I thought it was pretty fun. I was semi-shocked when I actually died, cuz that hasn't happened in an overworld fight in a long time. Mostly cuz I didn't respect how much damage 5 overlapping choco meteors would actually do to my WAR. Fortunately because it was a chaotic mob, my chocos were still aggro'd on somebody else and didn't despawn, and someone was kind enough to raise me. So then it was just a matter of sniping the chocos with quest markers above their head while avoiding AoE circles for a few minutes. Then I hung around for a bit afterward killing some more that were below 50% already.

It definitely felt more like a community event in that regard, as opposed to a banal sidequest battle. Which makes it more memorable IMO. Anyone playing catchup with the content, even one month from now, isn't going to have the same experience... which is a shame.