6.4 patch speculation

[Tehmon]

I wouldn't completely count out ascian involvement. At the moment it seems like Zero is a pretty heavy-handed reference to Cecil, Golbez is just Golbez, but there is no sign of Zemus/Zeromus quite yet. Golbez mentions to the four elemental archfiends that ascians shared information with him about the Source iirc, so an ascian controlling Golbez could be a reference to Zemus, similarly to how in FF4 Zemus controlled Golbez. But overall Golbez' plan makes... '' sense '' in that he wants to free all the voidsent of the Thirteenth from purgatory, which is not a terrible motive, so it does feel like he has more agency this time around and wouldn't need a Zemus equivalent to control him and feed him potential lies. Yet even if Golbez' motives aren't terrible, his plans are going to mess with the Source and that's most likely in line with what ascians would want. Or is it? I don't think Golbez has any interest in rejoining the shards, and the Thirteenth is still a void that ascians would want to fix before rejoining. So an ascian orchestrating all this doesn't sound too convincing just yet.

Then there's the fact that Zero's name is so close to Zeromus that it doesn't feel like a coincidence, but it might just be a red herring, especially with Zero being a reference to Cecil in specfic. And with that said, I am expecting Zero and Golbez to be brother and sister, just like Cecil and Golbez were brothers in FF4. But how that is going to influence the story going forward, I don't know. Rubicante mentioned that he wonders whether we can essentially '' reach out '' to Golbez, as he hasn't completely gone feral and there might still be some humanity left in him, and perhaps Zero will have much to do with that.

[JohncarterIx]

i like new patches i mae lotts of cha ching gil lotts

[JohncarterIx]

i like new patches i make lotts of cha ching gil lotts

[BasicBlake]

I’m kind of over the void content at this point. I was REALLY excited for it and then it just felt kind of.. lacking. Probably because it’s coming after such a big story ending. Hoping that 6.4 rounds out and ties off the void content and brings that Scions back together so they can get ready for 6.5 where we get our first taste of hopefully this “new old world”.

[RyuDragnier]

I’m kind of over the void content at this point. I was REALLY excited for it and then it just felt kind of.. lacking. Probably because it’s coming after such a big story ending. Hoping that 6.4 rounds out and ties off the void content and brings that Scions back together so they can get ready for 6.5 where we get our first taste of hopefully this “new old world”.

Mostly because it's just the filler arc before the next big story stuff. 6.4 is likely going to finish off the Void, and then 6.5 will be the leadup to the next expansion. Hopefully it's Meracydia so we finally know what's going on there...and because I DO want to know what's on that continent.

[Cleretic]

I think the Void being explored like this is more conceptually interesting to me than if it were an expansion focus, simply because I like the feeling of absolute desolation and nothingness that we've seen from the Void. That's not something an entire expansion would've been able to do, for simple reason that expansions have very base-level requirements that would've hindered that. The Void wouldn't feel like a desolate, empty hole of misery and pain if it had to accommodate an inn, two core cities with all those required vendors, multiple crafting storylines, three diverse tribal quests, and six zones' worth of unique fish.

Could some other form of content maybe have the ability to tell that story as well? Sure, I could see it done by a Eureka-style series of side-zones, and I remember when 6.1 was laying out the requirements to traverse it thinking it might be an elaborately-explained deep dungeon, or the central framework for the variant/criterion dungeons. But if they want this to be centrally important, affecting and status-quo-altering in some way, none of those can play; this is the best way to do it.

[Kesey]

inb4 "noooo, let them rest!" but I honestly think we might see Emet and Hyth again while we're gallivanting in the Lifestream. At least in Pandaemonium.

Golbez's face being plastered on the announcement for the trial makes me think it's a red herring and he might not actually be the main enemy we fight.

Then who would we fight instead?

[Turnintino]

Say Golbez does turn out to be a red herring for a bigger bad, I'd only be disappointed to be faced with an enemy that may or may not have had any prior setup -- but certainly no setup in this current arc. (That said, if it's a villain we're probably going to see more of in 7.0, that would make more sense to me.)

I know some theorize that Zero may fill that role because of the Zeromus thing, but I'd be very surprised, given how earnest she's been written up to this point. And again, I think that kind of twist demands greater foreshadowing than what we've seen. Though of course the heroes had reasonable doubts when they met her, the narrative hand-waved that as swiftly as it could lol.

inb4 "noooo, let them rest!"

Let ME rest.

[Vyrerus]

mixed with a bit of the peninsula from FF5 where you first enter World 2 from.

Having in no way looked at the live letter, this makes me go wild with speculation.

Golbez has to have a way to get to and from the 13th's Moon, right? Could it be that this stream at aetherfont is on every shard and every moon, as the default aetherial link?

Cause to me in this pic, the blue energy looks like what Ryu described, but it also looks like a blue version of the vermilion energy that ebbs out of Zodiark's cradle.

[Cleretic]

Potentially someone we haven't met yet. People were saying in some other languages the name of the trial is more like "Seat of the Exile" and specifically a feminine exile.

I do still think we are going to fight Golbez, I just have a feeling there's going to be a twist. Putting it front and center like that seems strange given how they usually go about discussing story beats.

I also didn't necessarily mean to imply Golbez himself is a red herring because I don't think so. I just meant that I think his appearance as the main focus of the LL trial reveal might be.

They usually discuss trial fights like these straight-up unless they're blatantly spoilers, and we've obviously been leading up to fighting Golbez, so it's not a spoiler that we're fighting him. I think you're just used to it being spoilers and therefore hidden because the last time a trial wasn't hidden like this were the Weapon trials.

I'm also against 'surprise, Golbez ISN'T the real villain', because them doing that in IV was the worst part of IV since it just kills Golbez as a character. (And seems to be so unpopular within S-E that they've never tried to retread it despite Golbez being in every single FF crossover thing.) They'd have to do some major work to make that compelling instead of just feeling like Golbez was a waste of time and characterization.

That said, I do think they're hiding something, and I don't even think it's that hard to see what. I don't think it's even an extra twist beyond 'fight Golbez'... but it is still technically some kind of spoiler.

Golbez is going to be somehow controlling Azdaja as part of the trial. Golbez is known for using a Shadow Dragon in combat, and that dragon seems to be the loose inspiration for Azdaja's design, so... yeah, obviously that's gonna happen.