The Imperial Legions

[Cassar]

Why would it be based off Final Fantasy XIII? Other than Dalamud and the Weapons being related to VII and the Warring Triad legion being related to VI, the other ones really don't have anything to do with their games. Heck, Gabranth's legion is not even XII, it's IV!

Speaking of, Final Fantasy XIII has to be the game with the least amount of references in this game... The only thing I can think of is the Twinning dungeon.

[Simple_Barghest]

Why would it be based off Final Fantasy XIII? Other than Dalamud and the Weapons being related to VII and the Warring Triad legion being related to VI, the other ones really don't have anything to do with their games. Heck, Gabranth's legion is not even XII, it's IV!

Speaking of, Final Fantasy XIII has to be the game with the least amount of references in this game... The only thing I can think of is the Twinning dungeon.

A lot of the Allagan machines and artificial creations are taken pretty directly from 13.

[Cleretic]

Why would it be based off Final Fantasy XIII? Other than Dalamud and the Weapons being related to VII and the Warring Triad legion being related to VI, the other ones really don't have anything to do with their games. Heck, Gabranth's legion is not even XII, it's IV!

Speaking of, Final Fantasy XIII has to be the game with the least amount of references in this game... The only thing I can think of is the Twinning dungeon.

The notion of every legion being based on their respective game number probably came about with VII and VI having Meteor and the Warring Triad respectively. But after that it gets nebulous; XII sort of thematically fits with them being the focus of an expansion about imperial occupation and liberation, but not one single other one has been close, and it actually kinda screwed everyone's predictions when it came to the IVth.

You're right that XIII has very little explicit references, but it did provide A LOT of reused skeletons and models for enemies. That might actually be why it gets referenced very little; with the other games it feels like a reference out of genuine affection because they have to put a lot of effort into replicating Scarmiglione or whatever, but it'd be really hard to do a XIII reference that doesn't feel like them taking the easy way out because they've already got the models.

[MikkoAkure]

You're right that XIII has very little explicit references, but it did provide A LOT of reused skeletons and models for enemies. That might actually be why it gets referenced very little; with the other games it feels like a reference out of genuine affection because they have to put a lot of effort into replicating Scarmiglione or whatever, but it'd be really hard to do a XIII reference that doesn't feel like them taking the easy way out because they've already got the models.

FFXIII had its own event like FFXI and FFXV did. Lightning herself came to Eorzea and we fought mecha-behemoths together, got her and Snow's clothes and haircuts, and got weapons for all the classes that existed in ARR modeled after weapons from the game.

Though it would've been wild if we got to the moon and found it hollow with surviving Ancients/Ascians living inside with creations/primals running the joint.


Type-0 oddly enough got a lot of representation in that the hairstyles of all of the kids are in the game.

There's nothing I can think of that's representative of Crystal Chronicles, which is a shame.

[Enkidoh]

There's nothing I can think of that's representative of Crystal Chronicles, which is a shame.

There is a sort of/maybe reference to FFCC in the Dead Ends with the plague that wiped out the grebuloffs' civilization - every enemy in the grebuloff's world has the 'Plagued' status effect, that if you hover the cursor over it's status icon on an affected enemy states "a toxic miasma is warping the body".

This might be a reference to the equally destructive Miasma that wrecked havoc on the world of Crystal Chronicles... but that might be a long shot (given that the Niburians at the end of the Dead Ends was an equally obscure reference to an equally obscure FF title - in that case the Apathetics from the World of Fruits in FF Unlimited - I like to think it is a deliberate reference).

[Cleretic]

FFXIII had its own event like FFXI and FFXV did. Lightning herself came to Eorzea and we fought mecha-behemoths together, got her and Snow's clothes and haircuts, and got weapons for all the classes that existed in ARR modeled after weapons from the game.

Yeah, processing it more, that's kinda the only thing they can do with XIII and XV. They can't do the sort of thing we're seeing right now with IV where they're organically weaving enemies and locations from it into the story, because while that looks very respectful and interesting with a game where they have to make that stuff from scratch, it instead comes off as lazy recycling when it's from a game where those assets are already good to go. So instead the only thing they can really do with XIII and XV is throw subtlety to the wind and do an outright and overt crossover event, where expectations are different and, crucially, lower; we look at a limited-time event using a bunch of recycled models and just accept that, because we know events don't really have the opportunity to do anything too intensive. XI's in an interesting state where they both can and have done both.

XVI's going to join XIII and XV in that state where they can only really do events, but I think has an interesting extra problem in that it's almost perilously close to XIV, to the point where there's already genuine problems of confusion between how connected they are (whole lot of people looking at the weirdly similar protagonists and being confused about which is which or if that matters). For XVI, even a crossover event might not be a good idea for a while.

EDIT: Also, I should point out that if we're looking for FF games not represented, we've got nothing from Mystic Quest. Don't tell me it doesn't count, it's got 'Final Fantasy' in the title in both NA and Japan!

[Enkidoh]

EDIT: Also, I should point out that if we're looking for FF games not represented, we've got nothing from Mystic Quest. Don't tell me it doesn't count, it's got 'Final Fantasy' in the title in both NA and Japan!

Again there has been a reference to FFMQ in FFXIV in the past (that was kind of an ironic joke to boot) - an old ARR sidequest in Coerthas Central Highlands involved tracking down a stray black sheep named Benjamin - Benjamin of course being the name of FFMQ's main character, and the joke being that FFMQ is considered the 'black sheep' of the FF series.. yeah, it's pretty obvious it was a deliberate reference (and SE having a laugh at their own expense ).

[Lyth]

XVI's going to join XIII and XV in that state where they can only really do events, but I think has an interesting extra problem in that it's almost perilously close to XIV, to the point where there's already genuine problems of confusion between how connected they are (whole lot of people looking at the weirdly similar protagonists and being confused about which is which or if that matters). For FFXVI, even a crossover event might not be a good idea for a while.

Prior to FFXIV, there's never really been a 'shared universe' in which the series installments are interconnected outside of the odd homage here and there. Given the producer, I wouldn't be surprised if FFXVI comes with that connection written in from the outset.

Not that it would be particularly difficult. For example, we know very little about the Second Astral Era, outside of the fact that it was a period of theocracies and religious warfare culminating in the Third Umbral Calamity of Fire. Could that setting have some links to Valisthea, much like southern Ilsabard represents the FFXII/Tactics universe in another time period? Who knows.

I personally like seeing a common thread being built between series entries, especially when there's some effort to build a story around it, in contrast to the Omega style 'here's Exdeath and Kefka' style references for the sake of it. Utilizing pre-existing assets from other games when they're available doesn't particularly bother me, and the four auto Rotoswipe Dreadnaughts just feel like an intrinsic part of FFXIV to me simply because I have a lot more hours clocked in here than in FFXIII. Why reinvent the wheel?