Quote Originally Posted by Cleretic View Post
The struggle with Ultima as the Big Bad Villain is that... well, we kinda already beat her. Quite a while ago, in fact!

That's not an insurmountable obstacle to overcome in writing, but it is one: to do Ultima as a new, big villain that would feel fresh and interesting, you need to package it in a way that makes it more than just 'the boss we beat in Orbonne 30+ levels ago' (chances are good it'll be 40+ by the time they get to do anything), and importantly, feels like it. You need to frame and build up to this theoretical Ultima reprise in a way that doesn't feel like a rerun, or it'll just feel like a waste of time to a lot of people. The last thing we want to feel from a story is like we're watching a rerun.
Ultima arrived on Etheirys before the Sundering, so there are pieces of her on other Shards. I think, hypothetically, that's how she could come back. But whether or not that'd feel stale, IDK.