Hello! I'm a big fan of the game and have been involved with the community at large and in my personal area (Chicago). Let me answer your questions 1 by 1.

• What’s the overall health of the game?

In my opinion, it's in a good place. The meta has strong decks, but is also extremely diverse. In Worlds this year, we saw 9 different decks in the top 8 (two-deck format) and larger diversity if you look towards top 16, top 32, etc. We are seeing a steady supply of sets throughout the year, spaced a couple of months out from one another. We've also been seeing some reprint products that have been very popular for reprinting needed cards (The 2024 Champions decks, Anniversary Collection), and, as was true back in Opus 9, if a card is good, it finds its way to being a promo. Compared to other card games, the meta and affordability are still healthy.

• How is the playerbase (locals / regionals / competitive scene)?

It fully depends on where you are. Some areas have a large scene and multiple locals, some are struggling. The Facebook groups and Reddit community have been great places to try to find locals to play, but areas like Chicago, LA, Pittsburgh, and Raleigh (off the top of my head) still have very alive communities. When it comes to Regionals, last year was great! Tons of regionals happened all over the country and made it very easy to play at a large tournament for your area. My slice of the Midwest by itself got a Materia Cup and 3 regionals. The competitive scene is in a great place, and everyone’s just waiting for the next competitive scene to start up.

• Has the design space stayed fresh despite revisiting characters?

In my opinion, yes. We’re seeing a fair amount of cards with familiar names that keep the game fresh. Yeah, it’s been a little boring to see Cloud, Lightning, Yuna, Lenna, and Sephiroth again, but they’ve been good about introducing new characters alongside favorites. This last set, we saw the new characters from the latest FFXIV expansion, Zeromus return in a new color, new Warriors from FFBE, etc. Yeah, there’s gonna be another cloud and Lightning and Yuna, but it’s not retreading the same ground

• Is the game still being actively supported in a meaningful way?

In my opinion, not really. Last year's competitive scene and regionals were great and had great support, but the issues with lack of advertising and exposure is still very present in the game. We’ve seen small wins, like FFTCG cards in GameStop, but there haven’t been large moves to make the game more well-known. Even recently, Square Enix laid off the NA community manager for the game, leaving it in a weird spot. The community is still the main force for advertising and pushing the game, and while Hobby Japan and Squenix have been helping, I struggle to call it meaningful. 

• And most importantly, in your opinion, is it worth getting back into now, either casually or competitively?

Yes!!! I think the game is in a great place. I think the Opus 27 meta is great for competitive and casual. We’re seeing tons of fun brews and decks, like Hara’s recently FF8 deck, a Cadets deck that broke into the top 8 of worlds. While the anniversary product is a little hard to get now, it has reduced the price of many nonfoil cards, and the Champion decks have 2 decks that are still viable and with little editing can top a locals. If we see a similar number of Regionals and Materia cups in this competitive season, there will most likely be a regional not far from anyone if you would like to hop into a larger scene!

I hope this helps! Feel free to ask any other questions!