Quote Originally Posted by Tranquilmelody7 View Post
I don't need to clear it, I'm apparently exempt from the requirement due to already finishing ARR.
You're only exempt until you hit the second layer of gating at the start of patch 5.3, specifically intended to catch anyone who missed the first gate.

The first gate in 2.5 is the ideal place to have played the CT story since that's when it's supposed to happen in the overall plot. It ensures that people have seen the events of CT before characters and/or concepts from that story are reintroduced to the MSQ first at Lv60 then Lv70. For a player who does want to experience the entire story, this will ensure that they don't miss what seems to be an unimportant side story at the time but makes a big difference to your understanding of events later on.

However, it is not critical at those story points if the player hasn't yet played CT, because despite adding valuable context it doesn't actually need to have happened for continuity's sake. The story will make sense either way so long as certain things are written with script that is ambiguous or changes according to your personal progression. Thus it remained optional initially.

5.3 is where that ambiguous approach runs out. Certain events there cannot take place without the events of CT having happened first to create a particular situation. Therefore, by the approach the game takes to any content that builds on earlier events, this is where you must do CT to ensure the story's pieces are in the right place before the MSQ builds on them.