Quote Originally Posted by Mahoukenshi View Post
Story-wise, Ifrit, Garuda and Titan (Hard) felt absolutely pointless outside of an earlier comment about the need to re-evaluate previous encounters, but after unlocking and clearing said Trial(s), there's no follow-up at all to make it feel "relevant" for the - at that point - ongoing plot point.
My understanding is that if you were playing the game at release, the hard primals were available immediately or soon after clearing the MSQ - the equivalent of what endgame content we currently have for Shadowbringers while we wait for patch X.1 to continue the story.

Now it's just a sidequest you can pick up alongside the first 2.1 quest, but back then it would have been the only quest that Minfilia had for you after completing 2.0. There were no ongoing plot points to account for at the time you were intended to do them - but that's not the same as the point where you're forced to do then.

I actually think the best move could be to convert the unlock quests into MSQ - you have to do them sooner or later, and it takes away the confusing business of Minfilia having two different quests that you probably pick up one after the other (and she's in quite different moods between the two cutscenes, which is a bit jarring).