Revelations from Keynote II

[DarthSanguine]

Is it just me or does Titania resemble Alisaie a lot?

Nope, not just you. That was the first thing I thought as well. Given that Titania is important to the plot, and we're becoming Warriors of Darkness, maybe in this expansion we have to encourage the summoning of Primals, but in order to control them we use incarnate summoning (like Shiva, Thordan, and Tsukuyomi). Maybe Alisaie becomes Titania, and Alphinaud becomes the Nu Mou's Primal. After all, we didn't see either of them in the trailer.

[Lauront]

They were a little coy on the topic of Titania's nature.

That aside, I wonder if the pixie zone will be set on the First. I'm leaning towards "no", because I think any such content mostly be dealt with via instanced content, however it's certainly the most ethereal and "otherwordly" zone so far. Which of course means nothing, per se. The architecture is reminiscent of Gridania, so they may tie it into that region's lore, maybe linking it to some cultural cross-pollination of some sort.

Now, since Dalmasca has been heavily hinted at in Orbonne, I think at least a few (1-2) zones will be there, and the Rak'tika Greatwood near it. If they stick with the pattern of 6 zones per expansion, and it's not on the First, I'm guessing at a zone in the southern provinces of Ilsabard. I wouldn't rule out Sharlayan yet, but I've a feeling they may reserve it and even the rest of Ilsabard (and maybe the moon if it plays no role for now) for 6.0, particularly as there's some hints at possible Ascian influence there - it'd be an obvious point of interest to them due to its heavy magic prowess and as the origin of most Scions. Fits in with the timing for the wrap up of the Zodiark/Hydaelyn arc.

Regarding G'raha, he makes the most sense to me for that character. I had thought Fordola, due to the tattoos and facial structure, but the body is too clearly male and the face is basically the same as he's got, plus the "tattoos" differ. The real questions will be who's in him (assuming there is but the robes suggest it is likely - the unusual colouration could be hinting at Elidibus), what caused the corruption and what role is he playing. We'll probably need to wait till 4.57 to get a better indicator.

[Fenral]

Now that I've done some digging, I'm certainly hoping the NieR raid doesn't include a true ending choice that deletes our character data.

[SannaR]

At least we can't die because of eating a fish. XD

[Kalise]

At least we can't die because of eating a fish. XD

No, but I'd be careful about the wine that might come with a fish meal

[Anonymoose]

I'm just trusting in the system this time around. We had all these same doubts and debates with Ivalice and (yeah, Matsuno-san broke a few vases they're still sweeping up, but) everyone worked hard to fit it into the world and make it something new and it was totally worth it and I'm sure they can do that again.

What's Yoko Taro's mantra? "Tell Square Enix to give me money, and I will do it for you."

He seems perfectly capable of manifesting his insanity within the confines of, "Hydaelyn is isolated; your ideas will be manifested anew within this world to fit this world. Other than that, do whatever you want and don't bruise the world lore too badly." Hell, what if he just turns following those rules into part of the craziness?

I'm usually the strictest one in the room but...

Worst case scenario, one isolated raid questline is a mess and we still got to play an MMO raid randomly custom-designed by Yoko Taro and Yosuke Saito.

Strap me in.

[Dualblade]

I pointed this out in another thread but gonna say it again here: Its very easy to make YoRHa fit into XIV without making it involve anything outside the planet (other then Omega jumpstarting Allagan tech)

In the Fractal dungeon we encounter Manikans, which look like Hyurs (if they weren't once Hyurs/clones given that they are found in Fractal). They are a nod to the Manikins of Dissidia.

The Manikins are revealed in 012 to have been created from materials found in the Void, being able to grow into copies of those around them but having no will of their own essentially being puppets. Chaos, Cosmos, and even the Dissidia version of 1's Warrior of Light are revealed to be Manikins, with a few other characters theorizing that they might also be such.

In NieR: Automata its eventually revealed that the YoRHa androids have the same core as the Machines they fight, making a very similar case there to that of the Machines, that alongside how human-like the machines have become they are more alike then anyone thought outside those who were in the know.

Point being outside the spoilers, YoRHa could easily be varients of the Manikins, either as an elite version of them or a varient that survived to the present day. If anything it isn't the YoRHa you should be worried about being in XIV, its what else in NieR and more importantly, Drakengard, might be brought into the game as well.

[silentwindfr]

it can be simpler, it can be a rest of a calamity before that was found on an island land of earth and suddenly awaken.... hell it can be even like to the world of light...

