A look at possible future events in vana'diel?

[Kamodake]

Waaay back when FFXI first came out for the PS2 in Japan I bought the collectors editions ost which came with an awesome fold out map of vana'diel done by my favorite JP artist Yoshitaka Amano. Through this map I have had glimpses of things that have shown up in the game long before acctual implementation. So I decided to post shots of the panels and a few theories/questions they have raised for me. ^^

(p = panel)

OK for starters when I first got this I got to see the 6 celestial avatars we all know and love (Shiva p1 bottom left, leviathan p4 bottom right, ramuh p4 right, titan p4 top right, Garuda p4 right side, and ifrit p3 top middle), as well as uggalipeh and Kuzotz a good year before RoZ came out.

Also got to see the terrestrial avatars before CoP (Fenrir p4 top left,bahamut p4 on the right side, phoenix p1 in the middle, Diabolos p1 left or p2 top, carbuncle p3 bottom).

Anyway, If my past with this map is any indication of future avatars/events then here are some of my thoughts of the future.

1) the npc quests as well as some ZM and CoP CSs reffer to a "divinity of darkness" and a "giant bathed in light" if you look on p3 right below and beside Altana you will see a mounted figure with a dark halo and just below him another figure on a white horse with a halo. I think that these figures are Odin and Alexander. The fact that the in game star chart also list them as constellations makes me further believe this. I think we will be seeing them very very soon.

2)as mentioned earlier phoenix is shown as well (p1 middle) so she will be seen sometime as well imo

3) I also things that look to me like fairy(p1 middle), maduin (p1 left side), cerberus (p3 top below ifrit and next to odin), and Ixion (hard to miss on p2 just below diabolos) on these panels. I think we will be seeing a great deal of camios from past FFs in the next little while ^^

take a look, point things out, and share your theories.

[Coinspinner]

Re: A look at possible future events in vana'diel?

Both the mounted figures look like Odin to me. Not sure where you got Alexander, he's usually a castle with legs and wings. ><;

Crag of Mea appears to be in... Sauro-magoo Champagn. (Erm...)

One of the birds looks like Palidor.

[sdillon]

Re: A look at possible future events in vana'diel?

Very cool! love the theories ^^ and knowing how far SE planned a lot of the things, I'm sure they had artwork of the 'final final final sorta maybe end game' years and years before already lol /cheer

[Sanim]

Re: A look at possible future events in vana'diel?

Amazing!! Good job Kamodake

And congrats on you map is beautiful :p

[elyssa]

Re: A look at possible future events in vana'diel?

Man Odin would be a sweet Avatar..I would lvl smn just to use Odin hehe.

[tazirai]

Re: A look at possible future events in vana'diel?

Ohh nice I found a pic of it on the web but only a section

[bikkebakke]

Re: A look at possible future events in vana'diel?

odin would be way to powerful seeing as hes usually known for 1 hit ko's.

[Kagerou]

Re: A look at possible future events in vana'diel?

The major summons that was present in almost all FF series (that hasn't been in FFXI yet) are Phoenix, Odin and Alexander.

So the bird thing Coinspinner mentioned could be Phoenix...(I'm not completely sure which picture hes pointing out though).

[elyssa]

Re: A look at possible future events in vana'diel?

odin would be way to powerful seeing as hes usually known for 1 hit ko's.

Well there is a lot of ways to have a trade off with that..

Can have it cost an extreme amount of MP to use

Make it have a very long cool down

Make certain enemies immune / more resistant to it

Have it cost like a reagent to cast

But yea the balance for that kind of ability is very delicate because it's easy for it to be way over powered but also it's easy for it to be worthless as well.

[Kamodake]

Re: A look at possible future events in vana'diel?

It amuses me when people say " blah blah will be way too powerful if added" have they ever added anything to the game, or to any job that has been too powerful? I remember reading forums before the SMN job was even added to the game, everyone was sooo sure that if SMN was added it would be way too powerful and make BLM unwanted in pts... not quite was happened lol. And then the more recent "Diabolos will be to uber" debate.... all I have to say to that is Diabolos 2hr + Tiny Mandragora = 3 dmg lol. Dont worry folks if SE adds anything too powerful to the game it will be removed very quickly *cough* DRG tp nerf *cough* ;-)

[Coinspinner]

Re: A look at possible future events in vana'diel?

The major summons that was present in almost all FF series (that hasn't been in FFXI yet) are Phoenix, Odin and Alexander.

So the bird thing Coinspinner mentioned could be Phoenix...(I'm not completely sure which picture hes pointing out though).

Panel three, between the horsemen. I'm guessing the bird on panel one is phoenix.

Anything can be balanced if the dev wants it to be balanced. If Zantetsuken is an Astral Flow it can be used... what 3 times every two hours? Give it a 20% chance of death vs normal mobs, else darkness damage, and 0% against NMs. With three shots you get about a 50% chance to kill a normal mob, or else damage it heavily, using your two-hour. No big deal.

A long time ago I had an idea that they cold add new avatars based on level two SC properties. Hmm. *studies the map more closely*

[SharMarali]

Re: A look at possible future events in vana'diel?

OK... Now I'm going crazy searching for this map.

I have the artbox edition you're referring to, but I can't find this map anywhere. Where was it in the package originally? Was it tucked into the DVD box with the POL disk? In the gigantic instruction manual? Somewhere else?

Oh, and BTW, looking for this thing caused me to open the seal on the little baggie that my Windurstan wristband came in.. lol

[Dezso]

Re: A look at possible future events in vana'diel?

The major summons that was present in almost all FF series (that hasn't been in FFXI yet) are Phoenix, Odin and Alexander.

So the bird thing Coinspinner mentioned could be Phoenix...(I'm not completely sure which picture hes pointing out though).

Pheonix aside for now (*cough* CoP *cough* )Odin and Alexander could very well be the missing 'Holy Knight' and 'Dark Knight' beings missing in the FFXI storyline. Such as two 'legendary' knights who always would meet on the battlefield, neither would win, nor lose. I could honestly almost see an entire expansion storyline that talks about those two. It would be something interesting to be a participant of. Then at the end, since each one is an opposite of the other, the choices you make in the story line or something just as similar would lead you to only having the option to take either Odin or Alexander.

Alexander would be more of a protective / restorative avatar such as Carbuncle, but with more offensive abilites.

Odin would be an offensive avatar... PT attack up etc, but with a catch, lowering defense / acc or a HP/MP drain (like a PT Souleater buff).

Just a thought on my part, as for being 'overpowered' I would think that would be if Avatars could perform lvl 3 or 4 SC. Imaging high damage (if resonably connected) bloodpacts skill chaining with each other or a PT member every minute. That in itself would be rather unfair to many

[Kagerou]

Re: A look at possible future events in vana'diel?

lol
I retired right after CoP launched so I didn't know they already implemented phoenix in the storyline

But yeah, Dexzo's theory makes sense story wise, but yeah, those abilities are gonna be pretty broken.

[Darkhound]

Re: A look at possible future events in vana'diel?

WoW that map is truly amazing, but lets consider some facts......

Maybe that map or sketch was a prototype or an early idea, you know, just like in the movies, there are always things cut off from the final realease. Maybe they just drew what they thought would be on the game and picked up some of it? I mean, dont get me wrong, I would love to see phoenix, odin and many more avatars, but I jus dont want to keep mi hopes high. Now yes, maybe history has proven that that map is an indication of things to come but then again it might just have been coincidence!

Any thoughts?

DH