Did this once before, and it's always cool to have a discussion, see what other people think, and sometimes others see things I don't see and can fill in gaps I might have missed (like if a boss is a reference to a specific other game or whatnot.)
Always note for these that the voice over parts and the scenes they’re playing with don’t NECESSARILY go together in the final version. E.g. you might see a scene of someone like Alisaie speaking and hear her voice, but that specific line may come earlier or later in the story.
.
0:04 - <Square Enix logo>
0:08 - “Well, well, WELL! To be received by such an illustrious cast..!”
The trailer opens with a scene with Fanadiel talking. The scene appears to be the Menagerie. It’s awash in purple flames with a cloaked figure standing among the flames. There is rubble on the broken pavement/ground, and the fringes at the top right/left have that hazy fade out they do to give the impression of a character’s eyes partly closed.
This could be an Echo-style flashback or possibly an RP story sequence where we plan another character. The screen is waving back and forth, as if a character is on the ground and slowly standing, so this could be a cutscene at the end of a fight. Alternatively, perhaps the rubble just fell and the person whose eyes we’re seeing through fell to the ground and is standing up.
0:13 - <Creative Business Unit III logo – Phoenix!>
0:15 - We see a large dragon figure that is kind of reminiscent of Bahamut (but definitely NOT Bahamut…for one thing, the wings seem to be the arms and it has no arms/forelegs that I can see), but has a more purple/pink coloration with dark violet looking sheen/scales. It flies into the air and roars, looking down at the battlefield that looks like the one from the Shoryu fight.
0:18 - “A am Fandaniel. And may I say what a PLEASURE it is to FINALLY make your acquaintance.”
0:20 - <Shadowbringers: Final Fantasy XIV Online logo>
0:28 - We see a brief scene of Garlian style airships, and then a submarine in a wet dock (0:30). PROBABLY related to the Emerald WEAPON questline/fight/story.
0:31 - We hear Lyse’s voice: “Early reports say huge swathes [pronounced “sway-thes” instead of the more typical “swah-thes”] of the Imperial capital have been reduced to rubble.”
During this line, we see a scene kind of in a countryside somewhere where a damaged building has a hole in the roof and seems to have blue smoke/fire/energy rising out of it. Behind it is a larger estate on a hill that looks to be in a similar state. There is also the same blue/white energy appearing to either erupt from the ground or possibly be the after effect/remnant of a ceruleam bomb or something dropped on the ground. This is what the house and the further back/on the hill fire look like, but the closer one at the base of the hill almost looks like a fissure in the ground where this weird semi-holy looking blue-white energy is erupting form. Note that there is a SLIGHT tinge of violet/purple on the fringes of some of the aura of the fissure, not dissimilar from the Bahamut earlier in the video.
There’s also a blue glow in the grass in the foreground, but that could be reflecting on the ground, or possibly shallow water (like the rice patties in Doma, though the architecture here does not look Doman.) Note that the fissure described above is not initially there and seems to break/erupt from the ground, though this could just be a bomb dropping and us having a bad angle to really see it.
0:33 - The scene shifts to the Scions in Rising Stones (I think), all present, with Lyse addressing them as they all look to her, listening to her words. This is probably where the line above is spoken in the story, given the context clues we have.
(Lyse’s voiceover ends about here)
0:36 - We see a scene from what is probably the Emerald WEAPON fight. The boss model looks like the FF7 one, and is spraying lasers all over the battlefield. Standard party is there (I can see a WHM in the bottom left clearly and an AST Starglobe on the right side in the frame I paused in). It cuts to another attack from what appears to be the same boss using a 270 degree conal attack, with the party standing in the safe zone. There are a bunch of floating robot hands around the field and energy balls, so probably a follow-up attack the party will have to quickly dodge after standing in the safe zone.
0:40 – The leader of the WEAPON pilots is standing shirtless, glaring at someone or something.
0:42 – Another scene from the Emerald WEAPON fight with a GNB tanking in the front.
0:43 – In what looks like an Echo flashback by the off-yellow coloration, we see the female Au Ra member of the WEAPON team being forcefully grabbed by the wrist and dragged away by someone in heavy/leadership Garlean armor, probably the guy in overall charge of the squad (the dude we saw working out shirtless in the last story part whose name I can’t remember atm)
0:46 – Emerald WEAPON again, probably the start of the boss fight or a phase transition judging by the camera angle.
0:48 – We see Cid hard at work in a lab somewhere, appearing to pour over some plans or research. He presses some buttons and several holographic displays spring to life. The equipment seems to have a lot of cylinders with glowing blue crystalline components/sections.
We hear Nero’s voice starting around 0:49, “If you need to achieve that which eluded even the storied Allegans, it seemed plain you would need my expertise.”
0:50 – We see Nero’s face and him talking.
0:51 – We see some of the machines Cid was in front of seeming to start up and take on their blue glow in their crystal/working chambers. It’s possible this scene happens just before the one above with Cid, as the equipment is first being powered on/up.
0:54 - Wee see a holographic projection (projected into the air, not on a screen or display) of a man. As the camera/image zooms away, he gestures with each arm to his two sides, where two other images materialize. The first man is in mostly black clothing, thigh high boots and a coat reaching to his knees. The latter two are wearing seemingly identical garments. Each has boots with some kind of motif above the knees, long cloaks that have red on the inside and what looks like black on the outside, with the sleeves being white. They also have some kind of gear or armor on their upper arm/shoulders, as does the first man now that I think about it.
Given the context, this COULD be an Allegan recording, though it could also be a security camera or a message from the Garleans or anyone. No real way to be sure.
0:55 – We see G’Raha in a floating cast animation with a staff, much like a WHM casting Glare or Holy. The Warrior of Light/Darkness (WoL) is standing to his right as a DRK. There appears to be someone to the right of that in yellow/brown, which I THINK is Alisaie’s tunic probably catching the light to appear yellowish (that tan colored chest piece she wears). There’s a caster on the left that is probably Y’Shtola.
0:56 – WoL casually throws a fireball. The sound effects here are…a bit strange. Like an old 8-Bit game. There’s even a thing (enemy? Friendly? Ambient?) bounding on the ground making a “boing boing boing” sound. The ground under them is very white and floofy, and almost looks cell shaded. The enemy/friendly/ambient things appear to be big blue water bubbles or water elementals, but there are some musical notes floating around them.
1:00 – Y’Shtola, talking to the camera. No words, though.
1:01 – Matoya. We hear her voiceover, “A mere drop in the ocean for the great sorceress Matoya…? I daresay?” Her voice inflect means she’s either making a humble brag or is asking a question. Knowing her, probably the former. She smiles in the scene.
1:02 – We see a fight scene. Alisie kicking butt with the WoD taking to the left side of the screen.
1:05 – When pigs fly! Or when Porxies attack, rather! There is what appears to be a big “Royal Porxie” boss, wearing regal garments and what appears to be a very formal crown. It does a knockback effect, throwing the WoD back where his allies are standing. All four then run towards the boss as a donut AOE telegraph is placed around the edge of the arena. Y’Shtola, G’Raha, and Alisaie are the other three party members (G’Raha is probably the healer in this Trust). The background appears to be some kind of library or study. A large open room with a stone ground, but lights and bookshelves and alchemic bottles and the like are on the wall behind the Porxie.
