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.

[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.