Honestly? Yeah, at the time going through it for the first time I didn't mind and just took it as is but over time I've not been able to shake the apprehensiveness towards the story. At least the 6.0 big story.
Most of it I felt was great, well executed, with some brilliant use of side characters and twists to get us from A to B to C.

Now, I'm sorry in advance if this seems a bit negative, but this is simply how I feel. My 2p. My opinion.

The way Zodiark was handled really didn't sit right with me.
Mind you, Fandaniel was absolute fire.
Oh and he was actually the bloke from Crystal Tower with the funky hat everyone kept outrolling me on? Like, sure, yeah, Ascian and all, he can be that guy too. Just Let him have his magnificent hat ffs. Worst offence of the game entirely. Do the devs know how much a hat tells you about a person? For shame!!

Personally I didn't really didn't vibe with the fact the ACTUAL big bad all along, was basically past-Fandaniel's very emo bird. The Zodiark-Hydaelyn dynamic that was built up and hyped up for the last 10 years was subsumed for Existential Twitter, who I just met like 5 minutes ago basically.

The entirety of the Ultima Thule zone though was horrid for me. Exhausting, I actually really disliked that zone and the way the story went for it. Self yeeting scions to carve you a path to the big bad, but get brought back effortlessly before the big fight. Only for Zenos to gatecrash at the end because he's horny for a fight like a chav after a few cans of stella. Oh you beat the big bad emo bird causing the end of the world? "1v1 me brah no balls, no balls". Everything else is a minor gripe but this zone, this entire zone was torture.

Now the patch stories of us going into the void and getting the FF4 references has been far better, the Pandaemonium and Myths of the Realm too. Better. Though Pandaemonium turns into a bit of a "daddy issues" story, with a twist at the end of "yer ma was actually a psycho, son" and some very wholesome bromance going on. Still better.


Oh and as a sidenote does anyone else feel Anima could have been a proper awesome standalone trial? Bit of a waste but, ah well. You can't have it all.