WHAT IS THIS EXPANSION?!?

[@SandSquare]

I just imagine my WoL desperately refusing to acknowledge anything weird going on in this expansion and just determined to have a real summer vacation with no distractions.

[@Koranthus]

I appreciate that this was sold as a summer vacation thing, but in the latest trailer its like "vacation with a side of choosing a monarch"

[@leffed2109]

Thats what mine have been doing through the patches 😂 "Hey I am on holiday, why am I going to the void suddenly?!" 😂 "This was suppose to be a fun little adventure with friends and now we need to save the world again?! Where do I get a refund?" So with this being sold as summer vacation she will be so angry when things starts to go to heck 😂 Looking forward to it!

[@rexex345]

At this point that's basically how the WoL reacts to seeing Rowena. "Nope. Nopenopenopenope... Argh, fine."

[@acgearsandarms1343]

@@leffed2109Fun adventure, yes. Little? No.

[@sanddry738]

I’m blown away by all the things coming in. I joined FFXIV when Endwalker dropped so I know this is one of the few FEW games I feel comfortable pre-ordering. Can’t wait to see the new graphic updates and the GODDAMN FUTURE CITY

[@MrSeligas]

My theory is that Solution 9 is in a heavily Lightning-Aspected location, as they mentioned that earlier in the video. Possibly it's a relic of the lightning calamity? Much like the people from Garlemald, the people who lived there likely had no choice and needed to adapt. So thus they found ways to divert and then eventually capture the lightning aether. Then once you have all this lightning aether, well....when you have a hammer everything looks like a nail. They start to experiment with it, rubbing it on stuff, running it through stuff, sprinkling it on their food, brushing their teeth with it. You get a thriving metals industry when you figure out how to create an induction forge by creating an electromagnetic current. You heat your homes and cook food in much the same way. You start to light your cities with it. Notice all the lights are mostly purple? Lightning aether. You get stuff levitating and floating via electromagnetism, helped by the entire city being made of metal. Bam. Suddenly you have what looks like a city of the future. It's honestly the most likely and simplest explanation.

[@taijithebard9495]

My theory is that Solution 9 is from the Twelfth reflection, which would explain the lightning aspected area since Second Calamity (the calamity that rejoined the Twelfth) was also lightning aspected. We know from Crystal Tower that entire structures can be sent to different shards, so maybe the people of Twelfth tried to find a way to either send Solution 9 to the Source, or survive the rejoining. Maybe they teleported the city, but they still somehow got rejoined and died. That would explain why there are two different civilization in Heritage Found: people of the New World discovered the city and somehow found a way to "activate" the city. Perhaps inhabitants of the city died, but the city can still run without a problem with A.I. and stuff (like an old Allagan ruin)? Or maybe there is a time dilation from the teleportation, and the city only just recently arrived?

[@paine_inflicta]

Well, time dilated teleportation is certainly a thing in XIV, just look at the ARR trailer.

[@taijithebard9495]

​@@paine_inflicta Yep! Time also flows differently between the shards, so it's definitely a possibility.

[@criticaljohnson]

I'm more subscribing to the theory that this is actually a remnant of an ancient city created to survive the final days, but your theory about it having been teleported over from the Twelfth seems equally plausible. But, my thought is that the inhabitants are not dead as such, but their souls stored in stasis to be someday revived - hence "soul supply."

[@Koranthus]

I feel like it looks nothing like Amaurot and the Ancients aesthetic though, i feel like they did refer to the New World ancients in the story, but given how drowned out the ancients seem to be aesthetically, eliminating physical differences behind masks and everyone wearing the same clothes i find it harder to believe that a separate nation on what seemed to be a dominated planet would be so different. also to OP, They are showing off the city and shit but that doesn't mean it will actually be vacant, they did say it was going to be a hub so they don't necessarily have to be dead.@@criticaljohnson

[@WalkerRileyMC]

My current theory is it is a shard that has to be rejoined. Y'shtola makes mention at some point that Hydaelyn was what kept the shards in place, being light aspected (light being stasis). So no Hydaelyn means nothing to keep the shards from naturally attempting to rejoin. But it's not going to be the forced rejoining like the Ascians did but more a natural rejoined without the massive calamities. Solution 9 is going to be the result of a part of a shard trying to rejoin. It's not an Ancient remnant, it's just another civilization that will surprise us, as Emet-Selch said it would.

