While I assume Mankind Divided's story is going to be accessible to new comers, it should be noted that Human Revolution is backward compatible with the X1. It might also be available on PS Now, but I haven't looked into it. The entire series is available on Steam as well. Including the two original games and a PC port of the mobile game. Now to one of your questions, you do not need to play the original Deus Ex or Deus Ex: Invisible War in order to understand what's going on in Human Revolution and Mankind Divided. The latter two games are the prequels to the original game while Invisible War is the sequel that. So, no. You do not have to play [i]all[/i] of the other Deus Ex games in order to understand what's going on in Mankind Divided. Expect a nod to those games here and there though. In response to your question regarding similarities to Final Fantasy's narrative, the short answer is "no." The long answer is "it is not." Mankind Divided is a direct sequel to Human Revolution that picks up two years after the ending of Human Revolution. For your main question, I think it's a bit tricky to say. The big event that occurred in that game [i]will[/i] be referenced in the new game. Possibly a lot too, considering it is the biggest reason for why things are the way they are within the world. However, it's not unlikely that the event won't be explained in some way. If not, sorry about the noodle incident. However, I don't think you'll absolutely need to know about it to grasp Mankind Divided's story. If you're really worried about unknowing, you have at least one option aside from playing the older games. You can look up the entire stories of each Deus Ex game on the Internet and probably gain a little more knowledge than you needed. Oh, and there is currently a comic series that's serving as a prequel to Mankind Divided's story. I recommend it. [spoiler]Sorry if none of this makes sense by the way. It's 3:30 AM EST and I'm half out of it.[/spoiler]