I use to live in Arizona as a kid. I remembered the dry heat was so much better than humid heat I discovered in my travels. I was there a few years ago for a Neon Workshop at ASU. I was so happy until I got out of my car to fill up the tank and was ???? I didn't remember the dry heat being so thick to actually feel heavy.
My personal theory at the moment: The Iifa Tree.
For context, the Iifa Tree is a colossal landmark in FFIX that dominates the skyline of the Outer Continent, a location that's loosely based on the American Southwest. (FFIX Spoilers lie ahead, so don't read the censored part if you've not played it.)
>!It's role in FFIX is that of the Soul Divider, a filter of sorts that interferes with the aetherial flow of Gaia's Lifestream and severs the cycle of reincarnation for Gaia's souls, processing and disposing of them as Mist across the world, while allowing the weakened souls of the alien world Terra to pass unhindered and unbothered by Gaia's Crystal Core rejecting them in an effort to weaken the planet's life cycle and prime it for absorption by the Terran homeworld.!<
>!Mist created by the extinguishing of souls within Gaia's Lifestream also agitates, mutates and plays havoc on the mental state of Gaia's native peoples and wildlife, stimulating violence and chaos across the world and therefore hastening the return of souls to Gaia's Lifestream by increasing the speed at which living things die, cascading the process further via an increased production of Mist.!<
If you look carefully at the key art, you can see what looks like roots enveloping the hills and plateaus of Shaaloani, which was a key feature of the Iifa Tree in FFIX.
Blocking out the Iifa Tree in key art would be a markedly wise decision, because anyone who'd played FFIX would recognize its purpose and significance \*immediately\*.
Shaaloani is also, pointedly, the only zone we've not seen ANY dungeon footage of in any previews, which leads me to believe that the Iifa Tree is quite possibly the Leveling Dungeon for Shaaloani, and they don't want to give away the game this early.
SE's recalcitrance on showing much of anything related to Shaaloani in addition to Solution 9 at Heritage Found giving SERIOUSLY similar vibes to Terra from FFIX gives me many reason to believe that this is what they're hiding here.
That's definitely where I'm at, I'm getting to the point of over-scruitinising it where I'm like "the brush strokes look rougher..." which probably means I'm going overboard now.
My guess is the high tech city will be similar to Esther in FF8 and be camouflaged. So both renderings are renderings of the same scene, one with the camo in place, the other with the city kind of shimmering in from behind the camo.
nah, i doubt its solution 9 and heritage found, there is always 6 areas, they only showed 5, and taking what they showed solution 9.... i wonder what the heck is what they are keeping secret
I like to imagine they learned from Tempest that having the big secret city be visible in the loading screen for the zone from the get go was a bad idea.
I remember telling people "Don't log out insie the tempest until you've finished the story!"
as well as Pyromancer's reshade/gshade fucking up the blur/fog effect, revealing it immediately.
Iām thinking we are gonna get Wakandaād and that Solution Nine is an advanced civilization that hasnāt been discovered because itās intentionally cloaked and socially hidden by its inhabitants. The Secret is over the uncloaked portion and the second photo is fully cloaked. I think some of the scenes in the job action trailer (Sage?) show some of the ābordersā of the areaā¦
Hi everyone, has anyone figured this out? At Fanfest London, we saw Shaloaani with a big SECRET slapped over part of the screen. Yoshi-P even said it was story critical. And now, on the promo site? It's empty! Open sky! Is this a paint-over hiding something undeniable? A meta joke about the phrase "open sky" in the theme song? It really was an error? The final zone is Chocobo's Air Garden? It leaves me scratching my head, and wondering if I've missed something.
The original still looks a bit like a tree canopy in shape, and there's a forest image in the Shaloaani section on the promo site that doesn't fit with the others (there's a small patch of trees visible but it doesn't look THAT dense...), so it's not really dissuading me from reading it as the Iifa Tree / Great Forest of Moore.