[@yannobzh]

Great video! your cooking and excitement get me hype too. Cannot wait!!!

[@RBIllustration]

I really enjoyed watching your reaction especially the corking on Solution 9! I had exactly the same reaction to you, I was messaging my friends going "WHAT THE HELL IS THIS EXPANSION??"and also immediately dived for the encyclopedia haha I anticipated that DT wouldn't be solely a happy fun holiday of course but I did NOT expect the sudden appearance of a cyberpunk city. I'm also on the same train of thought as a lot of people about it being from a different shard, or what you said about the 'city across the sea' from Amaurot, but I'm also curious because I could have sworn I'd seen the eye symbol below 'Nexus Bar' somewhere in Ronka/Qitana Ravel, though I went back through the dungeon and I couldn't see anything. I wonder if that could have anything to do with it, though, since Y'shtola was so heavily involved with Ronka/the Night's Blessed and heavily hinted she would figure out shard travel one day (and Tural architecture reminds me of Ronkan architecture, and Y'shtola was specifically studying the architecture/statues in the trailer). I don't think they'd do the 'illusionary city' thing again like they did with Amaurot so I think it EXISTS there but I don't know how. The electricity symbol on the neon sign of the drink, the levin theme and 'soul supply' has also got me wondering if the people there are artificial but more robotic than illusionary. AAA I'm SO curious and I can't wait to play it!! As an artist I'm also hyped for pictomancer, the spell effects look like so much fun!

[@batwingpie]

I like how they stayed true to the Bozja murals with FemHroth, she looks just like the old Queen was depicted in that art.

[@criticaljohnson]

So here's my theory: I think Endy is largely correct on the "this city was constructed by ancients as a means to survive the final days" theory. I also think he's right regarding this being the "metropolis" across the sea referred to in Amaurot, or a construct of theirs. But my personal theory: rather than this city being full of ancients, or somehow spanning multiple timelines like Endy was thinking, I think the city is empty. I'm thinking that the ancients in this city, when faced with the final days and realizing everything they were trying was failing, sundered their souls from their bodies and placed them in some kind of storage or stasis. Because this part of the world was hit first by the final days, they trusted in the other ancients in Amaurot or elsewhere to find a way to avert the final days, and then come wake them all and create new bodies for them...hence, "soul supply." When the other ancients would arrive as planned to awaken the residents, they'd need to know where the souls were stored at. Could be completely off base, but that's my two cents.

[@EndyD20]

What you touch on regarding the soul supply is similar to an idea I’ve had since watching the keynote. I *love* all the theories which people are concocting, it’s great fun to have a stab at what the future may hold. Expect another video soonish that’ll better serve our theorycrafting needs!

[@Morvelaira]

So, the name Solution Nine has a lot of connection to Zidane of Final Fantasy IX fame. It's the name of one of his limit breaks, and... *GAME SPOILERS AHEAD* ... the apex of his story involves a race of people looking to place their ancient souls into new bodies, in order to take over the world after being in stasis for millenia. You know... kind of like all those Ancient souls that were sustaining Zodiark. I think this was meant to be how the Ancients returned to life after Zodiark restored them.

[@criticaljohnson]

That's wild! I've never played IX and don't know the plot, so I'd heard plenty of people saying "That's Zidane's limit break" without making this connection! I'm now even more convinced that something in this ballpark has to be a plot point in Dawntrail @@Morvelaira

[@ruthnovena40]

@@Morvelaira WE met 2 groups on the void planet that could have made this One that gave up their bodies and became metal . The other became a form of matter?. IN FF9 Zidane appears as happy go lucky but he was not meant to be who he seems to be.

[@RianaFelblade]

Oh lawd he cookin. I'm here for it. I'm also obsessed with the whole Solution Nine area, and I can't wait to see it play out. Love the content as always, Endy. ♥

[@Manuel1112221]

The thing I noticed the most about Solution Nine at first was the Aetherite, of course, but also the aetherite shards! Even the shards are very blocky, very rectangular. I cannot wait to explore Solution Nine (and everything else ofc!!) in the summer. :D

[@Daniela-tr3me]

Honestly, the way @EndyD20 is sooooo excited over FFXIV (one of my favourite games too), it's hard not to get attracted to this cute man when he is giving us his cute reactions...

