Hints of whats to come in 7.0

[RyuDragnier]

There's no way they're going to force Bozja on the MSQ people, so I'm not sure how they would incorporate Dalmasca in an organic way.

Bozja doesn't need to be done. All the important parts from it? Happen off screen in the field records. Ivalice would be the only thing required to be mandatory.

[Boblawblah]

Bozja doesn't need to be done. All the important parts from it? Happen off screen in the field records. Ivalice would be the only thing required to be mandatory.

I can't see them retroactively forcing Ivalice on people though, it'll be CT all over again with people confused/frustrated on either having no clue what is going on in the MSQ or being forced to stop the MSQ to complete a seemingly unrelated raid series.

[SaitoHikari]

Bozja doesn't need to be done. All the important parts from it? Happen off screen in the field records. Ivalice would be the only thing required to be mandatory.

Arguably Ivalice doesn't need to be mandatory either. Almost everything important that happens in that quest line concerns the very distant history of Dalmasca, which would have no bearing on the present day.

There's the whole stuff with Fran and Ashe, but we didn't actually do much with Fran and we don't even meet Ashe. Any conflicts with a potential post-liberation Dalmasca storyline would just be a matter of 'oh we've seen you helping out with the Prima Vista before'. On the other hand, making Ivalice mandatory might actually be good for the game overall, because it would mean Alliance Roulette isn't just going to remain people spamming Crystal Tower to hell and back.

The only reason Ivalice was mandatory for Bozja was because of Mikoto taking center stage in the latter questline.

[RyuDragnier]

Arguably Ivalice doesn't need to be mandatory either. Almost everything important that happens in that quest line concerns the very distant history of Dalmasca, which would have no bearing on the present day.

Actually there is one important thing about it...it's what led Fran to actually talking to the Eorzean Alliance, and likely learning about the Scions themselves. Working with us would also get her to trust us. So I could see them making it mandatory...plus that helps brings up the player skill level since Ivalice ain't exactly easy for a lot of players.

[MikkoAkure]

Arguably Ivalice doesn't need to be mandatory either. Almost everything important that happens in that quest line concerns the very distant history of Dalmasca, which would have no bearing on the present day.

Bits of Dalmasca show up in the Bozja storyline as Valnain is the IVth legion’s capital and it appears in cutscenes. The city is infamously liberated off-screen in the Field Records.

Considering the ruined state of Rabanastre and Valnain being a Garlean stronghold in another side story, if both Ivalice and Bozja are skipped, there wouldn’t really anywhere for us to go in a potential expansion there and the state of the 2 biggest cities in the country would have to be danced around if you haven’t done them yet.

[SaitoHikari]

Actually there is one important thing about it...it's what led Fran to actually talking to the Eorzean Alliance, and likely learning about the Scions themselves. Working with us would also get her to trust us. So I could see them making it mandatory...plus that helps brings up the player skill level since Ivalice ain't exactly easy for a lot of players.

Bits of Dalmasca show up in the Bozja storyline as Valnain is the IVth legion’s capital and it appears in cutscenes. The city is infamously liberated off-screen in the Field Records.

Considering the ruined state of Rabanastre and Valnain being a Garlean stronghold in another side story, if both Ivalice and Bozja are skipped, there wouldn’t really anywhere for us to go in a potential expansion there and the state of the 2 biggest cities in the country would have to be danced around if you haven’t done them yet.

Hmm. Yeah, it would be really messy if we actually did go to Dalmasca without completing both Ivalice or Bozja. Though who even knows anymore, the writers may just decide that they're not going to bother with forcing people to go through previous side content and assume everyone did it already.

That, plus Erenville’s mention of a homecoming, would initially make me think of the blank spots of Ilsabard and Western Othard. We still have mysteries there like the flying whale, floating islands, and the giant.

It's also worth noting that the stuff about Erenville's homecoming is a voiced line. It has major significance, and isn't throwaway optional dialogue you could get by talking to him outside of a cutscene.

Going to Southern Islabard/Western Othard would give the opportunity for the devs to do the following:

- Introduce more Viera lore, to make them less of a fanservice race. More Horathgar lore too.
- Fully reveal the map of the Three Great Continents
- Explore Doma's relationship with the surrounding nations. Remember that Hien was setting up an alliance of Othardian nations towards the end of the Stormblood patch series, and we saw representatives from Nagaxia and Dalmasca
- Tie up the loose ends with the Ivalice/Bozja arcs
- Tie up all the loose ends with the Garelmald arc, of which it's rather widely known at this point that the Garlemald arc being as rushed/off-screened as it did left a sour taste in a significant portion of the community

Unless something major happened off-screen across the seas that would have resulted in an unknown faction sending someone to the Three Great Continents for help (with said representative somehow learning about very specific members of the Scions with very specific qualities such as political neutrality to send those invitations to them), and unless Erenville came from some unknown Viera enclave across the seas rather than Nagaxia, it's far more likely those missives came from someone in Corvos/Dalmasca/Nagaxia instead.

I can't see us just going across the seas to Mercydia or the New World so soon, while leaving all of the above on the table. They could always revisit all of this after we head overseas, but it would be extremely difficult. The reception to returning to a 'past arc' area in a post across-the-seas expansion climate would be very poor ('why are we wasting time dealing with old shit when we have all this new stuff right here'). Yoshi-P absolutely isn't going to do Matsuno dirty by potentially shoving all of this into Criterion Dungeon-level side content either.

Plus, going to Corvos/Dalmasca/Nagaxia first also gives the overseas content time to cook in the oven in regards to writing and world design, especially now that we likely have writers returning from XVI development.

Well, we probably won't need to wait until 6.5 to figure out where the next expansion is headed. We'll likely find out where we are going in 2 months, when NA fanfest happens.

[Jeeqbit]

If people like Lyon are characters in the expansion, it would be really cool, but it would be difficult to explain their role in the Bozja war and liberation and the whole history that happened there without Bozja being required.

Most likely what they would do is just write the story as if that didn't happen and not mention it except briefly if you did the story. Skating over the entire liberation of Bozja does seem like not discussing the elephant in the room, but they have managed it before with subjects like the Coils of Bahamut or the events of the Eden raids where the entire plot of that is conveniently avoided in the MSQ even though it's a big part of the plot of the MSQ. If you've done all of the Shadowbringers role quests, those are also a big part of the plot of the MSQ that are conveniently avoided in the MSQ.

[TaleraRistain]

They could just use the Unending Journey.

[CelestiCer]

Probably more Job homogenization's... Though I could swear I am forgetting something regarding 7.0... I can't recall what....

[SaitoHikari]

Oh. I remembered seeing this last year. Even more for the 'we're most likely going to Corvos/Dalmasca/Nagaxia' pile.

The lead writer for the next expansion's main quest had already been announced in a live letter last year. Daichi Hiroi.



Considering that resume, his work is very fitting to start a new story arc with. Lots of world building. The Bard and Dancer quests in particular had a very fun dynamic and built on existing lore in a lot of different locations, compared to most other job quests largely being confined to a single location/subject.