That quote referencing "Titan's arc" makes me wonder if they actually meant story Titan or Titan Extreme. Back then, you could not access The Binding Coil of Bahamut without having cleared all of the primals. Ifrit EX was locked behind downing Titan EX. If you couldn't kill him, the only things to do in the game then were dungeons and Garuda EX and relic (and the 24-man in the later parts of 2.x). Clearing Titan EX back in those days was almost as impressive as downing Twintania.