I had high hopes knowing nothing about the game, having collected a few pets, and going to see the vermillion thing.
My expectations were actually high, thinking oh cool it's gonna be a wow pet battle, but in a classic FF sidescroller battle style, maybe even get them fight 3 v 3 at once.
But then it was this 1990's command & conquer clone. Made me shiver in disgust.

About the mahjong, yeah pretty much same reaction. I don't have time to read a 500 page guide book. No fun.
They could have easily created a FF version of chess, like one we see in the millenium falcon, round board, add monsters as pawns from the FFxiv universe.
But no. Totally wasted potential on both fields, mahjong and pet battles.