Predictions from the Patch 6.2 Trailer & Patch Website

[EaraGrace]

Huh, didn't Yoshi-P say in one of the interviews that the new expansion doesn’t really become obvious until 6.5,but then an event will happen to the world that sets up 7.0?
Just a stray thought - what if we don't fix the Void, but accidentally cause a rejoining?

Accidentally causing a rejoining would be a wild feat considering you’d also need a calamity on the Source at the exact same time. We’d not just need to fuck up once but a bunch.

So there’s definitely a chance.

[EdwinLi]

Huh, didn't Yoshi-P say in one of the interviews that the new expansion doesn’t really become obvious until 6.5,but then an event will happen to the world that sets up 7.0?
Just a stray thought - what if we don't fix the Void, but accidentally cause a rejoining?

I suspect there is just far too many clean up work that has to be done (and probably spread out between MSQ and Side Quests) before moving into Season 2 plot which is probably why we are taking a bit longer to step into it compared to past expansion that starts to hint at it during their X.3 or X.4 updates

[Cilia]

A third apocalyptic scenario in just as many expansions?

... hard pass from me, kiddos.

[RyuDragnier]

Yeh, but reaper doesn't work conceptually anyway considering the WoL is supposed to be a hero with a bleeding heart, so much so they feel bad for the "bad guy" they're killing most of the time. Making a silly pact to make a monster your pet that will absorb souls of your victims (while it devours your own) is pretty nuts!

The lore for 'em is just "lore" that doesn't mean anything and doesn't hold up under scrutiny. Which is par for the course, i suppose.

You'd think that, but then think about it, how many creatures do we kill on a daily basis? How many villains have we had to kill? How much Aether do we normally put in the atmosphere for our Limit Breaks? Just being around the WoL gives the Avatar a veritable banquet of aether to feast on, to the point where it probably doesn't care about the normal rules of the contract, it's getting fed more than enough just from us killing things on a near daily basis.

Huh, didn't Yoshi-P say in one of the interviews that the new expansion doesn’t really become obvious until 6.5,but then an event will happen to the world that sets up 7.0?
Just a stray thought - what if we don't fix the Void, but accidentally cause a rejoining?

Unlikely, I think it'll likely just make it EASIER to heal the Void. Essentially put it on similar footing with the First in that most of the Shard is still heavily damaged, but there's that small area that isn't, and healing can start from there, going outward.

[Lurina]

A third apocalyptic scenario in just as many expansions?

... hard pass from me, kiddos.

First time with a long-running MMO plot?

[Cleretic]

Yeh, but reaper doesn't work conceptually anyway considering the WoL is supposed to be a hero with a bleeding heart, so much so they feel bad for the "bad guy" they're killing most of the time. Making a silly pact to make a monster your pet that will absorb souls of your victims (while it devours your own) is pretty nuts!

The lore for 'em is just "lore" that doesn't mean anything and doesn't hold up under scrutiny. Which is par for the course, i suppose.

I admit I've had a few pauses of 'uhhhh, are you sure' about Reaper and its Avatar, but overall Reaper fits the 'edgy antihero' vibe that Dark Knight also had; still a hero, just one that doesn't play by the typical Hero Rules. I don't think we're meant to think hard enough about Reaper to realize that the fact the Avatar is eating souls means that it's probably the single most dangerous thing we've ever encountered (since at least with everything else reincarnation still happens), I think we're supposed to look at it more like Ghost Rider.

...also I'm pretty sure that by job quest bodycount Reaper's one of the least murderous jobs despite that lore bit, weirdly. Whereas Dark Knight 30-50 is probably still reigning champ, and we've all decided we're fine with that.


EDIT: For what it's worth, while I'm not against us dealing with another apocalypse scenario (as mentioned, those are pretty common in MMOs), I think right now is the wrong time for it regardless of ignition event. 6.x and 7.0 have the challenge to try defining what FFXIV is about OUTSIDE of the context of its previously ongoing story, and starting off that journey with 'let's threaten the entire planet again' starts us on an exhausting and tedious foot. Because then it just says that the only thing worth our attention are threats of equal or greater scale than the last one we stopped, meaning that all future expansions must either also be apocalypses, or will be beneath our apocalyspe-stopping reputation.

Ease up on the world-threatening disasters, you've gotta keep them special when they do come!

[Lyth]

I feel like something that would "completely change the story" would be wholly unrelated to the void, and the rogue Garlean legions doing something that calls for immediate action like utilizing some kind of superweapon that poses a threat to the whole of the Three Great Continents would be an easy one.

I wouldn't say 'wholly unrelated'. The Garleans have a long standing link to making pacts with the Void in order to survive. We've seen their Lemures, for one, but the Muud Suud card (#218) suggests that they had Void Mages as well. I'm hoping it starts out seemingly unrelated until the plot threads start converging a few expansions down the line.

One plot thread that I'm really interested in is the Sect of Germonique that's linked to the Lucavi. After they were hunted down in Dalmasca, the cult fled to the neighboring regions, where they became involved with the IVth legion as part of the Bozja storyline. But their members fled to other neighboring states as well. There's no formal link between the Lucavi's auracite and that of the Thirteenth, but I wouldn't be surprised if they're interconnected and that the Lucavi were actually just high-ranked Voidsent looking for willing vessels in the Source.