1:09 – On the Bozjan front (I’m horrible with names, sorry), we see the Scion Au Ra lady with the blond hair backing away from someone. The shot turns to show a large magitech mech (the floating ones with the wings), this one with very purple lighting, in front of her. It appears to be barring the way to a door. Either the party here is trying to get in somewhere or trying to retreat out and either way, the mech is blocking their path.
1:11 - In what is PROBABLY the same scene, but it’s hard to be sure, we see the traitor lady staring someone down with a wicket grin on her face. They MAY be the same scene, with her piloting the mech, or they may be different ones. In the mech scene, the background behind it is all dusky and night outside, and you can see hills in the distance. In the scene of her grinning, there appears to be some light Aether around/above her, and you can more clearly see the hilsl behind her, with what looks like a sunset or fire above the hilt of her weapon. The closeup doesn’t show if she’s in a mech or not, so it’s hard to be sure. The closeup DOES seem to have that open door and the hills in the background, so it could be either way, imo.
1:12 – Urianger (I don’t know anyone else who speaks in Middle English) voice over, “Tis of the essence that we establish the full extent of the threat. No least, if it should prove that Zenos doeth indeed orchestrate events from the shadows.”
The scene seems to show some kind of structure in the background, possibly a keep, with a statue of a large wild cat with a faint yellow/Earth Aether glow around it. The camera zooms out showing it sitting on some kind of raised platform with a staircase going up to it.
1:14 – A fight scene. I could be wrong but there appear to be more than 4 party members. There are three enemies, one with a big axe, another with a sword. A DNC is in the bottom left, BRD in the bottom right, WAR on the right. The character in the back/top left has a Tome, so either a SCH or SMN (heh, or ARC), but there’s an Ifrit-Egi there, so probably a SMN. There is/are 1-3 characters on the far left RIGHT as this scene opens (as Urianger says “establish”), but I can’t really tell what they are. One might be a MNK with that green swoosh of Greased Lightning? I can’t tell what weapon the third enemy has.
…what 8-Man content could this be? I guess it could be part of the Bozjan stuff, and the mosaic on the floor does look kind of like that, but I’m not sure. And I’d think that would be more than 8 players, but who knows?
1:16: - WoD and the Scion Au Ra from before pull their weapons, as does one of the Bozjan warriors. Ready to fight SOMEONE here.
Quick pan (what is PROBABLY the same scene and who they’re facing off against) and we see a number of Garlean troops and mecha. One person is not wearing a helmet. I’m not 100% certain, but I’m about 98% certain it’s the traitor lady. Her gun…blade…that looks more like just a straight up rifle…looks similar to the hilt sticking out form her shoulder in the prior close up scene, and the shoulders of her armor look similar (the big dark bits that look that they’d be ridiculously bulky and hamper movement in combat)
1:18 – 8 Players running through a big door. I see a DNC, BRD, and DRG by weapons, and I see an EOS meaning a SCH. If you pause just before the scene transition, you can see the party all in the door and a boss enemy in the distance that looks like a large lizard creature. There also seems to be someone standing just inside the boss arena, either a PC or an NPC waiting for the fight to start. There are two doors on the far wall, one to the left that is open and one to the right that is closed. The mosaic on the floor and the brick makes me think this is the same location as the trio of enemies fought above, and this is probably the same party.
1:20 – Leaping slash attack! Appears to be the lead cat daddy GNB from the Bozjan stuff attacking/dispatching some enemy. If you pause as Urianger is saying “shadows”, you can see the part of the enemy being attacked, and it appears to be one of the Garlean mecha. This is probably a scene at the end of a fight (or before a fight) where NPCs cut down several enemies, either leading to the imminent boss fight or as a “okay, now we need to run” or “victory is ours, we have routed the enemy” scenes. Note this room is darker than the rooms the 8 player party is running around in.
1:22 – A good look at the lizard boss/fight.
1:24 – Admiral Merlwyb is out of her office, always a treat. She’s flanked by the Twins on her right (our left) and some Maelstrom members on the right. I don’t remember the big dude’s name, but he looks important judging by not wearing the standard armor and all. Behind him and to his left is a more typical GC trooper. They appear to be on a cliffside somewhere. The WoD is just behind Merlwyb, covering her…keeping everyone safe.
1:25 – Alphinaud’s voiceover seems to fit, if not this exact moment in this scene, my thoughts in this scene: “What in the world is that??”
The camera swaps around behind the characters showing us what they’re looking at. They’re PROBABLY in Outer La Noscea, as there are floating islands around like the Nymian ruins. There’s also a…
…I’m not entirely sure how to describe it. It looks VAGUELY like the Scourge/Undead Ziggurats from WarCraft, just far thinner and likely taller. Some kind of tower. At first I thought it was floating, too, but I don’t think so. Just above Merlwyb’s left shoulder is a little floating crystal thing for an island, but I think that’s between us and the Ziggurat. You can see the staircase/bone slats of the Ziggurat between the two orange crystals of it, so it’s probably just that. The thing appears to be jutting out from the ground. The sides have bones/stone slats that look like a steep staircase, and there is a weird oragen glow coming out from between the slats, especially at the top 1/3rd or so of the inverted cone/funnel shaped structure. There is a large orange focusing crystal or something at the top, with a glowing blue/white energy ball. It’s sending a bright orange energy beam into the sky.
Aside: This is kind of a pretty scene – impending world ending doom aside – with the floating islands of old Nymia dotting the sky, an open expanse with mountains in the distance, and a pretty sunset and some scattered clouds.
1:28 – The scene transitions to somewhere in Thanalan, near what I THINK is part of the wall of Ul’Dah city on the left. We see that one of those spires has appeared here as well, and is likewise, ominiously (especially with the music), sending a beam of energy lancing into the sky.
1:30 – Gives us a closer look at this structure in Thanalan.
We also get a voice over here, from Alphinaud again, “A tower?”
1:32 – We see a party again, I think it’s the same party of 8 from before (I see the glow of Ifrit and Eos easily enough). The platform appears to be a nexus. There are three glowing platforms, one on the right and left that seem semi-active with a blue glow, and one in the center back, that has a much brighter glow. There’s a box in the center of the platform.
The platform seems to have a staircase leading down to it from the camera, likely where the party came from, and is in the shape of a plus sign, just with the left, right, and possibly far sections broken off. The pads are probably jump/teleport pads. In the distance, we see a circular arena for a fight (boss fight?), but no boss or enemy is visible, and we see a structure around it. Up and to the left from said platform over there, there appears to be a door/short passage to another room, and you can easily see the passage due to the lighting on the other side illuminating its walls. This whole area appears to be underground…where IS this…?
1:32 – We also get a voiceover here. I THINK it’s Y’Shtola, but it could be Merlwyb, I haven’t heard her voice in a while. Pretty sure it’s Y’Shtola, though. “Though his is a power born from the desire for salvation, we have seen the havok it may reek” (not sure if this is supposed to be “wreak” or “reek”, but she pronounces it like “reek” [or leak or meek, if you prefer])
1:34 – We see Merlwyb, with her eyes partly closed as if she’s in a trance or perhaps thinking something (or, alternatively, internally glaring at someone) as she slowly closes her eyes in Titan’s fight arena in U’Ghamaro. It shows a wide shot and you can see she’s talking with the Kobolds there, one of which likely accused her people of killing their kind or some such. She seems to have come here to talk. Perhaps we’re trying to get to that tower or learn more about it, and are trying to speak with the Kobolds to that end or to get to it. Or, perhaps, they’re trying to summon Titan again (which would potentially explain the voice-over) and Merlwyb is trying to convince them not to with some kind of offer of a peace agreement.
