The Wourld(s) of FF14

[Luliouse]

Hello everyone. I have been thinking and speculating for a while now, and decided to place my thoughts on here to see what other might think of as well.
WARNING: Potential Spoilers! Read on at own risk.

Since we wave descovered that there are multiple shards of the wourld off FF14 I have speculated that each Shard reflects one of the numbered Final Fantasies. Since the release of Dawntrail it has strengthen my speculation, as it seems to me to have a strong FF9 feel to it. And to note some of the ingenious easter eggs placed within the story ("I want to be your canary") just to name one. Lol If this is the case, I am super excited to see what the do for the 7th and 8th shards, assuming each one represents its numerical Final Fantacy.

[aTanpopo]

Wasn't the stuff in the 13th with Golbez etc from ff4 though?
I also assumed they would say Alexandria came from the 9th shard, but when I remembered the 13th/void I wasn't so sure

[lolnotacat]

The worlds in the Final Fantasy series are an influence, but they aren't a 1:1. For example Stormblood was heavily influenced by FF6. Crystal Tower was influenced by FF3. Ivalice Raids were influenced by FF12 and Tactics. What they most likely do is write a story and then ask themselves how they can adapt (or in some cases shoehorn in) references to other FF series for member berries.

[Voidmage]

It's really just references nothing more.
There is no real system behind it or at least it doesn't seem so.

The thirteens for example was as much ff4 as it was ff3.
The first was a bit of ff8 in the raids. Other then that nothing really.
As someone else said. Stormblood had ff6 references and ff12 and tactics with the ivalice raids and we already got ff7 in the Shb raid.
DT had ff9 and also a little bit of ff10.
15 and 16 were entirely crossovers.

The shards don't really seem to follow the number stuff and to be honest I hope it stays that way.
FF14 is the best when it only references stuff at surface level or twists it so much it can stay on it's own.
For example:
The voidquestline was so blatant that we could almost completely predict the entire story.
Even the crystal tower raid back then was predictable and is only regarded as great because they spun it into it's own thing entirely.

And the other thing is... I really don't like ff7 and everything with it so I hope it stays mostly away... Really don't get the hype.

If they want to use stuff I would like some more obscure entries that are not as in your face.
Tactics advance for instance could be a good reference for a shard around the judge system if it is used correctly.
Crystal chronicles could be a good canvas for a shard at the brink of a flood that uses crystals to survive and it also has interesting races.

tldr:
There is no system.
When they use other titles as a reference and make their own story --> good
When they ctrl +c --> ctrl + v the stuff --> bad
FF7 is overhyped :3

[Kisshu]

While they do draw inspiration from previous FF games, the shards/reflections are not the different FF worlds.

A case in point: Dragons. From the lore of FFXIV, only the source has dragon's as Midgarsomr didn't arrive until after the sundering. Thus any shards do not have dragons (as we see on the first).
But multiple FF games have dragons, some where they are integral to the plot at times.

[Enkidoh]

As others have stated, the Shards (and the Source too for that matter), draw references from other FF games in place/setting names and lore in a general way, but are not those literal FF worlds - the development team officially debunked that long ago:

1:57:29
Q: A lot of names from Ivalice have been mentioned such as Dalmasca, Belias, and Zodiak. Is there some kind of connection between Hydaelyn and Ivalice?
A: Maehiro: To be absolutely clear, there is no direct connection between FFXIV’s Hydaelyn and FFXII’s Ivalice or even FFXI’s Vana’diel. They are not the same world in different dimensions or time—they are their own separate worlds. However, there are certain connections to people or objects that appear in these other worlds that figure into the story of FFXIV as it has been conceived and is being told.

Yoshida: We’ll be revealing more as we move forward.

Note that dates from quite a few years ago now, but is still definetely relevant (and the kicker is the sharing of Hydaelyn's races across all the shards, many of which do not exist in other FF games, like au ra.). The Shards are not the FF games from FFI through to XIII - they're reflections of the Source where things went slightly differently, but still have connections or similarities to it.).