I suspect that the reason why Bozja's relic story was wrapped up is because the likes of Locus Amoenus and Dalmasca are poised to enter the main story rather than just continuing on as side content. I'm really interested in Corvos, and I'm hoping that one of the 'other names' that Fourchenault alluded to for Locus Amoenus ends up being Archadia. It sounds like there are a lot of religious tensions in the area with the Church of Locus and the Sect.

[Cilia]

First time with a long-running MMO plot?

Played World of WarCraft from mid-The Burning Crusade until mid-Mists of Pandaria, have touched it on and off from the tail end of Legion onward; while there were a lot of big threats, they often started as speciously reasoned conflicts that escalated over time, and didn't always reach apocalyptic levels. Plus the sandboxy nature of the game made a strong narrative difficult to sell - yeah, Deathwing's trying to destroy the world... somehow... but other than randomly torching zones (which you might never have experienced) he's completely absent throughout Cataclysm until the final raid. Garrosh was an ass who started a war for questionable reasons and played around with stuff he ought not have... but he wanted to conquer the world, not destroy it. Legion was a grand apocalyptic war that felt like the game's climax; Battle for Azeroth opens with Sylvanas starting a war on specious reasoning and deliberately committing an atrocity to ensure it's as bloody as possible, then goes the Old God route (but not really, see Shadowlands). Not always apocalyptic threats, but serious enough, and sometimes escalating to that level.

Dabbled in Star Wars: The Old Republic, got it on launch even, but it was rough with issues (storyline bosses were very obviously built around you playing a specific spec, no dungeon finder, etc.) so I dropped it before finishing even one storyline. Got to the third act with the Sith Inquisitor, but that's it.

Does MapleStory count? Probably not, it's not really story-driven.

Personally, I feel there've been enough apocalypse stories for now. Let's have some adventure, let it escalate to that point if it needs to instead of jumping from apocalypse to apocalypse. PC and Scions aren't looking to cause a Rejoining, and the circumstances necessary to successfully do so are so specific it's implausible they'd succeed without intent.

[Gogoglovitch]

I've been watching some of the live letter over the past few days (didn't catch it at the original broadcast time, and I haven't had much time since), and I noticed something at about 3:01:30 -- there's a journal that seems to be relating the story of what happens in the Sil'dih Subterrane. The top lists 'Total 1/12,' which suggests to me that there are twelve different stories we can experience there, and the one on display is called 'A Father's Dearest Wish.' My Japanese is rusty enough that I'm only slowly working my way through it, but it seems that after a battle with some Sil'dih zombies, you come across a group of Amalj'aa from Zahar'ak making a base. I'll keep working on it when I have time, but if someone who's better with Japanese wants to look over it, there's probably a decent amount of info there.

A couple of things from freeze-framing the trailer: at 2:15, we see what looks for all the world like Ferdiad, along with a headless horseman-type enemy and the WoL and a lance-wielding Varshahn. Just from the way they're positioned, I suspect that this is a trash pull in Troia. Which brings up the question -- are we fighting the real Ferdiad yet again (as a trash mob, no less), or is this the first case of his model being reused? (I believe Forgiven Rebellion uses his skeleton, but I don't think anything else has used his model at all.)

Also, there's some evidence that suggests Scarmiglione might be both a dungeon boss and the trial, as has been suggested. At 1:09, we see him fighting with the WoL, Y'shtola, and lancer Varshahn. A second later, though, there's a shot with the WoL, Y'shtola, Estinien, and Varshahn again, this time wielding a sword and shield. Also, the unnamed Reaper is leaping around the arena defeating succubi to eliminate their AoEs. The Reaper could just be a mechanic for the fight, like Brayflox at the second boss in the Longstop, since her motions don't match up to anything a player Reaper can do, but having two sword-and-shield characters in the same fight is unusual, at least. Though on the other hand, the arena doesn't look like it's got enough space for there to be three or four more fighters behind the camera. And elsewhere in the trailer, we see Paladin WoL and Haurchefaunt in the Vault. So it's not impossible that they're using alternate roles for the characters (though I struggle to think of why they'd give Varshahn a sword and shield to be a healer), or just dummying in the WoL as a healer to give split-second shots of the characters they wanted. (Also, at 1:16 we see another bit of the fight(s), and this time it's WoL, sword-and-shield Varshahn, Estinien, and the Reaper, this time all just attacking.) Either way, there's definitely something curious about the party compositions we're seeing, and I'm looking forward to seeing if it's implying something, or just trailer weirdness.

[KageTokage]

A couple of things from freeze-framing the trailer: at 2:15, we see what looks for all the world like Ferdiad, along with a headless horseman-type enemy and the WoL and a lance-wielding Varshahn. Just from the way they're positioned, I suspect that this is a trash pull in Troia. Which brings up the question -- are we fighting the real Ferdiad yet again (as a trash mob, no less), or is this the first case of his model being reused? (I believe Forgiven Rebellion uses his skeleton, but I don't think anything else has used his model at all.)

The horseman might be Anchag, who was the first boss in Amdapor Keep (Hard) where Ferdiad made his initial appearance, so having the two show up as a dual boss would be a nice thematic nod to that.

I feel like they're probably not the only familiar faces we'll run into there if Troia is the same "court of the void" where the upper echelons of the voidsent hierarchy are said to convene for reasons unknown.