I have overall mixed feelings on the story as someone who recently started as a sprout in patch 5.4 following the hype. ShB was really good to the point I bought EW despite my policy on not buying games at release.

I dunno why the Flood of Light was scarier than the literal Final Days itself. Is it because everyone just casually says Final Days like it's nothing? Or is it because Blasphemies are way too few in the main story, even in Role quests it's usually only a select few people that are infected with it. Compared to let's say Sin Eaters who kill people left and right while also threatening your character to become one. Final boss also feels meh for some reason, is it because she was introduced this late, or she wasn't eldritch enough despite harboring most of civilization's despair. Neo Exdeath's 3D model raid had a more menacing appearance imo.

True to FFIV references, the characters also have fake out sacrifices for some reason. I also have a distaste for Zenos's character as a whole and that one body swap plot which amounted to nothing. Although for some parts that I liked, I like that one hype travel to Garlemald, the rush to Zodiark.