[@lightofthelives]

All the hypeeeee so excited

[@Lord_Calf]

2 hours of Endy React and Cork? i cant wait to see it in its entirety ... maybe edit later :3

[@jibrilles]

This is amazing you figured out the words!!

[@uber_trance]

So the seemingly obscure link between the TMNT shirt and Pictomancer (both artists) has some history. One of the more notable examples is during the Stormblood FanFests. One of the shirts he wore was a Spider-Man shirt. At that time, people were assuming it was Blue Mage (since you get powers from an animal). However it was actually Samurai, because the director of the OG trilogy is named Sam Raimi and if you say that with Japanese inflection, you get something sounding similar to "samurai".

[@hayatotheninja]

I am so hype for this expansion! I'll definitely be playing Picto as my secondary (Samurai Main) as an artist (no surprise)!!!

[@TheDeliciousMystery]

Solution 9's definitely the most interesting part. An Arcadions a place intended to preserve ecology outside its normal environment and that logo on the left might be one of two as yet unmet ascians related to seats on the convocation about preserving the environment so i wonder if this is a piece of the 13th they salvaged as a "better than nothing" deal. Emet talks as though they completely wrote the 13th off and since the plan was to restore the world unsundered its not like they would need a preserve for that compared to something they considered otherwise lost. Maybe its a bit of a 9 reference where Zidane found out he came from a city of artificial homunculi and these are basically ascian made repository bodies for people from the 13th but with the ascians gone , in this case i could be wrong but i think the two that logo could be were killed by Gaius off screen in Stormblood, maybe its like a thematic opposite of Tuliyolal. While they honour their traditions but are multi cultural and progressive as a society maybe without their ascian caretakers solution 9 is a stagnant city thats hyper advanced but cannot come up with anything new and just keeps recycling the same people and in turn the same ideas on repeat? Maybe Eliminator exists to keep the citizens inside like some kind of vivarium completely without influence from a pre-rejoining source and its all about basically teaching artificial people to leave and rejoin the rest of the world similar to Eulmore? Then again its described as a city of facades and appears on the map as though its in a bubble. Maybe its actually not as clean and tidy as it appears and its all AR hologram stuff hiding a much worse scenario. Maybe its a splinter of Mhach or allag from the Calamity of Lightning and for their own safety the original creators of the city told them the world outside the bubble was dead and gone and eliminator stops anyone finding out the truth and reporting back in a Fallout vault kind of deal?

[@SgtSandflea]

Dude, I spent hours trying to decipher that sign! Glad someone else was able to do it, it was driving me crazy!

[@PetarBladeStrok]

Solution 9 is a name of Zidane's LB from FFIX! So yeah, who knows what that could mean...

[@acgearsandarms1343]

Genomes?

[@Ower8x]

I love your cooking on the writing ... Kudos for that

[@Enderlinkpawnu]

here are my theories for what we learned: 1. Solution 9 is a simulated utopia (the word to describe it was "facade" which is interesting) 2. The Arcadeon is a colosseum/arena of some sort in Solution 9. The tier may be structured similarly to Omega story wise, with less dire stakes. 3. The new field operation does not take place on the Source. Most likely its a continuation of the First/Void plot where we will team up with Gaia, Ryne, Zero, and Golbez to balance out both the First and Thirteenth, and all the dangers that are involved. It will require completion of Eden, and the void questline. 4. Cosmic exploration will either have us going to the current dead homeworlds of the aliens we have seen in UT/the Dead Ends, or we are going to those planets Mappingway had said to had mapped out for habitation. Either way I like to think we are getting there via the moon (the moon is a ship, after all).

[@Fraven85]

do keep in mind that the word "facade" doesn't necessarily mean "deceptive outward appearance", but also "the principal front of a building, that faces on to a street or open space." which is very applicable to Solution Nine.

[@lilacmoon93]

I was lucky enough to get tickets to the Tokyo Fanfest this year thanks to my JP partner and you should have heard the Tokyo Dome when Krile was shown as Pictomancer. I didn't even know what the hell a Pictomancer was since I haven't played FF6 but my nerdy partner was SO DAMN EXCITED he kept swapping between Japanese and English (mind you, I only speak ONE of those languages) and it took him ages to calm down enough to explain what the hell I was seeing lol c: Such a cool experience and so much to look forward to in Dawntrail.

