Revelations from the Announcement Showcase

[Wyssahtyn]

Didn't expect Thavnair to be so lush. New beast tribe is Ortolan. Statue in one of the concept arts they showed off looked rather Sophia-like. The raids are thankfully original this time around. Well, original as XIV goes at any rate, won't see exactly how original they are until we get more details. Mm... I have to say, I'm not particularly hyped. Rather lukewarm with my excitement really.

[Erendis]

New 8-man raid will be "totally original," but is named after FF2's final dungeon and features a surprise return from an antagonist we assumed was dead and gone.

/doubt

Except...

Lahabrea was the Scion of Light associated with Mateus the Corrupt. Mateus Palamecia, better known as "the Emperor," was the main antagonist of Final Fantasy II. He was slain as a minor boss a little past the halfway mark but, in death, usurped the throne of hell itself and waged war against the world of the living from the castle Pandaemonium.

So they're failing miserably in the originality department right out the gate, but even so, it's a cool nod.

Pretty sure they said Pandemonium is new 8 man. And 24-man will be totally original.

[Fenral]

I typed too fast, but your quote caught my corrected post. Either way, he said both would be totally original.



(Me dissing that statement it is a friendly jab, not an attack on Yoshida's integrity.)

[MrThinker]

Pretty sure they said Pandemonium is new 8 man. And 24-man will be totally original.

Lahabrea's opposite esper in FFXII is Mateus. Mateus is the name of the FFII emperor in some materials. The emperor took command of the castle in hell, pandemonium and became the new ruler of Hell. Lahabrea is returning man.

[Lauront]

The Lahabrea thing does indeed seem like a very strong nod to his Mateus aspect. Whether there will be a more literal role for Lahabrea to play remains to be seen - his soul wasn't returned to the Aetherial Sea in the usual way Ascian souls are. It was in Nidhogg's eyes until Estinien pierced those. Who knows what happened to him whilst in them.

I'll reserve judgement. The image at the end of Hydaelyn/Zodiark is interesting, and I wonder if that's where they're going with Anima. Incidentally, a screamer, summoned from the Underworld, and one born of pain, something Fandaniel touches on in one of his rants. My guesses are some forced fusion of the two primals, perhaps linked to the ultimate origin of the Final Days.

The reversed version:



Her sceptre does look a bit like Mateus's, as a side note:



The comment they made that there's no good or evil but just light and dark with reference to the inspiration for the image is a reinforcement of the point from earlier on I suppose. EDIT: Apparently it's no light and dark as well. Hmm so it may be touching on something symbiotic about them, or how they require each other to exist; she exists against a contrast of darkness, he against one of light. Possibly as a result of her being grafted onto him to summon her. This is a IV inspired expansion and the moon played a strong part in that (so wouldn't be surprised if Zemus appears at one point or other), but at the same time with Zodiark shielding the "moon" I wonder if there's some IX reference going on here, where you had two linked worlds - linked through the Underworld, maybe, with the Source attacked through some cross-world invasion. Zodiark seems very distressed, whereas Hydaelyn seems placid, and this looks like scene where he's being enervated. If I'm not mistaken, the moon was created when Zodiark was expelled, so it's peculiar that he's shielding it pre-sundering. May have something to do with the world "glowing" when the derplander approaches it from the moon - cutting a very Elidibus-like figure for a brief moment. A Gaia/Terra dynamic dating to ancient times would be interesting, if that's the aim. The top of her sceptre looks like a moon, with a reddish sphere behind it. Both IV and IX featured a red moon, with IX doing so in relation to Terra.

I'm still expecting Sharlayan to be the "big" city for 6.0. Thavnair is a nice surprise. I am guessing we're going to get some more coverage of Ilsabard and the moon concluding the zones.

Overall, I'm just lukewarmly interested to see where they're taking things, since it does look like they will touch on the ultimate cause of the Final Days and say Fandaniel has a more complex story than we thought. Still hoping Zenos is dropped by the end of 6.0, although the comments on his one-sided "friendship" make me wonder. If they're adding a scythe job I kind of expect that will relate to the new weapon he's picking up and serve as a nod to him being Hades's great grandson, as a reaper. Not hugely excited but some interesting aspects and at least they made Zodiark hench AF and not noodle armed.

[Erendis]

The new dungeons:

[Erendis]

I guess the first dungeon they showed and matanga will be in Thavnair.

[Enkidoh]

I'm just pumped that PLD is Derplander's poster-Job for this. Finally, finally, Enki's time to shine has come!

And the 'voidsent' being fought in what looks like Floating City of Nym on fire are FFXI dark dragons, but those have already appeared as voidsent in ARR so no surprises there.

And am I the only one who thinks that Ascian in Hell!Garlemald is a woman and thus not Fandaniel? (Insert jokes about Asahi being a prettyboy here . If that is indeed the case, my money is on 'her' being none other than Altima, as to my knowledge she's the only remaining Ascian overlord unaccounted for. So it would make perfect sense (especially with this now being endgame for the story and Altima being FFT's final boss and all).

*starts humming The Police's 'Walking on the Moon'* hehe

[RyuDragnier]

And am I the only one who thinks that Ascian in Hell!Garlemald is a woman and thus not Fandaniel? (Insert jokes about Asahi being a prettyboy here . If that is indeed the case, my money is on 'her' being none other than Altima, as to my knowledge she's the only remaining Ascian overlord unaccounted for. So it would make perfect sense (especially with this now being endgame for the story and Altima being FFT's final boss and all).

It was confirmed to be Fandaniel during the Showcase by Yoshi-P.

[KageTokage]

Looks like Thravnair is going to get the Holminster Switch treatment and have one of its settlements fall victim to whatever disaster Fandaniel is orchestrating to give us a better perspective of what we're dealing with.

It's a little unfortunate that we're probably not going to actually see any negative repercussions from the second coming of the Final Days outside of MSQ events or instances. Having random high-leveled nasties popping up in older zones in a hunt-like manner would be an interesting way to get us to return to them.