I usually avoid indulging in this sort of thing, so...

WARNING! MASSIVE AMOUNTS OF

AHEAD!

OK, so we can be reasonably certain 4.0 is taking us to Ala Mhigo. All the stingers have set it up - Elidibus and Urianger talking about Garlemald and the Triad, Yda and Papalymo helping out the Resistance, Ilberd Mysterious Figure, and Darklander and Elidibus in the Shroud. War is coming, folks! War!

3.4 will be a Garlean offensive. They'll be pushing out of Castrum Oriens, which will be the dungeon for 3.4. Thancred and Alisae will get back to us, the latter of which will tell us of Urianger's dealings with Elidibus. We'll go to confront him, and he'll just say he was heard Elidibus out but thinks he's crazy. However things will still be proceeding as per Elidibus' design (and the Gerun Oracles), and though proving Elidibus wrong would be nice we'll need to keep playing in defense of innocent lives. Darklander & co. will be the ones pushing for the offensive from Garlemald from within.

3.5 will be a counteroffensive from the Alliance eventually leading us into Ala Mhigo proper. Keeper HM will have nothing to do with Midgardsormr, maybe, but us just trying to stop the Garleans there from setting off a bomb and blowing up Silvertear Lake or summat (which would blow up the world... or summat... since Silvertear seems to be the wellspring of aether for the entire planet). The story will be... a war story. We'll be reunited with Yda and Papalymo, and at their behest as well as knowing the Alliance is gonna do it one way or another enter the fray. The 3.55 trial will be some magitek superweapon.

While there will be an original story, no doubt, I am nonetheless expecting 4.0 to be somewhat influenced by VI given the Empire's similarities to the Gestahlian Empire and the Triad will evidently have some influence on the MSQ. I'm still expecting a Kefkaesque figure for the 4.0 endboss, though, mostly because I want to fight a long, tough boss fight with the Black Mages mix of Dancing Mad as a backdrop.

There's still a lot of pieces to move into place, though, so I'm fairly certain this is inaccurate. The Genesis Expression... the Triad... Ilberd... Omega... the Warriors of Darkness... Nero... Regula... too much to fit into a picture when all we have is a rough outline of where things will go.

Will Yda fall? Will Garlemald get the Genesis Expression? Will Nero reappear and, if so, as a heroic figure? Will SAM have a Vergil-esque combat aesthetic? Will I finish my Guillotine of the Tyrant before Deus Ex: Mankind Divided releases? Will Mighty No. 9 ever be released on the Vita? Will I ever get around to starting that Digimon Tamers Abridged series so I can voice Beelzemon?

STAY TUNED! You can't be here! Only I can be here! Don't touch me...