1:37 – In a dark and rocky area, we see a hooded Ascian. His sigil glows to life at 1:39. You can also see something glowing off behind him on the left side of the scene in that moment. Some kind of structure or maybe…cloning tubes…?
1:39 – Y’Shtola (POSSIBLY Lyse, but I’m pretty sure Y’Shtola both given the prior statement and the voice style) voiceover “And it falls to us, to ensure that it is never again brought to bear upon this star
We see Lyse with some troops behind her somewhere, probably in Gyr Abania. Lyse is looking forward at something or someone warily.
1:42 – We see a man with a sword walking in a herky-jerky, stumbling, shuffling, zombie-like manner. He looks up with some strange, if not ferocity, feral look. His eyes appear to be glowing a bright blue-white.
Aside here: That color has thus far been seen as an accent on the Bahamut figure, in the scene with the buildings being destroyed (where Lyse mentions the Imperial Capital), as well as the energy nexus just under the capstone crystal on the Ziggurats. Not saying they’re all related, but there might be something there. If those towers are making zombies/Tempering people, that could, of course, be a problem.
1:43 – A fight scene between a player party and a very large and tall figure. The figure is cloaked and seems to be floating. As one does. The usual attack effects everywhere from the party members attacking it. As one does.
1:45 – Camera going up a large passage/staircase to somewhere. Coming to the top, it pans down and forward, and you can see an arena looking area in the distance. There is a bright…blue-white glow. If I had to describe it, it would be if you had a big blue/white crystal and had some trees growing around and in front of it, so you see the light through the cracks in the branches. The tree/crystal seems to be at the top of a short raised platform with a short staircase leading to it. The platform/arena itself is in a large open room and has a railing around the edge to prevent falling. There are some spire-looking pillar things around, but no other major features I can tell. The crystal/tree thing commands the scene.
1:49 – Several voices combined “WE SHALL DRAW YOUR MEMORIES FROM YOU!!”
1:50 - We see G’Raha here with an ambient Aether/aura glowing around him.
1:52 – We see him standing in front of Mistress Matoya and Y’Shtola looking on. This is either in Matoya’s study or, more likely (since the ground here is tile and not her cave), the new dungeon. He brandishes and points his staff forward before him. Rings (hoola hoops) of light materialize around him and a ray of light shoots out of his staff. [Is he firing the Halo arrays?! /jk]
1:53 – Fight in U’Ghamaro! The WoD and Merlwyb are fighting large enemies here. Can’t tell if they’re stone golems, Kobolds, or some other type of construct.
[Musketeer job confirmed??? /jk What? Merlwyb’s dual wielding pistols looks kinda cool here…]
1:55 – Voiceover Ryne, “Whatever stands in our way, we will never give up hope.”
Someone in a blue long coat and some heeled boots doing a Chun Li impersonation. Kicking some enemy here.
1:56 – Gaia summoning her darkness hammer while standing in the control room on Eden. Possibly being confronted by darkness or that voice or the Idol of Darkness or being possessed to attack the WoL/Ryne…who knows?
1:58 – We see a stone temple-looking structure with pillars. The pillars have inset green glowing crystals. The sky is dark, though you can see a few stars and clouds. There is a gaping…hole…in the sky, with a purple glow from it. This could be the World of Darkness – or an Eden recreated facsimile of it. Or that could be a porta l to the World of Darkness. The temple has seen some better days and has some chunks missing.
2:00 – A party fighting in Lakeland, looks like. You can see the purple, crystalline looking leaves of the trees and some of the ruins. There’s an arena of stone on the ground the party is fighting on. The enemy here looks like a more nightmarish Fenrir or possibly Cerberus, having jaws in and teeth kind of inset in various places around its head. Like not separate mouths, but like if you just put half of a maw in random places on your head. Also seems to have more eyes than it should by half a dozen or so.
[ I could imagine it going down like this:
Ryne: “Warrior of Light, what do you remember of Cerberus?”
WoL: “Uh…I remember teeth. And jaws. And eyes. And more teeth. Why do you ask.”
Ryne: “No reason, this game just needs more nightmare fuel.”
WoL: :O ]
2:04 – We see Ryne in Eden’s command center with crystal things floating around. She looks at one and sees an image of herself hugging Gaia. Are these Gaia’s memories?
2:06 – We see Gaia with her hand raised up as something breaks apart in a blast of light. Either she’s reaching out to save it, or she was the one reaching out to deal the felling blow.
2:07 – Alisaie voiceover, “What?! Why would you want such a thing??”
The scene shown is her and Alphinaud, with some Bozjan looking soldiers behind them, standing on a walkway somewhere. There’s a large metal looking door behind them, but nothing else standing out other than the tile motif behind them on the ground.
2:09 – Budget Bahamut DOES have arms after all, looks like. And is charging up a Void/purple tinged Deathflare looking attack, the energy gathering in his maw and charging up like he’s about to attack.
2:11 – We see an arena of some kind that looks like it’s in a World of Darkness/13th/Void themed area. Some of the tiles have glowing outlines around them. This will probably be important to the attack pattens, like Eden 4 was. There’s some boss in the middle. It appears to be some kind of caster woman with wings, though nothing is particularly descript about her. The shot is from a pretty far and wide angle, and a lot of spell effects for most of the frames, so hart to get anything concrete.
2:14 – Voiceover again by Fanadiel, “I am different, you see.”
We see Gaia with an empty background stumbling forward and then falling to her knees.
2:16 – We see a ring of chairs floating in a void. Kinda makes me think “Organization XIII” from Kingdom Hearts, just this entire area screams darkness and Ascians. Makes me wonder if this was their meeting chamber we saw in a few cutscenes way back in ARR. There are 7 chairs on the right, 7 on the left, and one thing in the middle that might be a chair or a dais for a speaker to step forth to to address the group. There is some kind of black structure crystal thing in the background – will get back to this in just a sec.
These chairs are suspended in a void like in space. You can see stars and clouds of matter far below them, and what looks like maybe a galaxy/core on the bottom of the screen (a galactic bulge like the middle of the Milky Way)
The black thing…okay, this may be me being crazy, but I think this is the “Fathercrystal”, if you will. In the past, the WoL has encountered Hydaelyn, the giant glowing blue crystal in the Aetherial Sea. There, everything is bathed in a gentle blue glow.
Here, everything is in a more sinister dark glow. The blue is instead more of a flat purple, and the “galactic core” at the bottom gives kind of a sickly yellow pallor. But the figure at the top…
If you go fullscreen, you can see the black thing goes down to about the middle of the screen. The spire of the black crystal actually goes down to and “behind” (from our camera perspective) the “dais” I mentioned before. The bottom of it (like the spires sticking down/hanging from under the chiairs) is bathed in that pallor glow, but the rest is black as obsidian. There are “rays” coming off of this thing of black crystal as well.
BUT, if you look full screen, you can see about level with the top two chairs from our perspective is a figure of a person.
A man, perhaps.
It almost looks like a FF6 era graphics sprite. His boots/feet are about level with the tops of the top two chairs, and it’s as if he landed on the ground hard with both feet (like the imagery of Hydaelyn or the Eden 8 fight [which is modeled after that cave drawing] phase transition where she stomps the ground), and the black “rays” are the chunks of earth flying from the stomp. You can also see the jagged parts around the “feet” that plat into this imagery.
