You dont need the story.

[Unholychinchilla]

(same with the little shit who destroyed the Royal Menagerie...I want to take screenshots there again!)

Just as an aside, so more people know:

You can still go to the Royal Menagerie if you don't currently have a New Game+ chapter in progress.

Simply start up NG+ on any point after 4.1 and before 5.4 (So Stormblood chapter 4 or Shadowbringers chapters 1-3) and the Royal Menagerie Attendant will be there again, allowing you to enter and take pictures to your heart's content.

You can't abandon the NG+ chapter while in there but you can suspend it if you need to for any reason (it doesn't change it as they haven't made a permanently damaged version of it... yet).

[Avatre]

Just as an aside, so more people know:

You can still go to the Royal Menagerie if you don't currently have a New Game+ chapter in progress.

Simply start up NG+ on any point after 4.1 and before 5.4 (So Stormblood chapter 4 or Shadowbringers chapters 1-3) and the Royal Menagerie Attendant will be there again, allowing you to enter and take pictures to your heart's content.

You can't abandon the NG+ chapter while in there but you can suspend it if you need to for any reason (it doesn't change it as they haven't made a permanently damaged version of it... yet).

Ah, yes. I keep forgetting about NG+...maybe one of these days I will actually go through that.