Thread: 3.5/4.0 Speculation & Discussion (Spoilers)

Originally Posted by Belhi

Yeah, that caused me a double take. A follow up to the 24 man raid is a surprise. A trial perhaps though it seems strange to have after a 24 man.

It's probably for Diabolos, after all the complaints back in 2.2 that such a classic summon deserved more than just being a dungeon boss.

Interesting, so we get to go barely past the Castrum but at least people get their wish for the dungeon. I wonder if the dev team will actually have the resources to construct an extra little section of the east shroud for us to mess around in? Say after the dungeon once you beat it would we finally access the untrekable chunk of the east shroud beyond the wall, and there is even a small Aetherite there you can attune to so when 4.0 hits you move from there? Could even be a new area you zone out on and look at where the new expansion would start in? Would the dev team have the resources to actually do that? Considering they did the same to Mor Dhona and Illdyshire each patch it doesn't sound too far fetched.

Cortheas you get to see Ishgard in the distance, though it existed since 1.0 if I'm not mistaken and I thought it was pretty cool since it used to be this mysterious city no one could access until HW. I'd like to see something like that for Stormblood in 3.5.

Originally Posted by Tracewood

Interesting, so we get to go barely past the Castrum but at least people get their wish for the dungeon. I wonder if the dev team will actually have the resources to construct an extra little section of the east shroud for us to mess around in? Say after the dungeon once you beat it would we finally access the untrekable chunk of the east shroud beyond the wall, and there is even a small Aetherite there you can attune to so when 4.0 hits you move from there? Could even be a new area you zone out on and look at where the new expansion would start in? Would the dev team have the resources to actually do that? Considering they did the same to Mor Dhona and Illdyshire each patch it doesn't sound too far fetched.

Cortheas you get to see Ishgard in the distance, though it existed since 1.0 if I'm not mistaken and I thought it was pretty cool since it used to be this mysterious city no one could access until HW. I'd like to see something like that for Stormblood in 3.5.

Well, you can see Baelsar's Wall in the east shroud.

Originally Posted by Belhi

Well, you can see Baelsar's Wall in the east shroud.

That... that is true. Didn't even notice it stretches all the way past the Sylphlands (the purple mist tries to obscure it.) until I ventured deep in out of morbid curiosity.

I wonder if Baelsar's Wall will have an Imperial Juggernaut as a boss.

Originally Posted by Zohar_Lahar

I wonder if Baelsar's Wall will have an Imperial Juggernaut as a boss.

I predict a similar situation to Xelphatol. The dungeon will occur very early on in the MSQ's after a short build up that throws a big revelation our way. What, exactly, that 'revelation' will be is up for debate. Though I suspect it may be the start of a major clash between the Resistance and Garlean forces with the Warrior of Light/Scions ending up in the middle. Or it may be a preemptive strike.

I still think we need some kind of hook. If we just go 'Hey lets go liberate Ala Mhigo now' its going to feel kind of lame. The Garleans have been a problem for a long time but for the Scions to get directly involved now, when there is almost always more work on there plate and god knows how much stuff to figure out in regards to the Ascians, it would seem sudden to decide now is the time to act unless some trigger made it shot up on our priority list. Perhaps a certain broken staff will be involved.

Originally Posted by Belhi

-snip-

Oh, definitely. I hope there's more to it than 'we need to liberate Ala Mhigo' as well. I'm a huge fan of political intrigue which is why the likes of FFXII and FF Tactics are amongst my favourite titles in the franchise. It's going to be tricky because any decision to upset the status quo in Ala Mhigo is going to - realistically - have dire consequences and get an immense amount of people on all sides of the conflict killed. The Warrior of Light, Scions and City State leaders should be terrified of the possibility of Garlemald throwing their full weight behind another attempt to conquer Eorzea.

Personally I'm hoping that trying to liberate Ala Mhigo will be a mistake - far more so than 'liberating' Ishgard. So far most of those pushing for Ala Mhigo to be reclaimed are just as extreme - if not more so - than the more aggressive Garleans we've encountered. Ilberd being the most prominent example. It's also going to be jarring if it does turn out to be Ilberd who is the Griffin because I feel like the Warrior of Light and Scions have enough information to make that a plausible guess.

Who knows? Maybe Yda will be tempted to run off and do something stupid and we end up being sent to go after her just in time for crazy stuff to go down.

After thinking on it a bit more, I think it's pretty likely that, rather us going there as the first step to liberate Ala Mhigo, Baelsar's Wall and the events surrounding it will be what starts moving the plot in that direction. That would let the game continue its current pattern of having the MSQ dungeon happen early on in the quests without things feeling too sudden or rushed, and I hope it (or something like it) ends up being the direction taken.

Originally Posted by Theodric

So far most of those pushing for Ala Mhigo to be reclaimed are just as extreme - if not more so - than the more aggressive Garleans we've encountered.

Well, SOME of them have been. Remember, Ilberd isn't the entire resistance, and while there have certainly been other extremists, there have been plenty of moderates in and around Little Ala Mhigo as well. In fact, hasn't it been pretty much confirmed that there are multiple factions of the resistance, some which we'll oppose and some we'll be working directly with? We'll certainly not be working with Ilberd, that's for sure.