Quote Originally Posted by Cilia View Post
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.
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.