Seriously, I could be totally wrong here, but I’m seeing that imagery VERY clearly here. You?
The “boots” (everything in quotes because I’m not sure the best way to describe it) seem to have flared tops at what I can only call the “hips”. Above that you can see what appear to be arms crossed in front of the figure, as if he was holding or clutching or protecting something, or perhaps like Eden 8, making some kind of flourish or gesture. He almost looks like he’s about to take a bow.
The forearms seem to have a pinkish/purplish glow to them, and you can clearly see things that APPEAR to be thumbs, fingers. Kind of in a talon like shape. Like the creepy elegant gentleman type villains in cartoons where their fingers and hands are oddly TOO straight, long, and deliberate.
It’s hard for me to tell, so it MIGHT just be the right arm held across the chest and the “thumb/fingers” I’m thinking are from the left hand could be part of a gauntlet, but either way, looks like an arm/arms to me. Either his right arm is over his chest and he’s possibly holding something, or his arms are crossed across his chest/stomach and he’s holding something or possibly in a “guarded” position, like when you have a stomach injury and you’re “splinting” it with your arms.
The figure seems to have some armor, though that right bicep might just be muscle/body. There appear to be wings emanating from the “hips”, but that could be a stylized cloak flaring as he drops to the ground in the stomp OR it could be part of his body OR part of his armor OR a chair he’s sitting on.
The image is JUST hard enough to see and JUST out of camera enough to not be entirely sure…
…but what if this is our first true look at…
…Zodiark…?
2:16 – Fanadiel continues, “From the Ancients who clung to dear life…and…from…YOU.”
2:17 – We get a look at a statue thing. I THINK this is that same image. I’m not sure, because the arms seem to be different, and there appear to be spires or banners to either side of it that you should be able to see from the other image if this was the same giant crystal statue man. You can see the (black? Gray? Dark green?) banners blow a little bit in the wind.
But the overall feel is similar, the forearms/wrists have that same sickly purple-pink color vs the rest of the image. The lighting here is very different to my eyes, so I think what we may be seeing is a different statue/drawing, but of the same entity (Big Z, perhaps?), kind of like how we saw several different cave paintings of the fight between Momma H and Daddy Z.
It has the same feet together, flared hip boots/armor, crossed arms, pink/purple wrists/hands thing going to a T.
2:19 – More of the fight with the floating woman. She kind of resembles the Cloud of Darkness from Dissidia…?
2:20 – Cthulu Cerberus is on its hind legs now AND has a giant sword. Tosses it in the air and snatches the hilt as he stands on his hind legs. I’m not sure if this makes it more terrifying or less.
2:23 – Gaia in a chamber with runes on the back walls and the floor covered in purple/black miasma. The light flashes to a camera negative and back as she grabs her forehead and buckles forward in pain, possibly related to memories.
2:25 – A boss fight. Something with metal wings, lots of sword, and a moon in the background. There’s some big red things around kind of in the shape of lower petals, but might be miasma. There’s also a lot of shattering ice, but that might be a BLM spell. There’s very clearly a BLM in the bottom left foreground. Makes me kind of think of Ravana, honestly. Like a badass armored Ravana. [I wouldn’t complain, I loved getting a fraking Viking WAR BALLAD as boss music! I’d dig a good remix of that song, maybe with the lyrics adding a new verse to reflect the difference on the First or what’s happened since our last encounter, or more of the endless war he sings of.]
2:26 – Not sure what/where this is. The ground seems to be tiled out. There are white tile bits and dark tile bits, making a 5x4 or 5x5 grid. The outer edge of the arena is glowing green, so probably a death zone. The boss itself seems to be almost like some creepy android thing with at least two long curve segmented arms. She(?) is holding an arm up, channeling some bright energy attack.
In the background you can see the chamber the party came in on on the right side. You can see the purple battle forcefield, and beyond that a tunnel. Which makes me think this isn’t one of the Eden fights, as you just teleport into those, you don’t walk into them. Not since…Alexander, anyway.
So this is…MAYBE part of the Bozjan stuff? I do see an Ifrit on the right and a white glow that I think is Seraph center-left, so I’m going to say this is the 8 man Bozjan party again. (Where the Cerberus and Cloud of Darknessmaybe fights are probably part of Eden.)
2:27 – Zenos walking
2:28 – Hey! _I_ wanted to step on that sword!
2:29 – Voice with distortion effect, “YOUR TIME DRAWS NEAR…!!”
2:30 – We see Gaia holding her head. She’s standing in the place with the etching on the back wall and the black/purple miasma on the ground. The back wall pattern seems to be a circle with a repeating pattern every two cycles/sets (one has a lot of circles in it, the other is mostly two lines/corridors/conduits). There ALMOST looks like s stylized…Leviathan, maybe? Like a snake creature with wings, or possibly a…I dunny, porcupine on a surfboard? XD Assuming I’m right about the repeating pairs, there are nine full sets.
Note that there is that bird/dove motif. Look at where the Leviathan things are. Moving in towards the center, you see the brighter line then the dimmer one. Notice right past the dimmer one in the corners as you’re moving into the circle are the bird things. This could be reflective of the Idol of Darkness and its bird swarm abilities in motif form.
If you look carefully at the little circles around the middle, they appear to have the image of the twin snakes eating each other’s tails, or alternatively, two arrows in a “trade places” sign shape, like when two people/things are supposed to swap places.
Other images are the circles that look like the old X-Box logo (circle with a notch in it), and that same image as on the big circle in the middle that looks like just a jumble. Or, you know, I can kind of see a face of an ethereal being in there crying out in abject pain and terror. This is Gaia’s head, so who knows what goth girl is thinking. XD And the little circles just in towards the center from the Leviathan things appear to be saying turn around in a circle, kind of like the “Ye shall be judged” phase of that one Ivalice raid fight.
2:32 – Fight inside of Eden’s control room? In the background you can see images on the four large crystals of, from right to left, First’s Ramuh, Garuda, Leviathan, and PROBABLY Titan (I never really noticed his face, but the orange on the stomach and the yellow element circle aura makes me think Titan instead of Ifrit – the other auras are purple/levin, green/wind, and light blue/water, respectively.)
I could be wrong, but I think DRK WoL there is using the DRK L3 LB. You see the shadow everywhere and then the big red sigils like the FF8 Diablos summon. Someone tell me if I’m wrong, but that’s what it looks like to me.
Tanks! Better have LB on your hotbar THIS time (no repeats of 5.3 wipes!
)
2:34 – Ryne (left) and Gaia (right) standing back to back in a black void with a light glowing form overhead and flecks of energy. They are back to back, but appear to be holding hands.
Distorted voiceover “Farewell…Servant of Light!”
LOTS of images of Ryne and Gaia pop up surrounding the duo on the void. Memories, but whose..?
Gaia reaches up with her left hand (far from the camera) to clutch her chest as both girls slowly lift their heads. Both seem to pivot/turn towards the camera. And take a step with their back legs, as if confronting someone or about to address someone, still kind of back to back, but also facing the person (camera)
2:41 – <Splash image and title text for the patch – Final Fantasy XIV Patch 5.4 Futures Rewritten>
The splash image is the artwork of the two girls in that stance with the images of memories in those little frames scrolling up behind them.
2:47 – Oh hey, anyone wanting a free trial of the game?
2:50 – And that’s the video.
