A closer look at the Amano artwork

[Suteru]

On the NA stream, they mentioned clues in the Amano artwork. I've been looking at it and there are a lot of interesting details. Let's begin!

1) LAND SHARK!


2) Wild chocobos? Interesting if true.


3) The giant bee, not a turtle.


4) Another boss, polar bear


5) Yggdrasil?


6) Something very interesting, a monster attacking an airship! Very different airship design, too.

Bigger, from the NA site:


7) Finally, maybe something to do with the main story? What do these runes mean? Will we have to find them? What are they for? Notice the difference in the one the heroine is standing in front of/on top of. Are these the "spiritual areas" with superbuffs?




I admit I'm not very good with FF lore, but these are some things I found interesting. I have to wonder how faithful the artwork is to the lore, but it has to be based on something. Most interesting to me is the airship attack.

Here are the full images I used:
http://i.imgur.com/PvIlU.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/0qWBU.jpg

I'm sure someone with more Final Fantasy lore knowledge will find much more interesting things.

[Spira]

i posted this in the other thread... editing it for relevance...

I think the whole image is supposed to depict the 7 native warlords in Ulbuka.. which are apparently found in monster lairs.

the most identifiable one is the bee which was shown in concept art..
but as you have pointed out theres also the shark, the polar bear, the tree looking thing and so on..

my guess would be each warlord represents 1 monster type in the 2 natural ecosystems. ( beast / plantoid / vermin / aquan / avian / amorph / lizard )

that character on the bottom right is an adventurer.. probably the R job.

as for the rest of the animals.. i think they might be related but also not.. Amano tends to throw in all sorts of extra animals here and there so I try not to read too much into that...

[Sci]

#3 looks like the giant bee concept art they showed, not so much like a turtle.

[Trigun]

The only thing I could take a stab at is that next to the female by the golden bird is Bismarck?
So we would be accessing the new continent through Bibiki Bay? or new SMN?
The NA team didn't say anything when they showed a Siren-like concept art. Place has an Atlantis theme so Siren is a no brainer.
Also the above the Giant Bee that T-Rex is upside down.
Sorry to beat a dead horse but the lower right skull thing can't help but think there are dark enhancing powers, necro theme, especially with the addition of the Book of the Dead (Nw Bb whatever) in VW.

edit: that ship coming down from the North is pointy, pointy ship cuts through ice? Ice fishing they said there'd be more fishes to catch. Spawn a polar bear NM need fish?

[Suteru]

You're right, I just saw the back part as the shell and the wings as fins.

[Taint]

#3 looks like the giant bee concept art they showed, not so much like a turtle.

Good call on that.

And can't wait for another airship battle!

[Spira]

ok to elaborate on what i meant about amano art..

i took the map of ulbuka and super-imposed it onto the concept art to see which land masses are there for a reason and which are just for decorative purposes..

www.wilddragonchase.com/ffxi/bg/ulbuka1.jpg

and from there marked out the area which is relevant to ulbuka itself..

following my theory its about the 7 warlords, i tried to identify them..

incidentally there are actually 8 monsters within that plain of land.. 6 of them (circled in blue) are distinct, but the last 2 are not so obvious (circled in green)

www.wilddragonchase.com/ffxi/bg/ulbuka2.jpg

edit: eh.. why don't my img tags work..

so.. going clockwise

#1 : bee (vermin)
#2 : shark (aquan)
#3 : bird (bird)
#4 : tree (plantoid)
#5 : polar bear / yeti (beast)
#6 : t-rex (looks like its upside down) (lizard)

and one of the 2 green circled ones is probably supposed to represent amorph.

[Toth]

I think the figure at the bottom is amano's representation of the new female npc shown yesterday.

[Suteru]

Could this guy be number 7? Looks like same thing attacking the airship.

[NynJa]

Some of you gonna hate me more than you already do, but fuck it...
I really hope none of this is 24h+ NM worldspawn. I'd like to fight the mobs, not fight people TO fight the mobs.

They said they were gonna finish the elemental wyrms, leaving wind / thunder / light. #7 could very well be wind wyrm?


too lazy to crop and re-up pic, but next to the dude with the sword in lower left, I'm pretty sure thats Phoenix (slightly left from the armpit), looks like it atleast.

[Spira]

o i fully agree. the era of camping NMs is over. content should be made fun and accessible for all.

after listening to them talk about exploration and monster lairs.. and being influenced by d3 since its fresh in my head.. i had a vision of what i think monster lair content will be like..

bear with me, cos we currently know next to nothing about this..

i think monster lair entrances will randomly spawn and shift locations.. at regular intervals perhaps, or after a certain number of people had run that dungeon. these dungeons would be instanced and randomly generated from a number of presets, not unlike nyzul/mmm, but the dungeon itself would be like just a single floor run..
i'm thinking, ok we enter vermin lair. random vermin monsters populate the dungeon, but each type will have some outstanding characteristic (that may vary) so that its not boring/the same as outside. the boss, eg. giant bee would be found at the end of the dungeon and can come in a number of AI variations. killing it pops a chest for loot and like some trophy item that you can bring back to adoulin to advance a guild or something. lesser mobs drop some kind of loot/points that would help improve exploration/guilds/etc so its never a wasted run. it'd be casual friendly, non-competitive and fun to repeat. if only.

[Alistaire]

Celes?

[Ophannus]

Not Celes. Probably the girl on the right in this pic(probably the heroine).

[Sagacious Sundi]

ok to elaborate on what i meant about amano art..

i took the map of ulbuka and super-imposed it onto the concept art to see which land masses are there for a reason and which are just for decorative purposes..

www.wilddragonchase.com/ffxi/bg/ulbuka1.jpg

and from there marked out the area which is relevant to ulbuka itself..

following my theory its about the 7 warlords, i tried to identify them..

incidentally there are actually 8 monsters within that plain of land.. 6 of them (circled in blue) are distinct, but the last 2 are not so obvious (circled in green)

www.wilddragonchase.com/ffxi/bg/ulbuka2.jpg

edit: eh.. why don't my img tags work..

so.. going clockwise

#1 : bee (vermin)
#2 : shark (aquan)
#3 : bird (bird)
#4 : tree (plantoid)
#5 : polar bear / yeti (beast)
#6 : t-rex (looks like its upside down) (lizard)

and one of the 2 green circled ones is probably supposed to represent amorph.

The bear, tarrasque, queen bee, and tree sorta form a beast>lizard>vermin>plantoid>beast cycle. Going by that, I'm guessing the amorph is the giant serpent on the bottom, so then Zapdos, shark, and the serpent form a bird>aqua>amorph>bird triangle.

[Souj]

Bird = Quetzacotl (sp)!
Though it's only been in 1 other FF it does have a server named after it.
but none of the other creatures resemble any other summons so they are all probably unrelated

[Guitarman]

Not Celes. Probably the girl on the right in this pic(probably the heroine).

Guarantee it is. It's the 5th boss of the heroine's tower fight, the one we all assumed was Murmur.

[Yeager]

I posted in the other thread about the Bird possibly being Quetzalcoatl the Thunder Bird.

[Souj]

Does anyone have the art to all the other FF11 stuff he did? I've only been able to find 1 so far.

[Septimus]

Quetzalcoatl and Thunderbird are two separate creatures in two separate mythologies.

[Yeager]

Quetzalcoatl and Thunderbird are two separate creatures in two separate mythologies.

And so is Zapdos, but I digress. I said "Thunderbird" as a description for Quetzalcoatl, since it was a thunder based GF in Final Fantasy 8 and happens to be a bird.