this game is NOT friendly for those who return after long absence

[Zordrage]

I put it to you that... if you have been absent for a year, then the past year of content you are trying to catch up are also new content to you from the story perspective.

Unless of course you do not care about the story, in which case I can only say 'welcome to final fantasy'.

its not the story the problem its that EVERYTHING is locked behind it and most of the Story is just Filler timesink fetch quests nothing else.
seriously i could easily cut out streamline like 50% of the MSQ from 2.0 to 2.55and would still make sense lol