I cant get this idea out of my mind. The more I view Endwalker through that lens, the more I feel like we will get a timeskip of some sort.
Lemme know what you think of this theory!
Will there be a timeskip with the 7.0 Expansion? – FFXIV Theory
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I also thought the new engine updates will come with certain world updates.
Similar to the WoW Expansion "Cataclysm", where the entire world was redone and the lore explaining why certain areas changed.
With a time skip, this would give the opportunity to overhaul existing zones.
Loved the video! I like the timeskip idea but I wonder how they would have it work for new players that have yet to do 2.0 – 6.0 MSQ. Take the destroyed Garlemald, for example. Unless they treated the restored city as a completely new area that unlocks with the expansion like any other and make it a separate teleport?
I seriously doubt a time skip will be used. It clashes with everything else they've ever said about timelines after the start of 2.0 – namely, "Don't think about it"
As weird as it may sound, everything from 2.0 to 6.X doesn't have a defined timeline (afaik). To be clear, these events happened in the linear fashion as they appear to be (i.e. 2.0 happened before 3.0, etc.). What isn't defined is the exact dates of any of the events happening. The closest we get to defined time are the moments when we finish a questline, the npc tells us to take a moment's respite and turn in to our inn room/bedroom , or that there is a clear "the next day" moment in a cutscene (like the camping moment in HW with Ysayle, Estinien, and Alphinaud). I would have to replay everything while counting those rest/next day moments, but everything from 2.0 onwards would happen in the timespan of a few months to at least a year. It's why the twins haven't had their Elezen growth spurt, nevermind everyone not technically aging up, despite the mental aging the events of ff14 would do. Or that certain areas/events are still a thing despite later events changing things. Like Little Ala Mhigo still being a thing despite the liberation of actual Ala Mhigo. One could make the argument that something prevents it from changing, like how it might be costly in some manner to move from Thanalan back to Ala Mhigo.
It could be a logical step story-wise, but I doubt it for a few reasons.
First, I suspect that they've been working on a big refactoring behind-the-scenes (porting the game engine to DX12 and/or Vulkan, redoing the inventory system while getting rid of the spaghetti code that's been limiting them for 10 years, …), which is why only crumbs (belts removal, more glam dresser space, UI enhancements) were given to the players until know to calm them down, and they could've asked artists to prepare two versions of their models and textures so that the "better" version could be added later when the next engine update allows for it (that could be an optional HD pack download too).
We could suspect they've been waiting to be able to drop the PS4 support too, but given how the PS5 is still quite hard to get I wonder if they wouldn't wait 2 more years (2025?) to do that for 8.0, and there's only so much that optimization can do on previous-gen hardware.
I also wonder if they're gonna acknowledge people playing FFXIV on the Steam Deck (for instance, Gabe Newell himself) and still try to be playable on low-power devices.
Regarding timeskips, this can really be a make-or-break move: the way it's been done with SWTOR killed the game for me, as our characters couldn't access old quests and companions any more, so I kept my main character in the past and created a new one post-timeskip but it never felt the same.
Lore-wise, I don't see how they could keep so much of their beloved old content accessible, and it could ruin the horizontal progression and "theme park" aspect of the game.
The current way of doing things is to imply "when you start a quest/job/series of raids/side-content, just imagine that your character started it as soon as it was available in the story", which can be very confusing already for new players (for instance, by starting Dragoon after completing Heavensward and being introduced to a certain someone you already know very well).
I don't see them getting things even more confusing by keeping visible after the timeskip all the quests linked to the previously deteriorated state of the land while we'd see it "fixed".
One way could be to allow the player to time-travel by switching instances (with at least one instance in the past and another in the future), each having its set of assets (map, quests, NPCs, …) and players, but it would require doubling server usage (I do believe their instances to be like Docker containers auto-managed in Kubernetes, dynamically allocated and balanced between servers, each instance requiring a certain minimal amount of ressources) and I don't think they're in a position to do that in regards to hardware, seeing how difficult it was for them to add a few servers in the existing datacenters.
What makes sense is that Yoshi-P said in an interview (can't remember which one) he wanted 8.0 to be another starting point for new players (I wonder how: would new characters start at level 90 on all classes already?), so having two instances of the same place wouldn't split "old players" (mostly in new instances) and "new players" (stuck in old instances as long as they didn't unlock 7.0), as new players could also populate the new instances, but then old instances would feel less alive with time.
I dont know if they have the courage really.
Well, I do think a time skip will happen however something recent has come up. in the latest live letter i believe it was said that the story from 6.1 will not be finished till the end of 6.5. However, a older tweet actually said something that is needed to be considered. That tweet stated "Krile, will be a major player in 7.0 she may even have a new outfit!" so the current theory is that early in 6.1 she asks for our help with something that the students had been requested with. however, we get pulled into the newfound adventure. We do go back to her for Aglaia, and while this could be what she was refereeing to when she said she needed our help. I don't think that is the case. I believe she will be asking us to help with something else after. something much bigger. To what i really do not know.
