[2.55 Spoilers] Developments from Job Quest into 2.55+

[ExKage]

So I have a few questions...

Should we assume that all job quests (CUL and DRG) all happen within 2.0 time span before Praetorium? Before 2.1?

How does the development of Estinien's presence jive with the currently final DRG quest? Why does Alberic still believe he is gone and Ishgard is without an Azure Dragoon?

[Zohar_Lahar]

I think that was an oversight with Alberic.

[StarDrake]

That's a very safe assumption, yes; in general, in a game of this sort you can assume the narrative elements of a given patch "happen" upon release. So the initial Binding Coil story happened immediately after Praetorium, LOTA happened in the timeframe of 2.1, Corpse Groom/Tam-Tara Hard happens in 2.3 at about the same time Syrcus Tower does, the herculean efforts of the Zodiac Weapon story occur interspersed throughout all this, et cetera. This would mean that, yes, all of the core class and job quests occur in the timeframe of release 2.0, regardless of when you do them. To do otherwise would require ridiculous numbers of ever-increasing "road cones" to account for where the player is in an expanding story, or would mean that all of the class and job stories have to occur entirely in their own little bubble (which also isn't great from the perspective of making the world feel large and cohesive).

So yes, assume all content in a patch "happens" in that given patch.

[Fenral]

Estinien acted like we'd met before, which is absurd because I'm only a level 24 Lancer. His dialogue is different if you've already cleared the Dragoon story, but there's no mistaking that the story has already happened for both of us. They're willing to switch lines around in new scenes to prevent spoilers, but they have officially given up on back-propagating every little change across every quest ever, and they now officially do not consider themselves bound to keep older quests completely isolated and free of contradictions.

This is a totally different point on the same wavelength, but I'm willing to bet that the ultra-super-frustrating wall-banger ending to the Crystal Tower storyline was meant to keep it tonally in line with what happens at the end of the 2.55 MSQs (note the phrase "beacon of hope" that gets repeated across both). They wanted to be sure that we wouldn't have anyone to turn to, and that guy who looked important but still hasn't really done anything would probably be one of the first people we'd think to look up if things had gone differently for him. (Also, his goodbye scene was an homage to one of FF's earliest fake death scenes, so if they're obligated to stay true to that FF3 spirit...)

[Mirron]

Eh, I will be kind of surprised if they just write him out. It seems like the kind of hanging event that will show up in a later story, but for right now not so much.

[seekified]

I was happily surprised that Estinien's dialogue recognised our, err, past difficulties. Less impressed if he still puts out that dialogue to LNCs, though. o_O Thybyrgeim in Limsa also recognised me, but I've finished that entire questline as well. Any less leveled Arcanists who can share what they got?

[TheRogueX]

I was happily surprised that Estinien's dialogue recognised our, err, past difficulties. Less impressed if he still puts out that dialogue to LNCs, though. o_O Thybyrgeim in Limsa also recognised me, but I've finished that entire questline as well. Any less leveled Arcanists who can share what they got?

Thybyrgeim recognized me, I'm only level 20 Arcanist. Estinien did not have any special dialog for me, as I'm only a level 17 Lancer.

[StarDrake]

Thybyrgeim recognized me, I'm only level 20 Arcanist. Estinien did not have any special dialog for me, as I'm only a level 17 Lancer.

This is unsurprising, though; the situation is a callback to the level 5 Arcanist quest. I wouldn't be surprised if it simply checks for completion on that, or if the game merely assumed if that if you unlocked Arcanist, you bothered to get it that far.

[Alice_89th]

I was happily surprised that Estinien's dialogue recognised our, err, past difficulties. Less impressed if he still puts out that dialogue to LNCs, though. o_O Thybyrgeim in Limsa also recognised me, but I've finished that entire questline as well. Any less leveled Arcanists who can share what they got?

I started the game as an arcanist (it was also my first to 50, but I doubt that matters) and Thybyrgeim recognised me and asked me if I would be Tataru her instructor. It was a nice throwback to my own arcanist job quests (since Tataru is doing the very same "inspect the boxes" quest).

I'm not to 50, but saw the screenshot in the other thread. I kind of assumed this would easily be written off by having alternate dialogue, but considering there's an actual cutscene with Nanamo in that quest, apparently, I think it'd be considerably more difficult to rewrite the ENTIRE cutscene to match things post-2.55. Still doesn't make it less bizarre, but at least I could see why that might not be touched.

They might get to it later on. I can imagine that there is enough to do when you have to get a patch out and prepare for an expansion and that they just left this as is for now. It might be changed later on (like how certain npc only got their text updated to show your progress in later patches), or it might not be. Time will tell.

[Fenral]

They might get to it later on. I can imagine that there is enough to do when you have to get a patch out and prepare for an expansion and that they just left this as is for now. It might be changed later on (like how certain npc only got their text updated to show your progress in later patches), or it might not be. Time will tell.

They can't change it. The entire quest is about finding out her favorite foods to cook for her, so what if you start the quest, finish 2.55, then finally finish the level 50 CUL quest? "Sorry, but the Sultana died waiting for your food." I think they decided to use the "episode from last season" conceit rather than try to account for what is actually a much more complicated issue than a simple binary yes/no check.

The XI fanbeings may rage about their immersion, but this is how it had to be done to keep the story from getting stale in a few more years. A lot of previously-closed possibilities open up this way.