Iroha

[Cleretic]

There's also the story of Enkidu, which is an FFV thing, and whose primal form is even based directly on his FFV appearance.

Yeah, there's plenty of cameos that are native to the game's universe, but they are all very clearly explained as having in-universe origins in generalities if not specifics. But there is just straight-up no explanation for Gilgamesh aside from 'yeah, he's the same guy'--which itself is accurate to Gilgamesh, because in most games he turns up he's the only guy actually crossing over from another game.

Our Omega's an interesting one, because if we take the Kefka situation to be 'he somehow had contact with and recreated Actual Factual Kefka', then he might plausibly be an Omega from one of the other games, but he can't be all of them because XV's Omega is in the same position of 'has an in-universe origin but also a history of dimensional travel'.

[Alleluia]

Wait. I assumed that she was just brought back to Vanadiel in the FF 11 side of the crossover event. Like how that miqote had a storyline in 15 on their side of the noct event. I don’t know anything about Iroha’s story in 11 but if she’s the player character’s student (and seemingly filled a g’raha- or future!Trunks-like role in time traveling from the bad ending to help the PC), then I assume it’s a significant role? How can she just disappear from their storyline and stay on Etherys indefinitely?

[Alpheus]

Wait. I assumed that she was just brought back to Vanadiel in the FF 11 side of the crossover event. Like how that miqote had a storyline in 15 on their side of the noct event. I don’t know anything about Iroha’s story in 11 but if she’s the player character’s student (and seemingly filled a g’raha- or future!Trunks-like role in time traveling from the bad ending to help the PC), then I assume it’s a significant role? How can she just disappear from their storyline and stay on Etherys indefinitely?

That's exactly how they ended it regarding Iroha barring any details cropping up in the Voracious Resurgence storyline that FFXI is currently in the middle of which i can't speak to as I haven't reached that story content yet. And the XIV XI event doesn't have a XI side of it. It basically is a epilogue that's only found in XIV. There's a reason they're very good at telling stories in a MMO in XIV and it's because they've been doing it and improving on that kind of storytelling since 2002 with FFXI. With the storyline in XI being where you're just an Adventurer building up your reputation not a WoL.

[Alleluia]

So is her absence just not noticed at the moment by the 11 characters cus she was off doing her own thing beforehand? Or is her absence noted but currently unexplained? Is she assumed dead? Assumed to have time travelled back to her future?



And, with regards to the OP, I liked her well enough and I think the connection to 11’s world and characters is neat. It could be cool to have Iroha involved in a story in 14. You could easily introduce her in a storyline I think, even if someone hasn’t done the crossover. Then, if you did do Maiden’s Rhapsody, you might get some special acknowledgment in dialogue. Kinda like Alisiae and whether or not you ran coils before she came back into the msq post-HW.

[Alpheus]

I can't answer that as while I am at the final boss fight for Rhapsodies of Vanadiel I have not beaten it yet as I can't justify being subbed to two MMOs at the moment. So I can't speak to how her absence is handled in FFXI but there was a different XI character in a prior storyline who is erased in a existential way and it was handled as if it was permanent* but with Rhapsodies of Vanadi'el being a curtain call for the game and it's 5 prior expansions said character does make an appearance of sorts, and at the time the Dev team was under the assumption that RoV was the last planned story content, until YoshiP approved the budget for FFXI's 20th anniversary which is why the XI Dev team is now doing the Voracious Resurgence storyline currently.

So I can see Iroha being stuck on Etherys. We'll find out in a day or so as there is a JP language only 5 hour livestream for XI's 20th anniversary on the 8th. It's either gonna be my wildest dreams as a fan of FFXI or a funeral where they announce the hardware death of the last PS2 Devkits that they have to use to make XI content (yes really, which is why YoshiP has been trying to get XI on the cloud in some fashion to avoid such a instance).

*: And just to clarify, the story beat in question isn't undone iirc and the character was treated as if they were written out permanently for about 4-5 years, but the Devs at the time of RoV's planning were under the impression "this is it" so they, naturally, wanted to include that character for the game's send off.

[rainichan]

tbf the beginning of RoV has her talking about how she was set adrift to get back to the past, and that the spirits guided her back. I believe her story in XIV's crossover is that she was waylaid in Eorzea by accident while traveling back in time (it's been a hot minute since I've done the event,) so I would assume she would connect back to the spirits that were bringing her back to 884 Vana'diel and return to where she should be. After all, she isn't around once the event ends and RoV plays out otherwise.

[Fenral]

I'm not sure where exactly it all fits in, but Iroha is presently lost in the Sky Realm in a Granblue Fantasy crossover event (another part of FFXI's 20th anniversary festivities).

The story seems to involve Promathia/Shinryu escaping Abyssea and creating a split timeline in the Sky Realm where the sky is red (and not blue). The captain (that is, the PC) is pulled into a cavernous maw and winds up in this alternate timeline, where the world seems to be intersecting with Vana'diel and Abyssea. I don't know enough about XI to pinpoint where it falls in the Rhapsodies timeline, but everyone (Prishe, Prishe, Ulmia, Lilisette) seems to recognize Iroha (except Iroha).


It's also worth mentioning that Shantotto (because of course she's in it) indirectly references her trip to Eorzea.

[Alpheus]

It's post Rhapsodies going by your description, given the Granblue Devs ( or at least the director) is a huge ffxi fan I'm not surprised they used Abyssea. It had some neat implications awesome music and could have been further explored but I guess they just wanted to keep Abyssea to a 3 add-on storyline.