Anima Weapon Gil Cost

[Alahra]

Eh, I think you're grasping for straws on the first relic. They were tier 3 graded materia that corresponded to their jobs, meaning you could have easily gotten them while leveling 43+ and converting your gear. I can guarantee you that's what Square intended us to do, making it a good learning experience/giving incentive to players to convert their gear.

I'm sure that was part of the intent, yes, but you could also do that for the Novus step, and no one would argue that it wasn't expensive. Materia were in high demand at that point, and even if you got them from converting them yourself, that's still an opportunity cost equal to the gil you could have made.

My point wasn't to say that it was stupidly expensive, though: only that interaction with crafters has been part of the relic at numerous points, so players shouldn't particularly be surprised that the trend has continued.

As others have noted in this thread, none of the materials needed to make the current items are especially rare, and they can "easily" be gotten through Diadem, and seeing the stark differences between NA server pricing and JP server pricing, as well as the lower prices on higher population servers, I'd wager the problem is less the design of the quest and more the nature of the differing communities.