The Imperial Legions

[Cassar]

If there are going to be more stories told in Garlemald, I really hope they bring back Gabranth.
But that seems unlikely since they abandoned the Dalmasca storyline

I used to think they abandoned it, but I read somewhere that the field notes on Gabranth and Lyon were written word by word exactly the same as the how the story writer did. Meaning it was always planned for their end to be told that way.

I had found that somewhat lazy initially, but later I realized it makes the story darker - Gabranth died in a way that his body couldn't be fully recognized and we never got to see exactly what happened, giving this air of mystery.

[WhiteArchmage]

I've mentioned a few times, but yes. Matsuno-san wrote the Field Notes himself and that's how he wanted to end the story... except not entirely right. He's been experiencing burnout (he didn't SAY that, but it's notable in his twitter), and also grew disillusioned because a loud part of the fanbase hated the Dramaturge side-quests in Ivalice, even apologizing when they were removed for the distress they caused players. Those quests were very personal to him and he'd enjoyed writing them.

So Matsuno-san does have an outline for the third part of the story, and he's previously mentioned it would deal with an already-liberated Dalmasca (liberated off-screen during/after the events of Bozja, hence the Field Notes), and Yoshi-P and him were just waiting for the moment to continue it (from what we know, it's a series of solo quests akin to the current Manderville weapons and the Cid's memory part of Bozja). But considering his burnout and disillusionment, the poor man might just retire before he can write it; however, he's also expressed that he's given the CBU3 writing team said outline, so they can in theory continue it in his stead.

Considering the utter respect the Japanese have for their authors, it's likely CBU3 wouldn't change much from the original outline but instead build on it. But also considering the JP culture, they may not touch it because... you don't really play with others' toys...

[FrightfulNight]

I'd at least be willing to bet that there has to be at least one Legion that left to explore the world beyond the Three Great Continents, and they'll provide us a means to travel to one of the other major landmasses in the world. Considering their technological superiority, I can't imagine the Garleans wouldn't have sent at least one group to fly across the oceans, in the name of following the footsteps of the Allagans or something.

I have actually had this theory for a while that the XIIIth Legion might not be based off of Final Fantasy XIII (which is underwhelming) but in fact an homage to the 13 original colonies of America that are operating in the New World due to the rich cereluem deposits and during the war off succession broke off from Garlemald to form their own nation paralleling the American revolution. There is even more evidence to support this with the edition of the frontier glamour which resembles 50s American fashion since we know from EW that a lot of the more modern looking glamour is probably Garlean from what their citizens in the capitol were wearing. This could mean that this hypothetical colony could resemble a mixture of colonial and 50's America. Also for the sake of zone and cultural diversity for exploring the New World I imagine that much like the Original colonies the lands controlled by the XIIIth only go along the east coast and do not go further west then a whatever would be the parallels for either the Appalachia's or the Mississipi and not to far north that way we can also have various cultures with Parallels to the various Native American groups that we can also explore.

I have also believed for some time now that the NEW World will probably be later in this new arch's lifetime as I imagine it might get 2 expansions dedicated to it, one for the northern continent and one for the southern continent with the story from one leading into the story for the other.

[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 ).