[@reiizayoi3376]

Thank you for the translations and all the cooking, you're a beast(master) :D

[@elaine_of_shalott6587]

With EW the character creator was part of the benchmark test download. And it would put that character into the benchmark trailer.

[@guitalex2005]

1:33:50 yes, they release the character creation tool before every expansion with the PC benchmark. For PC players, you can load your current character (so you can see your own character in the benchmark scenes), or make a new character and save the appearance data for use with new characters, retainers, or fantasia in the retail release.

[@AugustSolaris]

From what I've heard in passing the Shadow Lord is the final boss of the base game of FF11. So equivalent to either Gaius or Lahabrea in ARR

[@LittleMissLanna]

FINALLY! i'VE BEEN WAITING FOR YOUR REACTION!!

[@angrytealeaf]

"Who watching this video was demanding his midriff?" ... 🙋‍♀️

[@MaydaTiger]

never change, leaf of many angry teas

[@tngdragon]

OK I just want to make sure - I didn't miss this live, right? YOu're reacting purely on this Vid? Cuz I DO NOT remember this on Twitch... Am I going mad? EDIT: OK the phrase "WHAT IS THIS EXPANSION?" seems to be on everyone's lips. Seriously WHAT IS THIS EXPANSION?

[@EndyD20]

Haven't missed anything! I recorded a reaction at the start of the week :)

[@SarahExpereinceRequiem]

I didn't catch that live but I think that's the first time I've ever heard "Eigo Jouzu" lol

[@RothAnim]

1:33:55 For what it's worth, the Endwalker benchmark included the character creator with the male Viera. With the graphical update and system requirements, I expect we'll get a new Dawntrail benchmark with the updated character creator some time in the spring.

[@paiz3505]

I really like the cooking, honestly I love that they teased us with this near-endgame thing so we can speculate with what bits of info we got.

[@Manuel1112221]

Sorry for double dipping on comments but I had to. What if Heritage Found is so called because it's ground zero for the place where ancient civilizations found remnants from the time of the Ancients? And thus, took it as inheritance from a time long past? And what if Solution Nine is built on top of Heritage Found, on that big structure we saw in the concept art? Oh I can't wait for the summer...

[@mikaelolsson5791]

The reason Alphinaud and Alisaie looks the same, is cause it takes until the very late teens/early twenties for an Elezen to have their growth spurt and stop looking like children. So since they're both 16-17 years old at this point, it could take another 3-5 in game years before we see any actual physical change happen to them. And since everything from ARR until now has only been just over an in game year, don't expect to ever see them look different, unless there's a timeskip.

[@17cupsofcoffee]

The comedic timing on the "Oh, that was anti-climact--" just as they did the fem Hrothgar reveal was brilliant

[@MaydaTiger]

summer vacation :)

[@MizukiYumeko]

IM SO GLAD IM NOT THE ONLY ONE THAT'S BEEN EXCITED ABOUT BEING ZIDANE soon!!™

[@FunkiestChickenlawl]

They’ve actually done it, they’ve broken the eastern game curse of making the female beast race just a regular human with cat face-paint on. Femhroth looks lit, 100% going to fantasia to one immediately when the expansion is out.

[@TarossBlackburn]

I had a good bellylaugh at your trailer discussion when you got cut off in your saying 'Anticlimactic' :D

[@ChipotleKanetsu]

I think Eliminator was actually a device constructed by the ancients to eliminate blasphemies. I dunno if you’re familiar with the nier plot, but I see some similarities with humans using androids to watch over until their awakening.

[@marslara]

Haha 5:30 killed me with that comedic timing 😅

[@graybeard4263]

20 minutes in and the twitch chat starts demanding Yoshi P's midriff. Sounds about right.

[@Toffeehammer]

My guess is Solution Nine was built by Allagans. Probably a group that split away from the larger Allagan society for whatever reason and survived the calamity that ended that civilization because of it and their technology evolved into what we're seeing now. I'm not really basing that on anything major other than the ads in the city feature midlander hyurs like most of the Allagans we've seen. We never did find out exactly what happened to Owen in the end right? Perhaps we'll meet his descendants.