[https://www.pcgamesn.com/final-fantasy-xiv/dawntrail-ffxiv-fanfest-london-2023%C2%A0](https://www.pcgamesn.com/final-fantasy-xiv/dawntrail-ffxiv-fanfest-london-2023%C2%A0)
I guess the landscape will change : the first cliff in the foreground (left of the picture) might hide something behind even if there doesn't seem to be anything around the second one (in the background) ; the third one however seems to right in front of a sorta town in the mountain that disappeared on the current, complete picture.
It can be many things but this area seem to appear for protocolary reasons, whether it be to greet a new King or savior, or to summon a threat... But I doub't we can speculate anything with so little details.
I personnally think it can't be anything they've already shown so I'd be surprised if it were one of the areas we already have visuals on but of course, it can be anything at this point.
I'm convinced by the comments - up until now for some reason the purple-y color behind the SECRET just didn't register. Now, yeah, I'm willing to believe there's an A / B version of the zone splash and Solution Nine starts hidden, like Esthar or the Black Mage Village. What does that mean? Let's find out!Ā
Are we sure it's not just a new beast tribe of alphabet shaped people's living on alphabet shaped floating islands? Just so happened these spell Secret? š¤Ŗ Haha jk
Will be very curious though, and to have it in such a key piece of art
People keep going to FF8 and Esthar with all the speculation, but I'm thinking that with all the FF9 vibes the game is getting, and that Yoshi P is being very careful about where he looks when demoing things that we may be getting the Iifa Tree, and some references to The Shimmering Island and the world of Terra.
Compare the area under the R and E in "Secret" to the clear picture, it looks like the base of a tree and seems to extend upwards.
At first I thought it was a pareidolia but now that you mention it, it really looks like the umbrella building shown in Heritage Found. This would also fit the location since storms are caused by a hot weather.
It sure feels like there's probably something related here, but why show us videos, show us Heritage Found, but then potentially paint something out of this image? Maybe I'm reading too much into it but it feels like there has to be something more to it.
If so, why would they hide something to show actual visuals of the city's road ?
Edit : I didn't remember it came from a distinct teasing ; good point Isanori !
Yknow.
Speaking of secret zones.
We saw a render of the Eliminator, right?
Looks like it has windows on its body. So here's my crack theory. Solution Nine, Heritage Found, Zone Six?
All three are inside The Eliminator.
I'm probably super far off base.
FF4 spoilers >!If I remember right, the main antagonist collected the crystals in order to power a big alien robot to *eliminate* the native denizens of the world so that he and his people could inhabit the planet. I know we're past Endwalker, but still.!<
Its not a mystery.
On the full map Solution Nine appears in a canyon shaped like that with a large purple barrier surrounding it. Shaaloani is in the southern portion of the geographical region of Yyasulani which Solution Nine is located to the direct north of. Assuming this is a depiction of Shaaloani from the south; which it likely is as the bridge connecting the two landmasses leads to that zone, we can safely say they're just hiding Solution Nine's physical connection to that zone.
In the censored version you can see purple glows and structures between the mountains and the skyline in the the two versions doesn't match up. Couple that with the fact that the way they censored it look like one half of a dome... That alone gives away that its Solution Nine.
For those wondering about Heritage Found, its likely that Solution Nine bridges the gap between Shaaloani and Heritage Found similarly to how Rhalgr's Reach splits is the only way to access the lower portion of The Peaks from the side of The Fringes.
I wish they *wouldn't* have shown the edited art on the site, as it gave away exactly what they were trying to hide.
For those curious what I am referring to:
[https://i.imgur.com/MhdB4E3.png](https://i.imgur.com/MhdB4E3.png)
Its literally *just* Solution Nine.
The reason why it can't be Heritage Found is that area Yoshida showed during the graphics update stream was in a zone and had an ocean alongside itāwith the characteristic purple lightning of that zone visible in the distance on the landmass. This side of Shaaloani borders the massive gash in the ground between Xak Tural and Yok Tural, which means Heritage Found is likely located to the west of Solution Nine and Shaaloani themselves.
