2/3 way through Diamond Weapon EX prog:
This fight is boring. For the most part it feels the same as Normal but with no indicators, which is never a good look, especially since the indicators were pretty much the only distinctive graphics the fight had. Without those you're basically stuck watching the text log for unvoiced text bubbles you ignored and doing trigonometry on the fly, since the floor is also entirely unhelpful for the first time since before Second Coil. At least it's not a circle?

The NieR raids are much more dynamic in comparison, even when they don't have indicators, or only have "you failed" indicators right as the AoEs snapshot their victims. I'm glad I main a braindead 1-2-3-er that doesn't need to watch hotbars, because otherwise I'd be on the floor. They're certainly the closest FFXIV has come to being an ARPG, even though I do think the timing is a little tighter than it should be in "casual" content.

There's also no special "what if" twist to it, unlike the Minstrel's Ballad fights, which is a shame. Would've been cool to see more of the other pilots' data, since we never had a chance to know them as individuals besides Rex, and Milisandia was the only one mourned individually, probably owing to her being essentially a posthumous character (and a woman). Feels like a bit of a backslide into the ol' "death matters, but not life," schtick of Pre-Stormblood FFXIV, and that's already me doing more thinking on this story than I wanted to.