How do ascians come into existence?

[Zojha]

That's a pretty clear and definitive claim to go back on. I would develop trust issues, lol.

It is, but on the other hand: We already had more than one visitor from Vana'diel, namely Shattoto and Iroha. In that sense, they've already gone back on that, as a cross-over requires some form of connection.

Whether it gets further than that remains to be seen. Could well be they go all like:"Evil guy X is creating a hole to another dimension, we gotta follow and stop him!" -> Venture to Ivalice in a similar way, except with a return option.

Personally, I ain't got the faintest. But it does seem like they're going to go back on that in one way or the other.

[Anonymoose]

We already had more than one visitor from Vana'diel, namely Shattoto and Iroha. <...> Could well be they go all like:"Evil guy X is creating a hole to another dimension, we gotta follow and stop him!" -> Venture to Ivalice in a similar way, except with a return option.

In the grand scheme of things, I'm with you. I tend to interpret things conservatively (e.g. good theories are just as likely to be unanticipated houses of cards as they are reliable conclusions, so I wait for citations), but I'm with you. Why am I hesitant here? Because even Lightning Returns seemed to make the lore team flinch a bit, lol.

This plays into one layer of separation I try to keep in my own personal understanding of the canon. Even XIV-specific holiday events feel a "layer-up" from the concrete in-world canon, so to speak. Sometimes greater truths outside of the holiday bubbles are revealed within them, but overall they're also less plausible, sillier, and time passes differently within them. ("I'm so glad you joined us on this day, the third anniversary of the Calamity being five years ago.") It's not dissimilar to Hildibrand or the Relic chains (which the lore team has said in the past might not always make sense, might not always follow the rules, but you can decide for yourself how canon they are). Sometimes they're not the ones who decide that something is happening, they're just assigned to make it work as well as they can.

Until now, this seems to have been handled by assigning blame, lol. Rather than opting Hydaelyn into the Interdissidomegamesh Rift multiverse, they blamed it on the other game making room in its canon for XIV. Shantotto, Buhnivelze, Nybeth, Altana, and Nohi the Wandering Executive were the ones breaking the rules and opting-in. They just arrived somehow, and left things as they found them on the way out.

So, no - there is nothing stopping Yasumi Matsuno from opting XII into XIV.
He could easily create something inherent to XII's universe that allows it to transcend into ours without opting Hydaelyn into anything.

There's just not the same precedent for it (YET!) on this level - the hard canon story arc level. Crystal Tower didn't literally bring us to Final Fantasy III. The Warring Triad literally didn't bring us to Final Fantasy VI. Hydaelyn already has its own Dalmasca that is totally not that Dalmasca. And now we have (seemingly) contradictory statements that Ivalice is completely independent of Final Fantasy XIV but definitely not an homage in its 4.0 appearance.

It can go still go any way. Really, I'm just holding the front line so I still know where it is when we put the new flags down, lol. The community collective unconscious forgetting that something has been fanon all along is the worst.

[Cilia]

It is, but on the other hand: We already had more than one visitor from Vana'diel, namely Shattoto and Iroha. In that sense, they've already gone back on that, as a cross-over requires some form of connection.

In general, there is a faint connection between all Final Fantasy worlds through the Interdimensional Rift. This is how Gilgamesh appears time and again and, unlike most recurring elements of the franchise, is the exact same being who appeared in V. More than Shantotto and Iroha have appeared in Eorzea thanks to that - Gilgamesh, Ultros, and Lightning have all made visits.

However, having characters from other games appear in temporary events is quite a different thing to having Hydaelyn linked to the Ivalice. Grafting one setting, or a facsimile thereof, into another sends up some red flags for me. The interdimensional rift angle is even worse.

That's not to say XIV Ivalice is or will be the Ivalice, or a facsimile thereof, or that we will be going to the Ivalice. I'm still holding to the "wait and see" approach. However, with it having been said before there is no link between Ivalice and Hydaelyn, and now Yoshi-P's saying it's not just an homage... alarm bells are ringing.

[Sylvain]

There's just not the same precedent for it (YET!) on this level - the hard canon story arc level. Crystal Tower didn't literally bring us to Final Fantasy III. The Warring Triad literally didn't bring us to Final Fantasy VI.

This sums up what I think.
Crystal Tower and Warring Triad were fan service and well implemented in the game without linking 14 to other games.
It's just that, in regard to Ivalice, the amount of "fan service" and little things piles up a bit too much and it would really really feel odd that in the end there would be no connection.
I mean, they just need to reveal in a patch that the 12 gods from the Ancient times are "Hydealin ascien" to go even more in that direction and litterally make ff12 and 14 lore pratically the same... except for the geopolitical setting

[LineageRazor]

I think I'm in the same boat as others who are alarmed by the idea of there being a direct connection between Hydaelyn and Ivalice. While I get a big kick out of homages like Crystal Tower and the Warring Triad, and limited scope, quasi-canonical crossovers like Lightning, Shantotto, and Iroha are somewhat okay, the idea of a large-scale connection between the two games does not appeal to me.

I continue to hope that Ivalice will NOT be the very same Ivalice as featured in FFXII. I liked FFXII, and I like FFXIV, but like other entries in the franchise they are separate games, with their own universes that operate by different sets of universal laws. They should remain firmly differentiated.