The next point i would make is that fact that endwalker was delayed in order to add the end scene with Emet, you know the one. where he talks about all the places we have yet to see. Well in another live letter it was confirmed that those are all places we will be seeing. Other reflections (hence the whole newfound adventure) meracydia, the new world. Added to this we also have MULTIPLE mentions of going to corvos (i want to see where G'rahas family is from as well as both their reactions to him and his reaction to them.) with each of the scions "going their own ways" which was a front and explained that it was so. They have not actually disbanded as they wanted to push the governments to stop relaying on them to solve all their problems and find their own way without having the big "gun" so to speak to shoot at them. It makes sense if you look at it from that perspective as the city states, doma even ishgard have relied on the scions in some rather heavy ways.
There was one piece you had out partly right which was that 1.0/2.0 were made on different engines however! they are not different games. in fact, if you go back to the information from 1.0 a lot of it directly relates back to 2.0 information we find out. (im actually still watching thru all of those cutscenes to put all the pieces together. But there is a YouTube video with all of them in order. I recommend watching it thru.) however the information is more "world building" rather than outright the same story.
as far as the time skip. yes, I believe we will have one. will it be major. I think at most 2 years. mostly so the twins can stop being 16. seeing as if you go based on their souls alphie is 19 and ally is 18. with the fact that the end game patches for 6.0 will take till the end of the patch cycle to wrap up all of the current story it does lead more credence to the idea of a time skip. and maybe just maybe we can rebuild garlamald.
Also sorry for the long post.
It's worth noting that there's already been a timeskip- 6 months pass between the conclusion of Endwalker and the start of Newfound Adventures. Also, you're presenting some things as theories that are already established facts- the devs have already directly stated that the 6.x story series is NOT the new 7.0 and beyond story and that the groundwork for that story will be laid in 6.5, with the current 6.x story being entirely self-contained and fully wrapped up before 7.0. They've also said that it will bring about "a great change", but of course we don't know what that means. It could be another, longer timeskip. Or it could be something else. We won't really be able to even properly guess at what it could be until 6.5.
See, we have two other continent that we are yet to experience, they dont have to time laps whats so ever
One of those new continents can be a starting point whats so ever… I mean think about it, our character could be portrayed as one of our reflections coming to the source and starting the journey on this new continent that is yet to be explored by us, three expansions in the future we meet our reflection and we merge together
And this new continent can come with its own starting jobs and classes, it'll be a fresh start to all players and it can start all over from level 1 till like 90
This way they wont have to balance older jobs and can just focus on designing newer ones
This will break the game to two seperate games which will make life easier for both the dev team and the player community
Alsa having a time jump is just stupid, a lot of us player would love to experience 1.0, imagine doing a duty about the great goubue wall, i would kill for that TT^TT
Why do people want a timeskip so bad? Every expansion people theroize about a timeskip.
I'll be really happy if we get a brand new cast of "main" npcs to follow around with whatever comes next. The Scions are good and I wouldn't mind having them appear fairly often in the upcoming expansion, but I'd like new npcs to take the spotlight, and maybe have a bit more diversity in hair color lol.
What I would like to see if there is a timeskip is it being incorporated into the story rather than us just popping in later in the timeline like we did with 1.0 to 2.0. They've already got the elements to do this with the Exarch's line about time between the Source and the Shards flowing differently. What if we do find a way to travel to a new reflection and something goes wrong. Our character makes it through the portal fine but no one else is able to follow. A short while later after exploring this place we find a way back to the Source, possibly popping up in one of the new 7.0 zones and find the world to be just that little bit older than when we left it.
I'll be really excited to see a brand new band of casts to follow. The Scions are great but all of their stories are effectively completed. It doesn't mean that they should be written out of the game but they simply don't have anymore character struggles to overcome.
Part of why Zero is so popular is because she had clear room to grow. Similar deal with Varsahn.
while i think the entire purpose of the void focus is to free azdaja so we can go to mercydia, i can't see why they'd need a time skip, unless something happens in the void, and speaking of time, they never said anything about how time flow between the void and the source, kinda weird imo sometime they forget plotpoints like this
wish we had a few quests to our selves of needing Scions to be around. The void story is going by super fast the next fight will be a double and after that goblez and probably zeromus. The scions were suppose to split but the very next quest bam right back with them and the 6.3 showed the twins. So….eeeehhh boring would be nice to head to mercydia after helping azdaja. an ACTAUL NEW ADVENTURE WITH NEW PEOPLE, WOLRD AND LORE. I mean the WoL is suppose to an adventure it's time to hit the road on our own and do adventuring. I still think EW is two expansions put together like SB was
its odd that we have no main character that is Range Physical DPS.