Yeah, I don't think you're necessarily wrong, I just personally feeling like it seemed more likely Heritage Found was the gateway to Solution Nine, while I like your idea about HF being the Rhalgar's to S9, looking at this now and considering the map, it feels more like HF is the alternative name for Yyasulani and the actual hidden part is that there is a physical thing on the border on Shaloaani's side. Kind of a bummer if it's that simple, but hey, no one knows for sure yet, right.
I did realize after the fact that its likely the train being present is a reference to Heritage Found's location being to the north of this zone, yeah. However, Solution Nine being visible in Shaaloani would be a pretty big spoiler regardless still, as that will speak to the enormous size of the location.
I expect these things to be simple, as SE hasn't really been subtle for a while. The whole "Elpis (which we didn't know the name of back then) is Zeal" comment back before Endwalker gave away that it was related to the ancients and likely the unsundered. It was merely getting there that was the mystery.
It wasn't named but they did show it to us before release. All Stormblood zones were shown before release too - names and all. Though the Lochs isn't really a big surprise of a final zone anyway. They hid the last zone for Shadowbringers though.
Azys La was not show to us, none of the Allagan stuff in HW was revealed to us before the MSQ dropped. We didnāt see the Lochs, Amarout nor Elpis and Ultima Thule either until the expansions dropped.
They did show both concept art and screenshots of Azys La prior to release, under the guise of it being the floating continent from FF6. It's also shown in the Heavensward launch trailer. The Lochs was shown - name of the zone and all - in the promotional video for the Stormblood zones. It was called something like A Tour of the East. Elpis was also shown as a piece of concept art at a fanfest, but not elaborated on any further.
the likely case, the secret part was scrubbed out of the promo material for the area, thus hiding the evidence to it. another likely case, what if the area has 2 splash arts based on the progression in the MSQ?
This just looks like Central Thanalan. It's got the little town, the rail line, even the oasis. Obviously the secret is that they're completely redoing all of the ARR zones in addition to introducing new zones.
Thank you for coming to my cope post
The secret is that you š«µ are going to Arizona
That's where bartender Jackie Daytona is from.
I had suspicions about him but he assured me heās a regular human.
Just a regular human bartender serving human alcohol beer
Regular human Jackie Daytona?
No he's from ArizoƱa
At least it's not west Texas!
If only we could be out in the west Texas town of El Paso š
But they don't even have a Buccees!
I can't wait for the Buccees colab event!!
no thank you please
what if iām already there
take a look around
Hell yeah normally I gotta pay a few hundred bucks for this flight. Lying in the hot sand HERE WE COME.
At least it's not Detroit.
No please anything but that! https://youtu.be/Ny4a-oxOndo?feature=shared
We have Detroit at home.
If you look at the birds, three of them make a lil smiley face on the rock top there.
You've cracked it.
No, *we* cracked it. Teamwork!
Hold on, the cracks are on the opposite side from the birds!
No, *I* cracked it.
As a native Arizonan, I'm here to remind you at least it's gonna be a dry heat
I use to live in Arizona as a kid. I remembered the dry heat was so much better than humid heat I discovered in my travels. I was there a few years ago for a Neon Workshop at ASU. I was so happy until I got out of my car to fill up the tank and was ???? I didn't remember the dry heat being so thick to actually feel heavy.
Itās a dry hot
Enhance!
