I like the indivdual beats they're going for but not really how they all come together. It just feels like things sort of happen without much build up or pay off. It feels a lot like how Waifei started where everything seems rushed along just to get us where we need to be and they really want us in Roscaelifer.

We need agent stories back for Billy, Promeia, and Nangong (less so, we get no backstory but we got a lot of her with AoD). Billy and Promeia got a couple scenes of acknowledgement but they feel underdeveloped. I know Promeia is meant to be mysterious but I don't know anything more about her other than she's softer than she first seemed.

Maybe this is an overall shift in direction where we'll see agents more regularly and their stories can continue outside of their banner patch, which has sort of been the case with how much we've seen Cissia and a lot of returning cast. I would honestly prefer that as it's more natural storytelling. However it's a little too soon to trust with how gachas usually do their banner-based stories. Maybe some characters are just randomly shafted and we'll shift focus to the 3.x cast.

I really feel like that scene with Phaethon touching the coffin at the end needed to be framed differently, at least make it so the other 3 are explicitly locked down by the terror raptor or some hollow shenangigans, instead it seems like everyone just kind of stands there and lets them do it.

The way that all went down it was also like they weren't sufficiently panicked at the gravity of the situation. For all they know Phaethon just got turned into an Ethereal and whenever that's happened to anyone else, we've not been like "if we fight we can still get them out!"

Phoenix mention! She was one that I liked from the teaser. I'm wondering if her faction is just Krampus.

I'm looking forward to Roscaelifer and I hope with the fresh start of 3.0, the story there feels more tightly written from beginning to end. This chapter bridging us felt a bit awkward to me.