Thanks to the ridiculous time loop, the location we went to had to be someplace the WoL could be themselves and not stick out like a sore thumb. Hence Elpis. Had they gone with what I would've preferred, first person perspective Azem flashbacks, we could've been anywhere.

I agree I am also tired of Superman/Goku WoL. I had hoped EW would bring more DRK themes to the front with the WoL questioning if they're doing the right thing or struggling with the 'right thing' involving what it does (essentially the annihilation of the Ancients and joining forces with the woman responsible for it). We get none of that as the WoL reverts to ARR affirmative head nodding to what are controversial situations not treated as being such.

The lack of consequences for the protagonists was ludicrous too. It definitely felt like the Ancients were put on the chopping block (again) for the tears because the writers simply won't allow any harm to come to the Scions. It's hard not to see it as emotional manipulation when you factor in that every major character who 'died' was already dead. They basically just brought back fan favorites to watch them suffer (heh) helpless to do anything about it.

As far as the focus on the Ancients, I'm not invested in anything else. I hated ARR and thought SB was meh. ShB was the first narrative to grip me since the end of 3.3 only for Yoshi-P to decide to wrap it all up in 6.0. I've no story hook now and so far am completely bored with the supposed "new adventure". (Also, these callbacks to previous FF titles are meaningless to me as FFX is the oldest one I've played.)

I would've preferred the Ancient storyline keep being peppered throughout each expansion rather than the huge dump (in more ways than one) of them in 6.0, especially because we were denied a lot of lore because of it. We didn't even get to see the actual sundering, let alone anything else like Zodiark's summoning and the stopping of the Final Days.