[@ChipotleKanetsu]

Highly doubt it’s Allag. If anything, it’s more Mhachi in color scheme.

[@Toffeehammer]

@@ChipotleKanetsu That's kinda what I thought too. You're probably right but I also feel like going the Mhachi route would run into problems with the Heavensward alliance raid being optional content etc. Not everybody knows who the Mhachi are because they may not have done the raid whereas everybody knows who the Allagans are because we can't seem to get away from them. A society of surviving Allagan descendants would also give G'raha something interesting to look into on Tural, not to mention some fun tension when the inevitable Mericidia expansion rolls around.

[@WilBgames]

I dont know much about FF14 lore (I've only just barely met Krile) but that futuristic city and the seeming crossover of time periods screams FF8 to me. Also Solution 9 is a Zidane Trance ability that causes a bunch of red symbols to strike an enemy, so that's interesting

[@p0_0ison]

im SOOOOOOOOOO estatic for pictomancer!

[@_dawnforged]

Second comment! Bummed I missed the premiere but here we GOOOOOO

[@elaine_of_shalott6587]

I'm sad Krile isn't loosing the hood. She is so cute with the side ponytail.

[@criticaljohnson]

I'm still holding out hope for a mid-expansion costume change

[@EclipseHighroller]

I am praying that ultimate Eden has Ultamecia as the final boss. Futures rewritten implies changing time and Eden is from 8, so who from 8 is involved in time control? Ultamecia.

[@bashiel]

I thought your birthday was last week, or the week before that, or before that? :P

[@Tezasaurus]

If this is the FF9-themed expansion I am a very happy camper.

[@pathtopeace7761]

Idk why but it looks like Alphinaud dyed the back of his hair and left the front white

[@bashiel]

I think solution nine is in virtual reality, matrix style

[@kalierdarkekd]

In case no one has told you yet, no, all raids in FFXIV are not unique content. to date only Arcadion and the endwalker alliance raid have been unique, ARR: Bahamut(Many), Crystal Tower(FF3) HW: Alexander(Many) and The War of the Magi(FF6) SB: Omega(several, originally 5) and Rabanastre(Ivalice, specifically FFT) ShB: Eden (FF8) and Nier Endwalker: Pandaemonium (originally a location in 2, but also summons, enemies, characters, and locations elsewhere). With Pandaemonium and Omega also just being massive references to multiple things in general. They are all unique takes on everything, however, but not, themselves, unique.

[@Silvist]

First off this is typically how it goes for FFXIV expacs. Endwalker sadly lost steam on the sequential patches due to the devs being split between FF16 and FF14. In terms of the mind blowing factor of "Solution 9" yea, i'm right there with you. I wasn't really hyped until I saw that. Now think back to Endwalker. Thavnir and Sharlayan were the two hubs, and neither were really spoilers. So if you think that's a big reveal, guess again. They never show the big spoilers for a good reason, like both of the final zones of Endwalker. As a 1.0 player and as a FFXI player at launch, I'm very hyped for the raid series. The Shadowlord is translated as "Shadow King" in Japanese actually. You can view him as the main antagonist of the game, because he's essentially the King of all the Beastmen. He's not much of a challenge with the current version of FFXI, but in the original he was probably one of the hardest bosses. Unlike FF14, imagine if all of the MSQ was tuned to the highest end raid content in terms of difficulty, and that would be FFXI. Some people would hit lvl cap long before they ever finished the MSQ, and hitting max lvl in vanilla ffxi probably took about 6 months :P And yes they will release a Benchmark at some PLL, so you can create you character with that before the expac. One mistake I think everyone makes is assuming that the "ancients" were the first race to exist...because who created them? When you speak to Hydaelyn before she goes, she said something to the sort of "This was what the original crystal bearer believe...". Its possible the original 13 were not ancients at all, and the ancients just inherited their memories through the crystal. Your translation of "soul supply" makes me think of the aetherial sea, which is kind of wild. I think the proper translation of that is probably "levin supply" or maybe lightning supply.

