Revelations from NA Fan Fest (July 2023)

[SannaR]

Is that Azdaja on the map next to the new world? Cause that looks very close to how she looks.

[SannaR]

I wouldn't have expected a reveal, but I feel like they should have maintained the half-and-half screen layout with a "coming soon(TM)" sort of thing on the other half of the screen, as an acknowledgement that they're working on it and they know people are eager to see the gap filled.

I also wasn't expecting a reveal at least not this Fan Fest. Though as you say an acknowledgement would have been nice. If only to remind those who are really looking forward to them that they haven't been forgotten.

[MikkoAkure]

Is that Azdaja on the map next to the new world? Cause that looks very close to how she looks.

I think that's just a "here there be dragons" map flourish than anything that's supposed to actually mean anything.

There's also a dragon over the middle of the ocean in the far north west, much further out than even Sharlayan. It, the south western dragon, and a big bird in the southeast are all facing inwards to the map so there's probably another one behind Yoshi-P in the northest facing in too.

[EdwinLi]

While I would like to believe this, I didn't catch it in the presentation, and it would break the team's insistence on demanding NIN be really difficult to gear alongside other jobs. EW got us a second maiming, so maybe?

Corsair/Pirate would fit the expansion's theme, possibly, and Yoshida's t-shirt. It's a shame they've mostly avoided the sub-weapon slot for classes besides PLD and crafters, as having sword and gun as separate equips would make for neat flavor.

I think Beastmaster could work as a stretch, since we don't have a whip class yet and it would be a properly different weapon. The AF gear would be goofy as hell if they copied FF5, though.

at this point it is very open since they are hiding it behind the Robe.

Keeping two weapons as one item is also easier to manage for them since it avoids loot build up if I remember right. It is why we no longer get Off-hand items for any job beyond Paladin these days and why they pushed away from giving shields to Black Mage and White Mage to sticking with Staffs only.

[Denishia]

Yeah, I think a struggle with that idea on reflection is that while non-intervention is a perfectly justifiable stance on a moral perspective, from a player perspective it basically plays out as 'willingly not doing the fun thing', so they'd be forced into intervening anyway just so they don't sit out an entire expansion... which then feels like it abandons or insults the concept of non-intervention in the first place, so why bother giving it lip service?

Agreed. This ties overall into the valid apprehension about Dawntrail's writing. Not from Latam myself, but even the overwhelming racist tropes and the long painful history of colonialism and coups fostered by outside business interests meant that my biggest fear was that a New World expansion was going to blunder into them (I enjoy the Blue Mage questlines but small parts of it make me cringe, and it's one of the reasons why I love EW's Thanvair). Hence my deep relief that our impetus for going to Tural isn't tied solely to Eorzean interests, but I'm bracing myself for the Wol 's side backing the successor candidate that wants to open and maintain closer ties to Eorzea, and in-game framing it as the virtue of everyone working together and then fandom imploding because soft imperialism is still imperialism even when heroes do it. What little I've seen of Dawntrail and Tural is dodging my greatest fears while giving me what I want from the setting, and I am especially excited to get a thousand year old fallen empire to dungeon crawl through that isn't Allagan for once. The longer the contest of succession plotline proceeds without an outside villain derailing it, the more surprised I will be.

[EdwinLi]

Agreed. This ties overall into the valid apprehension about Dawntrail's writing. Not from Latam myself, but even the overwhelming racist tropes and the long painful history of colonialism and coups fostered by outside business interests meant that my biggest fear was that a New World expansion was going to blunder into them (I enjoy the Blue Mage questlines but small parts of it make me cringe, and it's one of the reasons why I love EW's Thanvair). Hence my deep relief that our impetus for going to Tural isn't tied solely to Eorzean interests, but I'm bracing myself for the Wol 's side backing the successor candidate that wants to open and maintain closer ties to Eorzea, and in-game framing it as the virtue of everyone working together and then fandom imploding because soft imperialism is still imperialism even when heroes do it. What little I've seen of Dawntrail and Tural is dodging my greatest fears while giving me what I want from the setting, and I am especially excited to get a thousand year old fallen empire to dungeon crawl through that isn't Allagan for once. The longer the contest of succession plotline proceeds without an outside villain derailing it, the more surprised I will be.

