Black Iron Bridge and the 'road' to Dusk Vigil - Coerthas Western Highlands

[Enkidoh]

My memories of 1.0 Coerthas were somewhat vague as I didn't actually spend a lot of time there, but what I do remember is just how... empty most of the Western Highlands really was (like every outside zone in 1.0), and can honestly say most of the things you see there now were not there in 1.0 gameplay wise , or at least were depicted completely differently, if at all.

For instance Dusk Vigil was a basic watchtower, the Dreaming Dragon was an island off in the distance in the middle of a lake you couldn't access (no swimming in 1.0), Camp Riversmeet was just like every other nondescript aetheryte camp in the game (it didn't have all those cannons around it in 1.0) , and, most importantly, Black Iron Bridge did not exist (at least, not anything so elaborate as it is in HW, I think it was just a simple wooden bridge over a meandering stream as I recall).

I don't think in the later's particular case it was built after the Calamity (because, the access to the Western Highlands itself has only just been recently restored), but just simply a case of retconning, which since ARR has been definetely the case with the redesign of outside areas not completely lining up with their 1.0 versions (the ARR Black Shroud map is a good example, for instance Lifemend Stump is now on the completely opposite side of Gridania to where it was before the Calamity in 1.0!).

Given few players would actually notice this, SE probably considers such contradictions acceptable in the grand scheme of things, and even in universe, could easily just be dismissed as "I guess my memory of how things were was wrong."

[AnimaAnimus]

and, most importantly, Black Iron Bridge did not exist (at least, not anything so elaborate as it is in HW, I think it was just a simple wooden bridge over a meandering stream as I recall).

I used to do some aoe leveling for friends and alts around there, there was an actual bridge there but they were called "crossings". There were also quite a few large spanning bridges in Coerthas connecting areas, usually just before or after load corridors. They were no way near the scale of what we have now, but they did exist. Along with names, they also fudged where they are located, but they did that with landmarks across Coerthas, mainly the 2 dungeons and the 4 vigils were in completely different areas for the most part as they condensed the maps and made them more eleaborate.

Man do I miss 1.0 Coerthas though, they took one of the most beautiful zones of the original game and destroyed it because they wanted an ice zone...

You can see pics of the bridges and the vigils here
https://finalfantasy.fandom.com/wiki..._(version_1.0)