TJetPrime: I didn't even notice that Living Memory is kind of shaped like Gaia's map in FF9. That is so cool! Alexandria is even placed at the same location!
its_foi: Me in Stormblood and Omega raids: alright time to play FF5
Me in Shadowbringers: Okay time to play FF3
Me in Endwalker: Okay time to play FF4
Me in Dawntrail: Okay time to play FF9
alright time to play every Final Fantasy games
chipslight738: Sphene is an alternate name of Titanite which in itself is also a type of gemstone, like Garnet so while Sphene is probably not a 1:1 reference to Garnet/Dagger, she clearly references her name in this matter.
RuneArcN8: Other subtle hints to note.
The name Solution 9 comes from Zidane's Trance Dyne moves, the penultimate one I think.
The portal to Living memory from the lv99 trial is spatially positioned under Everkeep. Just as the portal to Memoria was placed under the Iifa Tree.
The robotic Sentries have the Black Mage eyes while sharing the body shape of Alexandrian soldiers.
Otis is seeing Steiner but without the bumbling moments. Instead we see in Otis that same dedication to kingdom and respect to children, just as Steiner was dedicated to Garnet and respectful of Vivi.
In Yesterland, that car on the rails is actually a Lindblum Air Taxi, the body shape and propellers being the very same.
And finally in the Alexandria dungeon, the shape of the new Everkeep does bring to mind FF9 Alexander defending the Castle
drxgxn1742: I feel so sad for people who didn't played IX. I think they didn't felt the emotion and nostalgia as we did :')
MekareP: Living Memory was a lot like Twilight Town from Kingdom Hearts too. Also Endless...Heartless.
Norbert_Sattler: I think the Everkeep looks quite a bit like a more technological looking Iifa Tree and in a broad sense even serves a similar function, being partially in each world to funnel souls stolen from one to the other.

Plus the whole thing about using stolen souls to power machines of war, which in FF9 was the mist-powered airship fleet of Lindblum and of course the black mages, and in FF14 is the regulators, among other things.
askel6498: I'd like to mention that the concept of powering oneself up using souls is very akin the the FF9 concept of Trance. Even though in FF9 it is described as ones own soul surging with power due to heavy emotions. Zoraal Ja however did basically the very same thing as Kuja did, overloading himself with multiple souls of others to transform into a stronger version of himself.
RagnarokiaNG: Another similarity between Sphene and Garnet is that they are both fake versions of the originals made to hide their deaths, at least Sphene didn't have her Summoner's horn cut off...
lucasdude: as soon as i met sphene & realized it was alexandria i was so overjoyed. 9 is honestly my favorite ff game. i kinda figured there would be references to it because of the pre-order & collectors edition minions but i was not expecting That Much haha
azmadoppler: Even though ultimate plan from Sphene and Garland also feels so similar to me, I relate the "soul" concept from FFX Zanakand the most in the first glance. Probably my bias since FFX is my fav one.
pastaboy1338: The 3 kids with rope jumping game (one of the girls also said let's jump 1000 times), the boys who were on a marathon race, and the drink shop (which referred to the ticket booth at the start of IX with Vivi. The sword duel between Wuk Lmao and WoL also referred to the minigame between Zidane and Blank before the show.
vincentbeton: Honestly, with all those references to IX, I am surprised we did not see any Oglops. Not even a Grafitti in Solution 9, or did I overlook them?
akiro9635: plot twist Sphene is zidane an garrnet child or great grand child
makisbizarreadventure4669: I wonder what they’ll do with this zone post main story. Once everything is off you can see the sky is real and it even rains. If you look down you see a lot of mist too. Seems like the shard withstood the lightning calamity and I’m sure others survived. Especially lindblum. I’m curious bout this weapon they used to start the calamity to begin with. I for sure thought it’d be the final boss of the expansion at first.
wyrmshogun5245: If Golbez was the post Endwalker villain, that's means Kuja is post Dawntrail is the next villain
gdoggo2024: Thank you for pointing out all the references. For someone like me who hasn't played 9 since completing it on the original release, who maybe is getting a bit older and can't remember everything about it (weep for my fleeting youth) it's almost like experiencing it all over again. Oh, the 'member-berries! LOL. Great video.

Jul 29 2024

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