Endwalker's Hinted Mystery? What could it be that leads us into the new story?

[iheartlove42]

I could potentially see an Omicron beast tribe. The other beast tribe is Loporrits. But be aware those Omicrons are just memories from Meteion. They aren't real. The Omicrons are extinct. So they won't feature mainly in the story.

The Alliance Raids are gonna be about the Twelve.

So the contenders are either the things Emet mentioned, or whatever it is Vrta summoned Estinien to Radz for

[Loggos]

When I think of a BIG mystery that makes me think "you'll get THAT far?" then that brings me directly to

Dynamis. To introduce a completely new power source (that might me nothing less than an analogy to our world's dark energy) that could redefine and rewrite the understanding of our world in many aspects seemed pretty drastic to me.
I can't imagine that this is the last we hear of it so I expect the next season to explore this power further.
They may use the potential places the game hinted at (on Aldenard and in space) as means to let us learn more about Dynamis, esp. if we go to other parts of Thavnair (because Dynamis = Akasha) or to other parts in space (because 68% of space consists of/is filled with Dynamis and our planet's high aether density seemed to be a special property that not all planets share - so going to other planets might help us to learn more about Dynamis' general influence on life, not just its destructive influence).

Personally though, I would love to learn more about Vrtra's last sister. Up until now I have always enjoyed the parts of the story that focused on dragons. So far they have all been really compelling to me.

[Steelbreaker25]

Ten characters:

The "going that far" part seems to me to be almost literal: we traveled to the edge of the universe. That's further than any FF game has before, and we've gotten an absolutely massive view of the universe of FFXIV. Before EW, one bit of speculation was we might go to the Dragonstar as the next chapter in the story, but we've (functionally) gone there and beyond.

As for what comes next...

I am personally not a fan of threat escalation in storytelling, so I hope they bring things "down to earth" a bit more, and doesn't try to top what's already happened. I think this can be done well, as one of this game's strengths are when it tackles characters and interpersonal conflicts. I personally wouldn't mind a series of smaller, shorter anthology or episodic stories, rather than another sprawling epic.

[Alenore]

Ten characters:

The "going that far" part seems to me to be almost literal: we traveled to the edge of the universe. That's further than any FF game has before, and we've gotten an absolutely massive view of the universe of FFXIV. Before EW, one bit of speculation was we might go to the Dragonstar as the next chapter in the story, but we've (functionally) gone there and beyond.

As for what comes next...

I am personally not a fan of threat escalation in storytelling, so I hope they bring things "down to earth" a bit more, and doesn't try to top what's already happened. I think this can be done well, as one of this game's strengths are when it tackles characters and interpersonal conflicts. I personally wouldn't mind a series of smaller, shorter anthology or episodic stories, rather than another sprawling epic.

Ten chars too!

We "went that far" in so many ways: the end of the universe, the end of Hydaelyn/Zodiark, in time, got grounds for multiple species and way of lives (oh the relics you could find on these worlds), ...

As for threat escalation, the different things Emet-Selch mentionned, and what the Scions are up to now, feels like we're going to go back adventuring: Meracydia, Corvos and potentially some Reflections are probably next!

[MirronTulaxia]

Ten characters.

It's really hard for us to do threat escalation. Short of "something comes from another dimension" which has been destroying those, there really isn't much space. We could go external divinities come in to interfere or some other thing and basically pull a WoFF kind of scale, but Meteion is really hard to top. I'm more curious if we will get an overarching threat/story, even if it's not as big as all we dealt with, but I'm kind of skeptical on that being a thing. Either way it definitely looks like stuff will be more Heavensward tier than anything bigger.

[Loggos]

I'd be really happy with stories of the scale of HW or ShB. They had the perfect balance of being epic while also being a self-contained story while also fitting into the broader narrative of the universe.

[kpxmanifesto]

I'd be really happy with stories of the scale of HW or ShB. They had the perfect balance of being both epic while also being a self-contained story while also fitting into the broader narrative of the universe.

Yeah HW and ShB were great. I feel like Endwalker tried to do too much in just one expansion.

[MirronTulaxia]

Yeah HW and ShB were great. I feel like Endwalker tried to do too much in just one expansion.

I both agree and don't. I don't think there is an easy cut off point, or anywhere I'd like to see more spread out. Especially as the most logical point is the first trial being the end of "part 1", but that's a really small part of the game. So while I'd like more time I'm not sure I could see doing a second expansion, or even what we got plus a .1-.3 kind of thing.

Edit: Oh. But I do think a HW-tier one is most likely. Or maybe even an ARR "introduce a bunch of new stuff" kind of thing, getting a new base of operations and such. Not sure how I feel about that but it would make sense.

[wereotter]

I am personally not a fan of threat escalation in storytelling, so I hope they bring things "down to earth" a bit more, and doesn't try to top what's already happened. I think this can be done well, as one of this game's strengths are when it tackles characters and interpersonal conflicts. I personally wouldn't mind a series of smaller, shorter anthology or episodic stories, rather than another sprawling epic.

I very much doubt threat escalation will be a part of the story in the immediate future. We've resolved the major story arc around Hydalen and Zodiark, and so it's fair to assume that we're now back at a similar if not lower threat level than the world was at in 2.0. The next 5 story patches will begin to lay the groundwork for another multi-expansion saga which we will likely similarly see ramp up the threat level over the course of those maybe 5 expansions until that too is resolved and the threat level resets again.

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[JeanneOrnitier]

Emet's dialogue felt really obviously like Square saying "here's what we have in store for you next, please look forward to it." I can't see us going into alien stuff for quite a while, if ever. Especially because

I personally thought Meteion made it clear that the entire universe was dead except Etheirys.