Thread: 3.5/4.0 Speculation & Discussion (Spoilers)

Originally Posted by PArcher

Just to play with this more, I bet how people feel about the Empire really comes down to which Legion conquered them.

This could be a pretty meaningful observation. (And who rules them after, of course.) Garleans, Ala Mhigans, and Resistance alike seemed united in saying that the tone of the Western Theatre changed once "Nael" van Darnus assumed control of it. There might not be much oversight until it's deemed necessary; each territory might reflect its unique rule, better or worse. Recall that the VIth faced little dissent and got along so famously with their occupied territories that they took bribes as a militia-for-rent ... until it eroded their integrity.

Originally Posted by Theodric

I'm still confused by the claim that Zenos is 'evil' given that he's in charge of the XIIth Legion.

Originally Posted by Cilia

It could be that Zenos is actually a good person pretending to be a tyrant

As Belhi said, the main "Zenos is actually evil." arises from Naoki Yoshida himself.

Gaius was apparently never supposed to be sympathetic, they just accidentally created the perfect storm to stoke that sentiment. 1.00 introduced him as literally Judge Vader. He was brutal, he was badass, and he murdered everyone Minfilia assigned you to help when the Path of the Twelve stumbled upon an Ala Mhigan Resistance operation. Then someone flashier, more brutal, with less principle, mercy, and sanity showed up and abused him for several patches before Gaius threw him into a laser shaft betrayed him to the Alliance for bringing dishonor to Garlemald and deceiving the Emperor. Then SE got to sit back and watch as people proclaimed, "Hell, yeah! Wolfy is back! Team Greater Good! BFFs!", which wasn't quelled very much when some people couldn't really get behind the GC leadership.

They almost made him hateful again throughout ARR, but it turned out that he'd never recovered from his fall from grace in the first place and was trying to outmaneuver another really awful choice for a Garlean leadership figure. So Gaius, still pathetically desperate to reclaim his honor and position, teamed up with the Ascians and got tossed aside when his goals weren't even really ever on the table. Meanwhile being pretty much correct in most of his statements: Your leaders are weak. Your lands are plagued in false beliefs. More primals are coming. Go ahead and summon your gods, watch how well that works out for you. So now we've got Varis Repeat-Allag's-Mistakes zos Galvus and a certain faction of public sentiment, myself included, stuck with this sense of "This guy's a threat to The Mission and Garlean honor both! Where my Wolf at!? It's greater good time! You can still be great!"

Yoshida seems to want to avoid that entirely, lol. (Not that there's no room for a "Larsa" someday.)

Famitsu
You also said that Zenos will have a unique personality compared to the previous generals. Is there anything you can tell us about that?

Yoshida
I will just say that he will be a character which no one will sympathize with.

Famitsu
It seems like he holds a katana. By some chance, does he…?

Yoshida
His weapon has nothing to do with his personality, but if you’re asking if it’s a gunblade then yes, it is. Try to look at his art again (laugh). We received a lot of thoughts from players that they wanted to work for Gaius because the 3 cities were “brown noses” so they couldn’t bring themselves to like them. In case of Zenos, I think no one will think of him like that. (laugh) He’s a type of villain you haven’t seen so far.

Originally Posted by Cilia

While Nael had some conspicuous similarities to Sephiroth, aside from being on a floating continent with the Warring Triad we don't really have any major similarities between Regula and any VI character that I know of.

There are some potential Kefka nods, but they seem pretty subtle. The most obvious of which being that the Ceruleum Servant he summoned was a tiger, one of the enemies used in Kefka's Tower. Idk where it's going, but I'm pretty sure he's not getting out of 3.5 alive.

I'm actually hoping that neither Regula or Varis die. Not only are they tied to the main story but they're both major players with a lot of potential. Having Regula (or Varis) go crazy for the sake of a 'Kefka' reference feels very off to me. I'd prefer them to succeed at gathering resources from Azyz Lla and serve as long term rather than temporary antagonists. Regula has the potential to be a 'Beatrix', 'Drace' or 'Gabranth' - which is something we're desperately in need of. It's also getting a bit predictable and tiresome for Garleans to become unhinged and crazy at this point. Especially when the protagonists are allowed to operate Allagan technology or stand around Primals/Eikons with absolutely no negative consequences on their part.

It's also possible that Regula will die through tragic circumstances (a recent trend has been for 'sad deaths' for antagonists, after all) but it'd at least be better if he dies saving the Emperor's life and giving Varis a personal reason to hate the Scions and Warrior of Light. If his best friend - and son - end up dead at their hands then that raises the stakes and pretty much adds some pretty major shades of grey.

Elidibus having a servant involved with all the craziness going on in Azyz Lla doesn't bode well, however. I do think that somehow the Scions and Warrior of Light will be tricked into doing something very stupid. Or perhaps Unukali will be the 'Kefka' in the name of a misguided cause. Either way, if something big happens it desperately needs to tie in with the MSQ's.

Originally Posted by Theodric

how tiresome the Hydaelyn's Blessing, The Echo and 'Cid's airship' have become as a means of evading any and all meaningful danger and consequences.

Add "ally with no definite purpose after this arc making the ultimate sacrifice" to that list and the game might as well just end.

Originally Posted by Theodric

We also need less 'dead but not really, just kidding' moments

I'm sorta with you, sorta not, on wanting people to die for realsies. I only want people to die if it has some sort of serious impact on the plot, and not because they "chose" it. But at the same time there's nobody I really want or could accept that to happening to, besides Minfilia, and hers was just so mishandled (and had a 'back for the finale' flag set anyway).

Stuff like [redacted] getting killed in FFXV conveniently right after their powers became no longer needed by the plot is the sort of stuff I can't stand. Nobody dies that perfectly.