[@EclipseHighroller]

Here I am, probably the only one hoping Gambler will be added at some point

[@EclipseHighroller]

Can they PLEASE fix the slouch on the hrothgar male. That is the one of the only 2 reasons I don’t play it, the slouch makes hrothgar look horrid. The other reason it the lack of seeable hats, but the slouch is the biggest issue for me

[@elaine_of_shalott6587]

I can't believe fans have already translated the signs in Solution 9

[@elaine_of_shalott6587]

Lol. You are one of them.

[@WalkerRileyMC]

not as hyped as I was for ShB and EW....but i'm slowly coming around. I'm not too keen on the aesthetics of Pictomancer....really bright and pastel in comparison to everything else. But....Krile's happy and that makes me happy so I'm fine with it for now.

[@truthless4720]

I'll admit I didn't watch *all* of this, forwarded through a bit, and I can't stop myself from replying before I'm done with the whole video. My theories go along two paths. 1. The first path is much like yours, that it's a remnant of a pre-sundered civilization. The proto-alphabet signs and such are certainly indicative of such. My only argument against this path is that Etheirys pre-sundering was heavily focused on... well, aether, as the primary driver of EVERYTHING, just because it was so replete with it. There was no reason to evolve technologically, because aether (read: creation magic) could do *everything*. This is very clearly a technological city, not a magical one (this becomes even clearer with the images from the raid series, which are clearly connected to this somehow). 2. The second path isn't as interesting, as it's basically "aliens". If we rule out that this place existed prior to the sundering, and it was created post-sundering, then the only option (I believe) is extraterrestrial in nature. We have a pretty good understanding of what happened post-sundering; Hydaelyn lays it out in stark colors in the infamous cutscene. She created a world of plague and suffering - medieval times, worse even - then we have the history of like the second or third age onwards; magic developed and we gradually got the world we live in today. There was little room there for technological advancements, I think - Allagans and Garleans are the best examples we have, and they had Ascian help. There's two points I'd like to make beyond this. 1. This civilization is clearly advanced enough to "do something" about a threat looming over the planet - so why didn't they act when Etheirys was threated by the final days, just recently? My theory: they can't, because they're not actually alive. This ties better into the first of the two above options, in that they saw what the original final days were doing, realized the world was ending, and they created... a virtual one. A literal supercomputer capable of hosting a "dream" world, and "everyone" was digitalized (note: some decided not to join them - these became the people that post-sundering repopulated the area around Solution Nine - creating Heritage Found, an apt name). For anyone who's played FFX, you know the connections being made here. I think calling it Zanarkand would've been a bit much, but I don't doubt they considered it for the briefest of moments. 2. As for why they were as technologically advanced to be capable of such feats, and not reliant on aether/creation magics... may I draw your attention to the half-face on display on the artwork of the street in Solution Nine (the one with the Nexus Bar). That girl (at least I think it's a girl) has a dot in the middle of her forehead. We know of another people who have a dot in the middle of their forehead... it's called a third eye, and they're incapable of using magic. My theory: We're looking at the ancestors of the Garlean race, much like the ancients were our ancestors. I'm looking forward to seeing Cid dig into this. Oh, and listen to the lyrics during the trailer - the part where they reveal pictomancer, right before the spriggan dives into the ocean and the music changes back to the Dawntrail theme; "on this trail we can't see the end until we close our eyes and..." then it cuts off. Pretty sure that last word is supposed to be "dream".

[@elaine_of_shalott6587]

Run animation is very important. I tried playing Elezen at one point and I couldn't stand the way they run and had to change it. Playable Loporrits or Riot! I knew the distant metropolis had to come up in this video in relation to solution 9! Sorry for spamming so many comments I watched the video in sections.

[@johnmack20]

I'm grateful they listened for Female H finally, but i was kind of "hope/hopping" they'd let us play as a much smaller furry race seeing as their soul purpose for existing has been fulfilled, they need a new one. Let em join the fray!

[@TheBhappyboy1986]

Is the video Bitrate low or was it the stream?

[@smward87]

Both. It's a video of a live stream so the bitrate was double fucked lol.

[@Heldemon]

From what I understand, the eyes now are just painted on.

[@Tindays]

RIP female bunny nose

[@MissingNo_]

I'm disappointed that my guess for the job was wrong. Pizzamancer makes more sense than Pictomancer.

[@tehkendra8735]

I have been loving watching this during my free time. p.s. I am still in the same spot of msq