Thread: 8.0 speculation

The current trend seems to be blending the protagonists and antagonists of previous titles and having them play antagonistic roles in the plotline, which is likely why people are reading the leaves and coming up with that. I would prefer an original plotline instead of a loose adaptation of a previous entry, but that does seem to be the direction things are headed if post-Endwalker's Void Arc and Dawntrail are accurate bellwethers.

Were I a betting man (and I assure you, I am not) my money would be on X.

Originally Posted by Cleretic

I think the next one going in on X would be a safe and strong bet, but I think VIII is an interesting vein they haven't done much with before, and I wouldn't be surprised to see that one take the lead. Or go absolutely wild and we hit, like, Type-0.

VIII has it's iconic Triple Triad as an almost omnipresent part of the game, GNB which is pattered after Squall and Seifer's combat techniques, and Eden which is an abridged adaptation of VIII as a yuri romance instead of het. (You can't convince me otherwise.)

Outside of some cosmetics and the "obscure even to most X fans" Pelupelu randomly showing up in Dawntrail, what does X have? I'm drawing a bit of a blank...

I'd still prefer an original plot, I'm just saying.

Originally Posted by Cleretic

I feel like X's had a lot of what I'd call 'undercurrent referencing'. It's rarely the main thing getting overtly referenced but it's clearly a prominent part of the pool. Like the Pelupelu, but also the Ronso being an inspiration for the Hrothgar (including being named that on the First), Bismarck basically being a Sin trial, Shadowbringers Amaurot DEFINITELY being based on Zanarkand, and I suspect the pilgrimage was an inspiration point for Dawntrail's rite of succession. It definitely has taken center-stage at some points, probably most prominently with Anima, but I feel like overall it's very rarely not in the mix. At the very least I feel like, if you did knuckle down and write out a 'FFX Expansion' you'd hit a lot more moments of 'huh, I guess they did use that before' than you'd expect.

I'd put VIII and X pretty much on par in terms of how many times XIV has 'done' them, with both of them being surprisingly rare for how prominent they are and both pretty well-positioned to be the next 'core' game for an expansion to riff on. It's just that VIII has gotten one or two more tentpole references you can very easily point to.

...come to think of it, patterning Halmarut on Edea/Ultimecia would be a pretty natural pick for an Ascian that's still fairly fresh.

Valid points, though personally I wouldn't consider Bismark a riff on the Sin fight. I have a bad habit of forgetting about the Hrothgar ("Ronso") because like the Pelupelu they're pretty small in presence even in X other than Kimahri (who is... not the most popular character), and Anima... wound up being shockingly minimal in presence for the hyped-up fight against an iconic summon. It's easy to forget; and yeah, I know it's because they mashed the "Garlemald War 2: Electric Boogaloo" expansion into Endwalker.

I don't know if I would consider the first act of Dawntrail as being a take on the Summoner's Pilgrimage; the characters are still a bit too patterned after IX characters and the goal is nothing alike. I feel it's got shades of IX's Mist / Outer Continent sections, but it's just a little too truncated to fully commit.

With my memory jogging, I figure... maybe we already "did" "The X Expansion" back in Heavensward, or at least poked at it's narrative premise (albeit with a lot less angst and fake laughing).

I doubt we'd get another take on Ultimecia, though. Her character is already decomposited into Gaia (time magic, E12S boss) and Mitron (real name Artemis, referencing Ultimecia's JP name "Artemisia;" shares her goal of time compression, summons Griever / Fatebreaker, forcibly junctions (fuses) a protagonist to herself, etc.) so I'm skeptical they'd do that; and in my opinion Edea doesn't have enough character on her own to carry that kind of role.

We can kick around ideas all day, but at this point I think there's still just not enough information to make even an educated guess. At 7.45 we should start getting some information soon, though we didn't get the impetus to venture to Tural until 7.55 so who knows.