I admit I'm expecting a keynote slide that's only "technically true, from a certain point of view", ever since that Shadowbringers announcement slide that said we were going to "bring the fight to the Garlean Empire".
this post was submitted on 25 Jul 2023
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Is it safe for me to watch the keynote not having finished EW yet?
I would play it safe and wait for notes if spoilers for EW and its post campaign content are a big concern and want to be completely blind. Doubt they intend to spoil, but wouldnt be uncommon to hear something like “And since the release of EW 7.5 million people have made it to ‘Location X’ and taken on ‘Bad Guy’ in combat with the help of allies ‘X,Y, and Z’”.
Almost certainly not, if you want to avoid spoilers. There's going to be a lot of discussion not just about the next expansion, but also a lot of the content (including story) coming in patch 6.5, which will be wrapping up the current post-Endwalker story.
My guess: I'm going to assume we are still getting 2 new jobs, both DPS. One casting and one scouting. I think one of the new jobs will be the poster job of the expansion, and that will be the job they reveal on Friday. Why do I think this? Longer speculation below.
The story of FF14 is wonderful. One of the best FF stories ever written. But it is long. Even after cutting back some of the ARR fluff, you're looking at a game that takes hundreds of hours to just get to the level cap. As much as the game really should be about the journey and not the destination, there are some hard truths about the longevity of the game that will need to be addressed. At the end of the road, there needs to be a healthy endgame, which means that there needs to be an adequate rate of replacement for players who eventually leave the game. And the longer it takes to get there, the harder that becomes.
With Endwalker having concluded the story that had been building since 1.0, I think the time for an alternate start is nigh. This is where the two new jobs come in. Like almost all new jobs historically, these ones will start 20 levels below the level cap (i.e. level 80). But unlike other new jobs, these ones are available as starter jobs that players who own the expansion can pick when creating a new character.
When you pick this job, you get an alternate starting story. Your leveling experience is spent learning about the core game mechanics, gaining your actions gradually instead of all at once like older job quests, and concludes with a new level 90 dungeon (trust or duty finder) to get comfortable with group content.
After that, the MSQ bridges with the original. You run into the (former) Scions, they invite you along, and you meet lots of new folks and try to catch up to the story so far. Big twist, however: when you meet up with all of the Scions as a big group for the first time, Derplander is there. He's still the Warrior of Light. You, the alternate start player, are someone else.
What does this mean for veteran players who are the Warrior of Light? Well, you do a bit of intro story, meet up with the Scions, and are joined by someone new. An adventurer with the blessing of the echo who shows a lot of promise. And they aren't the normal Derplander; they are the female Derplander that has not been seen since 1.0. Canonically, she is one of the new jobs and will share the cover with Derplander.
The MSQ from that point on follows the WoL and this new character as sort of co-protagonists like some older JRPGs out there that let you choose which main character you want to start as.
Bonus points if the alternate start takes place on the First before leading you to the Source.
I like the idea of an alternative start but I'm not sure about another character. Does that imply that they have to write two sides of the same story? Or , if they are always there at the same time, what's the point? It seems impossible to maintain for the next 10+ years.. or at some point they merge into one? Thinking out loud here :)
I'm thinking like some JRPGs where you get a choice in main character like Star Ocean 2 or Tales of Xillia or even Pokemon. Whichever option you pick is the one that gets more agency in the plot, but the group still mainly travels together with just a few moments of divergence.
The only point that I wouldn't be sure about is what to do about voice acting. Presumably if the deuteragonists were to be defaulted to the "canon" Derplander looks when you choose one start or the other, they could give a voice actor to the WoL (bring back Ardbert's maybe?) but I imagine that would be weird for a lot of people.
This would be awesome, but I can't imagine it happening due to the ripple effects of some players controlling a separate character in the narrative. Old content wouldn't make sense and new content would have to create multiple instances of dialogue any time a relationship or past event is mentioned with the player. I don't think it's impossible, but it does limit what they can do and adds more work to the pile.
But if they did do it, I would love it if veteran players got a prompt to recreate their character (as if using a fantasia) and then when they went to meet with the scions, Derplander would be their old WoL.