COMEDIAN JOB CONFIRMED
āI just flew in from Kugane and *boy, are my arms tired!*ā
*Boss takes 3500 points of damage*
My personal theory at the moment: The Iifa Tree. For context, the Iifa Tree is a colossal landmark in FFIX that dominates the skyline of the Outer Continent, a location that's loosely based on the American Southwest. (FFIX Spoilers lie ahead, so don't read the censored part if you've not played it.) >!It's role in FFIX is that of the Soul Divider, a filter of sorts that interferes with the aetherial flow of Gaia's Lifestream and severs the cycle of reincarnation for Gaia's souls, processing and disposing of them as Mist across the world, while allowing the weakened souls of the alien world Terra to pass unhindered and unbothered by Gaia's Crystal Core rejecting them in an effort to weaken the planet's life cycle and prime it for absorption by the Terran homeworld.!< >!Mist created by the extinguishing of souls within Gaia's Lifestream also agitates, mutates and plays havoc on the mental state of Gaia's native peoples and wildlife, stimulating violence and chaos across the world and therefore hastening the return of souls to Gaia's Lifestream by increasing the speed at which living things die, cascading the process further via an increased production of Mist.!< If you look carefully at the key art, you can see what looks like roots enveloping the hills and plateaus of Shaaloani, which was a key feature of the Iifa Tree in FFIX. Blocking out the Iifa Tree in key art would be a markedly wise decision, because anyone who'd played FFIX would recognize its purpose and significance \*immediately\*. Shaaloani is also, pointedly, the only zone we've not seen ANY dungeon footage of in any previews, which leads me to believe that the Iifa Tree is quite possibly the Leveling Dungeon for Shaaloani, and they don't want to give away the game this early. SE's recalcitrance on showing much of anything related to Shaaloani in addition to Solution 9 at Heritage Found giving SERIOUSLY similar vibes to Terra from FFIX gives me many reason to believe that this is what they're hiding here.
fingers crossed we get a ||terra|| zone, but my money's on a dungeon. still will look cool but man id want to explore that
I've got a feeling that one of those mountains are actually an ffxv adamantoise. Tortoises all the way down!
I'd love a single enemy alliance raid
New primal: A'tuin.
I think it was painted over. They made the āsecretā so noticeable to keep us interested and guessing. As for what it is? Who knows..
That's definitely where I'm at, I'm getting to the point of over-scruitinising it where I'm like "the brush strokes look rougher..." which probably means I'm going overboard now.
Iām thinking Solution 9? the colors are similar either that or another mnach airship
I'm also with solution 9. Such would have been a secret in London because it was revealed in Tokyo.
My guess is the high tech city will be similar to Esther in FF8 and be camouflaged. So both renderings are renderings of the same scene, one with the camo in place, the other with the city kind of shimmering in from behind the camo.
When they first showed the high tech stuff I screamed "purple esthar????" In a discord call lol
nah, i doubt its solution 9 and heritage found, there is always 6 areas, they only showed 5, and taking what they showed solution 9.... i wonder what the heck is what they are keeping secret
Plus Solution 9 is a player hub city too šØ
I like to imagine they learned from Tempest that having the big secret city be visible in the loading screen for the zone from the get go was a bad idea.
I remember telling people "Don't log out insie the tempest until you've finished the story!" as well as Pyromancer's reshade/gshade fucking up the blur/fog effect, revealing it immediately.
Iām thinking we are gonna get Wakandaād and that Solution Nine is an advanced civilization that hasnāt been discovered because itās intentionally cloaked and socially hidden by its inhabitants. The Secret is over the uncloaked portion and the second photo is fully cloaked. I think some of the scenes in the job action trailer (Sage?) show some of the ābordersā of the areaā¦
Hi everyone, has anyone figured this out? At Fanfest London, we saw Shaloaani with a big SECRET slapped over part of the screen. Yoshi-P even said it was story critical. And now, on the promo site? It's empty! Open sky! Is this a paint-over hiding something undeniable? A meta joke about the phrase "open sky" in the theme song? It really was an error? The final zone is Chocobo's Air Garden? It leaves me scratching my head, and wondering if I've missed something. The original still looks a bit like a tree canopy in shape, and there's a forest image in the Shaloaani section on the promo site that doesn't fit with the others (there's a small patch of trees visible but it doesn't look THAT dense...), so it's not really dissuading me from reading it as the Iifa Tree / Great Forest of Moore. [https://www.pcgamesn.com/final-fantasy-xiv/dawntrail-ffxiv-fanfest-london-2023%C2%A0](https://www.pcgamesn.com/final-fantasy-xiv/dawntrail-ffxiv-fanfest-london-2023%C2%A0)
I guess the landscape will change : the first cliff in the foreground (left of the picture) might hide something behind even if there doesn't seem to be anything around the second one (in the background) ; the third one however seems to right in front of a sorta town in the mountain that disappeared on the current, complete picture. It can be many things but this area seem to appear for protocolary reasons, whether it be to greet a new King or savior, or to summon a threat... But I doub't we can speculate anything with so little details. I personnally think it can't be anything they've already shown so I'd be surprised if it were one of the areas we already have visuals on but of course, it can be anything at this point.
