As the dust settles on the latest patch for Final Fantasy XIV: Endwalker, a character from Final Fantasy IV might have a hidden motive similar to his original concept. FFXIV has had several crossovers with other games sharing the series' famous name, with characters such as Fran and Noctis Caelum from FF12 and FF15 joining players in story content such as alliance raids and fates. That content added more lore to the world of FFXIV along with the Heavensward expansion's Weeping City of Mhach alliance raid. Now the next collaboration the MMO seeks with past games is FF4 and one of its main antagonists, Golbez.
Like almost every Final Fantasy game, the franchise's fourth installment has a separate world from the others, where citizens from the moon and Earth live separately. As the main antagonist for FF4, Golbez is a mind-controlled sorcerer who tries to seize powerful crystals and destroy the Earth's people so that the moon's citizens, Lunarians, can live there instead. The man is kind-hearted and empathetic, but the possession he endures throughout most of the title makes him cruel and manipulating. Players curious about the entire story can experience FF4 with its pixel remaster on Steam, but the Golbez of FFXIV may blend his evil and kind natures from both personalities.
FFXIV's post-Endwalker story has revealed Golbez as the new primary antagonist, but his true motivations are likely more secretive than the surface. Dealing with powerful voidsent and using a hostage dragon as their reward for helping him, Golbez appears to be building an army of voidsent creatures for an ultimate goal. Behind this goal is the potential motivation to take over a new world for all the voidsent, seeking a place where they can feed on aether for several years. Golbez's plan might also be moved by the motivation to cure voidsents and bring the Thirteenth star back to its former glory.
FFXIV Could Turn Golbez Into A Proper Villain
In Patch 6.2's new story content, Buried Memory, one of the last cutscenes shows Golbez in a flashback helping his old world succumb to the Void by slaying a priest performing magic. This provides more evidence that Golbez believes he's doing the right thing by empowering voidsent creatures and the corrupted world they live in. While these motivations seem to occupy a gray area on the spectrum of good and evil, Golbez's story may be more similar to FF4's plot line, possibly possessed by another villain to use the voidsent. Another potential motive is that Golbez believes he's doing the right thing by empowering voidsent creatures and the corrupted world they live in. Regardless, Golbez likely won't stay the main antagonist for long, as with all post-main story quests that follow an expansion in FFXIV, the current story is intended to lead up to the next expansion.
No matter his true intentions in creating a voidsent army with the desire to fulfill an unknown crusade, there is still not much known about FFXIV's Golbez. As the game shifts to accommodate solo-friendly builds more, FFXIV has always made small changes to the Final Fantasy games it includes, so it's possible the usual interpretation of the villain-turned protagonist might not apply. Until the release of Patch 6.3 in the future, the players of Final Fantasy XIV: Endwalker will have to continue speculating on what drives Golbez toward a goal yet unspoken.