Was this ever explained?

[Enkidoh]

Too much conjecture in that thread... Was hoping for in game answers that I actually missed.

Yeah, although after reading that, I saw there was a few things answered/confirmed/denied by Ferne, but much of that thread is just rumour, and personal theories (some downright weird) which have little more than circumstantial evidence at best, so until proven otherwise, I'd take anything mentioned in that thread with a grain of salt.

But then, this is FF after all - where would the series be without weird theories which have no evidence at all to back them up? (Aeris 'revival'/Cheese Weapon/Holy Kills Humanity/R=U/Squall's Dead etc, to name a few of the most famous fanmade 'theories' from the FF series)

[valetarkus]

I liked the idea of a path companion for sure! But in 1.0 my path companion was just a heap of trash who didn't help worth beans. It's not like the battles were too hard anyway but had the path companion actually doone something to help besides be an extra voice in the cut scenes it might have been cool.

[Vilhem]

Okay, here is what Ferne confirmed from the CG Midlander thread:

http://forum.square-enix.com/ffxiv/t...626#post898626

http://forum.square-enix.com/ffxiv/t...627#post898627

http://forum.square-enix.com/ffxiv/t...498#post936498

I know they don't answer your question directly, but it should give you a good basis on what was going on, and how the nation storylines were all hopping in and out of the Echo andwhatnot.

[Lady]

Okay, here is what Ferne confirmed from the CG Midlander thread:

http://forum.square-enix.com/ffxiv/t...626#post898626

http://forum.square-enix.com/ffxiv/t...627#post898627

http://forum.square-enix.com/ffxiv/t...498#post936498

I know they don't answer your question directly, but it should give you a good basis on what was going on, and how the nation storylines were all hopping in and out of the Echo andwhatnot.

Vilhem, you're my heroine! This answered part of my questions, and answered a ton more of questions I didn't even know I had.. lol

[Enkidoh]

Ferne didn't really directly confirm some of that though, just kind of joked around about it and everyone just took it as gospel

(ala Minfila-Ascilia)

, so for me anyway the jury is still out on that one (although

I do agree about the whole 'jumping back and forth in the Echo', it's nowhere near as constant as everyone made it out to be, especially in the Gridanian storyline.

But then, may Ferne prove me wrong!

[Vilhem]

I dunno, this seemed pretty direct to me

Ascilia is Minfilia? Rightrightrightrightrightrightrightrightright?

Maybemaybemaybemaybemaybemaybemaybemaybemaybemaybe...alright, you got me.
Yes, Minfilia is Ascilia. There, I shall allow you some time to properly gather those pieces of your mind that were splattered across your monitor.


Now it's back to work!

[Vilhem]

Told ya!! Haha. Anonymoose and several others do a splendid job of picking apart those storylines..and yeah there's others with crackpot theories, but the thing with the Echo is probably the most important basis for understanding the nation storylines.

[Jacien]

I really hope our path companions come back. Mine was perfect to me. I chose the best name I could think of.

[Vilhem]

Mine was actually quite useful since he was a gladiator and my only job at the time was conjurer lol. So I let him take the brunt of the damage and just healed/nuked from afar.

Then of course, he got blasted by Gaius in that one cutscene...I was like, dafuq Gaius!!

[IndigoDarkwolf]

By the twelve, that's a lot of lore there from Sir Ferne. Well, sounds like we'll have plenty to learn about the world in 2.0.

About Path Companions:

I liked the idea of an NPC who could travel with me and participate in combat, unfortunately the Path Companions were not up to the job. Combine that with my fierce apathy towards the Path storyline from 1.0, culminating in that Futures Perfect quest, and I'm not really worried whether my Path Companion comes back or not in 2.0. Assuming she survived the Umbral Era, maybe it would be nice to have an off-handed mention of her.

Flotsam thoughts:

You know, for as much as the Umbral Era was hyped, I was expecting it would be a multiple-century thing. Not to suggest that the Fall of Dalamud was anything to stick your nose up at, but... you know. "Era". The 1500 years of the 6th Astral Era was an era. 5 years for the 7th Umbral "Era" just seems flimsy by comparison.