Yeah, I'd take a combined approach of combining and shortening some of these quests via cutscenes, and also making some into sidequests. The cutscene at the end of 2.1 where someone else fetched all the crystals for the Limsa barge to fight Leviathan, along with some of the Scions explaining the mechanics of it all with graphical aids, that was a good example of condensing a story for the better.


I do think Brayflox should be still be mandatory, since it's one of the better leveling dungeons and the only one for quite some time before or after, but the ostensible storyline reason for you going in there is beyond dumb, so that's one thing I might outright change. Just make it obvious that the dungeon is actually a test, as in a test to see if you'd survive fighting Titan, not a dangerous place to go fetch exotic cheese for some banquet in order to secure someone rich person's help for reasons that I cannot freaking remember because they were so dumb and/or unexplained.


Like just have a side character tell you "look, if you can't make it through this zone and take out the dragon at the end of it, there's no way you're way you're beating Titan. The cheese is just to show you did it."