Lots of interesting stuff in there for sure. What do you guys think?
submitted by /u/Renathras
[link] [comments]
Continue reading...
Always note for these that the voice over parts and the scenes they’re playing with don’t NECESSARILY go together in the final version. E.g. you might see a scene of someone like Alisaie speaking and hear her voice, but that specific line may come earlier or later in the story.
.
0:04 - <Square Enix logo>
0:08 - “Well, well, WELL! To be received by such an illustrious cast..!”
The trailer opens with a scene with Fanadiel talking. The scene appears to be the Menagerie. It’s awash in purple flames with a cloaked figure standing among the flames. There is rubble on the broken pavement/ground, and the fringes at the top right/left have that hazy fade out they do to give the impression of a character’s eyes partly closed.
This could be an Echo-style flashback or possibly an RP story sequence where we plan another character. The screen is waving back and forth, as if a character is on the ground and slowly standing, so this could be a cutscene at the end of a fight. Alternatively, perhaps the rubble just fell and the person whose eyes we’re seeing through fell to the ground and is standing up.
0:13 - <Creative Business Unit III logo – Phoenix!>
0:15 - We see a large dragon figure that is kind of reminiscent of Bahamut (but definitely NOT Bahamut…for one thing, the wings seem to be the arms and it has no arms/forelegs that I can see), but has a more purple/pink coloration with dark violet looking sheen/scales. It flies into the air and roars, looking down at the battlefield that looks like the one from the Shoryu fight.
0:18 - “A am Fandaniel. And may I say what a PLEASURE it is to FINALLY make your acquaintance.”
0:20 - <Shadowbringers: Final Fantasy XIV Online logo>
0:28 - We see a brief scene of Garlian style airships, and then a submarine in a wet dock (0:30). PROBABLY related to the Emerald WEAPON questline/fight/story.
0:31 - We hear Lyse’s voice: “Early reports say huge swathes [pronounced “sway-thes” instead of the more typical “swah-thes”] of the Imperial capital have been reduced to rubble.”
During this line, we see a scene kind of in a countryside somewhere where a damaged building has a hole in the roof and seems to have blue smoke/fire/energy rising out of it. Behind it is a larger estate on a hill that looks to be in a similar state. There is also the same blue/white energy appearing to either erupt from the ground or possibly be the after effect/remnant of a ceruleam bomb or something dropped on the ground. This is what the house and the further back/on the hill fire look like, but the closer one at the base of the hill almost looks like a fissure in the ground where this weird semi-holy looking blue-white energy is erupting form. Note that there is a SLIGHT tinge of violet/purple on the fringes of some of the aura of the fissure, not dissimilar from the Bahamut earlier in the video.
There’s also a blue glow in the grass in the foreground, but that could be reflecting on the ground, or possibly shallow water (like the rice patties in Doma, though the architecture here does not look Doman.) Note that the fissure described above is not initially there and seems to break/erupt from the ground, though this could just be a bomb dropping and us having a bad angle to really see it.
0:33 - The scene shifts to the Scions in Rising Stones (I think), all present, with Lyse addressing them as they all look to her, listening to her words. This is probably where the line above is spoken in the story, given the context clues we have.
(Lyse’s voiceover ends about here)
0:36 - We see a scene from what is probably the Emerald WEAPON fight. The boss model looks like the FF7 one, and is spraying lasers all over the battlefield. Standard party is there (I can see a WHM in the bottom left clearly and an AST Starglobe on the right side in the frame I paused in). It cuts to another attack from what appears to be the same boss using a 270 degree conal attack, with the party standing in the safe zone. There are a bunch of floating robot hands around the field and energy balls, so probably a follow-up attack the party will have to quickly dodge after standing in the safe zone.
0:40 – The leader of the WEAPON pilots is standing shirtless, glaring at someone or something.
0:42 – Another scene from the Emerald WEAPON fight with a GNB tanking in the front.
0:43 – In what looks like an Echo flashback by the off-yellow coloration, we see the female Au Ra member of the WEAPON team being forcefully grabbed by the wrist and dragged away by someone in heavy/leadership Garlean armor, probably the guy in overall charge of the squad (the dude we saw working out shirtless in the last story part whose name I can’t remember atm)
0:46 – Emerald WEAPON again, probably the start of the boss fight or a phase transition judging by the camera angle.
0:48 – We see Cid hard at work in a lab somewhere, appearing to pour over some plans or research. He presses some buttons and several holographic displays spring to life. The equipment seems to have a lot of cylinders with glowing blue crystalline components/sections.
We hear Nero’s voice starting around 0:49, “If you need to achieve that which eluded even the storied Allegans, it seemed plain you would need my expertise.”
0:50 – We see Nero’s face and him talking.
0:51 – We see some of the machines Cid was in front of seeming to start up and take on their blue glow in their crystal/working chambers. It’s possible this scene happens just before the one above with Cid, as the equipment is first being powered on/up.
0:54 - Wee see a holographic projection (projected into the air, not on a screen or display) of a man. As the camera/image zooms away, he gestures with each arm to his two sides, where two other images materialize. The first man is in mostly black clothing, thigh high boots and a coat reaching to his knees. The latter two are wearing seemingly identical garments. Each has boots with some kind of motif above the knees, long cloaks that have red on the inside and what looks like black on the outside, with the sleeves being white. They also have some kind of gear or armor on their upper arm/shoulders, as does the first man now that I think about it.
Given the context, this COULD be an Allegan recording, though it could also be a security camera or a message from the Garleans or anyone. No real way to be sure.
0:55 – We see G’Raha in a floating cast animation with a staff, much like a WHM casting Glare or Holy. The Warrior of Light/Darkness (WoL) is standing to his right as a DRK. There appears to be someone to the right of that in yellow/brown, which I THINK is Alisaie’s tunic probably catching the light to appear yellowish (that tan colored chest piece she wears). There’s a caster on the left that is probably Y’Shtola.
0:56 – WoL casually throws a fireball. The sound effects here are…a bit strange. Like an old 8-Bit game. There’s even a thing (enemy? Friendly? Ambient?) bounding on the ground making a “boing boing boing” sound. The ground under them is very white and floofy, and almost looks cell shaded. The enemy/friendly/ambient things appear to be big blue water bubbles or water elementals, but there are some musical notes floating around them.
1:00 – Y’Shtola, talking to the camera. No words, though.
1:01 – Matoya. We hear her voiceover, “A mere drop in the ocean for the great sorceress Matoya…? I daresay?” Her voice inflect means she’s either making a humble brag or is asking a question. Knowing her, probably the former. She smiles in the scene.
1:02 – We see a fight scene. Alisie kicking butt with the WoD taking to the left side of the screen.
1:05 – When pigs fly! Or when Porxies attack, rather! There is what appears to be a big “Royal Porxie” boss, wearing regal garments and what appears to be a very formal crown. It does a knockback effect, throwing the WoD back where his allies are standing. All four then run towards the boss as a donut AOE telegraph is placed around the edge of the arena. Y’Shtola, G’Raha, and Alisaie are the other three party members (G’Raha is probably the healer in this Trust). The background appears to be some kind of library or study. A large open room with a stone ground, but lights and bookshelves and alchemic bottles and the like are on the wall behind the Porxie.
1:09 – On the Bozjan front (I’m horrible with names, sorry), we see the Scion Au Ra lady with the blond hair backing away from someone. The shot turns to show a large magitech mech (the floating ones with the wings), this one with very purple lighting, in front of her. It appears to be barring the way to a door. Either the party here is trying to get in somewhere or trying to retreat out and either way, the mech is blocking their path.