Well considering the focus here is to find the Golden City (Thanks Emet for spoilering this), it is most likely going to be a Finding Eldorado journey compared to Colonialism.

Not to mention this is still a small area of the New World being explored and with the WoL returning to his/her roots as a Adventurer, I feel the New World story arc may focus a lot more on Exploring this New World one location at a time in each expansion.

[ReynTime]

There's not super much to go off here, but the things I noticed from the keynote:

• I was literally joking about 'Beach Filler Episode', hot damn am I into it happening.
• Krile's the only Scion absent from the teaser (and Zero, but that's less suspicious for several reasons), so she is ABSOLUTELY gonna turn up with a new job.
• As one of the several people who named their chocobo 'Tritoch', I'm a pretty big fan of Valigarmanda turning up.
• A schism between the Scions over a war of succession does actually sound pretty good, but I'll tell you all right now, I know exactly which Scion I don't want on the side I pick.
• The first new zone is basically Fantasy Machu Picchu, and you know what, I'm happy: that is exactly number one on my list of places I'd want to go in a South America fantasy setting. The second zone is clearly the Amazon, which is also cool.
• Overall, big FFX vibes and even bigger FFIX vibes, what's not to love? (Well, the lack of blitzball, but we'll live)

I'm pretty happy about this one, all-up, which is a welcome chance from when I basically spent every single 'Endwalker hype' leadup event feeling bummed out that it wasn't doing stuff I wanted. I feel like that might be because Endwalker was the first expansion I was really around for the pre-release hype for (I was cognizant of Shadowbringers' leadup, but didn't really care outside of the Nier raids), so I unconsciously set my hopes wrong; not too high, per se, but more too specific. If you go in wanting Gelmorra and Chemist, and then get neither, you're not gonna like anything you do get.

They're gonna knock it off right from Hunter x Hunter's current arc and have scions split due to the candidates they support aren't they?

[WhiteArchmage]

What I was throwing around elsewhere is that perhaps each group of Scions is contacted by a different candidate, so Alphinaud, Alisaie, and Erenville support one member while Y'shtola, Thancer, and Urianger the other; and each group only has that candidate's version of events and that candidate's word on the other's character. Either this creates the schism because they've each been convinced their patron is being truthful, or the plan is actually to pretend to be split to gather information about both parties.

I would be tickled pink if it turns out there's a third candidate who swoops in out of nowhere to win the throne but I know they'd never do that because it'd make most of the story pointless. Likely we just find out that one of the candidates is sitting on a treasure trove of Allagan secrets and is planning to use it for conquest and guess we'll have to take care of them.

...that or we find out that the third candidate is actually the rightful heir that was hidden away for his protection and it just so happens that it's Erenville.

[Cleretic]

They're gonna knock it off right from Hunter x Hunter's current arc and have scions split due to the candidates they support aren't they?

With all due respect, that's such an obvious angle that guessing that would be like guessing Bowser's going to be the end boss of the next Mario game.

[Narnio]

I highly doubt the "schism" with the Scions is going to be anything more than a friendly competition, maybe to see who can get to the Golden City first for instance. These people have saved the world too many times to suddenly turn on each other Avengers: Civil War style.

As for the teams, hard to say. I'm willing to bet that Alphinaud and Alisaie are gonna be on separate sides. Thancred and Urianger are the iconic duo, so they'll likely be in cahoots. Based off pure theories, I want to say Estinien will join their team due to his involvement in Thavnair with them at the beginning of Endwalker.

Krile is most definitely going to be the new caster. She's probably going to be the character pushed most into the spotlight.

There was mention of a lot more characters being added for duty support (not necessarily trust) but they did say several times they have a LOT of new cast members. I'm wondering if they'll start to filter out the Scions after this, preferring to venture with a mixture of old and new similar to current content. I don't really mind either way.