More Towers observations, now that I'm going back to level Summoner.

Tower of Babil:
The first two bossess, Barnabas and Dr. Lugae, are obviously references to Final Fantasy IV. Barnabas in particular is a faithful recreation of the original's design, while Dr. Lugae's robotic form is seemingly better adapted to FFXIV's overall Magitek design. A thing I'd like to note about Barnabas, however: If you look at his forehead, you'll see that he has the Garlean Third Eye, meaning just like Inferno and Number #24 from Castrum Abania, he's another Hypertuned experiment. And while attacking Lugae right at the start is also a reference to his dumb behavior in FFIV, lashing out at the man responsible for his transformation with what little will he has left seems probable to me as well.

After defeating Lugae, Alisaie questions whether or not he was Tempered. Regrettably, much like a certain Garlean scientist in Stormblood whose impact long outlived his own appearances, we'll probably never know for certain what his deal was other than "Garlean mad scientist". But I wouldn't be surprised if Lugae was soft implied to be Resonant.

As for Anima/Varis being the final boss... consider the following: The first two bosses are Barnabas and Dr. Lugae. There's a region in Garlemald named the Eblan Rime. And Varis, father to the prince of the region, was turned into a monster against his own will. Zenos is no Edward "Edge" Geraldine, thankfully.

As an aside, the centipede-like spinal constructions all over the place creep me the **** out.