1:11 - In what is PROBABLY the same scene, but it’s hard to be sure, we see the traitor lady staring someone down with a wicket grin on her face. They MAY be the same scene, with her piloting the mech, or they may be different ones. In the mech scene, the background behind it is all dusky and night outside, and you can see hills in the distance. In the scene of her grinning, there appears to be some light Aether around/above her, and you can more clearly see the hilsl behind her, with what looks like a sunset or fire above the hilt of her weapon. The closeup doesn’t show if she’s in a mech or not, so it’s hard to be sure. The closeup DOES seem to have that open door and the hills in the background, so it could be either way, imo.
1:12 – Urianger (I don’t know anyone else who speaks in Middle English) voice over, “Tis of the essence that we establish the full extent of the threat. No least, if it should prove that Zenos doeth indeed orchestrate events from the shadows.”
The scene seems to show some kind of structure in the background, possibly a keep, with a statue of a large wild cat with a faint yellow/Earth Aether glow around it. The camera zooms out showing it sitting on some kind of raised platform with a staircase going up to it.
1:14 – A fight scene. I could be wrong but there appear to be more than 4 party members. There are three enemies, one with a big axe, another with a sword. A DNC is in the bottom left, BRD in the bottom right, WAR on the right. The character in the back/top left has a Tome, so either a SCH or SMN (heh, or ARC), but there’s an Ifrit-Egi there, so probably a SMN. There is/are 1-3 characters on the far left RIGHT as this scene opens (as Urianger says “establish”), but I can’t really tell what they are. One might be a MNK with that green swoosh of Greased Lightning? I can’t tell what weapon the third enemy has.
…what 8-Man content could this be? I guess it could be part of the Bozjan stuff, and the mosaic on the floor does look kind of like that, but I’m not sure. And I’d think that would be more than 8 players, but who knows?
1:16: - WoD and the Scion Au Ra from before pull their weapons, as does one of the Bozjan warriors. Ready to fight SOMEONE here.
Quick pan (what is PROBABLY the same scene and who they’re facing off against) and we see a number of Garlean troops and mecha. One person is not wearing a helmet. I’m not 100% certain, but I’m about 98% certain it’s the traitor lady. Her gun…blade…that looks more like just a straight up rifle…looks similar to the hilt sticking out form her shoulder in the prior close up scene, and the shoulders of her armor look similar (the big dark bits that look that they’d be ridiculously bulky and hamper movement in combat)
1:18 – 8 Players running through a big door. I see a DNC, BRD, and DRG by weapons, and I see an EOS meaning a SCH. If you pause just before the scene transition, you can see the party all in the door and a boss enemy in the distance that looks like a large lizard creature. There also seems to be someone standing just inside the boss arena, either a PC or an NPC waiting for the fight to start. There are two doors on the far wall, one to the left that is open and one to the right that is closed. The mosaic on the floor and the brick makes me think this is the same location as the trio of enemies fought above, and this is probably the same party.
1:20 – Leaping slash attack! Appears to be the lead cat daddy GNB from the Bozjan stuff attacking/dispatching some enemy. If you pause as Urianger is saying “shadows”, you can see the part of the enemy being attacked, and it appears to be one of the Garlean mecha. This is probably a scene at the end of a fight (or before a fight) where NPCs cut down several enemies, either leading to the imminent boss fight or as a “okay, now we need to run” or “victory is ours, we have routed the enemy” scenes. Note this room is darker than the rooms the 8 player party is running around in.
1:22 – A good look at the lizard boss/fight.
1:24 – Admiral Merlwyb is out of her office, always a treat. She’s flanked by the Twins on her right (our left) and some Maelstrom members on the right. I don’t remember the big dude’s name, but he looks important judging by not wearing the standard armor and all. Behind him and to his left is a more typical GC trooper. They appear to be on a cliffside somewhere. The WoD is just behind Merlwyb, covering her…keeping everyone safe.
1:25 – Alphinaud’s voiceover seems to fit, if not this exact moment in this scene, my thoughts in this scene: “What in the world is that??”
The camera swaps around behind the characters showing us what they’re looking at. They’re PROBABLY in Outer La Noscea, as there are floating islands around like the Nymian ruins. There’s also a…
…I’m not entirely sure how to describe it. It looks VAGUELY like the Scourge/Undead Ziggurats from WarCraft, just far thinner and likely taller. Some kind of tower. At first I thought it was floating, too, but I don’t think so. Just above Merlwyb’s left shoulder is a little floating crystal thing for an island, but I think that’s between us and the Ziggurat. You can see the staircase/bone slats of the Ziggurat between the two orange crystals of it, so it’s probably just that. The thing appears to be jutting out from the ground. The sides have bones/stone slats that look like a steep staircase, and there is a weird oragen glow coming out from between the slats, especially at the top 1/3rd or so of the inverted cone/funnel shaped structure. There is a large orange focusing crystal or something at the top, with a glowing blue/white energy ball. It’s sending a bright orange energy beam into the sky.
Aside: This is kind of a pretty scene – impending world ending doom aside – with the floating islands of old Nymia dotting the sky, an open expanse with mountains in the distance, and a pretty sunset and some scattered clouds.
1:28 – The scene transitions to somewhere in Thanalan, near what I THINK is part of the wall of Ul’Dah city on the left. We see that one of those spires has appeared here as well, and is likewise, ominiously (especially with the music), sending a beam of energy lancing into the sky.
1:30 – Gives us a closer look at this structure in Thanalan.
We also get a voice over here, from Alphinaud again, “A tower?”
1:32 – We see a party again, I think it’s the same party of 8 from before (I see the glow of Ifrit and Eos easily enough). The platform appears to be a nexus. There are three glowing platforms, one on the right and left that seem semi-active with a blue glow, and one in the center back, that has a much brighter glow. There’s a box in the center of the platform.
The platform seems to have a staircase leading down to it from the camera, likely where the party came from, and is in the shape of a plus sign, just with the left, right, and possibly far sections broken off. The pads are probably jump/teleport pads. In the distance, we see a circular arena for a fight (boss fight?), but no boss or enemy is visible, and we see a structure around it. Up and to the left from said platform over there, there appears to be a door/short passage to another room, and you can easily see the passage due to the lighting on the other side illuminating its walls. This whole area appears to be underground…where IS this…?
1:32 – We also get a voiceover here. I THINK it’s Y’Shtola, but it could be Merlwyb, I haven’t heard her voice in a while. Pretty sure it’s Y’Shtola, though. “Though his is a power born from the desire for salvation, we have seen the havok it may reek” (not sure if this is supposed to be “wreak” or “reek”, but she pronounces it like “reek” [or leak or meek, if you prefer])
1:34 – We see Merlwyb, with her eyes partly closed as if she’s in a trance or perhaps thinking something (or, alternatively, internally glaring at someone) as she slowly closes her eyes in Titan’s fight arena in U’Ghamaro. It shows a wide shot and you can see she’s talking with the Kobolds there, one of which likely accused her people of killing their kind or some such. She seems to have come here to talk. Perhaps we’re trying to get to that tower or learn more about it, and are trying to speak with the Kobolds to that end or to get to it. Or, perhaps, they’re trying to summon Titan again (which would potentially explain the voice-over) and Merlwyb is trying to convince them not to with some kind of offer of a peace agreement.