[Cilia]

Now that I've done some digging, I'm certainly hoping the NieR raid doesn't include a true ending choice that deletes our character data.

*Darth Sidious voice*: Do it.

While it's a very unfair choice, that's life!

Yes, they can probably work [the NieR Automata crossover] in with "Allagan AI robots" or something, but I dislike the fact that the concept has to be introduced to fit this foreign narrative instead of because FFXIV's story-writers decided that their story called for the existance of Allagan AI robots (and whatever other concepts they have to work in).

It cheapens the world of FFXIV. Instead of having its own original lore, it becomes a patchwork of other stories that you know exist in other games. Which is fine if that's the entire premise of the game from the start (eg. Kingdom Hearts) but when it starts off original and then all these story-heavy crossovers start creeping in, it's disappointing.

If I want to play NieR, I will play NieR. I don't want to be forced to play NieR in the middle of FFXIV.

This is the ultimate issue I take with the heavy crossovers - they cheapen the world of Hydaelyn by splicing in large pieces of other worlds. While there have been some big references before, they've all been one-off events that have characters explicitly not native to Hydaelyn (Lightning, Shantotto, Iroha) or otherwise have little to no impact on its own world (Yo-kai Watch, Rathalos). The Crystal Tower was the big reference in 2.x, but so much of it was changed around that it doesn't resemble III's story much beyond the names (Doga and Unei weren't clones of ancient royalty, for starters).

The point is, if you want to play an Ivalice game go play that game. If you want to play NieR or its sequel, go play those games (the original might not be so easy to get ahold of, but still...). There's no need to drag them in here. (And I'm saying this as someone who did play some of Automata and did enjoy it, so I can appreciate it more than the Ivalice stuff... it's the principle of the matter. Hydaelyn, as a setting, should stand on its own merits. That said, I am eagerly looking forward to the gear, if nothing else. The Head Bandage is a poor substitute for the YoRHa "headband"...)

It's not just young Minfilia from the past. She still has her glowing "Word of the Mother" eyes.

Noticed that a bit late. That means her de-aging is more likely to be a consequence of "absorbing light"... or some complex nonsense we can't guess yet.

More happy about unmasked Urianger.

That was more of an exasperated comment than a serious one. The vast majority of people asking for Viera I've seen just have a bunny girl fetish and want them playable for that reason alone.

B-besides, we've already seen Urianger unmasked during our final showdown with the Warriors of Darkness!

---

The thing is... it's implied the Allagan manikins are soulless but flesh-and-blood beings. The YoRHa units, debatably, are the exact opposite - mechanical beings with genuine souls.

The most advanced Allagan machina we've seen aren't anywhere near as advanced as the YoRHa units. We do have some mammets that, arguably, have souls (Gigi the Goldsmith and "Vivi" from Hildibrand's 3.x story), but they're even less advanced. The YoRHa units are physically indistinguishable from ordinary humans.

That said, if I had to wager a guess now I would have to agree that Allag will probably have something to do with it (again...).

[Dualblade]

The thing is... it's implied the Allagan manikins are soulless but flesh-and-blood beings. The YoRHa units, debatably, are the exact opposite - mechanical beings with genuine souls.

The most advanced Allagan machina we've seen aren't anywhere near as advanced as the YoRHa units. We do have some mammets that, arguably, have souls (Gigi the Goldsmith and "Vivi" from Hildibrand's 3.x story), but they're even less advanced. The YoRHa units are physically indistinguishable from ordinary humans.

Do we ever learn anything about them? I always assumed they were nods to Dissidia, where most of them are just as you said. The few that are more then that are where I get the idea for YoRHa being able to be manikins in the XIV version. Even more so since the manikins that (seem to) gain souls in Dissidia are the ones given transplanted memories just as YoRHa have transplanted memories (though in that case its to give them a sense of purpose in fighting for humanity while they also are completed aware the memories don't belong to them.)

That said, if I had to wager a guess now I would have to agree that Allag will probably have something to do with it (again...).

So I kinda maybe, sorta, prior to Lore Book 2, had started coming up with a back story involving YoRHa in XIV that would have involved the First Astral Era civilization. Then I finally got to read it and realized the interpretation I had of the First Astral Era being about as technological as Allagans were ended up being wrong (I'm not even quite sure how I got the notion.)

So Allagans it has to be if it isn't more recent, so long as XIV YoRHa were made on Hydaelyn.