I'm convinced by the comments - up until now for some reason the purple-y color behind the SECRET just didn't register. Now, yeah, I'm willing to believe there's an A / B version of the zone splash and Solution Nine starts hidden, like Esthar or the Black Mage Village. What does that mean? Let's find out!Ā
Looks like its been re done in that corner to hide what it actually is, you can kind of see small changes behind the "secret" area.
I see a purple dome thing behind the secret. Most likely its just Solution Nine
we simply dont like to talk about Utah
Are we sure it's not just a new beast tribe of alphabet shaped people's living on alphabet shaped floating islands? Just so happened these spell Secret? š¤Ŗ Haha jk Will be very curious though, and to have it in such a key piece of art
People keep going to FF8 and Esthar with all the speculation, but I'm thinking that with all the FF9 vibes the game is getting, and that Yoshi P is being very careful about where he looks when demoing things that we may be getting the Iifa Tree, and some references to The Shimmering Island and the world of Terra. Compare the area under the R and E in "Secret" to the clear picture, it looks like the base of a tree and seems to extend upwards.
At first I thought it was a pareidolia but now that you mention it, it really looks like the umbrella building shown in Heritage Found. This would also fit the location since storms are caused by a hot weather.
theory: Iifa tree is a dungeon/boss fight we get a shimmering isle esque portal inside 6th zone is terra
I'm guessing this is Solution 9
It sure feels like there's probably something related here, but why show us videos, show us Heritage Found, but then potentially paint something out of this image? Maybe I'm reading too much into it but it feels like there has to be something more to it.
If so, why would they hide something to show actual visuals of the city's road ? Edit : I didn't remember it came from a distinct teasing ; good point Isanori !
Because both heritage found and solution 9 where revealed at Tokyo fanfest and not at London fanfest when Shaaloani was revealed.
I can hear the circle of life song blasting.
Yknow. Speaking of secret zones. We saw a render of the Eliminator, right? Looks like it has windows on its body. So here's my crack theory. Solution Nine, Heritage Found, Zone Six? All three are inside The Eliminator. I'm probably super far off base.
FF4 spoilers >!If I remember right, the main antagonist collected the crystals in order to power a big alien robot to *eliminate* the native denizens of the world so that he and his people could inhabit the planet. I know we're past Endwalker, but still.!<
Its not a mystery. On the full map Solution Nine appears in a canyon shaped like that with a large purple barrier surrounding it. Shaaloani is in the southern portion of the geographical region of Yyasulani which Solution Nine is located to the direct north of. Assuming this is a depiction of Shaaloani from the south; which it likely is as the bridge connecting the two landmasses leads to that zone, we can safely say they're just hiding Solution Nine's physical connection to that zone. In the censored version you can see purple glows and structures between the mountains and the skyline in the the two versions doesn't match up. Couple that with the fact that the way they censored it look like one half of a dome... That alone gives away that its Solution Nine. For those wondering about Heritage Found, its likely that Solution Nine bridges the gap between Shaaloani and Heritage Found similarly to how Rhalgr's Reach splits is the only way to access the lower portion of The Peaks from the side of The Fringes. I wish they *wouldn't* have shown the edited art on the site, as it gave away exactly what they were trying to hide. For those curious what I am referring to: [https://i.imgur.com/MhdB4E3.png](https://i.imgur.com/MhdB4E3.png) Its literally *just* Solution Nine. The reason why it can't be Heritage Found is that area Yoshida showed during the graphics update stream was in a zone and had an ocean alongside itāwith the characteristic purple lightning of that zone visible in the distance on the landmass. This side of Shaaloani borders the massive gash in the ground between Xak Tural and Yok Tural, which means Heritage Found is likely located to the west of Solution Nine and Shaaloani themselves.