1:37 – In a dark and rocky area, we see a hooded Ascian. His sigil glows to life at 1:39. You can also see something glowing off behind him on the left side of the scene in that moment. Some kind of structure or maybe…cloning tubes…?
1:39 – Y’Shtola (POSSIBLY Lyse, but I’m pretty sure Y’Shtola both given the prior statement and the voice style) voiceover “And it falls to us, to ensure that it is never again brought to bear upon this star
We see Lyse with some troops behind her somewhere, probably in Gyr Abania. Lyse is looking forward at something or someone warily.
1:42 – We see a man with a sword walking in a herky-jerky, stumbling, shuffling, zombie-like manner. He looks up with some strange, if not ferocity, feral look. His eyes appear to be glowing a bright blue-white.
Aside here: That color has thus far been seen as an accent on the Bahamut figure, in the scene with the buildings being destroyed (where Lyse mentions the Imperial Capital), as well as the energy nexus just under the capstone crystal on the Ziggurats. Not saying they’re all related, but there might be something there. If those towers are making zombies/Tempering people, that could, of course, be a problem.
1:43 – A fight scene between a player party and a very large and tall figure. The figure is cloaked and seems to be floating. As one does. The usual attack effects everywhere from the party members attacking it. As one does.
1:45 – Camera going up a large passage/staircase to somewhere. Coming to the top, it pans down and forward, and you can see an arena looking area in the distance. There is a bright…blue-white glow. If I had to describe it, it would be if you had a big blue/white crystal and had some trees growing around and in front of it, so you see the light through the cracks in the branches. The tree/crystal seems to be at the top of a short raised platform with a short staircase leading to it. The platform/arena itself is in a large open room and has a railing around the edge to prevent falling. There are some spire-looking pillar things around, but no other major features I can tell. The crystal/tree thing commands the scene.
1:49 – Several voices combined “WE SHALL DRAW YOUR MEMORIES FROM YOU!!”
1:50 - We see G’Raha here with an ambient Aether/aura glowing around him.
1:52 – We see him standing in front of Mistress Matoya and Y’Shtola looking on. This is either in Matoya’s study or, more likely (since the ground here is tile and not her cave), the new dungeon. He brandishes and points his staff forward before him. Rings (hoola hoops) of light materialize around him and a ray of light shoots out of his staff. [Is he firing the Halo arrays?! /jk]
1:53 – Fight in U’Ghamaro! The WoD and Merlwyb are fighting large enemies here. Can’t tell if they’re stone golems, Kobolds, or some other type of construct.
[Musketeer job confirmed??? /jk What? Merlwyb’s dual wielding pistols looks kinda cool here…]
1:55 – Voiceover Ryne, “Whatever stands in our way, we will never give up hope.”
Someone in a blue long coat and some heeled boots doing a Chun Li impersonation. Kicking some enemy here.
1:56 – Gaia summoning her darkness hammer while standing in the control room on Eden. Possibly being confronted by darkness or that voice or the Idol of Darkness or being possessed to attack the WoL/Ryne…who knows?
1:58 – We see a stone temple-looking structure with pillars. The pillars have inset green glowing crystals. The sky is dark, though you can see a few stars and clouds. There is a gaping…hole…in the sky, with a purple glow from it. This could be the World of Darkness – or an Eden recreated facsimile of it. Or that could be a porta l to the World of Darkness. The temple has seen some better days and has some chunks missing.
2:00 – A party fighting in Lakeland, looks like. You can see the purple, crystalline looking leaves of the trees and some of the ruins. There’s an arena of stone on the ground the party is fighting on. The enemy here looks like a more nightmarish Fenrir or possibly Cerberus, having jaws in and teeth kind of inset in various places around its head. Like not separate mouths, but like if you just put half of a maw in random places on your head. Also seems to have more eyes than it should by half a dozen or so.
[ I could imagine it going down like this:
Ryne: “Warrior of Light, what do you remember of Cerberus?”
WoL: “Uh…I remember teeth. And jaws. And eyes. And more teeth. Why do you ask.”
Ryne: “No reason, this game just needs more nightmare fuel.”
WoL: :O ]
2:04 – We see Ryne in Eden’s command center with crystal things floating around. She looks at one and sees an image of herself hugging Gaia. Are these Gaia’s memories?
2:06 – We see Gaia with her hand raised up as something breaks apart in a blast of light. Either she’s reaching out to save it, or she was the one reaching out to deal the felling blow.
2:07 – Alisaie voiceover, “What?! Why would you want such a thing??”
The scene shown is her and Alphinaud, with some Bozjan looking soldiers behind them, standing on a walkway somewhere. There’s a large metal looking door behind them, but nothing else standing out other than the tile motif behind them on the ground.
2:09 – Budget Bahamut DOES have arms after all, looks like. And is charging up a Void/purple tinged Deathflare looking attack, the energy gathering in his maw and charging up like he’s about to attack.
2:11 – We see an arena of some kind that looks like it’s in a World of Darkness/13th/Void themed area. Some of the tiles have glowing outlines around them. This will probably be important to the attack pattens, like Eden 4 was. There’s some boss in the middle. It appears to be some kind of caster woman with wings, though nothing is particularly descript about her. The shot is from a pretty far and wide angle, and a lot of spell effects for most of the frames, so hart to get anything concrete.
2:14 – Voiceover again by Fanadiel, “I am different, you see.”
We see Gaia with an empty background stumbling forward and then falling to her knees.
2:16 – We see a ring of chairs floating in a void. Kinda makes me think “Organization XIII” from Kingdom Hearts, just this entire area screams darkness and Ascians. Makes me wonder if this was their meeting chamber we saw in a few cutscenes way back in ARR. There are 7 chairs on the right, 7 on the left, and one thing in the middle that might be a chair or a dais for a speaker to step forth to to address the group. There is some kind of black structure crystal thing in the background – will get back to this in just a sec.
These chairs are suspended in a void like in space. You can see stars and clouds of matter far below them, and what looks like maybe a galaxy/core on the bottom of the screen (a galactic bulge like the middle of the Milky Way)
The black thing…okay, this may be me being crazy, but I think this is the “Fathercrystal”, if you will. In the past, the WoL has encountered Hydaelyn, the giant glowing blue crystal in the Aetherial Sea. There, everything is bathed in a gentle blue glow.
Here, everything is in a more sinister dark glow. The blue is instead more of a flat purple, and the “galactic core” at the bottom gives kind of a sickly yellow pallor. But the figure at the top…
If you go fullscreen, you can see the black thing goes down to about the middle of the screen. The spire of the black crystal actually goes down to and “behind” (from our camera perspective) the “dais” I mentioned before. The bottom of it (like the spires sticking down/hanging from under the chiairs) is bathed in that pallor glow, but the rest is black as obsidian. There are “rays” coming off of this thing of black crystal as well.
BUT, if you look full screen, you can see about level with the top two chairs from our perspective is a figure of a person.
A man, perhaps.
It almost looks like a FF6 era graphics sprite. His boots/feet are about level with the tops of the top two chairs, and it’s as if he landed on the ground hard with both feet (like the imagery of Hydaelyn or the Eden 8 fight [which is modeled after that cave drawing] phase transition where she stomps the ground), and the black “rays” are the chunks of earth flying from the stomp. You can also see the jagged parts around the “feet” that plat into this imagery.
