While Endwalker isn’t yet over and I’m waiting to see how the current smaller story arc is going to walk us into 7.0, I can safely say that the 6.0 arc has been one of my favourite media experiences full stop. A perfect culmination of everything that’s been built towards. Expanding Lahabrea’s story in the optional raids is also a perfect full circle moment. The gameplay is the worst it has ever been, however, and this is the first expansion I’ve taken an extended break in because of it, but that still has not tarnished my experience of the 6.0 story.

I can’t help but look back on this expansion so favourably. In the first step of XIV’s new narrative direction, Ishikawa almost flawlessly managed to get me to care about the plights of a world I’d never even given much thought before landing on it’s doorstep. The presentation of Eulmore vs The Crystarium is a little jarring especially considering the different cultural aesthetics and the optional side content and gameplay took a sharp nose dive with the homogenisation of roles and the introduction of an entire side story for Gaius, but the main story was enough to pull me away from getting too bogged down in this.