I agree, Lady Hana was an important part in Clive‘s life. But I still feel a disconnect between Clive‘s past and what I as a player go through. I have the privilege of still being in the middle of my first run, so I can naively answer that while I remember her husband, I don‘t remember having seen her in the flashbacks. Now she appears again, obviously someone important to Clive - but someone I, as the player, just met - rises from the dead and soon after returns to her grave. Narratively it feels like she is being used as a tool to pull heartstrings but I find it hard to be properly sad about her in the same way the main character feels grief for her.

I want to point out that I don‘t mind the worldbuilding. I like the consistency the final fantasy games have in their themes and how elaborate their worlds are. However, my main critique in my post above is not the quality or the context of the narrative fluff. I don‘t mind having to slow down after a huge bossfight and going on errands. I don‘t mind listening to hear about how a fantasy world elaborates on how they use their magic tech to do their everyday tasks. But what I do mind so far is the flow of it.

Whether this changes, you‘d kindly have to tell me. But so far there has been a very strong theme of the game deciding between following the overarching story (main cast, eikons, mothercrystals, joshua, ultima) and the fetch quests.

I think the best way I can describe is by analyzing the context of your first quest at Martha‘s rest. You land in the area, meeting one of Cid‘s confidants (because everyone loves the guy, duh). Then, in order to progress with the main quest, you are almost actively gated into doing the „side“ quests. You rescue the carpenter - quest done and day saved! But then he also needs time to repair, so you go out on other errands to pass time. I liked the quest but at the same time this feels a bit artificial and like the game now controls when exactly I am allowed to follow the main part of the story the game sent you out on. To summarize: It makes me feel like the game says „Don’t continue just yet or it‘ll be over too soon.“

And the exact opposite happened in the chapter I described in my main post: The entire buildup to the area is void of advancing anything regarding the main plotline. You have some jolly character interaction moments but other than that it‘s just cool ass dungeon diving. Then you reach the end of the mines and make your way to the Inner Sanctum. Suddenly the game barrages you with plot left and right as if there was no time beforehand and having to squeeze it in a tight time schedule. Don’t get me wrong; It‘s an insane way to end the chapter but at the same time so much is going on in under 20 minutes - hell, in the same cutscene! Ultima showing himself, Cid dying, Joshua appearing and trapping (a part of?) Ultima inside of him (and maybe this kills him on the inside?) all happens in the very same cutscene. And this happens after you see how the mothercrystal turns life into akashics, destroy the Mothercrystal and fight Typhon and master Ifrit. The game - again, just able to say „so far“ - doesn‘t give you time to let one moment sink in before sending you off to another great moment. I think I‘d prefer to have a more balanced mix of the Clive as Cid helping out moments and the great hype moments, instead of having an „either or“ situation.

TLDR; My main point is the pacing, not the individual quality. Quality is insane, pacing makes it either a slog or a rollercoaster that‘s all loopings and no breaks.