Seriously, I could be totally wrong here, but I’m seeing that imagery VERY clearly here. You?
The “boots” (everything in quotes because I’m not sure the best way to describe it) seem to have flared tops at what I can only call the “hips”. Above that you can see what appear to be arms crossed in front of the figure, as if he was holding or clutching or protecting something, or perhaps like Eden 8, making some kind of flourish or gesture. He almost looks like he’s about to take a bow.
The forearms seem to have a pinkish/purplish glow to them, and you can clearly see things that APPEAR to be thumbs, fingers. Kind of in a talon like shape. Like the creepy elegant gentleman type villains in cartoons where their fingers and hands are oddly TOO straight, long, and deliberate.
It’s hard for me to tell, so it MIGHT just be the right arm held across the chest and the “thumb/fingers” I’m thinking are from the left hand could be part of a gauntlet, but either way, looks like an arm/arms to me. Either his right arm is over his chest and he’s possibly holding something, or his arms are crossed across his chest/stomach and he’s holding something or possibly in a “guarded” position, like when you have a stomach injury and you’re “splinting” it with your arms.
The figure seems to have some armor, though that right bicep might just be muscle/body. There appear to be wings emanating from the “hips”, but that could be a stylized cloak flaring as he drops to the ground in the stomp OR it could be part of his body OR part of his armor OR a chair he’s sitting on.
The image is JUST hard enough to see and JUST out of camera enough to not be entirely sure…
…but what if this is our first true look at…
…Zodiark…?
2:16 – Fanadiel continues, “From the Ancients who clung to dear life…and…from…YOU.”
2:17 – We get a look at a statue thing. I THINK this is that same image. I’m not sure, because the arms seem to be different, and there appear to be spires or banners to either side of it that you should be able to see from the other image if this was the same giant crystal statue man. You can see the (black? Gray? Dark green?) banners blow a little bit in the wind.
But the overall feel is similar, the forearms/wrists have that same sickly purple-pink color vs the rest of the image. The lighting here is very different to my eyes, so I think what we may be seeing is a different statue/drawing, but of the same entity (Big Z, perhaps?), kind of like how we saw several different cave paintings of the fight between Momma H and Daddy Z.
It has the same feet together, flared hip boots/armor, crossed arms, pink/purple wrists/hands thing going to a T.
2:19 – More of the fight with the floating woman. She kind of resembles the Cloud of Darkness from Dissidia…?
2:20 – Cthulu Cerberus is on its hind legs now AND has a giant sword. Tosses it in the air and snatches the hilt as he stands on his hind legs. I’m not sure if this makes it more terrifying or less.
2:23 – Gaia in a chamber with runes on the back walls and the floor covered in purple/black miasma. The light flashes to a camera negative and back as she grabs her forehead and buckles forward in pain, possibly related to memories.
2:25 – A boss fight. Something with metal wings, lots of sword, and a moon in the background. There’s some big red things around kind of in the shape of lower petals, but might be miasma. There’s also a lot of shattering ice, but that might be a BLM spell. There’s very clearly a BLM in the bottom left foreground. Makes me kind of think of Ravana, honestly. Like a badass armored Ravana. [I wouldn’t complain, I loved getting a fraking Viking WAR BALLAD as boss music! I’d dig a good remix of that song, maybe with the lyrics adding a new verse to reflect the difference on the First or what’s happened since our last encounter, or more of the endless war he sings of.]
2:26 – Not sure what/where this is. The ground seems to be tiled out. There are white tile bits and dark tile bits, making a 5x4 or 5x5 grid. The outer edge of the arena is glowing green, so probably a death zone. The boss itself seems to be almost like some creepy android thing with at least two long curve segmented arms. She(?) is holding an arm up, channeling some bright energy attack.
In the background you can see the chamber the party came in on on the right side. You can see the purple battle forcefield, and beyond that a tunnel. Which makes me think this isn’t one of the Eden fights, as you just teleport into those, you don’t walk into them. Not since…Alexander, anyway.
So this is…MAYBE part of the Bozjan stuff? I do see an Ifrit on the right and a white glow that I think is Seraph center-left, so I’m going to say this is the 8 man Bozjan party again. (Where the Cerberus and Cloud of Darknessmaybe fights are probably part of Eden.)
2:27 – Zenos walking
2:28 – Hey! _I_ wanted to step on that sword!
2:29 – Voice with distortion effect, “YOUR TIME DRAWS NEAR…!!”
2:30 – We see Gaia holding her head. She’s standing in the place with the etching on the back wall and the black/purple miasma on the ground. The back wall pattern seems to be a circle with a repeating pattern every two cycles/sets (one has a lot of circles in it, the other is mostly two lines/corridors/conduits). There ALMOST looks like s stylized…Leviathan, maybe? Like a snake creature with wings, or possibly a…I dunny, porcupine on a surfboard? XD Assuming I’m right about the repeating pairs, there are nine full sets.
Note that there is that bird/dove motif. Look at where the Leviathan things are. Moving in towards the center, you see the brighter line then the dimmer one. Notice right past the dimmer one in the corners as you’re moving into the circle are the bird things. This could be reflective of the Idol of Darkness and its bird swarm abilities in motif form.
If you look carefully at the little circles around the middle, they appear to have the image of the twin snakes eating each other’s tails, or alternatively, two arrows in a “trade places” sign shape, like when two people/things are supposed to swap places.
Other images are the circles that look like the old X-Box logo (circle with a notch in it), and that same image as on the big circle in the middle that looks like just a jumble. Or, you know, I can kind of see a face of an ethereal being in there crying out in abject pain and terror. This is Gaia’s head, so who knows what goth girl is thinking. XD And the little circles just in towards the center from the Leviathan things appear to be saying turn around in a circle, kind of like the “Ye shall be judged” phase of that one Ivalice raid fight.
2:32 – Fight inside of Eden’s control room? In the background you can see images on the four large crystals of, from right to left, First’s Ramuh, Garuda, Leviathan, and PROBABLY Titan (I never really noticed his face, but the orange on the stomach and the yellow element circle aura makes me think Titan instead of Ifrit – the other auras are purple/levin, green/wind, and light blue/water, respectively.)
I could be wrong, but I think DRK WoL there is using the DRK L3 LB. You see the shadow everywhere and then the big red sigils like the FF8 Diablos summon. Someone tell me if I’m wrong, but that’s what it looks like to me.
Tanks! Better have LB on your hotbar THIS time (no repeats of 5.3 wipes!
)2:34 – Ryne (left) and Gaia (right) standing back to back in a black void with a light glowing form overhead and flecks of energy. They are back to back, but appear to be holding hands.
Distorted voiceover “Farewell…Servant of Light!”
LOTS of images of Ryne and Gaia pop up surrounding the duo on the void. Memories, but whose..?
Gaia reaches up with her left hand (far from the camera) to clutch her chest as both girls slowly lift their heads. Both seem to pivot/turn towards the camera. And take a step with their back legs, as if confronting someone or about to address someone, still kind of back to back, but also facing the person (camera)
2:41 – <Splash image and title text for the patch – Final Fantasy XIV Patch 5.4 Futures Rewritten>
The splash image is the artwork of the two girls in that stance with the images of memories in those little frames scrolling up behind them.
2:47 – Oh hey, anyone wanting a free trial of the game?
2:50 – And that’s the video.
Lots of interesting stuff in there for sure. What do you guys think?
submitted by /u/Renathras
[link] [comments]
Continue reading...