Thread: Predictions for 5.3?

Most of the deep cosmological knowledge we have is not widely known. An interview I saw somewhere said most people aren't even aware of the planet's own name.

After we spent an entire expansion on another world, I seriously doubt we're going to yet another so soon. The recent interview of Yoshi-P up on GameSpot said to brush up on Heavensward for 6.0, so Meracydia or (less likely) Sharlayan are the main contenders without further input.

(Side note: the Yo-Kai Watch event is getting another run the week after the patch drops, now updated with new class weapons and a Jibanyan floating chair mount if you collect them all.)

Originally Posted by Theodric

I wouldn't say no to Meracydia, though at the moment it feels rather disconnected from everything else.

That rather depends on the direction of the story. The Crystal Tower has been an important element of this expansion, as has research on Ultima Weapon and the fallout from Project: Meteor in the Bozja storyline. Everything comes back to the Allagans eventually, and Meracydia was the place Allag had the greatest impact upon. At any point we could see a prompt to go to Meracydia just because of one of those things; it's sort of a "Break Glass" location they've had in their pocket since we learned about Bahamut.

By contrast, in itself there's not been much reason to push towards Sharlayan/the Old World, since they're largely isolationist at this point in the story. Going there at this juncture would be no less of a stretch than Meracydia. But, I won't write it off just yet either.

Ilsabard and Garlemald do seem to be the endgame for 14's main storyline though, since the big reason to push there would be to wrap up the Garlean Empire storyline that has been the premise of the whole game -- the question being if the devs want to do that just yet, or if they have more they can pull out of the war before then.
Shadowbringers seems to be pointing towards an upcoming finale to the Ascian storyline (now that we have an end goal, "Kill Elidibus to end their threat", and a potential new enemy after them, whatever caused the Sound that ended the original world), if not this expansion then relatively soon. Arguably the Garlean story can continue on for a while after the Ascian story, particularly given the country's in-fighting, their relative ignorance of Ascian machinations and Zenos outright rejecting the Ascians and killing the last leader to cooperate with them. And of course fighting the Empire is a great way to drive the story into new corners of the globe before it's dismantled...

Meracydia and/or Sharlayan may seem disconnected from current events, but don't forget that the First is an entire other world (or rather alternate world). We've been on the First for almost the entirety of Shadowbringers, and it only took 2 patch storylines to set it up.

The only current event Source-side is the stalemate war with Garlemald, which we're playing thorough on two fronts (Sorrow of Werlyt / Resistance Weapons), both of which should be wrapped up by the expansion's end (as 6.0's prologue plays out in 5.4 and 5.5). Where things will go then... who's to say? We'll get some hints in 5.3's stinger, but we don't have that just yet.

I think Garlemald is very likely. If nothing else than to swat down a bothersome fly that is doing little more than existing. The endgame is upon us, why not get rid of distractions? Bozja Citadel is basically us taking on it's last real organized force right? The capitol itself is just a battleground of splinter factions vying for power in the wake of the Emperors death and Zenos pretty much neglecting the throne. Time to finish the job (and kill Zenos for good, I really find him and his arc tiresome) and clean up the mess. Classic Final Fantasy style.

Meracydia sounds awesome as a 7.0 expansion area and unraveling its mysteries would be a cool post ascian source questline. Shadows of the new threat a possible link? I mean 5.3 has to unveil someone/something as a new adversary for a chapter two set up.

Lavos, a time manipulating, reality jumping, cosmic entity that eats away at a planets energy, with a distinctive roar, and causes meteor showers upon it's emergence, is still my personal out there theory.

We have time travel, reality hopping, laws of reality coming undone and needing to be rewritten, a sound that drove the ancients mad with fear, and a vision of meteors raining down from the sky, playing on repeat for the last ten-thousand years as a beacon to worthy souls.


But there are many possibilities still in play. I will give you that.

Originally Posted by Riastrad

I mean 5.3 has to unveil someone/something as a new adversary for a chapter two set up.

There's already an implication of a new adversary within Shadowbringers' own climax.

Something caused the Amaurotians' powers to go haywire. A Sound from within the planet led to the creation of the First Doom, and began a cascade of terror that heralded the end of a world.
In classical Final Fantasy fashion: "Oh, these obvious villains you've been fighting since day 1? They're actually extremists pushing back against something much worse, and the rest of the world is just caught in the middle. Since you killed them all, that enemy is now unopposed, setting up the true final boss. Nice Job Breaking It, Hero."

I'm not sure we'll be fighting Lavos specifically (since 14 is a celebration of the entire FF series and Chrono Trigger is just a bit outside that purview)... but that is an interesting theory.

That said, I expect the core of 5.3 will be about wrapping up our involvement in Norvrandt more than dealing with the Ascians themselves. No doubt that we'll fight him again, but to just kill off Elidibus now would feel like kind of a hasty wrap-up on a multi-expansion arc (and extremely soon after Emet-Selch), particularly given how Stormblood was a drought for Ascian content and we've only just learned their motivations.

Besides, Yoshi-P said we wouldn't guess who the trial boss is, and Elidibus is easily the most obvious choice for a big wrap-up trial.

I mean, right? I can see us fighting Elidibus ( I really don't want to just off him and be done with the ascians) and it being a trial. There just has to be something more than that. He just got back into the story and I would rather they explain him instead of killing him off. Moenbryda springs to mind and I would rather not have a repeat of that.

As for Lavos, I said it before, I just can't see references to FFVIII and not think about the other game Square put out later in the same year. Especially when it also dealt with reality traveling (expanse contract) and time compression (eon become instant). My brain just isn't wired to ignore it. Heck there are other posts in this thread by me that also put forward visual similarities. I'm not saying it's 100% accurate, just that it is what it is, a personal theory.