Revelations from JP Fan Fest (January 2024)

[Mayhemmer]

That sounds awesome but what would the stakes be? Are we just battling to try to get a reward or something? I feel like every raid has some pretty high stakes, so there'd have to be a twist to that. What could it be...

Mayhaps we'd be fighting constructed computer viruses or other digital threats that pose a danger to S9 as a whole. I could see something like that, personally.

[Kranel_San]

It will be a bit interesting if this raid is just a Tournament they are holding between their civilizations best fighters in a virtual arena.

We always have Raids about preventing a side world ending threat but with the theme more now about the WoL going back to his/her roots as a Adventurer, a Tournament Arc theme raid without the threat of the world ending if WoL does not get involved will probably be a nice little relaxing experience for WoL.

I'd not mind Omega raids again, with or without the world ending threat.

[Cleretic]

My angle on how to make 'what if Arcadeon is all virtual' have weight: They're computer viruses/malicious software made manifest, and we go in as heavy-duty antivirus.

[Mayhemmer]

I wonder if Solution 9 could end up being comparable in purpose to the moon/Bestways Burrow once we get all the story beats. I get this weird feeling it'll be seen as some sort of paradise-adjacent refuge for it's inhabitants, be they physical or digital/ethereal.

On another note, do we know if chocobos are native to the New World? The signage in the concept art and screenshots/videos are getting me curious of something.

[Zero-ELEC]

I wonder if Solution 9 could end up being comparable in purpose to the moon/Bestways Burrow once we get all the story beats. I get this weird feeling it'll be seen as some sort of paradise-adjacent refuge for it's inhabitants, be they physical or digital/ethereal.

On another note, do we know if chocobos are native to the New World? The signage in the concept art and screenshots/videos are getting me curious of something.

Oh, are you thinking that porters/etc. will use another type of mount as main form of transportation, like the amaro in Novrandt and the falcons in AldenardOthard? Would be cool. And no, we do not have any indication about chocobos in Tural.

[Mayhemmer]

Oh, are you thinking that porters/etc. will use another type of mount as main form of transportation, like the amaro in Novrandt and the falcons in Aldenard? Would be cool. And no, we do not have any indication about chocobos in Tural.

It'd be neat to see if a different transport is used for the porters, but I was more curious about this singular little bit in the concept art for S9 that made me wonder if chocobos are native to the Turals.

Really, it could just be non-important concept fluff, and my brain is just tugging at every little detail it attaches itself to, but the presence of what clearly looks like advertisements makes me curious.

Where the in-game footage we've seen of Tuliyollal (and most other areas we've seen) and Solution 9 visually differ is that the former look like lived-in places. There's all sorts of things scattered about, there's crates and pots, even bottles and food, everywhere. It looks very natural, fitting with the theme of the areas. But S9 looks barren by comparison, like the hyper-efficient cybercity it looks to be. It doesn't look like a place where people live, but rather a place they would live.

I don't know if that makes any sense outside of my head, but outside of this singular piece of concept art we have (which has tables and chairs and bottles and venues and whatnot), there isn't much evidence of living things there that we've seen, and that makes me wonder about the very specific signage.

[Zero-ELEC]

Was looking at the trailer again, and I got to Estinien's part again and... unlike most of the other Scions, his section seems mostly unrelated to the rest? Urianger and Thancred are obviously on the expedition together, Alisaie explicitly came with the WoL and Alphinaud, Shtola interacts with our eternal friend the nutkin, Raha and Krile are hanging out in the same area.... but Estinien is just off, doing gods know what alone.

So, unfounded speculation time: Shtola/Urianger/Thancred were hired by a 3rd party, while the WoL/Alisaie/Alphinaud/Krile/Raha came at the behest of Wuk Lamat, and Estinien just got here in his wanderings, somehow. Completely unrelated to everything. We'll just find him hanging out with the local hunters.

[Yuella]

Krile was invited by that letter to Galuf which may or may not be related to Wuk Lamat

[Lyth]

If the main premise is the succession of Tural, then a single expansion is a relatively short span of time to learn about the candidates and see how it resolves, on top of the northward exploration that we have ahead of us.

My guess is that two different teams were independently brought over by opposing factions, with one group journeying north and the other south. We still haven't seen any sign of these fabled cities of gold that Emet mentioned, despite seeing artwork for a relatively packed zone list.

On the subject of gold, it's worth noting that (Au) 'aurum' draws its origin from the Roman goddess of the dawn, so a city of gold is bound to be of some importance to this story eventually. Perhaps the rite of succession is to find it first?

[MitsukiKimura]

I personally do not want Krile to be our partner for this competition team they have going for this next expansion. Give me any other Scion but that one.