Question about the end (SPOILERS)

[KazzizzaK]

After the final fight, Clive "heals" Joshua that is supposed to be dead, but after the little scene after the credits, there is a book that was written by him, that means Clive "saved" or resurrected him or that book was written before he died?

[Scarlet Crusade]

The game doesn’t tell us, so it’s open to interpretation. I thought it was strange that the book wasn’t written by Harpocrates, personally.

[GermanBarbarian]

I think that nothing we played actually happend but is just a fairytale from the book written. Like the book that som1 written tell the story and we played the fantasy the person written.



Like Joshua written the book, we played the fantasy story of whats written in the book

[Even]

Originally posted by KazzizzaK:

After the final fight, Clive "heals" Joshua that is supposed to be dead, but after the little scene after the credits, there is a book that was written by him, that means Clive "saved" or resurrected him or that book was written before he died?

While there are clearly hints through the game about the ending, the devoper's intent is clearly to leave it up to personal interpretations, so there are no "wrong" answers.

[Comae®]

Lol there is not a single personal interpretations about the ending.

Ultima is beated for NO REASONS in a ridiculous fight, he showed that he was a lot more powerfull than that.
The "real body" of Ultima isnt even showed even if he talks about it minutes ago, wich I believe it would have been the same as Clive, making Clive getting real mad, but its not even if the game.
Clive absorbs Ultima for NO REASONS, what a dumb choice. It could have been the Ultima plans to be beated and absorbed, making the story even better, but its not even showed, again they missed a narrative part in the end.
Clive ressurrects Joshua, but he doesnt even do it for Dion.
Clive suicides to detroy the place, for NO REASONS. He is only here because he is deeply human, even with the powers of a god he could have survived. It was OBVIOUS that Clive would die, its like the need to absolutely find a reason to make him and and thats all what they found. Again, its a badly written, he could have died to better reasons, and he could have survived after the credits, but no. And he dies on the beach in a very cold cutscene that a secondary character would have deserved.
Jill cries, the magic is destroyed, joshua wrote a book (????), the end.

This is the most failed ending of all FF, too short, not written enough, rushed, illogic.
The only well directed part in the end is the little part when Jill cries with the dog and its 15 seconds.

[Scarlet Crusade]

Clive absorbs Ultima for the same reason as he absorbed every other Eikon, to destroy the Mothercrystal. He lacked the power to do so himself. Dion's body wasn't recovered, I'm guessing it fell into the seas below Origin. Joshua seemingly didn't move at all after being "resurrected", so there's no confirmation that that even worked.

I will say that the ending makes a lot less sense with the DLCs in place, they should have added extra scenes for each piece of DLC completed for context. Like, for example, if you beat the game, and you've done both DLCs, you can actually get Ultima as an Eikon, but... that also flies in the face of the ending where Ultima's power overwhelms Clive, but does that get brought up at all? Nope. Leviathan ought to have had an appearance during the final battle if obtained also.

[Comae®]

Clive absorbs Ultima for the same reason as he absorbed every other Eikon, to destroy the Mothercrystal. : Lol, no. No need.
He lacked the power to do so himself : no.
Dion's body wasn't recovered, I'm guessing it fell into the seas below Origin : lol guess what you want. Nobody searched dion.
Joshua seemingly didn't move at all after being "resurrected", so there's no confirmation that that even worked : LOL come on.... anyway if people didnt even understood its because the ending is crap.
I will say that the ending makes a lot less sense with the DLCs in place : still no.
you can actually get Ultima as an Eikon : still no.
Ultima's power overwhelms Clive : no, still.