Final Fantasy 14 is teasing the return of a 10-year-old plot thread, and I couldn’t be happier

(Image credit: Square Enix)

Final Fantasy 14 could soon answer a question lingering since A Realm Reborn launched 10 years ago, producer Naoki Yoshida has teased.

As part of a PAX East panel, Yoshida tackles a fan question asking if there are any plans to reveal more about the mysterious relic known as the Heart of Sabik. While he does say the team "might not delve 100% into it," he does anticipate "having some narrative that involves discussion of the Heart of Sabik." He reveals little else, though does say it'll happen in the "near future". Frankly, that's all I need to get excited.

If you need a refresher, the Heart of Sabik powers a biotechnological terror called Ultima Weapon. Used by A Realm Reborn's antagonist Gaius van Baelsar, the intent is to capture Primals and harness their energy to threaten the key city-states that makeup Eorzea, alongside the other beast tribes that call it home. A fight against the Warrior of Light and the gang goes awry, leading another antagonist called Lahabrea to reveal that the Heart of Sabik houses the power to use a spell called Ultima, a call back to what is typically the most powerful magic in each Final Fantasy game.

The relic is clearly potent, though while the civilisation who built the machine it powers – the Allagans – has been further fleshed out, the Heart of Sabik has got precious little mention since, save one sidequest that implies it's a type of auracite.

You could take that as meaning the dusty old relic is unimportant, but nothing is so sure in Final Fantasy 14. Narrative threads left hanging often lead to something much bigger years down the line. The war refugees of Doma appear following A Realm Reborn, only to remain in the background before taking centre stage in Stormblood three years later; some of Shadowbringers most central locations and characters are there for you to see within a once-optional raid that was released five years before the expansion launched; and that's only scratching the surface. Not every unsolved mystery hides details of a new expansion, though the level of storytelling in Final Fantasy 14's myriad raids and sidequests beyond are so good I don't need them to.

By Yoshida's words, it looks like the Heart of Sabik will eventually head towards something shaped like the latter, which lines up with what fans have theorised for a while. Lahabrea is central to a raid series post-Endwalker called Pandaemonium that will wrap up in the next patch. Given Yoshida's comments about something coming "in the near future" and the Ascian's limited availability to feature elsewhere thanks to the story's direction, we could finally get the answer to what the Heart of Sabik is.

Final Fantasy 14's Yoshi-P also teased crossovers with FF16, FF7 Remake, and more.