So I never set my expectations very high when it comes to the story elements of FFBE - I roll my eyes through most of them but refuse to hit "skip" out of not wanting to miss any possible moment of narrative payoff - but I have to say this event was a real letdown, even for the established level of quality.

And yes, I realize this story event comes from JP via Alim and not Gumi (who still wins the blue ribbon with their dumpster fire of a Christmas event), but man, the bar was set so low already.

So here we go: flashback from the present to a mysterious, shady treasure hunter who needs to convince a Natura and Shibrya to work together in order to get the treasure he seeks... which they do, without so much as questioning his motives, and he gets his treasure, and then, flash-forward to the present where Sakura says "ya know, maybe Fina is the Demon of Hess they were talking about", and then... bonus stages? Seriously?

No attempt to provide any sort of closure on Erwin's story or the purpose of the relic he was hunting, no follow-through on introducing Lotus Mage Fina like they did with Blossom Sage Sakura, or even showing us why this story was relevant to what was going on in the present, just a couple of disconnected, dangling threads drawn out for 8 chapters and then empty templates of levels they couldn't be bothered to put any content into.

I recognize the possibility they may be saving these conclusions for future story events, but that doesn't excuse the narrative from just stalling out in the middle of the road. Any sort of cliffhanger, or glimpse of how these stories are related, would've been better than just setting the table for a story and then leaving. Contrast with the last two story events, which at least answered the questions they set up in the opening chapters for them, and had conclusions that if you weren't satisfied by them, at least were, well, conclusive.

I don't play JP but if this is where the main story quality is headed from hereon out, it does not bode well for GL.