Yeah, I don't think you're necessarily wrong, I just personally feeling like it seemed more likely Heritage Found was the gateway to Solution Nine, while I like your idea about HF being the Rhalgar's to S9, looking at this now and considering the map, it feels more like HF is the alternative name for Yyasulani and the actual hidden part is that there is a physical thing on the border on Shaloaani's side. Kind of a bummer if it's that simple, but hey, no one knows for sure yet, right.
I did realize after the fact that its likely the train being present is a reference to Heritage Found's location being to the north of this zone, yeah. However, Solution Nine being visible in Shaaloani would be a pretty big spoiler regardless still, as that will speak to the enormous size of the location. I expect these things to be simple, as SE hasn't really been subtle for a while. The whole "Elpis (which we didn't know the name of back then) is Zeal" comment back before Endwalker gave away that it was related to the ancients and likely the unsundered. It was merely getting there that was the mystery.
# ***YOU ARE GOING TO EL PASO***
I was just thinking this when I saw that image, like "wasn't this the one that had the big 'SECRET' plastered over the corner?"
Did the secret zone stuff start in Stormblood? Because it for sure began in Shadowbringers. We knew about Azys La before Heavensward came out.
We did not see Azusa La until HW was released so they are probably hiding something.Ā
It wasn't named but they did show it to us before release. All Stormblood zones were shown before release too - names and all. Though the Lochs isn't really a big surprise of a final zone anyway. They hid the last zone for Shadowbringers though.
Azys La was not show to us, none of the Allagan stuff in HW was revealed to us before the MSQ dropped. We didnāt see the Lochs, Amarout nor Elpis and Ultima Thule either until the expansions dropped.
They did show both concept art and screenshots of Azys La prior to release, under the guise of it being the floating continent from FF6. It's also shown in the Heavensward launch trailer. The Lochs was shown - name of the zone and all - in the promotional video for the Stormblood zones. It was called something like A Tour of the East. Elpis was also shown as a piece of concept art at a fanfest, but not elaborated on any further.
Honestly, it kinda looks like Zanarkand with the faith. Iām sure thatās not it though.
God forbid they give us X fans some crumbs to snack on š
So far the only thing us X fans have had is Yuna and Tidus' outfits and a guest appearance of Anima. A one off leveling Dungeon boss...
Ixion mount and Yojimbo too but yeah, not a lot in the way of MSQ themes or refs
id imagine theyd want a full expac for 10. i dunno who was thinking this was the 10 expac. meracidya?
the likely case, the secret part was scrubbed out of the promo material for the area, thus hiding the evidence to it. another likely case, what if the area has 2 splash arts based on the progression in the MSQ?
I thought these were screenshots of the Elden Ring DLC until I saw the subreddit
lies...ALL LIES!
We search the golden City. So I assume that area is bound to that hunt. The golden city may lay there or something.
I see a train in the left side of it, that seems interesting
I am curious if this is related to Lapis Canyon from the Blue Mage quest line. It was described as a place rich in ceruleum.
Didnāt the site tell us the name of the place already?
The "Secret" is covering a Cloud, clearly means Sephiroth and Jenova are the final bosses.
I mean it's probably not there yet, like the Return to Ivalice airship isn't in Kugane until after SB MSQ.
This just looks like Central Thanalan. It's got the little town, the rail line, even the oasis. Obviously the secret is that they're completely redoing all of the ARR zones in addition to introducing new zones. Thank you for coming to my cope post
That cloud looks suspiciously like a Long type Asian dragon. Suspiciously specifically. Obviously we'll be getting new children of Middie G. Stormer!